Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday 23 November 2014


 Daily Headlines
Ferguson, Missouri -- A steady rain dampened an already gloomy mood here Saturday afternoon as word spread that a grand jury looking into whether to indict police Officer Darren Wilson had yet to make a decision. The grand jury, which last met on Friday, will reconvene Monday, federal and local law enforcement officials told CNN. So, frustrated residents will have to wait a little longer to hear whether Wilson, who is white, will face charges in the August 9 shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black.

Sometimes we will come across challenges, or things won't turn out the way we planned. When we experience a challenge, it doesn't mean anything is wrong with us or our goal. A lot of people come across challenge and either give up or burn out. If we want to reach extraordinary or seemingly impossible goals, then we need tools for resilience. So that we keep going and bring forth the kind of world that we know is possible.
42 Years In Solitary! The facts of the case were on Albert Woodfox's side: There was no physical evidence linking him or his co-defendant, Herman Wallace, to the murder, and prosecutors did not reveal that their main witness had been bribed to testify against the men. Mr. Woodfox, by all accounts, has been a model prisoner, and under Louisiana prison policy this should have earned him his exit from solitary confinement years ago... State officials insist their case is solid and have already said they intend to retry him, though the prison guard's widow believes he is innocent of the killing and most of the potential witnesses in the case are dead. Even comparatively brief solitary confinement can cause severe mental and emotional trauma; a United Nations expert has said that more than 15 days may amount to torture. When it is imposed for more than 40 years, it is barbaric beyond measure.

Obama's move may have insured a Democratic presidential win in 2016.
There's a reason why, according to Gallup, Trust in Media (is at an) All-Time Low. It's because the corporate media is the most perfidious, double-dealing, hypocritical institution in the country today. That's why the anti-Putin propaganda has fallen on deaf ears. It's because most people know you can't believe anything you read in the news.
Underwater homeowners have been directly or indirectly victimized by bank predation. But the administration's senior economic officials have shown a disturbing tendency to treat them as if they were morally tainted and unworthy of support. At the same time, the administration has seeded top posts with executives from wrongdoing banks and has given Wall Street bankers a pass for widespread criminal fraud.
Last week, probable 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum gave the country a glimpse of what a Santorum presidency might look like. Santorum lamented the "breakup of any kind of cooperation" in government, and said "this president is very much to blame for this," because Obama hasn't been enough of a gentleman. Unlike the late Republican Senator from North Carolina and hate-mongering demagogue Jesse Helms.
The dynamic that is damaging our America, therefore, seems to have two main parts: 1)The Republican Party has become the instrument of a destructive force; 2)The response from Liberal America to this threat has been woefully weak. To drain the power of the right, and strengthen Liberal America, requires addressing the different "spiritual" errors the two sides make concerning "evil."
Have you ever noticed how Big Pharma in the United States has things exactly backwards? Instead of developing new pills that people need like non-addictive painkillers and antibiotics for resistant infections, it develops new diseases.
Here, a pediatrician, two scientists and a father explore the environmental factors that may worsen illness in children with autism--and what can reduce the disorder's severity.

Think about this for a minute: In the eyes of Jesus' executioners, today's "Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe" would be as unlikely as some future world celebrating the "Solemnity of Osama bin Laden, King of the Universe."
By Kevin Tully
Gifted
A story about those left behind.
When President Barack Obama appointed venture capitalist and former Verizon and ATT lobbyist Tom Wheeler as chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it sent shudders down the spines of anyone concerned with the concept of net neutrality.
Among our most prescient, original thinkers, there's a dawning awareness that the coming together of rationality with spirituality, the "marriage of science and spirit" is the big event happening now in terms of cultural evolution--an event on the scale of the Reformation or the Enlightenment, and there is no deep agreement about the precise terms on which this inevitable marriage will be consummated.
Kennedy looked beyond the "dust of centuries" to ponder America's "contribution to the human spirit." What other American president or elected (sanctioned!) political leader has conjoined the past titans of public life... with those who strode beside them to sculpt, paint and script the Age? More than our "Commander-in Chief," he ascribed to himself the greater role of Teacher-in-Chief.
A review of a recent book by Linda Tirado, "Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America". A firsthand and no holds barred view of what it means to be poor in this country.
By Kenneth G. Eade
Eatin' in the Free World
Perennial rock star Neil Young declared two weeks ago that he has sipped his last latte because Starbucks, the chic boutique of $10 coffee, is pro-GMO. According to Young, Starbucks has teamed up with Monsanto to sue Vermont, the first state in the U.S. to pass a GMO labeling law, over the recently enacted legislation. "Considering that Starbucks has been progressive on LGBT and labor issues in the past, it's disappointing tha

