[Links] are in-house, offsite links are noted . Backed-up links are to (archive.org) and (archive.today).
"Surveillance Self-Defense" [SSD.eff.org]: Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications from the "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
Independent Media:
* [BeniciaIndependent.com]
* Popular Resistance Newsletter: "Managed Democracy, Expendable People" (2014-10-26) [PopularResistance.org link] [archive.org]
* Liberation Radio, 2014-10-27 [LiberationRadio.org link]: With an analysis of the $40 billion lawsuit that Hank Greenberg, former CEO of insurance giant AIG, has filed against the U.S. government with the claim that the $184.6 billion AIG received was not enough; and the case of Vonderrit Myers, who was killed by St. Louis police on October 8th, and an analysis the way the media and state respond to cases of police brutality by demonizing victims.
* The Media Co-Op [MediaCoop.ca], Independent News of the People within Canada, including the indigenous First Nations.
"National day against police brutality in Sacramento" (2014-10-25) [LiberationNews.org link] [archive.org]
San Pablo Bay Sovereignty:
On November 4, at 8pm, Benicia's city council will decide whether or not to join Marin Clean Energy. Marin Clean Energy is a nonprofit that would provide our electricity instead of PG&E.
Marin Clean Energy uses 50% renewable energy instead of 22%. This option (light green) costs slightly less than PG&E. Residents will have the ability to buy 100% renewable energy and coming soon there will be an option to buy all locally produced renewable energy. Those with solar get more from Marin Clean Energy than PG&E for energy they produce.
The city will save over $50,000 per year. Benicia businesses and residents will save over $1,500,000 per year in electricity costs. Marin Clean energy can invest in local renewable energy projects at a lower cost than PG&E. Benicia would have a seat on the Board of Directors so there is local control.
This is the easiest way ever to reduce our green house gas emissions.
For more information see the reports attached to the Oct. 7 City Council agenda, archived at [archive.org].
* "Feldheim village, a model for Sovereignty in Germany" [SovereignSanPabloBay.blogspot.de link] [archive.today], a compilation of articles describing a village of 150 individuals who have achieved food security and energy sovereignty.
* "More Workers Demand $15" (2014-10-20) [LaborNotes.org link] [https://archive.today]
* "Minimum Wage Backfire McDonald’s moves to automate orders to reduce worker costs" (2014-10-22) [WSJ.com link] [archive.today]
* "Nothing secretive about Richmond political attack campaign" (2014-10-28) [ContraCostaTimes.com link] [archive.org]
* "Chevron Greases Local Election With Gusher of Cash" (2014-10-22) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
"3 billion gallons of oil industry wastewater has been injected illegally into California Aquifers" (2014-10-10) [DailyKos.com link] [archive.today]
Extreme animal abuse at a Duck Farm in Petaluma has been documented by an undercover researcher using a video camera. The video footage shows what it shows (such as burning off the beaks of the birds), but it is claimed by regulatory agencies that these practices does not conflict with anti-animal cruelty laws.
* "Petaluma duck farm investigated for animal cruelty" (2014-10-22) [ABC7news.com link] [archive.today]
* "Authorities Clear Petaluma Duck Farm Of Wrongdoing After Video Surfaces" (2014-10-24) [CBSlocal.com link] [archive.today]
"In Legalization Battles, Alcohol Defines the Politics of Marijuana" (2014-10-24) by David Sirota [archive.today]: South Portland Police Chief Edward Googins announced his opposition to a municipal referendum to legalize marijuana possession. "Claims that marijuana is safer than alcohol are so bogus it's not even funny," Googins told a local newspaper. In response, David Boyer, an official with the Maine chapter of the Marijuana Policy Project, has challenged the police chief to a "hit for shot" duel — for every shot of alcohol Googins takes, Boyer would take a toke of marijuana, and the public would be able to see who is in worse physical condition in the end.
"Long Beach School District the only one to mention homeless students" (2014-10-15) [ElReporterosf.com link] [archive.org]
Human Rights abuse in Santa Cruz:
"Stay-Away From Human Rights ! An Activist Examines the Escalating Stay-Away Orders Law" (2014-10-25) [Indybay.org link] [archive.org]. HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) activists Raven Davis and Maya Iverson spent many hours culling through citations and stay-away orders from the Parks and Recreation Department for the last year and a half. Their results show a pattern of homeless harassment and suggest very few of the citations or stay aways are for real crimes that threaten anyone. Mostly infractions used to discourage and drive away homeless folks. The proposed escalation of penalties, Davis predicts, will be even more abusive.
MORE INFO ON THE ANTI-HOMELESS DRIVE-'EM-AWAY LAWS:
* "Nasty Anti-Homeless Stay-Away Laws to Get Exponentially Worse" at [archive.org]
* "Time to Step Up and Fight City Hall on “Stay Away” Ordinance" at [archive.org]
* See "Local ACLU Issues Strong Statement in Opposition to "Stay Away" Ordinance" at [archive.org]
* For flyers and petitions go to [archive.org].
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"Will Santa Cruz City Attorney respond to disabled people’s accommodation requests?", 2014-10-27 message from Dr. John Colby, the Guerilla Advocate, to John Barisone, City Attorney of Santa Cruz:
As documented on Santa Cruz journalist Robert Norse’s radio show last summer, you left a voicemail for me accepting my sister’s written reasonable disability accommodation request under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) not to enforce MC 5.43.020(2) — the so called “Move Along Law” — against her while she exercised her free speech rights and tabled along Pacific Avenue in Downtown Santa Cruz. What Robert Norse terms the “DEADLY DOWNTOWN ORDINANCES” are referenced below: [http://tinyurl.com/lzrrfzs].
The so called “Move Along Law” is: (2) No person shall allow a display device to remain in the same location on the sidewalk for a period of time exceeding one hour. After one hour the person who placed the display device on the sidewalk shall not place a display device on the sidewalk within one hundred feet of the original display device location. After one hour the person who placed the display device shall not place a display device in the original display device location, or within one hundred feet of the original display device location, for twenty four hours.
