Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday, 5 April 2013


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Not For Profit - For Global Justice
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"For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of 'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling instruments."
Noam Chomsky
"With numbing regularity good people were seen to knuckle under the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe. Men who are in everyday life responsible and decent were seduced by the trappings of authority, by the control of their perceptions, and by the uncritical acceptance of the experimenter's definition of the situation, into performing harsh acts. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority"Stanley Milgram, 1965
Milgram was a psychologist who performed a series of experiments that proved conclusively that obedience to authority was so ingrained in the average US citizen they were prepared to cause lethal harm to others when instructed by authority figures to do so. -http://tinyurl.com/2vf8j
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem.": Howard Zinn, from 'Failure to Quit'
April 05/06, 2013
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Putting the Squeeze on North Korea
By Gregory Elich
Neither the U.S. nor South Korea is open to dialogue at the present time. Both are bent on exacerbating tensions.
Washington's "Playbook" on Provoking North Korea
By Stephen Gowans
The White House approved a detailed plan, called 'the playbook,' to ratchet up tension with North Korea during the Pentagon's war games with South Korea.
The Duty to Avoid a War in Korea
By Fidel Castro
This is about one of the most serious dangers of nuclear war since the October Crisis around Cuba in 1962, 50 years ago.
We Need to Be Seeking Regime Change Here in the UK - Nevermind Iran
By Richard Sudan
The mythology about a threat from Iran persists and lingers, becoming legitimized with every passing minute that it remains challenged.
True Costs of Iraq War Whitewashed by Fuzzy Maths
By Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
That the perpetrators of an aggressive war should accept the lowest costs for their folly is unsurprising. What is less explicable is why so many supposed critics of the war are crediting the same estimate.
Obama's Empathy Deficit in Palestine
By Uri Avnery
It started from the first moment. The President of the United States came to Ramallah.
The US Plans to End Chávez's Rule
By Latinamerica Press
Documents released by WikiLeaks explain in detail former US ambassador's strategy to undermine Chávez's regime.
Visions: America after Hegemony
A New Foreign Policy For The 99 Percent
By Cole Harrison
The organizing principle of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War has been to ensure that every nation in the world stays within a security structure managed and controlled by Washington.
Tyranny Of The Reasonable
Popular Complacency In An Era Of Economic Exploitation And Perpetual War
By Phil Rockstroh
You cannot force truth upon the deceived.
Critical Thinking Gone Missing
Ignorance As a Default Position
By Lawrence Davidson
That American ignorance is explainable does not make it any less distressing.
The Assault On Gold
By Paul Craig Roberts
For Americans, financial and economic Armageddon might be close at hand.
Corporate Evil Creeps Up Unobserved
TransPacific Partnership Will Undermine Democracy
By Prof. Rodney Shakespeare
The TPP is intended to (finally) undermine democracy by handing power to the global financial elite and the big corporations.
It's Official: Obama Proposed to Cut Social Security:
By Digby
President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans.
Hard News  
   
