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David Vine
TomDispatch 2013-10-03 12:19:00
The percentage of US forces in Europe based in Italy has tripled since 1991. The Pentagon has spent the last two decades plowing hundreds of millions of tax dollars into military bases in Italy, turning the country into an increasingly important center for US military power. Especially since the start of the Global War on Terror in 2001, the military has been shifting its European center of gravity south from Germany, where the overwhelming majority of US forces in the region have been stationed since the end of World War II. In the process, the Pentagon has turned the Italian peninsula into a launching pad for future wars in Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. At bases in Naples, Aviano, Sicily, Pisa, and Vicenza, among others, the military has spent more than $2 billion on construction alone since the end of the Cold War - and that figure doesn't include billions more on classified construction projects and everyday operating and personnel costs. While the number of troops in Germany has fallen from 250,000 when the Soviet Union collapsed to about 50,000 today, the roughly 13,000 US troops (plus 16,000 family members) stationed in Italy match the numbers at the height of the Cold War. That, in turn, means that the percentage of US forces in Europe based in Italy has tripled since 1991 from around 5% to more than 15%. Last month, I had a chance to visit the newest US base in Italy, a three-month-old garrison in Vicenza, near Venice. Home to a rapid reaction intervention force, the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), and the Army's component of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), the base extends for a mile, north to south, dwarfing everything else in the small city. In fact, at over 145 acres, the base is almost exactly the size of Washington's National Mall or the equivalent of around 110 American football fields. The price tag for the base and related construction in a city that already hosted at least six installations: upwards of $600 million since fiscal year 2007. | |
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YouTube
BBC Newsnight exclusive interview with journalist Glenn Greenwald on Edward Snowden, the PRISM revelations and mass surveillance. 2013-10-03 11:50:00 |
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Press TV
2013-10-04 12:06:00
An Italian Senate committee has approved a motion to expel former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, from the parliament over a tax fraud conviction. The senators voted on Friday to strip Berlusconi of his parliamentary seat after debates were held at the Senate Palace in Rome.
The committee's decision must be also ratified by a full Senate chamber vote, which is planned to be held later in the month. This was the second blow to Berlusconi in just a few days, as he was forced to abandon his bid to topple Prime Minister Enrico Letta on October 2 after more than 40 of his lawmakers said they would defy him and instead vote in support of the coalition government. | |
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Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com 2013-10-04 11:51:00
Ilija Trojanov was at the airport in Brazil's Salvador da Bahia, on September 30, checking in for his flight to the United States, when the person behind the American Airlines counter told him that the computer had issued a "Border Security Crossing" alert - and that it was necessary to contact the American authorities before he could be issued a boarding pass. As the time for his flight approached he was told the airline was forced to refuse him entry to the flight - and that he must return to Germany. Trojanov is an acclaimed author of 20 books, including Along the Ganges, Collector of Worlds, and Mumbai to Mecca. He is the co-author of Angriff auf die Freiheit (Attack on Freedom), with Juli Zeh, a 2009 jeremiad against State surveillance. Trojanov was on his way to the Denver conference of the German Studies Association, and had been issued an invitation to appear at the Goethe-Institut's "New Literature From Europe" Festival in November. He had earlier been denied a visa to enter the United States, but with the help of an American university he was finally granted his travel papers: thus the "security alert" came as a surprise. So why all the trouble over traveling to the US? In response to media queries, the US embassy in Berlin had "no comment" to make. That's because no comment was necessary: Trojanov was among the prominent signers of an open letter addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel protesting NSA surveillance on German soil as an "historic attack on our democratic, constitutional state." That is clearly the reason for this Soviet-style harassment by the Obama administration. This latest outrage is part of a disturbing pattern of repression that all points to one ineluctable conclusion: the United States is the Soviet Union of the new millennium - an ideological state with global ambitions that holds itself up as the epitome of "freedom" and yet is the single most powerful enemy of liberty worldwide. | |
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Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online 2013-10-04 11:49:00
The latest superpower dysfunctional spectacular, aka the US shutdown, has forced President Barack Obama to cancel an entire Asian trip. First the White House announced Obama was shutting down Malaysia and the Philippines - supposed stars of the "pivoting to Asia". Then it was finally confirmed he was also shutting down the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Bali on Tuesday and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and East Asia summit next Thursday in Brunei. That leaves Chinese President Xi Jinping to bask, unrivalled, in center stage glow. As if any extra Stateside "help" was needed, and as if Xi was not already on a roll. On Thursday, Xi became the first foreign leader ever to address the Indonesian parliament in Jakarta. He stressed that Beijing wanted by all means to boost trade with ASEAN to a whopping US$1 trillion by 2020 - and establish a regional infrastructure bank. His message, in a nutshell: China and "certain Southeast Asian countries" must solve their wrangling over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights "peacefully" - as in we will discuss that messy South China Sea situation (he made no direct reference to it in his speech) but don't let that interfere with our doing serious business in trade and investment. Who is ASEAN to say no? And then, after upstaging Obama in Indonesia (hefty tomes could be penned about that), and signing the requisite $30 billion-plus deals (mostly in mining), Xi was off to Malaysia. Compare Xi's Indonesian triumph - complete with his glamorous wife Peng Liyuan wearing batik - to a recent visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who, for all practical purposes, wanted to convince the Indonesians to essentially encircle China. Elaborately polite as usual, the Indonesians brushed Abe aside. China is Indonesia's biggest trading partner after Japan, and it's bound to overtake Tokyo soon. | |
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Natasha Lennard
Salon 2013-10-02 11:44:00
