The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine resigned Monday, citing frustration at Israel's denial of access to Palestinian territories.

Indonesian diplomat Makarim Wibisono said during his resignation that, "unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way."

Wibisono said his applications for access both written and oral were repeatedly rejected. "With no reply from Israel to my latest request, in October 2015, to have access by the end of 2015, it is with deep regret that I accept the premise upon which I took up the mandate, which is to have direct access to the victims in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, will not be fulfilled," he said.

Public sector debt, that is the national debt that is declared as debt on the books of UKplc stands at around £1.6 trillion or 81% of GDP (all goods and services produced by the nation in one year). It is double today under George Osborne than when he took over the reigns in 2010 and for all of his musings of his economic miracle, Britain is in deep financial trouble.

The unravelling of Margaret Thatcher's economic policies in the 1980's are coming home to roost. She was consistently warned of the perils of deregulating the banking and financial sector. The subsequent banking collapse in 2008 was largely the fault of her "big Bang" theory we are all paying for so dearly today. Austerity, increased poverty, interest rates, gargantuan bank bailouts, quantitative easing, privatization to name a few are the direct result of those failed policies.

The consequence of our muted 'economic miracle' is that revenue has to be generated from somewhere to fill an ever expanding financial black hole. George Osborne, unable to see any mechanisms for growth other than fully embracing austerity is filling that black hole with one of Thatcher's other economic destructive disasters - privatization.

"When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor." — John Lennon

Yes, the government is corrupt.

Yes, the system is broken. By broken, I mean it's "dysfunctional, gridlocked, and, in general, incapable of doing what needs to be done."

Yes, the government is out of control and overreaching on almost every front.

Yes, the government's excesses—pork barrel spending, endless wars, etc.—are pushing the nation to a breaking point.

Yes, many Americans are afraid. Who wouldn't be afraid of an increasingly violent and oppressive federal government?

Yes, the citizenry has little protection against standing armies (domestic and military), invasive surveillance, marauding SWAT teams, an overwhelming government arsenal of assault vehicles and firepower, and a barrage of laws that criminalize everything from vegetable gardens to lemonade stands.

Yes, in the eyes of the American surveillance state, "we the people" are little more than suspects and criminals to be monitored, policed, prosecuted and imprisoned. As former law professor John Baker, who has studied the growing problem of overcriminalization, noted, "There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime."

Yes, the United States of America is not the democracy that is purports to be, but rather an oligarchy ruled by a wealthy corporate elite.

Yes, politics is a sham. Average Americans have largely lost all of the conventional markers of influencing government, whether through elections, petition, or protest, have no way to impact their government, no way to be heard, and no assurance that their concerns are truly being represented.

Yes, the Obama administration's efforts to identify, target and punish "domestic extremists" through the use of surveillance, corporate spies, global police and the Strong Cities network sends a troubling message to all Americans that any opposition to the government—no matter how benign—will be viewed with suspicion and will likely be treated with hostility.

Yes, we have reached a tipping point. The freedoms we once enjoyed are increasingly being eroded: speech, assembly, association, privacy, etc.

Yes, something needs to be done about the government's long train of abuses, power grabs, erosion of private property, and overt acts of tyranny.

Yes, many Americans, increasingly dissatisfied with the government and its heavy-handed tactics, are tired of being used and abused and are ready to say "enough is enough."

No, violence is not the answer.

Over the weekend, a geopolitical black swan landed in the Mid-East where Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric set in motion a series of events that led Riyadh to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Protests broke out almost immediately after news of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr's death hit the wires. Tensions reached a boiling point on Saturday evening in Tehran where demonstrators torched the Saudi embassy. In Bahrain, angry Shiites burned tires and confronted riot police who used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

You'd think that there would be widespread outrage over the story everyone's talking about today, the Wall Street Journal scoop that the Obama administration spied on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during the Iran Deal negotiations so as to counter his efforts to sink it. The wiretaps reveal that Israeli officials were up to their necks in the US political process; they "coordinated talking points with Jewish-American groups against the deal; and asked undecided lawmakers what it would take to win their votes, according to current and former officials familiar with the intercepts."

