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Bold and Daring: The Way Progressive News Should Be
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By
now the entire world must know that Washington is not merely lawless,
but also totally out of control, reveling in arrogance and hubris,
driven by desires for hegemony over the entire world. Washington is so
paranoid and distrustful that it doesn't even trust its own citizens or
the European puppet governments that it has bought and paid for.
We
can easily see that there are many policies and practices in America
which perpetuate the inequality of races. The following is a brief
rundown of the many fronts on which America continues to fail to live up
to its "post-racial" ideal.
As
we all know the GOP is demographically doomed, and that their efforts
at outreach to minority constituents are pathetic and laughable.
Supreme
Court justices are appointed for life in order to ensure their
independence from politics. But when it comes to the core political
strategy of the Republican Party, the five Republican appointees are, in
effect, an extension of the GOP.
Shortly
before Election Day last year, mailers went out to Texas voters
featuring pictures of a Democratic congressional candidate and a rare
species of spider, whose discovery had forced stoppage of an important
highway construction project.
It
could be that Kerry is not just negotiating. It is quite possible that
he is pressing Israel to take more than just token steps toward showing
the Palestinian leaders that Israel is ready to ease its prison-like
grip on a people whose land they illegally occupy.
Biden
talks to Ecuador's president and as if by magic, the asylum opportunity
vanishes. Assange is then blamed by his protector, President Correa of
Ecuador, for snookering Correa into helping Snowden in the first place.
What a mess.
Like
Snowden, Americans don't want to live in a world in which the
government has the power to watch their every move, chart their every
thought, and control the very levers of their lives. They are
contemptuous of the smear campaign being launched against Snowden and
Greenwald, and they are demanding answers.
One
week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and
safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty
has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others
who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my
life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will
always be thankful.
NSA
leaks will continue to be revealed, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
has warned the US government, no matter what happens to Edward Snowden,
who is stuck in diplomatic limbo in Russia as he is seeking asylum in
Ecuador. Assange warned that measures have been implemented to hinder
any attempt by Washington to try and stop the publication of more
classified material.
Shortly
after 50,000 bees were found dead in an Oregon parking lot (read more
here), a staggering 37 million bees have been found dead in Elmwood,
Ontario, Canada. Dave Schuit, who runs a honey operation in Elmwood has
lost 600 hives. He is pointing the finger at the insecticides known as
neonicotinoids, which are manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc. This
also comes after a recent report released by the British Beekeepers
Association (BBKA) that recorded its largest loss of honeybees ever.
Who Pays for Think Tanks? -- FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.
Is science beginning to explain much of what we have considered pseudo-science for so long?
It
is the 4th of July again. With each birthday, we become sadder, with
less vigor or clearsightedness, only an unfocused or misdirected anger.
Dread lurks behind each or our grin or drunken laugh. Racked by anxiety,
we reassure ourselves that everything on television still looks more or
less the same.
Buttercup
the Duck was born with a bad foot. This video shows him walking for the
first time with his new prosthetic foot-- printed on a 3-D printer.
Sotheby's
Diamonds' partnership with the Steinmetz Diamond Group exposes its
shareholders to moral and legal risk. The Steinmetz Diamond Group funds
and supports a unit of the Givati Brigade of the Israeli military. The
Givati Brigade was responsible for the massacre of the Samouni family in
Gaza - a suspected war crime. Diamonds that fund war crimes are blood
diamonds. Sotheby's has ignored this risk to their business.
The
Armenian Genocide occurred in Turkey, a country whose vociferous
denials are hollow protestations that have continued for generations.
As
the Paula Deen case illustrates, racist vernacular among pop stars can
stray too far across the line of good taste and decency. I think it is
incumbent on responsible adults to impress upon our kids that using
racially denigrating language--no matter which pop culture hero the user
may be emulating--is hurtful, damaging and wrong.
By Fred Gohlke
Taming Our Monsters This article proposes a progressive tax on gross receipts to prevent corporations from becoming "Too Big To Fail", explains why the tax is necessary, and describes its benefit to society.
The 1% predators are trying to steal public education tax dollars for a for-profit venture. Help stop them.
Chaos in Middle East Grows as the U.S. Focuses on Israel - By MARK LANDLER and JODI RUDOREN NYTimes.com
This was the copy under the headline: "As protests roil the Middle East, Secretary of State John Kerry's focus on talks between the Israelis and Palestinians has raised questions about the administration's priorities."
The
president has the executive authority to transfer already cleared
detainees. We should pressure him to do so. This article includes
reporting and a video showing one such action at the Whitehouse, where
DIane Wilson, already on a hunger strike, climbed the White House fence.
The
US National Security Agency spied on officials of the European Union,
infiltrated its computer network and bugged its headquarters in Brussels
as well as diplomatic offices in Washington DC and New York City. This
could have explosive consequences since NATO, a military alliance
between the US, Canada and numerous European countries, has apparently
been used as a screen for US surveillance of its supposed allies.