The administration has been amping up stats about foiled plots to bolster support for mass surveillance In so many words, NSA director Keith Alexander admitted Wednesday that the Obama administration had issued misleading information about terror plots and their foiling to bolster support for the government's vast surveillance apparatus. During Wednesday's hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy pushed Alexander to admit that plot numbers had been fudged in a revealing interchange: | |
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Mike Whitney
Counterpunch 2013-10-02 11:37:00
The United States is the world's biggest pest. It doesn't matter where you live or what you do, the US will find some excuse to poke its nose in your business and make your life miserable. That's why the US has so many enemies, because its the world's biggest budinski. The people in Washington just can't stand the idea that someone, somewhere might be having a normal, happy life without getting bombed to death in drone attack or shunted off to some black site where the CIA can rip out their fingernails or beat them black and blue. That's what this whole global war on terror-thing is all about. It's about sticking your big fat nose in other people's business 24-7. Some people just get a kick out of that. Why? Because they're obnoxious people, that's why. Like the drunk who shows up at your dinner party and slops red wine all over the rug. That's the US in a nutshell, a first-rate pain-in-the-ass. Everyone knows this is true, even the flag wavers. They know we shouldn't be in Afghanistan or Iraq or Somalia or Yemen or wherever. We just go to be annoying, because that's who we are, The Irritating States of America. I get tired of leftist writers droning on and on about the Empire-this and the Superpower-that. It's all baloney, and it misses the point. In fact, it dignifies US behavior as though it was all part of some grand plan. It's not. There is no plan. The plan is to hector people until they can't stand it anymore. That's not really a plan at all. It's just being a pest. It's like the brat who keeps kicking the back of your seat when your flying across country or the wasp that shows up at the company picnic. Are you going to tell me the wasp has a plan? No. The wasp has no plan and neither does the US. The US is just doing what it does best; making a first class nuisance of itself. | |
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Ralph Nader
nader.org 2013-10-02 11:24:00
SHUTDOWN - blared the Washington Post headline. None of the powers-that-be could stop a small faction of Republicans in the House of Representatives from shutting down many federal government operations starting on October 1. Suddenly the powerful Business Roundtable and U.S. Chamber of Commerce are powerless, along with two hundred corporate trade associations, who see Uncle Sam as their big customer. Suddenly, the Republican dominated National Governors Association, together with Mitt Romney, the Party's presidential nominee in 2013, are powerless. Also powerless so far are the allegedly sovereign people, who want uninterrupted safety inspections, enforcement of labor and environmental laws, children's nutrition and educational programs (like Head Start), student loan processing, veterans benefits, detection of epidemics, access to national parks, and inspections of nuclear power plants. All of the above want the federal government to stay open. Most of them do not want to see 800,000 federal workers (out of two million) furloughed. It doesn't matter to House Republicans. About thirty-five to forty obscure, foot-stomping Republicans have scared the easily frightened House Speaker, John Boehner, and his curled-lip deputy, Rep. Eric Cantor, into doing what no foreign enemy since the British burned Washington in 1812 has been able to do. This cohort, representing the most cruel, ignorant, narcissistic Republicans in the Party's history, has closed down much of the national government. | |
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RT
2013-10-04 03:53:00
As clocks at the Pentagon approached midnight late Monday evening and inched America towards a government shutdown, the United States Department of Defense spent $5.5 billion dollars on an arsenal of items ordered at the last minute by Uncle Sam. Foreign Policy reported on Tuesday that the Defense Department awarded 94 contracts totaling over $5.5 billion a day earlier, ensuring the mightiest military on Earth would stay significantly well-stocked throughout an indefinite shutdown that has sent hundreds of thousands of federal workers home without pay and polarized lawmakers in Washington. Comparatively, Foreign Policy's John Reed noted that on September 3 - the first workday of the month - the Pentagon published news of only 14 contracts: practically one-seventh of what was signed off on as Monday's midnight deadline seemed increasingly more likely to come and go without a compromise. The shutdown, now in its third day with no end in sight, is costing the US an estimated $300 million in lost economic output each day, according to research firm IHS Inc. But as hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain furloughed and national parks and programs stay shuttered indefinitely, the Pentagon does not seem to have much to worry about. "This goes to show that even when the federal government is shut down and the military has temporarily lost half its civilian workforce, the Pentagon can spend money like almost no one else," Reed wrote. | |
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Eve's Thoughts
2013-10-02 11:17:00
What is freedom really? Is it the ability to do whatever you like without regard for anyone but yourself? Some people think so. But more often than not there will eventually come the time of the great hang-over, when that ultimate freedom that had been sought after so diligently has somehow lost its meaning. | |
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Sharona Schwartz
The Blaze 2013-10-03 11:08:00
The interim Egyptian government approved a draft law Wednesday which makes disrespecting the flag and not standing during the national anthem offenses punishable by prison time and a fine. The Egyptian website Ahram Online reports that the measure states that "ridiculing the Egyptian flag and not standing in respect when the national anthem is played in public is a crime punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment and/or five thousand pounds fine (about $726)." In recent days, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and more hardline Salafi groups have confronted their secular opponents over which songs are played to start the school day. Those who support the military have been playing pro-army songs in schools, a move that has irritated Muslim Brotherhood members. This as army supporters accuse Muslim Brotherhood school administrators of failing to play Egypt's national anthem in their schools and instead playing pro-Brotherhood tunes, reports Ahram. | |
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Agence France-Presse
2013-10-03 09:53:00
The leader of Greece's Golden Dawn party was taken to a high-security prison Thursday pending his trial on criminal charges, as part of a major government crackdown on the neo-Nazi group. Nikos Michaloliakos is the first Greek party leader to be put behind bars in at least three decades. He was transferred to the Korydallos prison in west Athens on Thursday afternoon, hours after being charged with running a criminal organisation. The 56-year-old faces at least 10 years in jail if convicted. No trial date has been set yet. | |
