Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday, 7 June 2013


 Daily Headlines
The recent revelation that the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers, with the complete blessing of the Obama administration, should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention over the past decade.

1. Obedience is extremely dangerous.
By Bob Burnett
The Heartless Economy
In January of 1968, Dr. Norman Shumway performed the first successful US adult heart transplant at Stanford Hospital in California. At the time, some complained the millions of dollars spent on the operation should have instead been used to feed the thousands of starving children in nearby communities. Nonetheless, the transplants continued and millions of children went hungry. A metaphor for the nature of the US economy.
Population growth, increased consumption, and finite resources will eventually lead to significant issues for the web of life on planet Earth.

The terrible irony of today's situation is that over six decades ago at Nuremberg the U.S. government participated in the prosecution, punishment, and execution of Nazi government officials for committing some of the same types of heinous international crimes that these officials of the United States government have inflicted upon people all over the world.
The idea that many 'terrorist' attacks are in fact carried out by government intelligence agencies is not a new concept. What is new is the idea that these government-inspired or perpetrated terrorist attacks are somehow doubly "fake" in the sense that some or all of the details of the attack didn't actually happen in any real sense
Will the Chemical Safety Improvement Act make industrial chemicals exempt from public or government scrutiny?
By Paul Craig Roberts
A Brief For Animals
Humans who fire-bomb civilian cities, drop nuclear bombs on civilian populations, act out ideological hatreds taught to them by sociopaths posing as pundits and journalists, and decimate their own kind out of total ignorance could be regarded as a life form that is inferior to wild animals.
The Senate Armed Forces Committee is wrestling with rape and sexual assault in the military. The problem is improvement is impossible unless the current status quo that looks the other way to abuses of the hypermasculinity encouraged by our militarist war culture.
Another title for this article might be "Evaluating Without Testing: Caring for Children's Minds." In Part 1, I tried to demonstrate that the core of the so-called No Child Left Behind Act is a fool's errand, based on all manner of things that don't matter to the human mind and spirit. I now offer the classroom teacher and concerned citizens something beyond mindless tests and meaningless numbers for evaluating kids.
June 7, 2013 marks Day 121 of a hunger strike by at least 103 of the 166 men still imprisoned at Guantanamo. The U.S. military acknowledges that 38 are being forcibly fed twice a day by tubes snaked through their noses. Force feeding is condemned by the American Medical Association and the United Nations.

By People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
A 'snip' in time saves felines
June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month--the perfect time to save a life by adopting a cat from an animal shelter or reputable breed-rescue group. But if we want to one day celebrate "There Are No More Shelter Cats in Need of Adoption" Month, spaying and neutering are the keys.
The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill Colonoscopies Explain Why U.S. Leads the World in Health Expenditures
In many other developed countries, a basic colonoscopy costs just a few hundred dollars and certainly well under $1,000. That chasm in price helps explain why the United States is far and away the world leader in medical spending, even though numerous studies have concluded that Americans do not get better care.
In a scathing editorial, the Gray Lady says Barack Obama's presidency, which once promised unprecedented transparency, is instead "proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it." The Times also chastised members of Congress as a group and some individuals by name. The whole institution came in for a spanking for granting the executive branch such sweeping surveillance powers in the first place. And the ranking members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which "is supposed to be preventing this sort of overreaching," offered "absurd" defenses of the administration, notes the Times.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila have announced their "marriage is over." "It was our joint decision, our marriage is over," President Putin said in the interview to Russia24 state channel. Asked to confirm if that was a divorce, Lyudmila Putina, who was standing by the President's side, told the media "Yes, you can say that, this is civilized divorce."
With the revelation that the National Security Agency is sweeping up the telephone records of Americans suspected of no wrongdoing, though, the Obama gang may finally have a real scandal on its hand--not a scandal of wrongdoing or unethical conduct, but one of government overreach. Yet, as White House officials are already pointing out to reporters, if this is a scandal, it is a bipartisan scandal, for Congress has approved this wide-ranging, super-secret, domestic surveillance program. At issue is the disclosure of a highly classified court order--issued by a judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court--that forced a Verizon subsidiary to hand over on a daily basis to the NSA call logs for all of its customers.
It seems like a great idea but the "Cloud" takes away real ownership of your data and uses a potentially beneficial protocol to bad purposes.
A portion of the berm around the unprecedented sinkhole in Bayou Corne, built to keep contaminated water from the sinkhole from seeping into the surrounding bayou area, is now underwater. On Monday June 4, about 400' - 500' of the berm apparently sank approximately six feet. Some residents who have stayed through the ordeal since August 4, 2012, are now leaving.
At last year's Brooklyn Peace Fair investigative journalist and peace activist Jeremy Scahill talked about his concern with Internal Revenue Service oppression.