This law was selectively enforced against my disabled client Ms. Kate Wenzell by SCPD Community Service Officer Bradly Barnett to retaliate against her for me filing a U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) discrimination complaint against the SCPD, then naming Barnett as a respondent. Relevant links...
- "Scarf Lady Harassed by Zealous “Move Along” Cop" (2014-02-21) [HUFFSantaCruz.org link] [archive.org]
- SCPD using street vendor ordinances to terrorize disabled Santa Cruz resident Kate Wenzell [Facebook.com link] [archive.today]
- "A Few of the DEADLY DOWNTOWN ORDINANCES" (2010-08-27) [.pdf link at archive.org]
- "Santa Cruz selectively enforces "clutter laws" against people who are protesting or of lower-income status" (2014-06) [archive.org]
Refreshers on First Amendment’s protections for Free Speech, the Right to Assemble and the Right to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances:
- Freedom of speech [Wikipedia.org link]
- Petition and assembly [Wikipedia.org link]
Refreshers on the ADA:
- [http://tinyurl.com/pdanpga]
- [http://tinyurl.com/qjgd8kk]
- [http://tinyurl.com/m3t9zl2]
- [http://tinyurl.com/lulrpq4].
To recap: In a telephone conversation last summer, as documented by Robert Norse on his radio show, you refused to provide me — my sister’s acknowledged representative and advocate — a written affirmation consistent with your verbal approval of her reasonable disability accommodation request so that she could show it to SCPD officers to prove you had in fact authorized her to violate the “Move Along Law”. You refused to set written precedent for others seeking similar accommodations on Pacific Avenue in Downtown Santa Cruz, as I informed you several others wanted disability accommodations like my sister had requested.
Request: Please respond in writing to my sister’s long overdue reasonable disability accommodation request ASAP to provide a precedent against further disability based discrimination and to demonstrate the City’s commitment in complying with the ADA.
For the public good, I will share your written reply with the media, the Santa Cruz County Grand Jury, the USDOJ, Congress, Governor Jerry Brown, the California State Legislature, the ACLU, disability rights advocacy groups and disability rights attorneys.
In case you ignore my request, I plan to file a Title II ADA complaint with the USDOJ, possibly including City Clerk Administrator Bren Lehr’s refusal to respond to my own reasonable disability accommodation request for equal access to public records lawfully due me.
I appreciate your fulfillment of our accommodation requests — in writing — by next Friday via email, fax and postal mail.
Sincerely yours, John E. Colby, Ph.D. [facebook.com/GorillaAdvocacyInc]
Theme song: "People Have the Power" [youtube.com link]
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On October 25th, Pat Colby, a Santa Cruz advocate, and the HUFF [HUFFSantaCruz.org] planned to launch their Cafe HUFF during UN Day in Downtown Santa Cruz to fight the Stay Away laws and the ongoing War Against the Poor in Santa Cruz, with "Beat Back Bigotry" Brownies handed to the first lucky street people, and guerrilla first amendment actions designed to break open the minds and hearts of those who may take a stand for Human Rights!
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From Dr. John Colby:
Recently the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) has interfered in local politics: by attacking candidates, by endorsing candidates and by giving preferential treatment to domestic hate group Take Back Santa Cruz. I don’t believe law enforcement officers should be interfering in politics. FBI agents don’t do that — FBI agents are nonpartisan. I also question the SCPD putting out a media release about endorsing certain candidates, thus promoting SCPD propaganda.
* "I support Leonie Sherman — ask me why!" [Facebook.com link] [archive.today] (2014-10-30)
* "Police union: Santa Cruz City Council candidate Sherman is an anarchist" (2014-10-21) [KSBW.com link] [archive.today]
* "Santa Cruz Police attempt to discredit Leonie Sherman by labeling her an anarchist" (2014-10-21) [Indybay.org link] [archive.org]
* "SCPD Media Release CC endorsements" (2014-10) [original at drive.google.com] [archive.today]
Domestic Fascists launch new attack on political prisoners, including using their assets in the monopolist media, and in government.
* "Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Remote Speech in Vermont: Police, Politicians, Media Respond with Threats of Violence" (2014-10-26) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
* "Silencing Dissent: US Political Prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Jeremy Hammond in the Sacrifice Zone of Empire" (2014-10-25) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
Ferguson, Missouri:
* "The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Root of its Troubles" [EPI.org link] [archive.org]
* "US Human Rights Abuses on Display in Ferguson" (2014-10-24) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* "Armed crowd marches through downtown St. Louis" (2014-10-26) [RT.com link] [archive.today], describing an "Open Carry" political demonstration with only White participants.
What's really happening to the people of Benton Harbor, Michigan:[BHBANCO.org link] [archive.org]:
The thrust [of the Berrien county courthouse] is to physically remove and destroy families through the use of the criminal justice system. Every person they can put in jail; every person whose voting rights they can revoke with a felony conviction; every person they can cause to lose their job by putting them on probation; every person they can cause to lose the ability to pay for basic necessities through imposing ruinous court costs and probation is all part of the process. In the 1960s, it was called Negro removal. In Bosnia, it was called ethnic cleansing. It could be called genocide, the removal of the minority population for the purpose of redevelopment of the land. That’s what’s happening in Benton Harbor and the foremost leader of the resistance is Rev. Edward Pinkney. --Civil rights attorney, Hugh "Buck" Davis
The Jury has been selected for Pinkney's trial and it's ALL white -
The Berrien County trial beginning this Monday at 8:30am now has a jury and it's all white. Rev. Pinkney is from Benton Harbor, 96% African-American, but the jurors are from the surrounding white towns. Here are some other glaring irregularities:
--Prosecutor Mike Sepic on 3 or 4 occasions asked the jury pool, "Could you convict someone without evidence?" Right after he asked this question each time he nodded his head - indicating that they should answer in the affirmative.