Comment: Golden Dawn has seen a rise in popularity when Greek economy hit rock bottom, taking advantage of the popular uprising for changes in governmental practices. But Golden Dawn, like the rise of the Nazi party in 1930's Germany, is obviously not the answer. To get an idea of their pathological ideologies and practices, read the following:
Fascist Golden Dawn Aiming High in Greek Elections MPs from Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn Greece: Fascists step up assaults on political opponents and migrants Are Greek police 'colluding' with far-right Golden Dawn? Far right fascists 'infiltrated Greek police', used as agents provocateurs Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn goes global with political ambitions Greek prime minister calls for calm after leftwing musician murdered by Golden Dawn fascist | |
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Helena Smith
The Independent 2013-09-29 19:41:00
The leader of Greece's Golden Dawn party, widely viewed as Europe's most violent political force, appeared in court on Saturday night on charges of heading a criminal gang after police mounted an unprecedented crackdown on the neo-fascist party, arresting Nikos Michaloliakos and other key members of his organisation. After a police operation in which anti-terrorism officers stormed the homes of Golden Dawn politicians across Athens, Michaloliakos and five of his MPs were seized. Fifteen other senior party activists, including a female police officer, were taken into custody accused of fomenting violence as members of a criminal organisation. Reading from a nine-page charge sheet, a public prosecutor accused the far-rightists of murder, extortion and money laundering. The crackdown was hailed as "a historic day for Greece and Europe" by the public order minister, Nikos Dendias, who oversaw the operation, known only to three security officials before it was launched a little after dawn. "Golden Dawn tried to test the endurance of democracy," he said in a televised address, insisting that the inquiry into the party's illegal activities would continue apace. "Today it got an answer from state justice." | |
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Press TV
2013-10-03 06:55:00
Israeli forces have attacked a Palestinian village north of the Jordan Valley for the fourth time since September, leaving some 100 residents without shelter, Press TV reports. Israeli bulldozers backed by military jeeps entered the village of Makhool in the early hours of Thursday morning and evacuated the residents before destroying the village. The Israeli soldiers further seized two tents and confiscated all materials that had been provided to them by European Humanitarian aid agencies. "The army attacked us while we were sleeping and forced us to leave our tents before they destroyed everything. When they finished, they collected all the plastic and burned them before confiscating the iron structures," said a village resident."Every time we build anything, a tent or barracks, they demolish them. Even the presence of diplomats makes no difference," he added. | |
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RT
2013-10-04 03:02:00
American lawmakers have colluded with Wall Street executives to build an economy that no longer works in the best interest of, or even needs, the majority of the American public, according to RT financial host Max Keiser. RT: There's a lot of hype and some would say overreaction around all of this but the tell-tale sign is the markets. They haven't reacted negatively. Is there really a crisis here? Max Keiser: I think we should take the words of Warren Buffet to heart. He basically described the Federal Reserve Bank and the American economy as one giant hedge fund. And he is absolutely correct. The way that Wall Street, Washington, and these large funds approach America is as a trade that is backed by $120,000 or $130,000 of debt and that debt gets traded around every day. And the whole initiative here is to buy hedge funds and try to squeak out profits, and they don't really care who they hurt in the process. Remember America is run by what I call financial jihadists who are basically suicide bankers. Warren Buffett, of course, is one of these suicide bankers and America, from the outside of course, looks like they're trying to commit financial suicide. But that's what a financial jihadist does, or a suicide banker. They blow themselves up for their cause and in this case it's market fundamentalism, a belief in the profit - not the prophet. RT: But other tell-tale signs of the economy improving are there, Max. Are we to believe the economic indicators which suggest the US economy is on the up? | |
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Daily Mail UK
2013-10-04 17:04:00
A man reportedly set himself on fire on the National Mall this afternoon. Police were called to respond to the emergency at 4.24pm and the fire was put out. The man has not been named, but DC Police reportedly said that he was conscious and breathing. The man's exact motivations have not been reported but the chosen location hints that it was a demonstration of sorts. The Mall is a national park, making it one of the hundreds of such sites across the country that have been closed as a result of the government shutdown. U.S. Park Police sources told MailOnline that the shutdown didn't play into the rescue. 'There is no indication that the government shutdown impacted the way anyone responded to this. DC Fire/EMS had people on the scene in, literally, three minutes, and a helicopter transport was there minutes later,' the source told MailOnline. | |
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Peter Beaumont
The Guardian 2013-10-04 11:31:00
Vo Nguyen Giap, the legendary general who masterminded the defeat of the French military at Dien Bien Phu and led North Vietnam's forces against the US has died aged 102 at a military hospital in Hanoi. Giap, whose victory at Dien Bien Phu triggered France's departure from Indo-China was a self-taught leader regarded as one of the great military geniuses of the post-second world war era. He remained as the commander of the North's forces supporting the Viet Cong throughout the subsequent Vietnam war, being credited with the 1968 Tet offensive. Giap, known as the Red Napoleon, was a national hero whose reputation was second only to Ho Chi Minh. While some - such as the American journalist Stanley Karnow regarded him as a strategist in the mould of Wellington - others, including the US general William Westmorland, believed his success was down to his ruthlessness. Indeed, Westmorland complained to Karnow in his history of the Vietnam War: "Any American commander who took the same vast losses as General Giap would have been sacked overnight. | |
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Melanie Eversley and Doug Stanglin
USA Today 2013-10-02 10:54:00
One biker was struck by the car and may be paralyzed for life A 28-year-old motorcyclist was charged Wednesday with reckless driving in an encounter with the driver of an SUV who was later beaten after a high-speed chase by dozens of bikers that was captured on videotape. Christopher Cruz, of Passaic, N.J., was also charged with unlawful imprisonment. His attorney, H. Benjamin Perez, said Cruz denied all the allegations. "He will come back to fight this case and clear his name," he said. Cruz has had previous criminal cases in New Jersey including one in which he pleaded guilty to theft, the Associated Press reports. A second suspect, Allen Edwards, 42, surrendered to police on Tuesday but was released on Wednesday pending further investigation.