The president approved the wiretaps.

Privately, Mr. Obama maintained the monitoring of Mr. Netanyahu on the grounds that it served a "compelling national security purpose," according to current and former U.S. officials.

That's right; there's a compelling national interest in stopping the Israel lobby.

Terror, intimidation and violence are the glue that holds empire together. Aerial bombardment, drone and missile attacks, artillery and mortar strikes, targeted assassinations, massacres, the detention of tens of thousands, death squad killings, torture, wholesale surveillance, extraordinary renditions, curfews, propaganda, a loss of civil liberties and pliant political puppets are the grist of our wars and proxy wars.

Countries we seek to dominate, from Indonesia and Guatemala to Iraq and Afghanistan, are intimately familiar with these brutal mechanisms of control. But the reality of empire rarely reaches the American public. The few atrocities that come to light are dismissed as isolated aberrations. The public is assured what has been uncovered will be investigated and will not take place again. The goals of empire, we are told by a subservient media and our ruling elites, are virtuous and noble. And the vast killing machine grinds forward, feeding, as it has always done, the swollen bank accounts of defense contractors and corporations that exploit natural resources and cheap labor around the globe.

Israeli forces have struck the small Lebanese town of Wazzani, north of the Israel-Lebanon border, local media reported, adding that there are fears of damage and injuries. The IDF has confirmed the attack, saying it was retaliatory fire.

Earlier, an explosion targeted an Israeli patrol near the frontier, Hezbollah's Al Manar television reported. Lebanon's LBCI News says that several people were injured in the shelling.

Israeli Defense Force spokesman Brig.-Gen. Moti Almoz told the Jerusalem Post that two heavy armored vehicles, including a D-9 bulldozer, were hit, adding that the explosives were "relatively large."

"We have opened artillery fire, and created a smokescreen to cover the area. We are in control of the incident," Almoz said.

Mass executions at home, war abroad - Saudi Arabia tries to kill its way out of adversity. As the new year rolled in around the world, Saudi Arabia was already getting off to a bad start. The Western media published muted reports of a mass execution of some 47 prisoners alleged to be "terrorists," though the most prominent among them was clearly a political leader, not a militant.

The US State Department's Voice of America service, sourcing AP, AFP, and Reuters reports, would claim in its article, "Saudi Arabia Executes 47, Including Prominent Shi'ite Cleric," that:

Saudi Arabia has carried out its largest mass execution in more than three decades, putting to death 47 people convicted of terrorism, including a prominent Shi'ite cleric.

Most of those put to death were alleged Sunni militants, and some had ties to al-Qaida, according to media outlets. All but two were Saudi; one was Chadian and the other Egyptian.

The cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a key figure in Shi'ite protests that erupted during the 2011 Arab Spring. He had also criticized the government's treatment of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority.

Daesh militants reportedly attacked the oil port of Es Sider in Libya, which is currently controlled by the internationally-recognized faction of the Libyan civil war.

Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) militants attacked guards at Libya's Es Sider oil port, Reuters reported, citing witnesses and troops.

The port, which remains under the control of Libya's internationally recognized government, has been closed for over a year as a result of the latest Libyan civil war between secular and Islamist factions. Daesh has seized some territory around the central coastal town of Sirte, but has not been able to gain control of oil facilities.


"Es Sider is protected by Ibrahim al-Jathran's Petrol Facilities Guard, a federalist armed faction," Reuters reported.

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran could spark a conflict considerably more damaging and horrific than the Iran-Iraq War, but would they actually do it?

After Saudi Arabia and Iran broke off diplomatic relations on Sunday, the prospect of war between the two countries has become a new concern.

The two countries are already said to be involved in proxy wars against each other in Yemen and Syria. The new escalation with the killing of a prominent Shiite preacher draws parallels to the 1980s, which led to a conflict that threatened to engulf the whole region.