--Prosecutor Sepic also told the jury pool several times that evidence was not necessary in order to convict someone. Only in Berrien County...
--Judge Schrock did everything he could to help Prosecutor Sepic.
The world sees the human rights abuse that happens in the USA.
Even the Islamic Republic of Iran publicizes the situation on their domestic media, as a contrast to how people are treated in their own country.
* "New video shows US police shot black man 45 times like firing squad" [PressTV.ir link] [archive.org].
[begin excerpt] The video shows that eight police officers ringing the man in a parking lot with one dog growling at the poor man. Hall was not carrying any weapons except for a penknife. He was then shot by the officers 45 times and 14 of those shots struck him dead.The ACLU gave the police dashboard footage to representatives of the Organization of American States in order to pressure the federal government to look at Hall's death scene one more time.
In February, the Department of Justice said it could not find “sufficient evidence of willful misconduct” to prosecute the eight officers. [end excerpt]
Here's another view of the firing squad. Note how the situation appears. There was only one suspect, who was positioned far enough away to not constitute a threat.
"Rapists Fret Not, Cops Far More Interested in the Drug War. 400,000 Rape Kits Never Tested" (2014-10-27) [TheFreeThoughtProject.com link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt]
According to the Department of Justice, there are currently over 400,000 untested rape kits collecting dust in police evidence rooms nationwide, and many other estimates suggest that this number could be as high as one million.
As a result of this horrific negligence, roughly 3% of rape cases in America are actually solved, despite the fact that many rape kits have a high chance of leading to an arrest, since most rapists are career criminals who have their DNA on file.
In some cases, the victims even know who their attackers were, but they can not prosecute these criminals because the evidence has not been processed by police. [end excerpt]
"A Dozen Wisconsin Communities Challenge Corporate Personhood With Vote to Overturn Citizens United, 'We the people want a democracy, not a corporatocracy,' organizer says" (2014-10-28) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt] In Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court found that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of elections.
In Milwaukee County, Dunn County, Green Bay, Appleton, Fond du Lac, Neenah, Menasha, Ripon, Stoughton, Oregon, Wausau, and the Village of Park Ridge, voters will cast their ballots on a proposed amendment that would essentially reverse the Court's 2010 decision by stating that corporations are not people and money is not speech.
The referenda "are an expression of the will of local people," Kaja Rebane, co-chair of the Wisconsin Move to Amend network, told Common Dreams. It was just over three years ago that Madison and Dane County became the first municipalities in the country to pass ballot measures aimed at abolishing corporate personhood. "At that time, I don't think any of us had any idea that it would spread as quickly as it has," Rebane said. That the idea did catch on so rapidly, she said, is evidence that "we the people want democracy, not corporatocracy." [end excerpt]
Stop Attacks on the Right to Protests! Several months ago, Greenpeace activists hung two 60-foot banners from the headquarter of Procter& Gamble in Cincinnati, OH. The protest was to call attention to P&G's palm oil procurement policies, which are linked to the destruction of Indonesian rainforests. For their action, the Greenpeace activists are each being charged with 2 felony charges: burglary and vandalism. If convicted on these felonies, the activists can be sentenced to many years in prison. This attempt to prosecute the protesters is part of a growing trend of stiff sentences for those who protest and resist the criminal practices of our government and the corporations that they represent. For more information on the case, please go here: [http://greenpeaceblogs.org/protest]
Please sign the petition calling for and end the the prosecution of the Greenpeace activists. [https://secure3.convio.net/gpeace/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1715]
The myth of a monopolist "Liberal Media" is contradicted by their history of service to the clandestine agencies. The following two articles show this contradiction The first is an article written for an audience which supports absolute war against "all enemies, foreign and domestic", and makes the case that the monopolist New York Times daily newspaper is "communist". Following that is an article shows an example about how the same newspaper worked with the CIA to cover-up the facts about the 1980s secret wars against communism in the Americas and the associated cocaine trade funding those wars.
* "NY Times Triples-Down as Communist Mouthpiece" (2014-10-24) [FrontPageMag.com link] [archive.org]
* "The Myth of the Free Press" (2014-10-27) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt] When Webb, writing in a 1996 series in the San Jose Mercury News, exposed the Central Intelligence Agency’s complicity in smuggling tons of cocaine for sale into the United States to fund the CIA-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua, the press turned him into a journalistic leper.
The attacks against Webb have been renewed in publications such as The Washington Post since the release of the film about him earlier this month. These attacks are an act of self-justification. They are an attempt by the mass media to mask the collaboration between themselves and the power elite. The mass media, like the rest of the liberal establishment, seek to wrap themselves in the moral veneer of the fearless pursuit of truth and justice. But to maintain this myth they have to destroy the credibility of journalists such as Webb and Assange who shine a light on the sinister and murderous inner workings of empire, who care more about truth than news. The country’s major news outlets—including my old employer The New York Times, which wrote that there was “scant proof” of Webb’s contention—functioned as guard dogs for the CIA. Soon after the 1996 exposé appeared, The Washington Post devoted nearly two full pages to attacking Webb’s assertions. The Los Angeles Times ran three separate articles that slammed Webb and his story. It was a seedy, disgusting and shameful chapter in American journalism. [end excerpt]
* "Gary Webb: In his own words" (2004) [https://archive.org/details/Gary_Webb], a video interview.
The so-called "Liberal Media" has allowed the domestic security agencies to use their copyrighted logos and services to target dissidents and violent actors. Only when this relationship went public was there a public relations campaign to "regain the public trust" in their "integrity".
* "Media Outlets 'Outraged' After FBI Caught Falsifying AP Story to Target Suspect" (2014-10-29) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt]: Chris Soghoian of the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday exposed the findings, which are based on documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation three years ago through a Freedom of Information Act Request.
Read the documents here [.pdf link at archive.org].
