Greenwald's Courage Can Be Contagious. So Can Fear. Choose.On June 28, the Guardian (UK) reporter Glenn Greenwald delivered a speech at a Socialist Convention in Chicago. He opened by thanking the conference organizers for allowing him to participate when “I wasn’t going to be able to actually physically come to the United States. Instead, he spoke “from the comfort of [his] little Skype prison. Which...is actu... (more)
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The State: Always the Accuser, Never the DefendantJessica Nelson and Philemon Ellis were killed instantly when a car driven by Eddy Bustos blind-sided them at an intersection in Ogden, Utah. Bustos, who was trying to elude a police officer, plowed his vehicle into Nelson’s car at nearly 80 miles per hour.
Bustos would be sent to prison for manslaughter. Ogden City officials would quite thoughtfully find a way to cut the victims in for a share of the blame for the inciden... (more)
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Who is this that "Makes Nations Tremble"?“What kind of a man is he that he makes the whole nation tremble?”
Those words were spoken by a waitress in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during the visit of Barack Obama to the city. Mr. Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, had gone to the Tanzanian capital to commemorate the 15th anniversary of a terrorist bombing at the U.S. embassy. This event inflicted all of the disruptions and inconveniences that attend every presidential visit, as security personnel &ndash... (more)
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Who Were the Patriots and Traitors on the Fourth of July, 1776?Contrary to popular belief, the men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, were not great Americans. They were instead great Englishmen. They were as much English citizens as you and I are American citizens. They were English citizens living abroad in lands under British jurisdiction, much like American citizens living in Puerto Rico.
Why is that important?
It is easy for a modern-day American to convince himself that those men in 1776 were taki... (more)
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Government's Spirit-Crushing Hatred of LemonadeThe following two news items do not seem to be related, but the same theme lurks under the surface. The United States government is systematically dismantling the most important track people have out of poverty into economic freedom: the right to trade their labor and goods for money. If the news items are ridiculous, this merely demonstrates the ridiculous lengths to which government will go to crush the entrepreneurial spirit.
The government knows that the power to make money is... (more)
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Has Edward Snowden Been Added to Obama's Kill List?It seems to me only fair that President Obama and his national-security state cohorts publicly announce whether NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been added to the presidential kill list, like two other American citizens who were assassinated, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son Abdulrahman. When the U.S. government targets an American citizen for assassination, it seems only right that they let him know that the hit is coming.
The sad reality, which the Snowden controversy is ... (more)
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Edward Snowden's "Safe and Dreary" Global PrisonThe "empire of the Romans filled the world," recalled Edward Gibbon, with some exaggeration. This meant that the known world became "a safe and dreary prison" for those who had provoked the Emperor's displeasure. There was no place that the "slave of imperial despotism" could find "a happier climate, a secure refuge, a new fortune adequate to his merit, [and] the freedom of complaint...."
"On every side he was encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never ho... (more)
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How Thieves and Terrorists "Apologize" to their VictimsFriedrich Nietzsche famously said, “Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has is stolen.” The truth of Nietzsche’s axiom is embodied by the band of thieves and terrorists called the Internal Revenue Service.
Public outrage over recent revelations of IRS corruption and abuse has prompted Nina Olson, who is employed by the agency as its “National Taxpayer Advocate,” to suggest that the agency should make “apology payments&rdquo... (more)
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The True Cycle of Violence
Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, makes a case for the true cycle of violence in society. Topics covered include gender related criminal sentencing disparities, the prison population, the death penalty, statutory rape double standards, rape allegations, rape prevalence, maternal abuse, spanking, paternity fraud, lying, legalities and much much more. Shocking video. |
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Will They Assassinate Snowden?One of the most fascinating parts of the Snowden controversy involves the possibility that the CIA or the military or perhaps even some super-secret NSA death squad will assassinate Snowden and thereby avoid the hassle of apprehending him and returning him for what would obviously be a highly publicized and not overly popular public trial. Snowden himself raised the possibility of being assassinated by national-security state officials in his video interviews with Guardian journalist Glenn Green... (more)
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The State Doesn't Define What is True or RightTwo days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Voting Rights Act requiring federal supervision of local elections in some southern states. Because it was seen as outdated and unnecessary, that provision was considered an unwarranted intrusion by the Feds in an area of state responsibility. That ruling prompted universal lamentation and outrage on the Left.
This morning, the same Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited st... (more)
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The Trick is to Suspend the Constitution Without Admitting ItSince late 2001, the federal government has behaved as if the U.S. Constitution doesn’t exist with respect to matters of national security.
Rather than acting under the limited and revocable grants of authority provided by the Constitution, the executive branch has routinely invoked two measures enacted by Congress in a panicked haste following the 9/11 attacks – the so-called PATRIOT act, and the Authorization for Use of Military Force. Those measures supposedly permi... (more)
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Snowden's Flight to FreedomDear rest of the world: Please know that it’s painful for us Americans to see what is happening in the case of Edward Snowden.
Here he is flying from Hong Kong to Russia — countries that seem like safe havens from the long reach of the U.S. empire. Where will he end up? Could be Iceland, Venezuela, or Ecuador. He needs someplace to go where the authorities can’t be intimated to turn him over to his jailers and possible executioners.
It’s eith... (more)
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Freedom versus The National-Security StateU.S. officials are poking fun at the fact that Edward Snowden, whose commitment to a free society motivated him to disclose the NSA's massive secret surveillance scheme over the American people (and the people of the world), has fled to China and Russia, two countries that are near the top of the list of violators of civil liberties and privacy.