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Wallace McKelvey
Press of Atlantic City 2013-09-29 08:57:00
One of six Atlantic City police officers recorded on video beating a 20-year-old Linwood man this summer was the subject of at least three prior allegations of excessive force and civil rights violations. Court records show K-9 Officer Sterling Wheaten has appeared as a defendant in at least three civil cases filed in the past three years. Surveillance footage obtained via subpoena from Tropicana Casino and Resort show the officers tackling David Connor Castellani to the ground about 3:10 a.m. June 15, followed by a succession of blows from clubs and the officers' knees. The incident occurred off Pacific Avenue near South Morris Avenue, after Castellani was removed from Tropicana. It was unclear Saturday why he was removed. Less than a minute later, a K-9 vehicle drives into frame. Within seconds, the K-9 is seen biting Castellani's neck and dragging him to the curb. | |
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Nick Squires
The Telegraph 2013-10-03 08:30:00
The accident happened when a fire broke out on board a boat packed with an estimated 500 Eritrean and Somali refugees as it neared the end of its journey from the Libyan coast and approached Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost scrap of territory. The boat's engine stopped working and it began to take on water, prompting some of the passengers to burn a sheet in order to summon help from the island. But that started a fire on board and terrified migrants rushed to one side of the 65ft-long boat, causing it to capsize about half a nautical mile off the coast. The Italian coast guard managed to rescue about 155 people but another 220 were still missing. | |
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Samuel Warde
Liberals Unite / Alhurra TV 2013-10-03 07:35:00
A dramatic video has emerged of the driver in Thursday's Capitol Hill incident being confronted by Washington D.C. police. Alhurra TV exclusive video of shooting incident in Washington near Capitol Hill. The police pulled over a car suspected of involvement in the shooting incident on October 3, 2013. The car managed to escape after the sound of several gun shots. | |
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Connor Adams Sheets
International Business Times 2013-10-04 05:06:00
Here's what we know about Miriam Carey, the woman identified in news reports as the suspect in a shooting incident that left Capitol Hill on lockdown for a brief period Thursday afternoon, and has now reportedly been shot dead by police. According to the New York Post and the New Haven Register newspapers, Carey, a 34-year-old dental hygenist, was involved in the episode that began when she allegedly rammed her black Infiniti luxury sedan into a barricade near the White House. The incident ended when Carey led police on a high-speed car chase towards the U.S. Capitol. After repeatedly warning Carey to stop and get out of her car, the Capitol Police shot and killed her. The altercation led to the U.S. Capitol being locked down for a brief period of time after shots rang out near Garfield Circle, in the vicinity of the Hart Senate Office Building. | |
Comment: The U.S. is so hystericized that a dental assistant in her car with her daughter can be summarily executed with no questions asked.
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Arjun Walia
Collective Evolution 2013-08-21 00:00:00
For those of you that don't know, Roseanne Barr is a well known actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director. She has won several awards which include Emmy awards, Golden Globe awards, People's Choice awards and more. She has been in the industry for over twenty years and has gained much respect from many of her Hollywood colleagues who she is now speaking on behalf of. I just want to make it clear how long she has been inside the industry, and the connections she has to others within it. Industry insiders are feeling the need to share inspirational words and food for thought to the millions of people that pay attention to them as of late. We saw this recently with Ashton Kutcher. Celebrities have a voice that can reach a large sum of people, they can be a threat to corporate interests and the controlling elite and as Roseanne states, many celebrities bite their tongue and live in a culture of fear. Not long ago, Roseanne made some shocking statements, alluding that Hollywood and the entertainment industry is dominated by MK Ultra. MK Ultra was the name for a previously classified research program through the CIA's scientific intelligence division. It was the CIA's program of research in behavioral modification and perception manipulation of human beings (1). It was previously known as Operation Paperclip (2). Roseanne is suggesting that Hollywood is a tool used in the manipulation of human consciousness, used as a tool for behavior modification and perception control in human beings. Hollywood is the one that keeps all of this power structure. They perpetuate the culture of racism, sexism, classism, genderism and keep it all in place. They continue to feed it, and they make a lot of money doing it. They do it at the behest of their masters, who run everything.