Trevor Timm writes in the Guardian, "In the six years since the FBI impersonated the Seattle Times and AP to hack a suspect, it’s only ramped up its exploits. Since at least 2007, the FBI has had what it calls a “Secure Technologies Exploitation Group”—which is a more polite way of saying they have a team that hacks computers."
FBI Secure Technologies Exploitation Group documentation [archive.today].
Journalist Kevin Paulsen revealed in September, "For the last two years, the FBI has been quietly experimenting with drive-by hacks as a solution to one of law enforcement’s knottiest Internet problems: how to identify and prosecute users of criminal websites hiding behind the powerful Tor anonymity system." [end excerpt]
* "The FBI says to be wary of hackers ... and to let the FBI hack what it wants; Hacking seems to have become a go-to FBI tactic without much public thought or debate" (2014-10-23) [TheGuardian.com link] [archive.org]
* "Visit the Wrong Website, and the FBI Could End Up in Your Computer" (2014-08-05) [Wired.com link] [archive.org]
* "GOP Official: LGBT Rights Will Allow Gays To 'Terrorize' Day Cares, Hospitals And Schools" (2014-10-20) [HuffingtonPost.com link] [archive.today]
* "Douglas MacKinnon Calls For Southern U.S. To Secede As Anti-Gay Nation Called 'Reagan'" (2014-10-23) [HuffingtonPost.com link] [archive.today]
"Report: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Dominates Undisclosed Spending in Congressional Races; The Chamber Has Spent Almost as Much as the Next Two Dark Money Groups Combined, Public Citizen’s 'U.S. Chamber Watch' Program Finds" (2014-10-29) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt]: Nearly all the U.S. Chamber’s spending – about $31 million out of $32 million – has gone either to support Republicans or to oppose their Democratic opponents. The rest of the money was spent to oppose a handful of Republicans in primaries.
“We know that the Chamber gets most of its money from just a handful of large donors,” said Sam Jewler, communications officer for U.S. Chamber Watch. “The policies its chosen candidates pursue will not represent Main Street, but will represent the agendas of a small number of very powerful companies that may prefer secretly buying influence over competing or innovating.” [end excerpt]
The process of Fascism in the USA:
* "All The Wealth The Middle Class Accumulated After 1940 Is Gone" [HuffingtonPost.com link] [archive.today]
* "Teaching People to Hate Their Own Govt. Is at the Core of the Project to Destroy the Middle Class" (2014-10-14) [AlterNet.org link] [archive.toda]
* "The rich can stop worrying about a middle-class revolution" (2014-06-27) [archive.org]
Whose values are evident when the process of fascism is exported across the world?
* "Child Poverty On Rise in World's Richest Countries" (2014-10-28) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org link]. [begin excerpt]
The annual study, Children of the Recession: The impact of the economic crisis on child well-being in rich countries, was released Tuesday in Rome. It finds that in the 41 richest countries at least 76.5 million children live in poverty. "Many affluent countries have suffered a 'great leap backwards' in terms of household income, and the impact on children will have long-lasting repercussions for them and their communities," said Jeffrey O’Malley, UNICEF’s Head of Global Policy and Strategy.
In 23 of the 41 wealthy countries examined, the rate of child poverty has increased since 2008. In some countries, this rise was drastic: Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Greece, and Iceland saw child poverty climb by more than 50 percent. The report notes that the young are hit harder than the elderly, and among children, the "poorest and most vulnerable... have suffered disproportionately."
The recession has created "a generation cast aside," where unemployment for people aged 15 to 24 has increased in 34 of the 41 countries, the report states.
The United States is no exception. In 2012, 24.2 million children were living in poverty in the U.S., an increase of 1.7 million since the 2008 recession. In 34 out of 50 states, child poverty has risen since 2008. While the authors claimed the report was not intended as a "comment on austerity," their analysis finds that the decimation of public services has fueled the crisis. "Extreme child poverty in the United States increased more during the Great Recession than it did in the recession of 1982, suggesting that, for the very poorest, the safety net affords less protection now than it did three decades ago," states the report. [end excerpt]
The Domestic Security Agencies collect actionable intelligence against dissenters through agreements with foreign agencies who share what they collect even if it is collected in a manner considered "illegal" in the homeland, and with private partners who have their own means to collect information. How does the definition of legal and illegal even matter to domestic security agencies? Who's going to sue them, and in what court?
* "Reality of National Security State Trumps 'Delusions' of U.S. Democracy" (2014-10-20) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* "'Mercenary Class' Now Permanent Fixture in National Security State" (2014-10-19) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* "British Spy Agency: We Don't Need Warrant for Americans' Data. We Have 'Arrangements' " (2014-10-29) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org].
* Canada: "Do police and spies need more power?" (2014-10-29) [Rabble.ca link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt]: There is a very good chance that lone wolf, self-assigned "terrorists," acting out fantasies that might be inspired by Internet propaganda, but not associated with any group, would not show up on police or spy service radar. The government promises new police and spy powers are in the works. The Conservatives seem bound and determined to bring in some set of new powers for CSIS, in intelligence, and the RCMP (and other police forces) in enforcement and investigation.
They took one step earlier this week, with new powers for CSIS, which had been in preparation long before last Wednesday's episode. These new powers include the capacity to protect the identity of informants, and to do overseas as well as domestic spying. [end excerpt]
Endless war, endless profits, and an end to freedom for the People:
* "US Army drafts blueprint for World War III: There will be boots and plenty of them" (2014-10-26) [ElReporteroSF.com link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt]
Gen. Raymond Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, told reporters at the AUSA conference Monday that he was “starting to worry about our end strength” and regretting having told Congress in 2012 that the Army could manage with 490,000 active-duty soldiers.
In addition, there are 350,000 National Guard soldiers and 205,000 reservists, for a combined force—referred to by the Pentagon as the Total Army—of well over one million American troops. The answer to why such a gargantuan armed force would seem inadequate to Gen. Odierno can be found in the new Army Operating Concept (AOC), a reckless and dangerous document laying out a strategy of total war that encompasses the entire planet, including the United States itself.
