Roberto Abraham Scaruffi: Saudi Arabia is just a US-British proxy: "In fact, the evidence that exists indicates that the chemical attack originated with the rebels and may have been an accident caused by "rebels" transporting chemical weapons given to them by the Saudis but without instruction to correct handling. The reporter, Dale Gavlak, who spoke with the rebels, who were themselves harmed by the weapons, is a Middle East expert from the University of Chicago who has reported for the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the BBC."

Saturday, 31 August 2013

Saudi Arabia is just a US-British proxy:
"In fact, the evidence that exists indicates that the chemical attack originated with the rebels and may have been an accident caused by "rebels" transporting chemical weapons given to them by the Saudis but without instruction to correct handling. The reporter, Dale Gavlak, who spoke with the rebels, who were themselves harmed by the weapons, is a Middle East expert from the University of Chicago who has reported for the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the BBC."

Bold and Daring: The Way Progressive News Should Be

  • Obama Reveals His Dictatorship
  • 11 Reasons Why We Should Not Attack Syria
  • A U.S. President Defies Congress, the Constitution and the Will of the People; Will Impeachment Follow?
Obama appears to be entering uncharted, perilous waters. Interesting discussions of his forays here.

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Daily Headlines

By Paul Craig Roberts
Obama Reveals His Dictatorship
Having repeatedly declared that the use of chemical weapons requires a military response from the US, what will Obama and Kerry do when it comes clear that the "rebels," not Assad, are responsible for the chemical weapons? Will Obama and Kerry attack the "rebels"? Will Obama and Kerry attack Saudi Arabia for giving the chemical weapons to the "rebels"? Don't hold your breath.

Policy analyst Phyllis Bennis points out the obvious: Strike with bombs and missiles, and, whatever your intent, civilians with no involvement in the conflict -- including children and the elderly -- will be harmed. We need "all the forces on the two sides coming together to talk," she says, "rather than fighting to the last Syrian child, to resolve these wars."

The vast majority of the American people are solidly against this president launching an attack on Syria. If this president dismisses the will of the people and violates articles of the Constitution that grant specific authority to initiate war solely to the U.S. Congress, then the question is, will impeachment follow?

Almost one-third of Louisiana Republicans believe the slow response by FEMA and the effects of Katrina were because of Barack Obama. One-third of Louisiana Republicans don't have functioning brain cells.

By Paul Craig Roberts
America Totally Discredited
The world is not going to bail out Washington, now universally hated, with currency swaps, more loans, and foreign aid. Americans are going to pay heavily for their negligence, their inattention, their unconcern, and their ignorant belief that nothing can go wrong for them and that anything that does is temporary. God help the moron and the unfortunate country that the fool represents.

No one had put forth any military or security reason for the rush to attack; no one claimed that speed was essential or even relevant to saving any lives. Rather, it now seems, the urge to shoot first and ask questions later was driven by the need to carry out this illegal attack before the public, and their representatives in national and international bodies, could weigh in.

President George W. Bush misled the world on Iraq's WMD, but Bush's bogus case for war at least had details that could be checked, unlike what the Obama administration released Friday on Syria's alleged chemical attacks -- no direct quotes, no photographic evidence, no named sources, nothing but "trust us."

Some progressive groups and members of Congress have focused on urging that Congress get to vote -- or at least play a role -- in the decision on whether to bomb Syria. But we should not imply that we'll be satisfied as long as the matter comes to a congressional vote. Time is very short; we should cut through the preliminaries and get to the point: No attack on Syria!

A possible U.S. attack on Syria is in the news, and on people's minds today. Here is what Congressman Alan Grayson had to say about it, in an interview on national radio this morning.

Evo Morales, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is reputed to have almost superhuman energy -- Is it because his favorite food is quinoa (KEEN-wah) soup, made with the mysterious sacred grain of the Incas? 2013 is the United Nations' International Year of Quinoa, a food that can help stamp out hunger and malnutrition.