I find that very amusing. When U.S. officials point their finger at China and Russia, they conveniently ignore the fact that there are th... (more)
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The Land of the Blind: The Illusion of Freedom in America In the Wachowskis’ iconic 1999 film, The Matrix, the protagonist Neo is wakened from a lifelong slumber by Morpheus, a freedom fighter seeking to liberate humans from virtual slavery – a lifelong hibernation state – imposed by hyper-advanced artificial intelligence machines. With their minds plugged into a perfectly crafted virtual realit... (more)
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Why People Tolerate a Total State“Why do so many people not realize America has become a total state?”
Anyone who points out the politically obvious and is accused of panic-mongering has considered this question. The NSA's massive spying, the TSA frisking their children, the IRS targeting people politically, the longest war in American history, the militarization of law enforcement, the indefinite detention of prisoners at Gitmo...nothing, nothing seems to budge some people from the belief that the US... (more)
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Snowden vs. the SoyuzIf it hadn’t been for the subtle and cynical intervention of the imperial Russian government, the American War for Independence might have failed. George Washington and his colleagues would have been condemned as traitors, and then dispatched to eternity with all of the horrors devised by inventive sadists to deter similar impudence on the part of those described as the Crown’s subjects.
This little-appreciated fact should be pointed out to those who have claimed that ... (more)
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National-Security State Toadies are Guilty of Hypocrisy on SnowdenOne of the most amusing aspects of the NSA scandal has been watching national-security state toadies berate Edward Snowden, the man who blew the whistle on the NSA's longtime secret surveillance system, for being a "coward."
Their rationale?
They say that Snowden should have stayed here in the United States instead of fleeing to Hong Kong. They say that if he were a genuine hero, as his supporters say he is, he would have remained in the United States, where the nat... (more)
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How Can We Trust Perjurers?President Obama says that we just need to trust him and national-security state officials with the power to secretly monitor our telephone calls and emails. He says that while it's true that they've been secretly keeping data about our telephone calls, he assures us that no one is recording our telephone calls or indiscriminately reading our emails.
But how do we know that he's telling the truth about any matter relating to "national security," given that it's considered okay to l... (more)
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The Stench of Tyranny Clings to Barack ObamaLike a skunk that has grown inured to its own smell, Barack Obama is oblivious to the dense musk of tyrannical arrogance that he customarily emits. As someone who is statist to down to his chromosomes, Mr. Obama doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of any limit on the powers of government. This was made abundantly – and redundantly – clear in a recent interview Obama gave to Charlie Rose, a sycophantic PBS host, regarding the patently unconstitutional NSA surveillance program.<... (more)
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The Death of Daniel SomersI am reading the heartbreaking suicide note of Daniel Somers, a US combat veteran who spent several years fighting in Iraq. Mr. Somers was only 30 years old when he took his own life, after being tormented by the horrific memories of what he experienced in Iraq. He wrote: "The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which i ... (more)
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Edward Snowden: Master of RealpolitikSome critics of Edward Snowden criticize his chosen escape route from the United States. This criticism initially showed up as moralistic shock and outrage over the fact that Snowden had chosen to flee to China. "Why, China is an oppressive regime!" the critics cried.
Like most states, including the United States, China is in fact authoritarian, and not exactly a libertarian utopia. For Snowden, however (and it's hard to blame him for this), it was better to be in China, than to... (more)
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Julian Assange: The Real Traitor is President Barack ObamaFrom Wikileaks.org:
Statement by Julian Assange after One Year in Ecuadorian Embassy
It has now been a year since I entered this embassy and sought refuge from persecution.
As a result of that decision, I have been able to work in relative safety from a US espionage investigation.
But today, Edward Snowden’s ordeal is just beginning.
Two d... (more)
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No Rose Can Mask the Stench of Obama's TyrannyLike a skunk that has grown inured to its own smell, Barack Obama is oblivious to the dense musk of tyrannical arrogance that he customarily emits. As someone who is statist to down to his chromosomes, Mr. Obama considers government's power to be illimitable, and individual freedom to be a revocable gift conferred by those who presume to rule the rest of us. This was made abundantly -- and redundantly -- clear in a recent interview Obama gave to the repellently sycophantic PBS host Charlie R... (more)
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Tyranny is Infinitely More Obscene than Naughty WordsIn May 2012, William Barboza, a Connecticut resident, was stopped for speeding while driving through the village of Liberty, New York. As an out-of-state resident, Barboza wasn’t aware that the portion of State Route 17 that runs through the tiny village is one of the most notorious speed traps in the state.
Not surprisingly, Barboza wasn’t happy about the ticket. When he mailed his payment to the Sullivan County Court, t... (more)
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Arrest Obama Under NDAA For Supporting Terrorists in SyriaUnder the terms of the National Defense Authorization Act that he personally signed into law, President Barack Obama should immediately be arrested and indefinitely detained for providing support to Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria.
Section 1021(b)(2) of the NDAA law allows for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens on "suspicion of providing substantial support" to groups engaged in hostilities against the U.S. such a... (more)
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Public Enemy Number One: The PublicIt’s important, when listening to the official shapers of opinion in the media, to ask ourselves what they really mean by the words they use. As Orwell pointed out in “Politics and the English Language,” those in power use language to obscure meaning more often than to convey it.
A good example is the recurrence of phrases like “endangered our national security” and “aided the enemy,” from people like Eric Holder, Peter King and Lindsey Gr... (more)
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Obama's Amerika: The Land of Mao and Lenin, not Madison and JeffersonWhen NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden fled to Hong Kong, many observers were puzzled that he would seek sanctuary in a city that is a special administrative region of Communist China.
According to Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, this wasn’t all that surprising, given that the U.S. and China are, in his view, beginning to resemble each other. Weiwei, wh... (more)
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