The document does not limit the “vision” of future military operations to war abroad, but includes the need to “respond and mitigate crises in the homeland,” which it describes as “a unique theater of operations for the Joint Force and the Army.” The Army’s mission within the US, it asserts, includes “defense support of civil authorities.”
The AOC document is stark testimony to a military run amuck. Involved in these strategic conceptions are advanced preparations for fighting a Third World War, combined with the institution within the US itself of a military dictatorship in all but name.
Gen. Odierno’s complaints about troop strength will not be satisfied by any minor congressional adjustments of the Pentagon budget. The kind of warfare that the Army is contemplating cannot be waged outside of a massive military mobilization by means of universal conscription—the return of the draft.
Within the US ruling establishment and its two political parties, there exists no serious opposition to carrying the militarization of life within the so-called “homeland” to its ultimate conclusion. Civilian control of the military has been turned into a dead letter, with politicians routinely bowing to the generals on matters of policy, both foreign and domestic. [end excerpt]
Chemical weapons in Iraq!
The development of chemical weapons and plans for their use by the government of Iraq, the fictional premise used since 2002 to justify the subsequent murder of hundreds of thousands of Arabs in Iraq alongside the theft of publicly owned industrial properties and resources, has been proven to be false.
The current prime minister of Iraq, known to fabricate scenarios in order to gain support, has said ISIS militias have taken control of some of the old chemical weapons facilities. The monopolist media presented the situation as:* "Has ISIS looted chemical weapons from former Iraqi nerve agent factory that US failed to destroy? UN told 2,500 rockets containing deadly Sarin are in the hands of the jihadists" (2014-10-15) [DailyMail.co.uk link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt] Remnants of Iraq's chemical weapons program at the Muthanna State Establishment. It was destroyed by American bombs during the 1991 Gulf War. Bunker 13 contained 2,500 sarin-filled 122-mm chemical rockets produced and filled before 1991 U.S. Defence Department spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said earlier that the United States' best understanding was that 'whatever material was kept there is pretty old and not likely to be able to be accessed or used against anyone right now'. The weapons - most of them mustard agents in 155-millimeter artillery shells or 122-millimeter rockets - were developed by Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war which raged between 1980 and 1988. [end excerpt].
Photo showing the Muthanna chemical weapons depot, 2014.
Pres. George Bush speech delivered on September 12, 2002: "United Nations’ inspections also revealed that Iraq likely maintains stockpiles of VX, mustard and other chemical agents, and that the regime is rebuilding and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical weapons. Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." Since 2003 and the successful USA invasion and occupation of Iraq, thousands of chemical weapons had been found, none of which had been created since the 1990s, and no biological weapon production sites had been found. There was no "massive chemical weapons program" in Iraq during 2002, and the weapons that were in storage were being dismantled prior to the USA invasion.
* "Chemical Weapons Found in Iraq Were Not Those Used to Justify Invasion" (2014-10-15) [TheNewAmerican.com link] [archive.org], a conservative news journal.
* Music Video: "Bush Boys", with DJ Dangermouse providing the jams alongside a factual montage explaining the absolute corporatism of the Bush dyansty. [https://archive.org/details/Bush_Boys]
"Navy validates landing, takeoff of MQ-8C unmanned helo" (2014-10-24) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today]
"Eagles of Empire and Economic Terrorism: Are Vulture Funds Instruments of US Foreign Policy?" (2014-10-26) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
"“Economic Genocide” in Latin America: The Unspoken Legacy of Wall Street and the IMF. Argentina's President Fernandez de Kirchner Denounces Economic Terrorism" (2014-10-25) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
World Fascism Watch: Mexico
"The murder and disappearance of students from Ayotzinapa is raising questions once again about the complicity of law enforcement and public officials in Mexico's drug wars" (2014-10-24) [FPIF.org link] [archive.org]
World Fascism Watch: Hondruas
* "Plans to Develop the Gulf of Fonseca Move Forward While Communities Say No to ZEDEs and 'That Kind' of Development" (2014-10-27) [DesdeAquiAbajoAbajo.blogspot.com link] [archive.org], including information about resistance in southern Honduras against monopolist plans to expropriate people's land for the purpose of building private "model cities" which are immune to national and international law, especially as it concerns Human rights.
Sign reads: "Model Cities = surrendering sovereignty, looting, and militarization", Oct. 23, 2014
* "U.S. has hand in Honduran mess" (2014-10-26) [SeattleTimes.com link] [archive.org].
* What's the actual situation in Vallecito, in the Garifuna territory within Honduras? (Spanish): "Vallecito: Resistencia y defensa del último santuario garífuna en Honduras" (2014-10-24) [RadioProgresohn.net link] [archive.org]. For more information about the Garifuna nation and their struggle to survive, visit [OFRANEH.org] [OFRANEH.wordpress.com]
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"Presente-Honduras Digest" Vol 36, Issue 48, 2014-10-27:
* The inhabitants 48 communities in the Linaca area formed the Committee for the Defense of Nature (CDN) to oppose mining in their region. Further south, some 500 people protested against ZEDEs and mining. Interestingly, the article by La Prensa also mentions, that the protest was accompanied by international organizations. Sources in Spanish (1) [NoAlaMina.org link] [archive.org]; (2) [NoAlaMina.org link] [archive.org].
"Presente-Honduras Digest" Vol 36, Issue 46, 2014-10-25:
* Human rights defenders in the western part of Honduras denounce the ongoing campaign of threats and persecution by the government. Source in Spanish [DefensoresEnLinea.com link] [archive.org].