By Carl Dix
50 Years After Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech--Amerikkka Is Still A Goddamn Nightmare! 3 Points and a Chal
Carl Dix debunks Obama's Aug 28 speech at the Lincoln Memorial - 3 Points and a Challenge in Response to Obama's Speech!
This is the first of two parts explaining why--like its left-wing counterpart, Marxism--Libertarianism is a Utopian idea that cannot possibly work in the real world, unless that world was populated by James Madison's angels (Federalist No.51). But like Marxism, it does have some good ideas that we should not ignore. the difficulty is separating the wheat from the chaff.

Fox News ignores elephant in the room: Wonders what's happening to Florida's beaches

Not all political pundits have weighed in with their own opinions on whether the U.S. should take military action against Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime, but those who have, have done it loudly. In many cases, this debate boils down to the same partisanship that drives much of cable news media. The Obama Administration appears to be leaning strongly towards a strike, so conservative commentators are against it. But it doesn't always break down so simply.

The Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) tracks news reports and codes them for 58 fields, from where an incident took place to what sort of event it was (these maps look at protests, violence, and changes in military and police posture) to ethnic and religious affiliations, among other categories. The dataset has recorded nearly 250 million events since 1979, according to its website, and is updated daily.

A genius boy whose IQ is higher than Albert Einstein is on his way to possibly winning a Nobel Prize after being set free of special education programs in public schools. His mother made the decision to take him out of the programs, even after having doctors diagnose him with ADD and say that her son Jacob Barnett would never even learn to tie his shoes.

Hydrogen fuel from sunlight: Researchers make unique semiconductor/catalyst construct
Researchers have developed a way to interface a molecular hydrogen-producing catalyst with a visible light absorbing semiconductor. With this approach, hydrogen fuel can be produced off a photocathode using sunlight.
Makana speaks. His music speaks to all of us regarding a world of the 100%, by the 100% and for the 100%.

By Dennis Kaiser
Walker's Police State
The Corporate Media Propagandists remain silent as Scott Walker's police state tightens their grip on innocent bystanders.

By Jim Kavanagh
At the Syrian Threshold: "al-Qaeda's Air Force" Prepares for Battle
The political and strategic purpose of American military intervention -- previously clandestine and now overt -- on behalf of the "rebellion" is to destroy the Syrian nation as a coherent political and military entity in the region. As the US already has done to Iraq and Libya. It's the same war.
By Joel Joseph
Assad Should Be Arrested and Charged with Crimes Against Humanity
Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, Should be Tried by the International Criminal Court for Crimes Against Humanity
By J.T. Cassidy
Considering Everything
Unsubstantiated news claims set the stage for bombing Syria. "It's like deja vu all over again."
Dear President Obama:

Seventy-nine percent of Americans surveyed for the latest NBC News Poll say that President Obama should seek congressional approval before taking any military action. According to NBC: "nearly seven-in-10 Democrats and 90 percent of Republicans say the president should be required to receive congressional approval before taking any action."

U.S. intelligence services carried out 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, the leading edge of a clandestine campaign that embraces the Internet as a theater of spying, sabotage and war, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Washington Post. That disclosure, in a classified intelligence budget provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, provides new evidence that the Obama administration's growing ranks of cyberwarriors infiltrate and disrupt foreign computer networks.

This article discusses the reduction in the standard of living of fast-food employees from a unique and original perspective.

Unnoticed by most commentators, there has been growing convergence of thinking by conservative and liberal activists. Common sense is overcoming dogma to the extent that even the mainstream media and Congress are not immune.

Heritage Foundation president and former Senator Jim DeMint suggested to a town hall audience in Wilmington, Delaware, Thursday that health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid are "un-American" and built on the principles of "socialism and collectivism."

Kerry contends that Assad was warned that use of chemical weapons was a red line not be be crossed. but he did os anyway. We warn President Obama that rogue executive action to launch an attack is an equally clear red line, and he dare not cross it, and we WILL call for accountability and shame on us if we don't.

At this time of crisis, it is worth remembering another time, 30 years ago in October, 1983 when U.S. warships bombarded Lebanon, the country located next to Syria. Within weeks, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by a massive truck bomb that killed 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers.



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Never die for a man who does not deserve your love and your worth.
As Israel's diamond-funded occupation and brutal subjugation of Palestine continues unchecked, leading jewellers from around the world attended a diamond fair in Tel Aviv. Diamonds that are a major source of funding for the Israeli military are being sold by jewellers worldwide who deceitfully claim they are conflict-free.