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change.org
2013-10-03 20:29:00
In March 2013 with ten minutes left in a freshman science class, boys were being boys. Kyle, 14 at the time, and a member of the football team sat with a few teammates and wrote up a "hit list", people they would like to hit on the football field. "It was just a joke, it wasn't to hurt anybody," Kyle explained afterwards. The list included silly names like "Applesauce Head". The Easter Bunny may even have been mentioned. It is apparent to any and all readers that while the joke may be questionable in it's level of humor, it was, in fact, a joke. | |
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M. Alex Johnson
NBC News 2013-10-03 20:09:00
The small town of Statesville, N.C., was in mourning Thursday, a day after six members of Front Street Baptist Church were killed and 12 others were injured when their bus overturned on an East Tennessee interstate. "My prayers are with all of them and my faith is in God, but this is definitely going to be a grieving community, the Rev. Jeff Luxon, the church's former senior care pastor, told The Statesville Record & Landmark. With Front Street's senior pastor in Tennessee to be with his congregants, Luxon made sure he was at the church after he heard the news. "I had some great friends on that bus, and I'm sure knew all of them who were members of the church," Luxon said. The church members on the bus were part of Front Street's Young at Heart group for senior citizens, who were returning from a Christian conference in Gatlinburg, Tenn. The dead ranged in age from 62 to 95. "I knew probably everybody who was on the bus," said Emmy Miller, a member of the church. "They would want us to know they are in a better place now," Miller told the Record & Landmark. "We all know God is in charge and that this will make us stronger. That's what Front Street is all about." | |
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Bill Gertz
Move seen as bid to halt division among jihadists over Syrian rebel splitFree Bacon 2013-09-27 00:00:00
An official al Qaeda website that is restricted to members of the terrorist group opened its first Twitter account this week in what U.S. officials say is an effort to resolve a major split over Syria's Islamist rebels. The Shamukh al-Islam website, used as an official clearing house for al Qaeda members to communicate and issue propaganda statements, started its first Twitter account on Tuesday. The first posts on the account focused on divisions between two al Qaeda rebel groups in Syria, al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The account, @shomokhalislam, issued 29 tweets, followed one account, and attracted 1,532 followers as of Friday afternoon. U.S. officials said among its followers are several high-profile digital jihadists. Counterterrorism analysts view the new account as another indicator that terrorist groups are stepping up their use of social media over traditional Internet sites. The official al Qaeda account also highlights the view among Islamists that Twitter is fast becoming an essential tool for online jihad, or holy war. "We've seen terrorist groups make increasingly effective use of social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, in recent years," said Patrick Poole, a counterterrorism expert. "Not only is this important for propaganda purposes but also recruitment." | |
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Arthur Delaney
Huffington Post 2013-10-01 13:27:00
An increasingly likely government shutdown won't affect most of the federal government's safety net, like retirement and health insurance programs, but nutrition support for millions of women and babies could be in trouble. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Saturday that if Congress can't cut a deal to fund government operations past Monday, "No additional federal funds would be available to support the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)'s clinical services, food benefits and administrative costs." The $6 billion program helps pregnant women and new moms buy healthy food if they're poor and facing "nutrition risk," meaning that they have medical problems or trouble following nutrition guidelines. Although the program that mitigates nutrition risk for 9 million Americans is in jeopardy, the impact of a shutdown would depend on how individual states react and how long the shutdown lasts. "States can probably shelter families receiving WIC from the effects of a shutdown for a short period, but it could be a real problem if it lasts more than a few days," policy analyst Elizabeth Lower-Basch of the Center for Law and Social Policy said in an email Saturday. The USDA suggested that some aspects of the program could last through a short shutdown. | |
Comment: The psychopaths in charge don't see any reason to set aside enough money to insure that children are fed, but they have made sure that the police state programs will keep running.
From NSA spying and VIPR sweeps to domestic drones: A round-up of the police state programs NOT affected by a Government shutdown | |
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Press TV
2013-09-29 00:00:00
Senator John McCain was just sure he could pick moderates in Syria worth supporting. To prove his point he made a trip to Syria this spring to demonstrate how much the insurgents were just like us, struggling for democracy and equal rights for all. But his trip was organized by the Syria Emergency Task Force's Mouaz Moustafa, who not long ago headed up the Libyan Council of North America. Both organizations are partly funded by the US State Department through a mirrored wilderness of NGO cutouts. But both have close ties to extremists fighting in each country. (In Libya, for example, Mustafa was with the people who killed US ambassador Stevens.) In McCain's case, the "moderates" he met and was so attracted to in Syria tunred out to be kidnappers and thugs. Moustafa's key staffer until recently was war lobbyist Elizabeth O'Bagy, whose day job was with the US military contractor funded neoconservative "think tank," the Institute for the Study of War. Shockingly enough, this "think tank" never saw a potential war it did not want to turn into a real one. O'Bagy was the bagman for the State Department, delivering goodies to the Syrian rebels while delivering fantasies of Syrian moderates needing support to Capitol Hill and environs. She had many customers, including McCain and Secretary of State John Kerry, who were eager to cite her "studies" revealing that the rebels in Syria were by and large all moderates, with a few extremists who could simply be marginalized and ignored. | |
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Antonia Maioni
The Globe and Mail 2013-10-02 11:17:00
Despite the partisan war in Washington that shut down the federal government this week, President Barack Obama has succeeded in implementing the first major health reform in the United States in nearly 50 years, as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act goes into effect. Even though its most virulent critics raise the spectre of "Canadian-style" health care, "Obamacare" does little to change the enduring differences between the two health care system. What, exactly, does "Obamacare" look like compared to Canada? | |
Comment: The Obamacare system will continue to benefit BigPharma and the insurance industry at the expense of alternative medicine and the public at large.