* One of the biggest challenges for women in the rural areas of Honduras is the high price for basic goods. Without much work and a credit system, which according to local women networks only is there for National Party members, the situation doesn't seem to improve. Nevertheless, COFADEH and other organization are accompanying these networks and helping them to fight for their human rights. But not just poverty is big problem for women in Honduras, they also live through almost unbearable situations of violence. Sources in Spanish: (1) [DefensoresEnLinea.com link] [archive.org], (2) [RadioProgresoHN.net link] [archive.org]
Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 36, Issue 45, 2014-10-24:
Some 500 people from Zacatae Grande to the Tigre Island in Amapala, where one of the first Special Economic Development Zone (ZEDE) is planned. They saw their protest as a march for life and against charter cities. Sources in Spanish: (1) [RadioProgresoHN.net link] [archive.org], (2) [ZacateGrande.blogspot.ch link] [archive.org].
The Republic of Colombia is sending trained militia members into Venezuela to conduct war.
* "Venezuelan Communist youth group attacked, right wingers blamed" (2014-10-27) [PeoplesWorld.org link] [archive.org]
The extreme human rights abuse in Colombia and its allies has driven the majority of people in Venezuela and elsewhere to support leftism, socialism, and even communism as alternatives to "right-wing" fascism...
* "Venezuela’s ‘Comando Creativo’: art as a revolutionary weapon" (2014-10-21) [LiberationNews.org link] [archive.org]
Colombia is an economic dictatorship sponsored by the USA and ruled by an upper-class who are starving millions of people through artificial famine, and whose regime is protected by death squads who have killed up to 10,000 political targets a month over the last decade for a total of 250,000 known victims and who use "Hitler-like" crematorium oven facilities to cover up their slaughter, as documented by USA State Dept. internal memos released by Wikileaks [archive.org], with a trained a civilian spy network to select dissidents for death [archive.org]. This is "America's version of North Korea".
Solidarity with the People of western Kurdistan! Defend the Rojave Revolution!
* "International Day of Solidarity with Kobani on November 1" (2014-10-25) [TelesurTV.net link] [archive.today]
* "An Interview with the DAF on Kobanê: 'We are Kawa against Dehaks' " (2014-10-28) [Anarkismo.net link] [archive.org]
* "Kobane, the Kurdish struggle, and the dangers lurking ahead" (2014-10-19) [RoarMag.org link] [archive.org]
* "An Interview with Kurdistan Anarchists Forum (KAF) about the situation in Iraq/Kurdistan" (2014-09-03) [archive.org], with a special intro at [Anarkismo.net link] [archive.org].
* "Communique: Solidarity with the revolutionary process in Rojava" [machine translation] (2014-10-25) [AInfos.ca link] [archive.org]
* "Victory to the Rojava Revolution!" (2014-10-25) [Melbacg.wordpress.com link] [archive.org]
* "Kurds fear Isis use of chemical weapon in Kobani; Doctor in besieged Syrian town reports arrival of patients with blisters, burning eyes and breathing difficulties after explosion" (2014-10-24) [TheGuardian.com link] [archive.today]
* "40 Killed in Turkey in Pro-Kobani Protests" (2014-10-17) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
It is being noticed that the USA is subsidizing its own corporatist version of a Kurdistan government within the jurisdiction of Iraq, ruled by a economic dictatorship hostile to the anarchist self-ruling communities of western Kurdistan, and whose purpose is to export energy to Israel and the European Union.
* "Peshmerga 2.0: New generation of Kurd fighters in Iraq" (2014-10-24) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today]
The USA is hostile to the people of western Kurdistan because they are within the jurisdiction of the Republic of Syria, which the USA considers an enemy government and has sought to destroy it by supporting the militias who are currently called "ISIL", with the same strategy being used against Iran.
* "ISIL terrorist leader is CIA agent: Chechen president" (2014-10-22) [PressTV.ir link] [archive.org]
* "US War on Iran Takes Bizarre Turn. US Covert Support to Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK)" (2014-10-26) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org], [begin excerpt]: US Army General Hugh Shelton on stage before terrorists of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) and their Wahabist counterparts fighting in Syria, hysterically pledging American material, political, and strategic backing. MEK was listed for years by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization, but has received funding, arms, and safe haven by the United States for almost as long. MEK has carried out decades of brutal terrorist attacks, assassinations, and espionage against the Iranian government and its people, as well as targeting Americans including the attempted kidnapping of US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II [archive.org], the attempted assassination of USAF Brigadier General Harold Price and the successful assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Lee Hawkins [.pdf link at archive.org], the double assassinations of Colonel Paul Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Turner [news.google.com link], and the successful ambush and killing of American Rockwell International employees William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard. Admissions to the deaths of the Rockwell International employees can be found within a report written by former US State Department and Department of Defense official Lincoln Bloomfield Jr. [.pdf link at archive.org] on behalf of the lobbying firm Akin Gump in an attempt to dismiss concerns over MEK’s violent past and how it connects to its current campaign of armed terror – a testament to the depths of depravity from which Washington and London lobbyists operate. [end excerpt]
"The UN's Occupation of Haiti: A Structure of Global Complicity As Thousands March Demanding his Resignation: Martelly Dances on Dessalines’ Grave" [Haiti-Liberte.com link] [archive.org]
The call for war against the People of Korea is approaching the tipping point for making the case for unilateral action. Economic data shows that for a few billion dollars to fund a new Korean war and take over northern Korea, the world market would gain what is estimated to be USD$12 TRILLION worth of minerals essential for modern industrial technology.
** "N.Korea likely can build nuclear warhead: US general" (2014-10-24) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today].
Meanwhile, there are ongoing negotiations towards reunification between the governments administering northern and southern Korea, but one of the main topics of hostility is the role private companies will have in the economic future of northern Korea.
** "Federalizing the Korean Peninsula: North Korea Calls for Unifying Confederation with South Korea" (2014-07-07) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org].