Pakistan: 18 Killed In Clashes :
Officials said that the soldiers and insurgents were killed in the remote mountainous Tirah Valley in the Khyber tribal district on Afghanistan's border, where the Taliban have been battling a local pro-government militia since January.
US Kills 4 People In Pakistan: :
State-run Radio Pakistan reported four persons were killed in the attack by the CIA-operated spy plane in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan Agency.
New Zealand withdraws Afghan troops:
About 95 Afghan interpreters and their family members who worked with the Kiwis will this month move to New Zealand, where they have been granted residency.
How many occupation force troops will the US keep in Afghanistan after 2014?
"I'm not in any particular hurry" to come up with a number for what the U.S. military calls an "enduring presence" in Afghanistan, Gen. Martin Dempsey said in an interview.
2 attacks in Iraq kill 3 soldiers, 3 civilians:
In the first incident Friday, a police officer said attackers detonated a bomb as an army jeep was driving through the western Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, killing three soldiers.
Jabhat al-Nusra imposing extremist views in Syria:
Residents of Aleppo and Deir Ezzor say the group is imposing its strict agenda under the cloak of providing aid to residents.
Syria lurches toward 'war of the rebels':
As Syria's civil war grinds on, major differences are emerging between Islamist and secular rebel forces.
Putin urges peace talks to end Syria `massacre':
President Vladimir Putin said the civil war in Syria has become "a massacre" that must be stopped through peace talks between the government and the opposition, and repeated Russia's firm rejection of calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad's ouster.
Jordanians and Turks Are Focus of Syria's Ire:
Syria lashed out at Turkey and Jordan on Thursday for what it called their duplicitous work in fomenting the Syrian rebellion, accusing the Turkish prime minister of chronic lies and telling the Jordanians they were "playing with fire" in letting insurgents arm and train on their soil - a possible hint of retaliation.
Former American Soldier Charged With Fighting For Al-Qaeda:
Eric Harroun, a 30-year-old army veteran from Phoenix, Arizona, is alleged to have joined a squad of guerrilla fighters from the Al-Nusra Front, training to use rocket-propelled grenades against Syrian government forces, the AFP news agency reported.
'We are broke,' U.N. says as Syria refugee funds dry up:
The United Nations gave its starkest warning yet on Friday that it would soon run out of cash to cope with the vast influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan and other neighboring countries.
UN cuts Gaza aid citing 'unsafe' conditions:
Food distribution and other operations suspended after Palestinians angered by cutbacks stormed UN aid agency office.
Hamas urges UN to resume Gaza food aid:
"This is an unjustified step from UNRWA," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "There is a right of peaceful protest for Palestinian refugees," he said, adding: "We call on UNRWA to reevaluate its position and not to overreact to residents' protest."
Israel denies link with arms-laden ship seized by Egypt:
Israel's government on Friday strenuously denied it had any link to an arms-laden ship that Egypt said its navy seized as it sailed from the Israeli port of Eilat to Togo in West Africa.
Roger Waters' New York gig scrapped over Israel comments:
The news comes just weeks after Waters urged his fellow musicians to boycott Israel in protest of ongoing hostilities with Palestinians.
North Korea 'moves second missile to coast': -
North Korea has now moved two intermediate range missiles to its east coast and loaded them on mobile launchers, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Friday, citing a top government official.
Map: This is how far those North Korean missiles can actually reach:
North Korea has redeployed some of its missiles to the country's eastern coast, a provocation and implicit warning that it just might carry through on some of its recent threats.
Obama administration 'cut off all negotiations over North Korea':
The United States is interested in the collapse of the North, as the US "can establish their military bases right on the border with China, meaning an encirclement of that nation." He also added that America never "never tolerated a country that won't put its economy at the service of foreign corporations."
U.S. Should Ponder over Grave Situation: Spokesman:
South Korea and waters around it are turning into places for display of various types of nuclear strike means of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces and a dangerous hotbed of a nuclear war in the true sense of the word.
N.Korea 'can't protect foreign embassies after April 10':
North Korea asked foreign embassies to consider evacuation amid growing tension, warning it will be 'unable to guarantee' their safety after April 10.
Russian bomber conducts practice strikes on U.S. missile defenses in Asia:
A Russian bomber recently carried out simulated cruise missile attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Asia, raising new questions about Moscow's goal in future U.S.-Russian defense talks.
This Might Be the Next American to Be Killed by Drones:
Born to a Syrian Muslim father and a white Protestant mother near Mobile, Alabama, he came of age listening to music like Nirvana, watching movies like Fight Club, hanging out with his friends at Waffle House and going to school dances.
Deprived of justice, the Guantánamo detainees' last resort is to hunger strike:
Stuck in a Kafkaesque legal limbo created by 'war on terror' exceptions to rights, the prisoners have no redress but protest
Gitmo guards brutally clamp down on hunger strikers:
Andy Worthington - Video -
WikiLeaks activist in New York to protest US whistleblowers clampdown:
Iceland MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir arrives in US for first time since WikiLeaks 'Collateral Murder' controversy three years ago
Hillary Clinton's playboy fundraiser arrested over heroin and cocaine:
An Indian playboy and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton has been arrested in Florida after he tried to board a plane with heroin, cocaine and other drugs hidden in his bags and underpants.
Egypt Is Perched on the Precipice of Chaos:
Egypt's dilemma is this: it cannot politically afford to stop providing the costly subsidies to the poor that distort its economy. But unless it reduces these subsidies and adopts a pro-growth budget, Egypt cannot secure the $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan it needs to unlock
Egypt's Looming Famine and America's Grain Bounty:
Negotiations with the World Bank and the IMF are foundering given the tax increases and subsidy cuts demanded by these international institutions of an Egyptian government already struggling to quell the ever mounting violent protests by its political rivals.
Lights go out in Jordan as energy crisis bites:
Jordan is considering wider electricity rationing and is preparing a hike in electricity prices in June, a politically fraught move in a country which saw street protests last year over fuel subsidy cuts imposed as a condition for a $2 billion IMF loan.
Unable to pay rent, Italian couple commits suicide:
The bodies of Romeo Dionsi, 62, and Anna Sopranzi, 68, were discovered by their neighbours on Friday morning at their home in Civitanova, a small village in the central Marche region on the Adriatic Sea.
US sequester cuts treatment for thousands of cancer patients:
Cancer clinics across the US have begun to turn away thousands of Medicare patients as a result of the sequestration order signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 1. The action is mainly due to cuts to Medicare reimbursement for expensive chemotherapy drugs,
U.S. Job Growth Slows As Jobless Face Benefit Cuts:
The 11.7 million Americans searching for work got Friday morning when the Labor Department said employers created only 88,000 jobs in March. The weak job growth comes at the same time benefits for the long-term unemployed are shrinking.
NYC fast-food workers strike for better pay:
Hundreds of employees stop work at scores of restaurants, saying $7-$9 per hour is not enough to survive.
Millions still mired in poverty in US: Video report:
Despite signs of an economic recovery, many Americans still rely on the government to put food on their tables.

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"Let us be peace and joy"
  
Tom Feeley
Cost Of War
 
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq "1,455,590"

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq:  4,883

Number Of  International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan :3,275
Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
      
 
 $1,439,312,436,064