Obamacare: A Deception The Devastating Truth Behind Obamacare One man's ObamaCare nightmare | |
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Ellen Brown
The New York Times 2013-10-02 16:01:00
To ask whether public banks would interfere with free markets assumes that we have free markets, which we don't. Banking is heavily subsidized and is monopolized by Wall Street, which has effectively "bought" Congress. Banks have been bailed out by the government, when in a free market they would have gone bankrupt. The Federal Reserve blatantly manipulates interest rates in a way that serves Wall Street, lending trillions at near-zero interest and pushing rates so artificially low that local governments have lost billions in interest-rate swaps.
State and municipal governments already have public lending programs, which are generally not seen as distortions of the free market. They exist because private banks are not lending in some sectors that need financing. Montana finances first-time ranchers and farmers; Sonoma County has its Energy Independence Program; and San Francisco has half a dozen mortgage lending and small business programs. Globally, public banks lend countercyclically, providing credit when and where other banks won't. This does not crowd out private banks. Germany and Taiwan, which have strong public banking sectors, are among the most competitive banking markets in the world. | |
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Heather Saul
The Independent, UK 2013-10-04 13:27:00
Scientists have discovered the body clock 'reset button', taking them one step closer to tweaking the clock in order to make jet lag and shift work less painful. The findings could reduce the symptoms of travelling through different time zones and working unsociable hours, which often makes people either tired or unable to sleep. Results from the study, published in journal Science, suggest the newly-found button could be used to switch the master clock to a new time zone, for example from London to Beijing, in just one day. A team based at Kyoto University in Japan discovered the 'reset button' in the brain. There are clocks located throughout the body but the master clock is found within the brain, where it works to keep the body in tune with the world around us, creating fatigue at night and alertness during daylight. The clock uses light to monitor time, but adjusts slowly. For every time zone travelled, it takes the body approximately a full day to catch up, according to the BBC. Shift work or long haul flights disrupt sleep and hunger patterns, as the body clock falls out of tune with the rising and setting of the sun. | |
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Jamie Condliffe
Gizmodo 2013-10-04 07:09:00
Last year, DARPA unveiled Cheetah: a robot that could run faster than Usain Bolt. Now, the same team has managed to create a version that doesn't need a power cord, making the electronic beast free to roam wherever it chooses. Be afraid. Be very afraid. A relative of Cheetah, say hello to WildCat. This robot is based on the same design as Cheetah, but doesn't have the tethered power cable of its predecessor; instead, it has a large - and quite loud! - motor attached to it. | |
Comment: This is the technology they show us. Ever wondered what they don't show us?
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Wired.com
2013-09-27 00:00:00
After nearly 40 years as the cornerstone of the U.S. Air Force's fighter fleet, the F-16 tried out a a new role last week: robotic flying bull's-eye. A modified F-16 took flight from Tindall Air Force Base in Florida without a pilot so it could be blown to smithereens. The Boeing retrofit of retired Lockheed Martin F-16s will be used as target practice for training situations under the name QF-16. "The QF-16 full-scale aerial targets will be used to test newly developed weapons and train pilots for the rapidly changing nature of warfare in a safe and controlled environment," said Boeing in a statement. "It was a little different to see an F-16 take off without anyone in it, but it was a great flight all the way around," said Lt. Col. Ryan Inman, Commander, 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron. "It's a replication of current, real world situations and aircraft platforms they can shoot as a target. Now we have a mission capable, highly sustainable full scale aerial target to take us into the future." During last week's test, a pair of QF-16s aced taking off and landing on its own, as well as performing a series of simulated maneuvers. It also flew at 40,000 feet and broke the sound barrier at Mach 1.47. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Kathy Finn
Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas south of New Orleans on Friday as a weakened Tropical Storm Karen closed in on the Louisiana coast after disrupting U.S. energy output in the Gulf of Mexico. Karen's top winds were holding at 50 mph (85 kph), down from 65 mph (105 kph) a day earlier, and National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami said the storm looked less likely to strengthen into a hurricane.Yahoo News 2013-10-04 16:12:00
Oil output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico had been cut in half as oil and gas firms shut platforms and evacuated some workers in preparation for the storm, which could still strengthen before landfall. The Gulf accounts for about 19 percent of U.S. oil production and 6 percent of natural gas output. The mayor of Grand Isle, Louisiana, clamped a mandatory evacuation on the popular vacation and fishing destination on a barrier island south of New Orleans. Evacuations were also ordered in Lafourche Parish in the south, and residents in much of Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, were told to be out of their homes before nightfall. The Sand Dollar Motel and Marina on Grand Isle was a frenzy of activity on Friday as boaters scrambled to get their vessels to higher ground and marina employees secured the premises. "It's already pouring here and the wind is real strong," said marina owner Susan Gaspard, who added that squalls had been hitting all morning. Karen's projected path shifted slightly westward and it was expected to move ashore over Louisiana on Saturday night and into Mississippi on Sunday. | |
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Molly Golden
When the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the Black Hills of South Dakota region on Thursday afternoon, many of my friends and I shrugged it off. Seeing a bit of October snow in the Black Hills is certainly not unheard of, but no one believed it would be the major weather event that news outlets predicted.Yahoo News 2013-10-04 16:07:00 Boy, were we wrong. We woke up Friday to heavy, blowing snowfall in Rapid City. Treacherous road conditions shut down schools, clinics, and part of Interstate 90. Up to 5,000 residents are without power in Rapid City, according to the Rapid City Journal. Widespread power outages are also being reported in Custer, Deadwood, Spearfish and Sturgis. More than a foot of snowfall is predicted in the region before the blizzard warning ends Saturday at 9 a.m. Luckily, my husband and I have power, although our lights are flickering, and I hear tree branches, weighted from the heavy snow, cracking and crashing down as I write. We're snuggling in today with a pot of coffee, blankets, and each other -- since I work from home and his office is closed due to the blizzard. We're just hoping that this October blizzard is a fluke -- otherwise, it's going to be a very long winter in South Dakota. Here are photos from Friday morning:
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Dirk Lammers
Powerful storms crawled into the Midwest on Friday, dumping heavy snow in South Dakota, spawning a tornado in Nebraska and threatening dangerous thunderstorms from Oklahoma to Wisconsin.Associated Press 2013-10-04 12:03:00 A foot of snow had fallen in western South Dakota's scenic Black Hills by early Friday, bringing blizzard conditions that shuttered roadways and even canceled a polka bar crawl in an Old West tourist town. Residents were bracing for as much as 3 feet of snow, along with wind gusts of up to 70 mph, from an unseasonably intense fall snow storm.