Shouldn't the debate be about the content and context of the leaked information? Isn't that what should ultimately be important? There are some who would have you believe the means with which a leaker leaks is more important than all of that and oh, by the way, the leak itself? Clean up on aisle 7 !

Subsequent Rotation
A continuation on the theme introduced in "Rotation", a poem by this author.
Two recent events, while not of any great significance in themselves, reveal much about the state of Canadian foreign policy.

Cruise Missile Law Enforcement
The White House is treating the Syrian government like a potential drone strike victim.
Unless the world is prepared to flush international law, arrest orders for the War Criminal will have to come from the Hague. Obama will have to be handed over and put on trial. He will have no more leg to stand on than did the Nazis. The evil neocons are telling Obama that he must prove that he is a man and go it alone. If Obama does, he will prove that he is a War Criminal.

A growing GDP is considered a bellwether of a healthy economy, but these statistics are actually meaningless and should not be used for setting public policy. Inflation is being measured, not the quality of life or material output. The flawed assumptions highlight the failures of how economics is understood and practiced.

The members of Parliament have shown the rest of the world what abject, worthless, useless cowards the majority and the leadership of congress probably are.

President Obama is apparently wobbling on the edge of committing an impeachable offense, specifically a military attack on Syria without the authorization of Congress, without the approval of the United Nations Security Council, and without any imminent threat to the United States.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, has spoken soberly about the dangers from any military strike on Syria, but press reports indicate President Obama is still set on launching cruise missiles in the coming days, an action that former U.S. intelligence professionals say should prompt Dempsey's resignation.

Profit is our god. Racism is an offering on its altar.

Though the international press reported earlier this year that it was the Syrian opposition blocking peace talks, that reality has disappeared in recent U.S. articles which blame lack of negotiations on President Bashar al-Assad, all the better to build a propaganda framework for a wider war.

Unable to achieve a "coalition of the willing" w/ the British Parliament yesterday nixing Prime Minister David Cameron's plea for Britain to join the U.S. in attacking Syria, the White House now says, "Obama can act alone". Mind you, there's no legal basis for the president to do this just simply he can do it. What else is there? Nothing.

President Obama Lays down Gauntlet Again to Congress with Gun Control Executive Orders
The NRA and key GOP congressional leader's response to President Obama's new round of unilateral executive orders on gun control was as predictable as the sun rising in the Sahara Desert in August. The NRA thundered that they are useless, unconstitutional, and won't do a thing to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. The response from GOP congressional leaders was just as predictable: stone silence.
This Solomon has no wisdom - but he has plenty of hate to go around. And that suits him just fine.

President Obama couldn't launch even one cruise missile before multiple U.S. officials began undermining the intelligence report that was to form the basis for confidence in military action against the Syrian government.

The Triumph of Evil in Syria
The three-year humanitarian crisis in Syria, now culminating in a documented poison gas attack on innocent civilians, requires appropriate actions at once. To continue to do little or nothing would indeed be the triumph of evil.
Writing is what writers do when something happens to them.I felt like I was doing something useful.I totally felt that he was supporting the project -he was so into learning everything he could about everything that I felt him cheering me on.And also, just selfishly,he was a piece of work. So doing the book gave me an excuse to spend an extra year with him -going through photos, his projects and piles of things. It was fun!

There is no good reason to make a bad situation worse. It's likely to get worse all on its own, and unimaginably worse if the government starts to fall.

The Pentagon could always go for Plan B. A single Tomahawk costs at least US$1.5 million. Multiply that for 384. That's not a great bang for your buck -- because even if they all go humanitarian, the Bashar al-Assad government would still remain in place.

Egypt's counterrevolution and Syria's civil war could herald the arrival of a new superpower coalition, an unlikely alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia, one with great political clout and the other with vast financial wealth, together flexing their muscles across the Middle East.

Small incorporated business owners realize no benefit when corporations have inherent constitutional rights. In fact, these rights harm small businesses. Learn why and what you can do about it.

