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Life without a government just fine for most Spaniards

Raphael Minder and David Zucchinooct
New York Times
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 19:30 UTC
pedro sanchez spain
© Susana Vera/Reuters A supporter holding a poster of Pedro Sánchez, who stepped down as the leader of the Socialist Party, outside a party meeting in Madrid on Saturday. Credit
For the past 288 days, Spain has plodded along without an elected national government. For some Spaniards, this is a wonderful thing.

"No government, no thieves," said Félix Pastor, a language teacher who, like many voters, is fed up with the corruption and scandals that tarnished the two previous governing parties.

Mr. Pastor, a wiry, animated 59-year-old, said Spain could last without a government "until hell freezes over" because politicians were in no position to do more harm.

After two grueling national elections in six months, and with a third vote possible in December, no party has won enough seats or forged the coalition needed to form a government. For the first time in Spain's four decades as a modern democracy, this country of 47 million people has a caretaker government.

That has produced an unprecedented public spectacle: Politicians scheme and plot but reject the difficult compromises needed to form a government. Voters watch ruefully with a mix of fascination and contempt.
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Briefcase

Israel indicts Issa Amro, "Palestinian Gandhi" to stand trial

Charlotte Silver
The Electronic Intifada
Tue, 06 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
Issa Amro
© Oren Ziv/ ActiveStillsIssa Amro says he was inspired by Gandhi and Marin Luther King Jr.
The Israeli army has laid a lengthy list of charges against Issa Amro, the longtime Palestinian activist and organizer in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. The indictment includes incidents that span the last six years. Among the 18 charges are organizing an "illegal demonstration" in August 2010, spitting in the direction of a settler in 2012, insulting a soldier in March 2013 and entering a "closed military zone" in February this year.

Amro's lawyer, Gaby Laski, told the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz that the sudden resuscitation of past events for which Amro was arrested and released at the time, "absolutely seems to be a matter of political persecution." "They closed all the cases I was framed for in the past," Amro told Haaretz last week. "I don't think somebody can claim that my political activity is criminal. The court always lets me go when they arrest me for no reason."

Comment: Amro's upcoming trial is a case of double jeopardy and an accumulation of petty charges. It will likely goad his Palestinian followers into protest and/or push-back widening the net, a devious calculation by Israel.

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War Whore

'We run the streets': Video shows angry mob attacking California Highway Patrol car with officer still inside

Kristine Guerra
Washington Post
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 17:02 UTC
attack on cop fresno
© Fresno Police Department
A police officer who responded to several calls about illegal street racing and reckless driving found himself surrounded by a mob of angry people, some of whom yelled and cursed at him while others hit and kicked his vehicle as he sat inside.

"F the police, we run the streets," they said, according to Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, ABC affiliate KFSN-TV reported.

The incident happened the afternoon of Sept. 25. The Fresno Police Department and California Highway Patrol received reports of large crowds blocking traffic a few miles outside of downtown Fresno, according to the police department.

A California Highway Patrol officer, who was first on scene, spotted a reckless driver and got out of his vehicle to make a traffic stop, the police department said. Then, people began yelling at the driver to leave. The driver sped away, and the officer went back to his vehicle to chase him. That's when a crowd of about 30 to 40 surrounded the officer's sport-utility vehicle.

Several people can be seen violently kicking the sides of the SUV while others recorded the incident with their phones.


The officer, whose name was not released, was able to drive away unharmed.

Over the past week, the police department has posted to its Facebook page several still photos taken from videos of the attack.

Comment: The officer in question was lucky. He nearly became the victim of a much larger problem. Unless police departments are able to rein in their aggressive approach to the civilian population, especially blacks and latinos, the pitchforks will be out for every officer.

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People

Greek police fire tear gas and use pepper spray on protesting pensioners over austerity measures

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:38 UTC
Athens protesters
Familiar scenes returned to Athens today, when Greek police fired teargas at a demonstration of pensioners protesting over cutbacks to their benefits, part of an austerity drive dictated by the Troika (or was it Quadriga). Between 1,500 and 2,0000 pensioners attempted to march to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's office, however they were blocked when riot police blocked their path, intercepting them with pepper spray and tear gas.

Greek pensioners called on the nation to rise against the government's harsh austerity policy as they attempted to break through a cordon of police buses and special operations troops barring their way to the prime minister's residence.
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People

'Merkel has to go!' Hundreds protest in Dresden on German Unity Day


RT
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:27 UTC
German Unification Day protests
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters Police watches protestors holding a placard "Merkel must go" during celebrations marking the German Unification Day in Dresden, Germany, October 3, 2016.
Several hundred protesters have gathered in the German city of Dresden to protest against Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck as they celebrate Unity Day in the city.

Footage posted on social media showed the protesters braving rainy weather outside the Church of Our Lady, blowing whistles and shouting "Traitors!"and "Get out!" as well as "Merkel has to go!"

One sign referred to Merkel's "dictatorship."

Many of the protesters are from the far-right Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, better known as the PEGIDA Alliance, Germany's N-TV reported. Dresden is PEGIDA's birthplace.

Comment: Since "Merkel must go", surely the U.S. will promptly get together a ragtag bunch of moderate German militants to fight her evil regime - where she clearly doesn't have the support of the people. Maybe ship them some Grad missiles, too.

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Books

Kansas City library director beaten while trying to defend free speech during public lecture

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:07 UTC
Steve Woolfolk
Steve Woolfolk
Since 9/11, the American police state has been constantly trying to outdo itself in the oppression of civil rights. From the Patriot Act to National Security Letters to warrantless wiretapping to militarized protest crackdowns, the State has been unable to hide its authoritarian desires.