"Once there was the Stone Age, then the Bronze Age, and now we are in the middle of the Plastic Age," said teenager Boyan Slat. "Every year, we produce 300 million tons of plastic. Much of it reaches our oceans."
There's no shortage of borderline behavior coming from Republicans who are fuming that President Obama is using the power of his office to protect 40 percent of the nation's unauthorized immigrants from deportation--the same percentage that were helped in similar ways by Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush a quarter-century ago.
The hands that carried out the bombings in Gaza might be Palestinian and even Fatah or Hamas hands, but those who issued the orders could not have been Palestinian decision-makers.
By Martin Hill
'Global Terrorism Index' Offers 6 Alternatives To "Ineffective & Counterproductive" War on Terror
The Global Terrorism Index has offered SIX THINGS TO DO LESS OFTEN and SIX DIRECTIONS FOR CONSTRUCTIVE ALTERNATIVES in the fight against terrorism.
The United States plans to buy arms for Sunni tribesmen in Iraq including AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds to help bolster the battle against Islamic State militants in Anbar province, according to a Pentagon document prepared for Congress. The ensuing Sunni tribal revolt prompted the entrance of Islamic State into Falluja and Ramadi, where U.S. troops had met fierce resistance from Sunni insurgents including al Qaeda during their occupation of Iraq after the 2003 invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein. The United States, which has deployed a small number of military advisors to Anbar province, hopes the Sunni tribesmen can later form part of a more formal Iraqi National Guard.

Lake-effect snow in Buffalo: Climate change is making snowstorms more extreme.
In the aftermath of a massive lake-effect snowfall event in western New York state on Tuesday, it's worth asking: Is climate change playing a role here? Because, I mean, come on. Seventy--seven zero--inches, people. And another huge round is forecast for Thursday, by the way. Buffalo deserves answers. The short...
By Shirley Braverman
Millions in Obamacare Grants Flow into the States to Revolutionize Healthcare
Millions of dollars in grants are flowing into the states that have embraced the A.C.A. The citizens of these states will reap the rewards while those citizens of states that have ignored the program will continue to be underserved.
The executive action on immigration issued by the White House Friday is reactionary and anti-democratic. The framework of Obama's plan is based on the premise, shared by the entire political establishment, that all undocumented immigrants are criminals.

President Obama decided in recent weeks to authorize a more expansive mission for the military in Afghanistan in 2015 than originally planned, a move that ensures American troops will have a direct role in fighting in the war-ravaged country for at least another year. Obama's decision, made during a White House meeting in recent weeks with his senior national security advisers, came over the objection of some of his top civilian aides, who argued that American lives should not be put at risk next year in any operations against the Taliban -- and that they should have only a narrow counterterrorism mission against Al Qaeda.
Republicans have finally filed their lawsuit against the president over implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Actually, the president isn't a respondent; the suit names the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Secretary. It's still a horrible idea. Just because some Republicans want to pretend that before January 2009 presidential power had been limited to pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys doesn't mean they are right. Filing this lawsuit amounts to institutional treason. Boehner and House Republicans should be ashamed.

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A friend of alleged Boston marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev has appeared in court and asked a judge to fire his lawyer. Khairullozhon Matanov is charged with obstructing the marathon bombing investigation and recently alleged he was subjected to horrific abuse at the hands of his prison guards.