The typically bustling Pilot Travel Center just west of Rapid City was like a ghost town Friday morning, as drivers were likely heeding forecasters' warnings to stay off the roads, said store general manager John Barton. The blowing snow was picking up outside the truck stop along Interstate 90, which was closed for about 30 miles thanks to a storm gaining strength as it moved in from Colorado and Wyoming. Conditions were expected to deteriorate throughout the day. | |
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Adonai
thewatchers.adorraeli.com 2013-10-04 14:40:00
An intense earthquake swarm has been going on offshore North Iceland, 10 km NW of Gjögurtá, since September 25, 2013. This morning, 2 earthquakes reaching magnitude 3 and 3.2 occurred at 06:14 and 07:41 UTC. Roughly 1 000 earthquakes have been recorded by Icelandic Meteorological Office in last 6 days (IMO). The depths of the quakes vary from about 15 km depth (crust-mantle boundary) to near surface. The area is located on an active fault line related to rifting, and a possible cause of the earthquake swarm could be a magmatic intrusion at Tjörnes Fracture Zone volcano (VD). | |
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Nick Collins
Exhaust fumes from diesel could be changing the scent of flowers and making it harder for honeybees to collect pollen and nectar, according to a new study. The Telegraph,UK 2013-10-03 14:19:00
Pollutants found in diesel exhaust alter levels of chemicals released by flowers which honeybees use to locate and identify varieties with the largest amounts of pollen and nectar, researchers found. Tests in a laboratory designed to mimic the effect of exhaust fumes on the smell of oilseed rape showed that the bees' ability to recognise the odour was reduced by about two thirds. Although exhaust fumes are unlikely to be the main cause of the sharp decline in Britain's bee populations, they could be exacerbating the problem, researchers said. Fumes which prevent honeybees recognising the smell of flowers could "have serious detrimental effects on the number of honeybee colonies" as well as reducing the pollination of vital crops and lowering honey yields, they claimed. | |
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Reuters
2013-10-04 14:01:00
Santiago - Chile declared a state of emergency on Thursday after a late frost caused an estimated $1 billion worth of damage to fruit crops, potentially hitting wine production as well. The affected central region is the main fruit and wine producing area in Chile, the world's No.7 wine producer, and includes vineyards owned by prominent local wine label Concha y Toro. The industry is one of Chile's most important after copper, with fruit exports worth $4.3 billion in 2012 and wine worth $1.8 billion, according to government figures. "These frosts are the worst that agriculture has faced in 84 years, impacting the area from Coquimbo to Bio Bio," the national agricultural society said as Agriculture Minister Luis Mayol pledged aid for affected farmers. Fruit trade association Fedefruta has given an early estimate of up to $1 billion of damage from the extensive cold snap in late September. | |
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The Natural History Museum
2013-10-04 13:40:00
A museum fish curator has identified a skate's unusual appendage as an extra pelvic fin, rather than a genetic throwback to its shark relative. An unusual skate has been caught by fishermen in the Solent with an extra fin. It was taken to the Portsmouth Blue Reef Aquarium for identification, where it is now being held for safekeeping. Aquarium staff have nicknamed it Elvis because the fin resembles a quiff. Skate or shark? Aquarium staff originally thought the extra appendage was a dorsal fin from a genetic throwback to a shark. Skate are distantly related to sharks. On closer inspection, however, they realised it was more likely a bizarre mutation. Natural History Museum fish curator James Maclaine, who was brought in to identify the fin, realised it was something entirely new. 'Mutated skates do turn up from time to time, sometimes with fin anomalies that make them heart-shaped, but we still have never seen anything quite like this one before,' Maclaine said. 'The general consensus is that it's a mutation, and probably more likely an out of place extra pelvic fin rather than a new dorsal fin," he said. | |
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Jeanna Bryner
LIveScience 2013-10-04 08:05:00
A giant squid, whose oversized eyes and gargantuan blob of a body make it look more mythical than real beast, washed ashore Tuesday (Oct. 1) at La Arena beach in the Spanish community of Cantabria. The beast measures some 30 feet (9 meters) in length and weighs a whopping 400 pounds (180 kilograms); and according to news reports, it is a specimen of Architeuthis dux, the largest invertebrate (animals without backbones) on Earth. The giant squid is currently at the Maritime Museum of Cantabria, according to El Diario Montanes. Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Science Museum in Tokyo, and his colleagues, captured the first live footage of an Architeuthis giant squid in its natural habitat in 2012. The video revealed the elusive creature off the Ogasawara Islands, about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo at a depth of around 2,066 feet (630 m); the three-man crew aboard a submersible followed the giant squid down to 2,950 feet (900 m). | |
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Robert Felix
iceagenow.info 2013-10-02 10:27:00
Cows, calves and bulls dead after the snowstorm. In Bernasconi, General Acha, Ataliva Rock, Quehué, Colonia Santa Maria and Unanue appeared cows, calves and bulls dead after the snowstorm. The mayor of Bernasconi, Jorge Riera, said about 200 animals were killed in department Hucal while in Utracán department, two thousand cattle were killed. (Journal Textual) "This came from several months of poor nutrition due to lack of pasture and the cold and snow gave the coup de grace. Government aid was little, almost nothing," said producers. Includes photo of dead cattle: http://www.maracodigital.net/?PAG=Vernota&idcontenido=61269 Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for this link | |