The oppression of rights and free speech was put on full display recently at the Kansas City Public Library, where a senior library staff member was brutally taken down and arrested by police and private security officers — for peacefully intervening in the harassment of a library patron.

The armed guards were present as security detail for Dennis Ross, champion of the Israeli lobby and former Bush official who pushed for the Iraq invasion. Ross was giving a talk called "Truman and Israel."

Steve Woolfolk, director of public relations at the library, became the victim of abuse when he tried to remind the security detail of library policy after an audience member was forcibly removed from the microphone during the Q&A session.
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Handcuffs

Not so much freedom after all: US is not ranked in the top ten most free countries


McClatchyDC
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 09:03 UTC
freedom, liberty
With costly healthcare, a stereotype of obesity and a culture of creatively fatty foods, "healthy" probably isn't the first word that comes to mind when you think of the United States.

But according to the Legatum Prosperity Index's findings for 2015, the U.S. is the healthiest country in the world.



Comment: That's actually rather surprising considering the low rankings given by other studies which rank American healthcare and health:
The USA is number one...but only when it comes to violence

In a 2014 study of healthcare (including infant mortality, healthy life expectancy, and mortality from preventable conditions) in 11 advanced industrial countries, the Commonwealth Fund concluded that the United States ranked last among them. According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. healthcare system ranks 30th in the world. Other studies reach somewhat different conclusions, but all are very unflattering to the United States, as are studies of American health. The United States, for example, has one of the world's worst cancer rates (the seventh highest), and life expectancy is declining compared to other nations. An article in the Washington Post in late 2013 reported that the United States ranked 26th among nations in life expectancy, and that the average American lifespan had fallen a year behind the international average.

However, when it comes to freedom, an ideal most Americans pride themselves on, the U.S. falls to 15.

So what's the country with the most personal freedom? Canada, followed by New Zealand, Norway, Luxembourg and Iceland.

Personal freedom, as defined by the London-based Legatum Institute, measures a nation's performance at both guaranteeing individual freedom and encouraging social tolerance. Canda was ranked No. 1 due to 94 percent of its citizens saying they believed they had the freedom to choose the course of their own lives and 92 percent saying there was tolerance for ethnic minorities and immigrants.

Comment: The U.S. is however #1 in a host of categories that are certainly nothing to celebrate; such as the number of people incarcerated, child abuse deaths, prescription drug use and citizens killed by police! But freedom has all but vanished since 9/11:
'Give me liberty or give me death': The loss of freedom and institution of a corporate police state in the 14 years since 9/11

Set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, roving VIPR raids and the like—all sanctioned by a corrupt government run by Congress, the White House and the courts—a recitation of the Bill of Rights now sounds more like a eulogy to freedoms lost than an affirmation of rights we should possess.

We can pretend that the Constitution, which was written to hold the government accountable, is still our governing document. However, the reality we must come to terms with is that in the America we live in today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned, and "we the people" are seen as little more than cattle to be branded and eventually led to the slaughterhouse.


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Bomb

Suicide bombers detonate in Syria's Hama and Iraq's Baghdad, killing over 30 people


Sputnik
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 15:53 UTC
ISIL suicide attacks
A suicide bomber detonated himself in the al-Asi square in the Syrian city of Hama, killing and wounding civilians, the city police said Monday.

​"A terrorist with a suicide bomber belt detonated the explosive on the al-Asi square in Hama. There are victims and the wounded, the numbers are being clarified," the police told RIA Novosti.

Meanwhile, a Hama police source told Syrian state news agency SANA that a second suicide bomber blew himself up just 15 minutes after the suicide bomber attack in the al-Asi square.
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Star of David

Poll results show 2 in 3 Israelis believe no hope of peace with Palestinians


RT
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 14:50 UTC
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
© Jason Reed / Reuters
The vast majority of people living in Israel, both Jewish and Arab, think that peace with Palestinians will never be achieved, a new poll has revealed. Only four percent expect something to change for the better in the next five years.

Sixty-four percent of the 646 Israeli and Arab-Israeli respondents said they had no hopes that a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict could be found, Project HaMidgam institute for the Walla news website survey said.

Twenty-four percent of those polled answered that an accord was possible but it would take longer than five years to achieve. Only four percent thought a peace deal could be achieved within five years. The remaining eight percent were undecided in the poll.

Comment: With full-page Zionist ads for 'ethnic cleansing' (Liberal Zionist group calls for ethnic segregation to retain Jewish majority within Israel in full page NYT ad during UN assembly) and many 'left wing' Israelis thinking about leaving ('Forward' breaks an important story: Many leftwing Israelis are leaving the country), it's no wonder the poll results reflect hopelessness in a peace process.

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Propaganda

Nationwide prisoner strikes ignored by mainstream media

Kit O'Connell
Mint Press News
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 14:01 UTC
prisoner
© APAn inmate stands at his cell door at the maximum security facility at the Arizona State Prison in Florence, Ariz, where visitors are charged a $25 to visit inmates.
As hunger strikes and sporadic work stoppages continue at prisons across the country, the historic prison movement and the brutal retaliation inmates have faced because of it remain largely unreported in the mainstream media.

The media blackout continues even though tens of thousands of inmates are believed to have taken part in the ongoing strike, and a shift of guards at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama also refused to work on Sept. 24.

"It's interesting that the foreign press has been better to us," said Azzurra Crispino, media co-chair of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, part of the Industrial Workers of the World union, which is supporting the strike. Inmates can join the IWW for free, regardless of their prison work status.

In an interview with MintPress News on Friday, Crispino noted that the strike has been covered extensively by the United Kingdom's The Guardian and Russian state-owned media outlet RT, while the biggest voices in the U.S. media have been notably silent.

Comment: 'End prison slavery!' 24,000+ inmates join nationwide jail strike causing lockdowns (VIDEO)

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