"We love you Bill Cosby!"
The scorecard on Bill Cosby reads like this. A dozen or more women have said with only a slight variation in the time, place and circumstance that Cosby seduced them, propositioned them, promised them favors, put them up, even paid them, thendrugged or plied them with alcohol and raped them. One Bill Cosby publicly says the charges are a lie. One man denies the charge. The dozen plus women stick to their stories. Yet a seeming
We'll Eat Crow, But There is Enough to Share
An honest look at the latest elections and how the American electorate does not look at America honestly.
Mark Udall and the Unspeakable
The depth of elected officials' obedience to a permanent war machine is usually a topic avoided in polite company -- usually, not always.
ObamaCare is Paying So California College Students Rush Into Nursing Programs.
New health care programs will not be able to function without advanced professional health personnel. California knows it and has extended half a billion dollars to grants in the health field. Nurses numbers are expected to double in the next 3 to 4 years, as are other health care programs.
More people now oppose fracking than those who support it. Here's why.

Though the report has been completed for many months, the members of the Senate Intelligence committee have been fighting with the White House, which allowed CIA officials to review its findings, over the scope of redactions to the report's summary before it's made public.
The US corporate media reports on Ukraine sound exactly like the Voice of America 'news,' or in other words, like propaganda, giving only the anti-Russia, Kiev-backing version of a vicious civil war, writes TCBH! journalist Dave Lindorff
Rep. Michele Bachmann is going a little off the Republican Party's desired message on President Obama's planned action on immigration. The official Republican message is that their anger is about executive overreach, not about scary brown people. Bachmann, though, is definitely focused on the scary brown people.
As you know, a pre-emptive State of Emergency has been called in Ferguson, Missouri as the country waits to hear if officer Darren Wilson will be charged with the murder of Michael Brown. Let's focus on another State of Emergency for a moment. Like me, you are the beneficiary of unearned white privilege. I'm not going to insult your intelligence, nor should you insult other members of this club
President Obama Goes to United Nations: Five Hundred Words to Change the Course of History
With election 2014 behind him President Obama now has a free hand to do what is right and just to earn his Noble Peace Prize of 2009. Humanity facing WWIII and The Age of Catastrophe needs bold leadership. Going to the United Nations in the Spring of 2015 and announcing the Kennedy-like challenge of the Age of Peace 2050 Project ... An opportunity to be the Alexander the Great of his time ... not in war, but in peace.
The grand jury investigating the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson will announce its decision any day now. All indications are that it will let the killer cop, Darren Wilson, walk free. This would amount to the system giving its stamp of approval, once more, to police wantonly murdering Black youth.

In its long and checkered history, Jerusalem has been occupied by dozens of conquerors. The latest occupier is Israel, which conquered and annexed Jerusalem in 1967. Walking the streets of Jerusalem, the city which is "joined together," has become a risky adventure. Many stay at home.The Unholy City is more divided than ever before.
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- four major broadcast networks -- all declined to interrupt prime-time programming to air President Obama's Thursday evening address on immigration policy. Though cable news channels, public television stations and Spanish-language stations cleared time for the president's speech, the big broadcast networks stuck with fare such as The Biggest Loser.

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When Eric Cantor was asked to leave his place of employment -- that request came from his constituents -- he neglected to pass along the location of the mason jar in which he buried John Boehner's balls back in 2010. Boehner's search now has become one of those National Treasure movies, where you have to find the location of the clues before you can find the location of the treasure. Apparently, he's come to the spot on the map that reads, "Now that the president has acted on immigration, it's time to sue him over the Affordable Care Act."

The real reason this wasn't seen on any of the Corporate Media Propagandist stations? In Las Vegas, President Obama cut through the angry rhetoric and BS on immigration and explained to the American people that it was John Boehner who forced Obama to act alone by refusing to allow a vote on the Senate passed immigration bill. The president said,.....
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose force used racial profiling during a crackdown on illegal migrants last year according to a judge, said Obama has overstepped his powers by bypassing Congress and bringing in the changes himself. Arpaio's lawsuit said the reforms, which eased the threat of deportation for about 4.7 million undocumented immigrants, amounted to an amnesty and would encourage more people to cross the border illegally.
Republican Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama thinks they can send President Obama to prison for 5 years for doing what every other modern president has done by taking executive action on immigration reform. The Democrat in the White House is a criminal for doing what other presidents have done. He will either be impeached or go to prison, according to this Southern Republican. For what, we don't know yet. Republicans will think about that tomorrow.
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 18:17