Already there is a call for increased economic sanctions against the government of the DPRK, but by targeting the civilian population in an area of harsh winters, the rationale being that the more desperate the people are, the more likely they might rebel, these sanctions serve to show how hostile the world is and how benevolent government distributions programs are. All of our research shows that the majority of the civilian population "supports their government", that the starvation seen during the mid-1990s across northern Korea has not been an issue in a decade, and that the fact of 250 thousand prisoners, a number of whom are being starved and tortured for their political beliefs, is selectively censored in their domestic media. Malnutrition among the population is blamed on the economic sanctions, under the premise that manufactured vitamins could not be produced domestically inexpensively without certain chemical products. For example, Vitamin D deficiency is already epidemic in southern Korea (administered by the Republic of Korea) [archive.org], yet southern Korea is considered a key part of the World Market system, and can access manufactured vitamins. Northern Korea, in contrast, is economically isolated, and cannot access financial loans, the chemical materials, or access the privately patented techniques of vitamin manufacture. Many medicines and medical products are produced only by USA-based firms.
** "Economic Sanctions as Human Rights Violations: International Law and the Right to Life" [IHRC.org.uk link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt] Economic sanctions and human rights are essentially at odds, and it is extremely misguided to believe that sanctions will help improvements in human rights in the targeted countries. Instead, they are more likely to lead to deterioration in the lived experience of the vast majority of sanctioned peoples. Economic sanctions run contrary to the spirit of human rights because they explicitly and implicitly expose the ordinary citizen of the sanctioned country to considerable suffering. The scale and gravity of the suffering amounts to collective punishment. Collective punishment is the punishment of a group of people for the actions of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may have no connection to or control over the actions of the individuals or groups whose actions have led to them being punished. [end excerpt]
Also see "The Impact of the Economic Crisis and the US Embargo on Health in Cuba" (1997) [USAengage.org link] [archive.org]
** "Doom and Gloom or Economic Boom? The Myth of the “North Korean Economic Collapse”" (2014-05-05) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]. [begin excerpt]: If statistics on the DPRK economy are mentioned at all in the Western press, they generally stem from “secondary source” estimations rather than “primary source” figures from the DPRK government. The most commonly used of those estimates are those of the South Korean Bank of Korea (BOK) and of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). CIA numbers do present the DPRK as comparatively poor in terms of PPP-based GDP per capita. The $1800 figure from 2011 would place it 197th of 229 countries in the world, located among mostly African economies. But as far as the CIA’s general GDP figure goes, the $40 billion figure catapults the economy into a comfortable middle position (106th of 229), which is not really what one would expect from “one of the poorest countries in the world.” How meaningful or useful are the GDP per capita figures of the CIA and the BOK in measuring quality of life in a taxfree country with public food distribution as well as free housing, healthcare and education? What do prices or income really mean in such a system anyway? The theory of the “coming North Korean collapse” is a curiously tenacious myth. It is based on little more than speculation, sometimes aggravated by misinformation, disinformation or wishful thinking. On the contrary, comparatively reliable indicators on food and trade suggest that it is recovering and catching up, despite the extremely hostile conditions it has faced since the 1990s. According to an extensive review of DPRK economic statistics by development consultant Mika Marumoto, the most referenced databases on DPRK trade volumes are those of the IMF Direction of Trade, the UN Comtrade and the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), a South Korean organization. North Korea’s mineral resources are distributed across a wide area comprising about 80 percent of the country. North Korea hosts sizable deposits of more than 200 different minerals and has among the top-10 largest reserves of magnesite, tungsten ore, graphite, gold ore, and molybdenum in the world. Its magnesite reserves are the second largest in the world and its tungsten deposits are probably the sixth-largest in the world. South Korean reports have estimated the total value of the North‘s mineral wealth at US$ 7 to 10 trillion. And this was before the largest so-called rare earth element (REE) deposit in the world was discovered in the north of the country, in Jongju, with 216 MT of REEs said to be “worth trillions of dollars” by themselves. [end excerpt]
* "Rethinking the North Korean 'Collapse Narrative'. The Most Demonized Country Worldwide" (2014-10-29) Global Research News Hour Episode 79, with Kiyul Chung and Henri Feron [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
* "Best Selling Cars in North Korea: Pyeonghwa Samchunri should lead the ranking" (2012-03-25) [BestSellingCarsBlog.com link] [archive.org]
"Don’t Believe Everything You Hear Reported About North Korea" (2014-01-06) [DoTheWord.org link] [archive.org], written by a Catholic who is against the DPRK but has noticed that the lies about that government are distracting and confusing the truth about the situation in northern Korea.
Southern Korea, ruled by the RoK government, was a fascist dictatorship with a quality of life lower than northern Korea until the early 1980s. After a brief flirtation with managed democracy, the current regime in southern Korea is returning to authoritarianism protecting a private economic dictatorship. Although their quality of life is superior than that of northern Korea (for the upper classes), the narcotic and sex-slavery cartels and their involvement with the RoK government is lowering that quality of life for millions of people of lower economic status.
* "Fascism in South Korea or is it a “Democratic Dictatorship”?" (2014-03-07) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
* "The Return of Repression. Political Firestorm in South Korea" (2013-09-13) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
* "Stop Political Repression in South Korea" (2013-09-19) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
* "The Fate of Democracy Korean Conspiracy Trial" (2013-12-26) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
A small company with fascist tendencies in Switzerland was nearly able to break a historical taboo by introducing a set of collectible coffee creamer products featuring historical cigar labels, including those of Hitler and Mussolini, for mass distribution in the largest supermarket chain in Switzerland. The company's marketing manager said: "I had already seen that Hitler and Mussolini were on the lids before they went out but I didn't have a problem with that. Many of the public reactions to the lids were extremely below the belt in my opinion. We haven't had a single complaint directly to us and we have done absolutely nothing wrong or anything to be ashamed of. People are simply overreacting". Christian Shuster of Germany, who was on a business trip in Switzerland said: "Our Swiss colleagues took us down to the coffee shop and when the waitress brought them over we saw the face of Hitler staring up at us from one of the cream containers."* "Creamer packaging features Hitler and Mussolini mugs" (2014-10-22) [SwissInfo.ch link] [archive.today]
* "Hitler coffee cream pot company faces closure" (2014-10-24) [TheLocal.ch link] [archive.today]
* "Do You Take Cream Or Hitler With Your Coffee? Supermarket Makes Horrible Blunder" 2014-10-25 [Inquisitr.com link] [archive.today]
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Read more about Hitler and Germany with an article by a "Dark Enlightenment" researcher:
* "The NS State and how the “Endlösung” developed" [archive.org]
"5 Things About Slavery You Probably Didn't Learn In Social Studies" [HuffingtonPost.com link] [archive.today]
1) Slavery was a key driver of the formation of American wealth.