US
whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for asylum in Russia, hours
after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had no intention of handing
him to the United States. Snowden "is not a Russian agent", Putin said
on Monday, and that Russian intelligence services were not working with
the fugitive American, who is believed to remain in the transit area at a
Moscow airport eight days after arriving from Hong Kong. "Russia never
hands over anybody anywhere and has no intention to do so," he said.
However, "if he wants to remain here there is one condition - he should
stop his work aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners no
matter how strange this may sound coming from me."
She
hasn't even declared she's running, yet people are putting her on a
pedestal no leader can live up to and writing off Obama. You have to
wonder if there's already a committee planning Hillary Clinton's
presidential inauguration festivities for 20 January 2017. According to
the political rumor mill, she's not only running, she's unbeatable.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel has compared US spying to Cold War tactics and
Brussels wants EU facilities checked for American eavesdropping
equipment. Concern is growing the scandal could seriously damage
trans-Atlantic relations.
Where
are the momentous, consciousness-raising boycotts of yesteryear that
rose up against injustice, bigotry, or plain stupidity, to advance
legal, civil and workers' rights? Once upon a time high-profile uproars,
some lasting years, brought down presidents, ended major wars, and
remade national American priorities and values.
By Tom Engelhardt
Engelhardt, The OED of the National Security State In the months after September 11, 2001, it was regularly said that "everything" had changed. It's a claim long forgotten, buried in everyday American life. Still, if you think about it, in the decade-plus that followed much did change in ways that should still stun us.
Reactions
continue thru out the world over the NSA's surveillance activities.
Outrage was sparked in the EU, particularly in Germany when the magazine
Der Spiegal told of the NSA tapping EU offices in Washington, Brussels
& at the U.N. The European commissioner for justice &
fundamental rights said, "Partners do not spy on each other". Not the
U.S. which sees enemies everywhere; "allies" & enemies alike.
Latest Articles
Around the San Francisco Bay Area, you're being watched
Across the Bay Area -- from Pittsburg to San Francisco, from Tiburon to Gilroy -- you're being watched, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday adding: "It's not just the National Security Agency secretly vacuuming up your personal data but local police agencies are increasingly adopting Big Data technologies such as automatic license-plate readers that gather information about everyone, whether they've broken the law or not
The Bay Area Rapid Transit system was hit by a strike Monday. Here is a photo report on what it looked like in Berkeley CA
Political
strategists in both parties know that one of the best ways to speed up
the process is with a dynamic candidate who has the potential to raise
enough campaign cash to give Rick Perry -- a particularly prodigious
fund-raiser -- a run for his money.
Peter Van Buren, Obama's War on Whistleblowers Finds Another Target
Sometimes, it's hard to grasp just how our world has been transformed since September 11, 2001. But here's a little exchange at NBC Nightly News a few days back -- just part of the humdrum flow of TV news-chat -- that somehow caught my attention.
After
9/11 Congress gave the government a blank check, and thus began the
surveillance state. Now 70% of this mass spying is privatized, with
little or no government oversight. They've built huge computers in Utah
to house all the data. Several whistleblowers have come forward to
report the abuse, which included a spying program called Trailblazer
that used $6 billion in taxpayer money and was a total bust.
 Best News Links from the Web
Hundreds
of activists including Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein are going into the
heart of Canada's tar sands this week -- not to protest the destruction
of the local environment, but to pray for the 'healing' of land and the
people. Native elders from all over North America will lead people past
lakes of tailings wastewater and massive infrastructure of the tar
sands industry along the Athabasca River in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Organizers say the event, dubbed the Healing Walk, will be a spiritual
gathering focused on healing the land, air, water and all living things
harmed by the expansion of what is already the world's largest
industrial project.
The
sixth Smoke Down Prohibition happened on June 30, 2013 in Philadelphia,
PA. The police state turned out in greater strength than ever. They put
on an overwhelming show of force. There were several arrests but
fortunately no one was hurt.
With
the passage of Ohio's new state budget, women in that state have lost
access to low-cost family planning services, access to public hospitals
during a health emergency and their right to privacy. On Sunday night,
Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed House Bill 59, the new $62 billion state
budget that includes a $2.7 billion tax cut and increases the sales tax
rate from 5.5 percent to 5.75 percent, WLWT.com reported.
WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange said on Sunday that Edward Snowden made sure
that the information he took about U.S. surveillance programs will
continue to be published regardless of what happens to the former U.S.
spy agency contractor. Assange criticized the United States for revoking
Snowden's passport and said it would not stop the classified
information taken by the 30-year-old former contractor from getting out.
Former
President George W. Bush defended PRISM, the Internet spying program
that began under his administration but remained secret until The
Washington Post and The Guardian revealed its existence last month. "I
put that program in place to protect the country."
Atheists
and Christians had a generally respectful debate in a Florida town
Saturday as the atheists unveiled a monument to counter the Ten
Commandments.
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