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Madison Park. Dayu Zhang and Elizabeth Landau
CNN 2013-10-04 08:40:00
Hornets have killed dozens of people in China and injured more than 1,500 with their powerful venomous sting. The Asian giant hornet, known scientifically as Vespa mandarinia, carries a venom that destroys red blood cells, which can result in kidney failure and death, said Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist at the Southwest Biological Institute in Tucson, Arizona. But perhaps a bigger problem than the toxicity of the venom is allergy, Schmidt says. Some people are naturally more allergic to stinging insects than others; a sting can trigger a deadly anaphylactic reaction, which may involve airway closure or cardiac arrest. Since July, hornet attacks have killed 42 people and injured 1,675 people in three cities in Shaanxi province, according to the local government. Among those attacked, 206 are receiving treatment in hospitals.
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Lewis Page
ClimateChangeDispatch 2013-10-03 00:37:00
There's been criticism for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over its latest AR5 report from many quarters for many reasons. But today there's new research focusing on one particular aspect of that criticism. The particular part of the IPCC's science in question is its accounting for the effects of changes in the Sun on the climate of planet Earth. Many climatologists have long sought to suggest that the effects of solar variability are minor, certainly when compared to those of human-driven CO2 emissions. Others, however, while admitting that the Sun changes only a very little over human timescales, think that it might be an important factor. This matters because solar physicists think that the Sun is about to enter a "grand minimum", a prolonged period of low activity. The current 11-year peak in solar action is the weakest seen for a long time, and it may presage a lengthy quiet period. Previously, historical records suggest that such periods have been accompanied by chilly conditions on Earth - perhaps to the point where a coming minimum might counteract or even render irrelevant humanity's carbon emissions. The "Little Ice Age" seen from the 15th to the 19th centuries is often mentioned in this context. There are certainly plenty of scientists to say, along with the IPCC, that this isn't so. For instance climate physicist Joanna Haigh has this to say, in tinned quotes offered alongside the AR5 release by the UK's Science Media Centre: | |
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The Corbett Report
2013-09-28 00:00:00   The IPCC has released its latest assessment of the state of climate science, and this time it's even more dire than their 2007 assessment. Global warming is "unequivocal" and humans are the "dominant cause" to a certainty of 95%. But how are these uncertainties calculated? And how does the IPCC process work anyway? Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we dissect the latest IPCC hype and examine the organizations processes and conclusions. |
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| Fire in the Sky |
| No new articles. |
| Health & Wellness |
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Ruchi Shah
The Statesman 2013-10-03 06:09:00
For decades, scientists and psychologists hinted at the link between mental health and physical health. While Stony Brook University Associate Professor of Integrative Neuroscience Dr. Turhan Canli explained the anecdotal evidence of centenarians being more social than their counterparts, his work focuses primarily on molecular characteristics of individuals with certain personality traits and the correlation of those characteristics with physical health. One of the major studies in Canli's lab focuses on the link between loneliness and health. A study published by Dr. John Cacioppo found that college-aged women who were lonely had reduced activity in the nucleus accumbens region when shown positive pictures of people in social groups, compared to their non-lonely counterparts. The nucleus accumbens region is a reward center in the brain that is activated by pleasurable activities. It is important to note that loneliness does not necessarily correlate with the number of people a person knows. Some people prefer to be alone while others can have a big social group but still feel lonely. Therefore, individuals are characterized as lonely through self-reports, corroborated by psychological analyses. Canli and his lab group aimed to further elucidate upon Cacioppo's findings by studying gene expression in this portion of the brain. To do this, Canli collaborated with a brain bank in Chicago, which supplied him with post-mortem brain tissues from the nucleus accumbens of people who were and were not lonely. | |
Comment: For clues on how to effect epigenetic changes that will change your mood and lead you to a healthier life, see
The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview Beyond weight loss: a review of the therapeutic uses of very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diets Ketogenic Diet (high-fat, low-carb) Has Neuroprotective and Disease-modifying Effects Ketogenic Diet Reduces Symptoms of Alzheimer's Ketogenic diet, calorie restriction and hyperbaric treatment offer hope for non-toxic cancer treatment and alleviation of multiple health issues Your brain on ketones | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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| High Strangeness |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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