The hypocrisy over US outrage over the use of chemical weapons by Syria's Assade regime aside, our leaders in Washington persist in their purported moral authority to strike a nation which has not taken any provocative action against us. And this time, they're not even bothering with the UN Security Council.

As Obama plots a trumped-up "humanitarian" war in Syria worthy of George W. Bush, it's time for progressives--by which I mean America's genuine political Left--to stand up and say we've had enough. We urgently need to declare a war of own against Obama and his style of DINO (Democrat In Name Only) Democrats. In fact, as I argue in this article, the very survival of America's genuine Left may depend on it.

New York Post Endorsement of Joe Lhota More Harmful Than Helpful
Panning the New York Post's Lhota endoresement.
This article treats climate-change policy as a puzzle with five easy pieces but solutions that are out of reach given the powerful forces arrayed against projects aimed at environmental protection in the US (not to mention the BRICs)...

till, after their threats, paranoia and persecution fantasies have been aired, most gun extremists settle on these five, shopworn arguments that a fourth-grader could refute.

Those who have wealth and power and privilege don't want equal opportunity. It's too threatening to them.They'll pretend equal opportunity already exists, and that anyone who doesn't make it in America must be lazy or stupid or otherwise undeserving.

A new scooter will be available by the end of the year with a proprietary electric drive system that has only one moving part. Unlike modern internal combustion engines, it has no gears, clutches, spark plugs, filters, belts, or oil and it doesn't need tune-ups.

The Soul of our Nation - War
An attack on Syria will at the least expend lots of Tomahawk cruise missiles. We've become a killer nation. We have to have endless war, like a drunk needs a drink at the bar, in order for American workers to put food on the tables for their families. What does this say about the soul of our nation?
Opposition to Iraq War May Save Syria
Evidence of "weapons of mass destruction" is "no slam dunk," U.S. officials are saying this time around, reversing the claim made about Iraq by then-CIA director George Tenet.

Best News Links from the Web
UN chemical weapons inspectors, in Syria to probe an alleged poison gas attack that killed hundreds, have left Damascus for Beirut, having completed four days of site visits and evidence-gathering, witnesses and officials say. UN officials say it may take weeks to analyze the samples gathered and to present conclusions, and UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said that the inspectors would return to the country to investigate several other alleged chemical weapons attacks that have taken place during the country's two-and-a-half year uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The government took more than three weeks to act on authoritative information about the whereabouts of a collection of secret intelligence data leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, despite now claiming the information risks "grave damage" to the security of British intelligence and armed forces, the Guardian said on Friday. Guardian News and Media's editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger, hit back at Downing Street's claims made in the high court that it "urgently" needed to access leaked intelligence data seized at Heathrow this month from the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist reporting on US and UK mass digital surveillance programs.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called Friday for a strong U.S. response to last week's use of chemical weapons outside Damascus, urging multiple missile strikes aimed at destroying Syrian President Bashar Assad's major military assets and rendering him largely powerless.

A journalist's partner who was detained carrying thousands of British intelligence documents through Heathrow airport was also holding the password to an encrypted file written on a piece of paper, the government has disclosed. In a written statement handed to the High Court in London, a senior Cabinet Office security adviser said it showed "very poor judgment" by David Miranda and other people associated with him. Senior judges agreed to issue a court order which allows Scotland Yard to continue to examine data from nine electronic devices seized from Mr Miranda on August 18.

At a time when 27 million U.S. workers are unemployed or underemployed and severe cuts in social programs are being implemented under the sequestration, the Obama administration is focused instead on finalizing plans to unleash a bombing attack on Syria. We strongly believe that labor and our community partners should vehemently oppose such an attack."

If the British Can Stop Their Government From Waging War in Syria, Why Can\'t We? | Joseph A. Palermo
The British parliament's vote against going along with the United States' attack on Syria is a direct result of that country's attempts to come to terms with the lies of the Iraq War.
A fascinating look at how medical diagnoses can have consequential gender bias - from the L.A. Times.

Why don't we learn from financial crises? As Asian currencies fall and crisis strikes, we seem to be making the same mistakes made in the '90s. Even if we are spared the spectacle of yet another region plunged into depression, the fact remains that the people who congratulated themselves for saving the world in 1999 were actually setting the world up for a far worse crisis, just a few years later.