Baptist argues that our narrative of slavery generally goes something like this: it was a terrible thing, but it was an anomaly, a sort of feudal throwback within capitalism whose demise would inevitably come with the rise of wage labor. In fact, he argues, it was at the heart of the development of American capitalism.
Baptist crunches economic data to come up with a "back-of-the-envelope" estimate of how much slavery contributed to the American economy both directly and indirectly. "All told, more than $600 million, or almost half of the economic activity in the United States in 1836, derived directly or indirectly from cotton produced by the million-odd slaves -- 6 percent of the total US population -- who in that year toiled in labor camps on slavery's frontier."
By 1850, he writes, American slaves were worth $1.3 billion, one-fifth of the nation's wealth.
2) In its heyday, slavery was more efficient than free labor, contrary to the arguments made by some northerners at the time.
Drawing on cotton production data and firsthand accounts of slaveowners and the formerly enslaved, Baptist finds that ever-increasing cotton picking quotas, enforced by brutal whippings, led slaves to reach picking speeds that stretched the limits of physical possibility. "A study of planter account books that record daily picking totals for individual enslaved people on labor camps across the South found a growth in daily picking totals of 2.1 percent per year," Baptist writes. "The increase was even higher if one looks at the growth in the newer southwestern areas in 1860, where the efficiency of picking grew by 2.6 percent per year from 1811 to 1860, for a total productivity increase of 361 percent."
Free wage laborers were comparatively much slower. "Many enslaved cotton pickers in the late 1850s had peaked at well over 200 pounds per day," Baptist notes. "In the 1930s, after a half-century of massive scientific experimentation, all to make the cotton boll more pickable, the great-grandchildren of the enslaved often picked only 100 to 120 pounds per day."
A formerly enslaved woman, photographed on a farm near Greensboro, Alabama in 1941.
An anarchist history of the Spanish Revolution (1936) against fascism, which ended with defeat and the installation of a fascist dictatorship over Spain.
* An extensive archive [archive.org]
During the 1970s, fascist Spain and the USA installed and supported fascist dictatorships across Latin America to protect the investments of transnational corporations, included replacing democracies with "death squad republics" that sold natural and human resources to the highest bidder.
* "Chile military groups proudly claim 1973 coup" (2014-09-10) [archive.today]
* The 1973 Coup in Chile was funded in part by "The Sovereign State of ITT", book review, 1973 [TheCrimson.com link] [archive.today]
* 1970 to '75: "Brazil: Napalm in the Ribeira Valley" (2014-09-02) [UpsidedownWorld.org link] [archive.org]
Yes, he said that: "Former (anti-Communist) Czech Dissident: More Free Under Communism Than Capitalism" [PopularResistance.org link] [archive.org]. [Begin excerpt]
I have lived in the US for 26 years, so I have witnessed the period of time when the US power became very aggressive. And I realized that it was very logical and connected to the decomposition of the Eastern Block. After the Communist block collapsed, the West suddenly had no opposition. There was suddenly a great vacuum with no opposition, and they filled it immediately, with their aggressive business interests, because it is clear that at the ‘top of the pyramid’ is an economic dictatorship. It was suddenly a tremendous opportunity to enslave hundreds and hundreds of millions of people. And they did it! Under the socialist, of what the West called a ‘totalitarian system’, people complained… We complained… But we always found a way to get the information that we were looking for. And we were very proactive in getting hold of information. And we had plenty of time. We had the real luxury of time, under the socialist system. So you could enjoy reading books, listening to music, watching films…Well, the meaning of life is not some sort of slave labor, is it? In theory, it was actually part of that socialist or communist system – to increase the quality of life. So, it was all about a quality of life, but not necessarily the quantity of things consumed.
On the other hand, the capitalist economic system is based on ‘markets’. Its ideologues say that such a system provides many more goods. ‘Stuff’, you know… Yes, but the price is that the quality of life gets dramatically reduced. Yes… Everything is sort of gone, and as it was privatized, production moved east, and so-called Western ‘investment’ moved into the country, building those ‘slave-labor’, huge production halls, where people work like in those Charlie Chaplin films, like in “Modern Times”. So it is a real pity that people totally misunderstood the word ‘freedom’.
I spent a year in Moravia with my wife. It has the highest unemployment rate in the country, and you can hear big complaints there. It is very interesting: this shift from a socialist system to a capitalist one. Under socialism, Czechoslovakia produced everything, literally from needles to locomotives. Yes! Everything… From nuclear reactors to clothing: everything was produced here. Food was produced here. It was a self-sustaining country.
Now everything has changed! All the national industries have gone. Sold or stolen by those…
They are now forced to trade their human dignity for keeping their jobs. Now they have to kiss the backsides of their bosses much more than they would have had to, under Communism. It is all very interesting, as people used to have certain advantages, which were of course created, built and established by socialist movements throughout history. And they sort of forgot, having those values and advantages, that… They did take things for granted. They did not even realize that they had some great things, that they had great lives. Suddenly, when they began losing them, they realized that something was going terribly wrong. Some people are now very disappointed. [end excerpt]
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For context, read about the Workers Rebellion against privatized government and industry in Bosnia-Herzegovina [NorthbayMDS.blogspot.com link], a jurisdiction "liberated" for capitalism around the same time and place as the Czech revolution, with the same disastrous results for worker's rights and basic freedoms.
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