What Emerging Knowledge Economy? | Robert D. Atkinson, Ph.D.
"...even using percentage growth, of the top ten fastest growing occupations in percentage terms, only two require a college degree, and one of these is event planners. (The other is the only real STEM occupation, on the list, biomedical engineers). The fastest growing occupation is actually home health aides, which require someone to have gone to high school, but not completed it. What we need is an "All STEM for Some" strategy that creates a great educational environment (like more specialty math and science high schools) for the students who are really interested in STEM.For the other fast growing jobs that pay so little, it's time to consider policies for them, such as an increase in the minimum wage, policies to help companies implement high-performance work systems that can support higher wages, and active policies to figure out how to automate some of these low wage jobs.
The fire and police departments are both excellent examples of Democratic Socialism in America.

According to a big new announcement from the IRS and the Treasury Department, if you're a legally married gay couple, the federal government will recognize your marriage -- even if you live in a state where your marriage isn't legal. The statement, released by the Treasury Department Thursday, says that department and the IRS will use a "place of celebration" rule in recognizing same-sex unions (recognition that was illegal before the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act last month). That means that the U.S. government recognizes a marriage if the union was legally recognized in the place where it occurred, where it was celebrated. That's true even if the married couple then lives in a state where gay marriage is illegal.

"The company is a local subsidiary of New Jersey-based Genie Energy Ltd. The Strategic Advisory Board of another subsidiary, Genie Oil and Gas, includes former Vice President Dick Cheney, media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and former Republican Rep. Jim Courter." "The granting of the licence by Israel's Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, which was initially reported by Dow Jones Thursday, comes amidst continuing civil war in Syria, which has demanded the return of the Heights since Israel took them in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War."

Golden Rice: Fool's gold or golden opportunity? | Grist
Sure, Big Ag might use the controversial genetically engineered rice as a stalking horse -- but if it's able to help save hundreds of thousands of lives, maybe it deserves a chance.
The $52.6 billion "black budget" for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses those funds or how it performs against the goals set by the president and Congress.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) cautioned against U.S. military action in Syria Wednesday morning during an appearance on Chris Stigall's Philadephia-based radio show. He said "questions" remain on which side of the Syrian conflict used chemical weapons, saying, "there is a great incentive for this to actually have been launched by rebels, not the Syrian army."

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is leading an unpopular campaign to encourage Republicans not to vote for any resolution that funds Obamacare. As the White House has already stated that funding the president's signature legislative accomplishment is non-negotiable, this strategy would likely lead to a government shutdown that would delay soldiers' paychecks as we wind down the Afghanistan war and possibly begin a new conflict in Syria. Speaker John Boehner stated that any raising of the limit would require the president to agree to cuts in "mandatory" spending--Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, government pensions and Obamacare.

The Obama administration on Thursday said it will not stand in the way of Colorado, Washington and other states where voters have supported legalizing marijuana either for medical or recreational use, as long as those states maintain strict rules involving distribution of the drug. In a memo sent Thursday to U.S. attorneys in all 50 states, deputy attorney general James M. Cole detailed the administration's new stance, even as he reiterated that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

In the rolling green hills of Kentucky, the Sisters of Loretto are leading a grassroots movement against the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline. (with Video)

Wealth Distribution in America, Graphically Shown
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Scientists have found that the deficiency of a protein called RbAp48 in the hippocampus is a significant contributor to age-related memory loss and that this form of memory loss is reversible. The study, conducted in postmortem human brain cells and in mice, also offers the strongest causal evidence that age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's disease are distinct conditions.

Environmental scientists brings bad news to the western United States, where firefighters are currently battling dozens of fires in at least 11 states.

Surveillance drone helps firefighters battle Calif. blaze
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Pathological liars can't help themselves even when they sound ridiculous. Washington, London and Paris are telling the world that they are preparing a "carefully calibrated" blitz on Syria to "save civilians" and not aimed at "regime change." Just like in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Mali where the West is conducting "humanitarian work." The lunatics are indeed in charge of the asylum.

A well preserved, Iron Age tunic and Neolithic arrows and bow fragments are among the discoveries found under melting snow on Norwegian mountains.
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 20:55