The Split Between the States
That infection has spread to 25 states, mostly with Repub leaders, that have said no to the Medicaid expansion or are resisting it. As Robert Pear of The Times recently reported, more than half of all people without health insurance live in states that are not planning to expand coverage. Many of those states already do a terrible job of covering the poor and have no interest in changing their ways, no matter the financial incentive.On Medicaid, education and many other issues, the map of the US is becoming a patchwork of conscience and callousness.People on one side of a state line have access to health care, strong public schools and colleges,and good transportation systems,while those on the other side do not.The breakdown of a sense of national unity in Washington is now reflected across the country, as more than two dozen states begin to abandon traditions of responsible government
There were an estimated 26,000 cases of unwanted sexual contact last year alone in the military, according to one Pentagon survey. But only about 3,400 were actually reported. Officers in charge of preventing unwanted sexual contact allegedly engaged in it.

House Republicans have voted 37 times to repeal ObamaRomneyCare -- the Affordable Care Act, which creates a national health insurance system similar to the one Massachusetts has had since 2006. Nonetheless, almost all of the act will go fully into effect at the beginning of next year. the only way to understand the refusal to expand Medicaid is as an act of sheer spite. And the cost of that spite won't just come in the form of lost dollars; it will also come in the form of gratuitous hardship for some of our most vulnerable citizens.
Senator Lindsay Graham, R-SC, has declared himself "glad" that the National Security Agency is obtaining the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. And key Democrats, such as Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, D-California, have adopted a "what's-the-big-deal?" stance that says the spying is old news that senators should have been aware of.
This is the most disgusting headline I've seen in a long time.
By Hamma Mirwaisi
Who Are the Kurds? Logical Answer is
Huart evolved to Kurt and Kurt in time evolved to Kurd
By Hamma Mirwaisi
Turkey and PKK Need President Obama's Help for Peaceful Resolution
Hamma Mirwaisi and Alison Buckley are authors of the historical novels Vashti Queen of the Ancient Medes (Kurds) and Esther Mystery Queen of the Medes (Kurds). They are working to revive the ancient "Airyanem Civilization" record in this series of books, and are calling for the establishment of an "Economic Union" for the Middle East to solve some of the problems among the population of that part of the world.
The quick pace of this week's proceedings contrasted sharply with how the trial has progressed in the months -- and years -- leading up to this week. The court-martial began Monday at Ft. Meade outside of Baltimore, but not before Manning spent more than 1,100 days in pretrial confinement. The trial is scheduled to continue for another 11 weeks.

Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday night leveled some rare and harsh criticism at the Obama administration, attacking its reported collection of phone records for millions of Americans. The order reportedly allows the government to collect phone records for any of Verizon's customers, even if they aren't suspected of wrongdoing. It does not allow them to listen to the phone calls themselves.
By David Swanson
Join Me in D.C. Saturday
Saturday June 8 is packed in Washington, D.C. Here's where I'll be and I hope to see you! --David Swanson
Even the Washington establishment admits all options are noxious. To top it off, Turkey has been plunged into the Taksim/Occupy Gezi/Down with the Dictator maelstrom -- and the last thing an embattled Erdogan will be thinking about is to further empower a bunch of "rebel" losers.

 Latest Articles
By Come Carpentier de Gourdon
THE ASTANA GLOBAL ECONOMIC FORUM - A Review
The 6th Astana Forum in Kazakhstan from the 22nd to the 24th of May 2013 was held together with the World Anti-Crisis Conference (WACC) under the auspices of UN. A number of Nobel Prize Laureates and statesmen gathered to thrash out strategies to move out of the enduring economic crisis. One of the most original initiatives was the plan for a Transeurasian Development Corridor (RAZVITIE)as a catalyst for a new economic model.
The redistribution of income over recent decades to corporations and their owners threatens Social Security as well. This article shows the connections, and even suggests a solution to this very real threat.

Three Very Different "Poles"
No matter our ethnic backgrounds, I am sure we will find people in it who we are proud of and of course, some who never measured up. Here is the account of three men with a Polish background. Two comported themselves in an exemplary manner. One did not.
A description of rainbow warriors in a Wendigo world of environmental destruction.

The struggle in life, study and the job were together helping me to acquire maturity as an independent woman and a good poet.
No matter what you think of Obama -- that he's the best President ever, or the worst in history, you have to be surprised by today's revelation that his wiretapping of innocent Americans supersedes any devious plot the collective minds of Bush Crime Family could devise.
Supporters Abandon Rogue Coroner in British Litvinenko Case
Coroner accused of giving up his search for the truth.
Professor Brian Glyn Williams obscures his past links to the CIA and to the Jamestown Foundation, as he also obscures his personal relationship mentoring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in articles he has written on the Boston Marathon bombings. Which specific "fighters" and "commanders" did Mr. Williams recommend to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that would cause him to lament to a journalist: "I hope I didn't contribute to it?"

Is India Adopting Double Standards Regarding Privacy Rights and Telephone Tapping?
India is imposing Aadhaar project upon Indians without any legal framework and procedural safeguards.
A secret court order signed by a FISA judge requires Verizon w/ tens of millions customers "to provide the NSA w/ daily information on all telephone calls by its subscribers w/in the U.S." The Center for Constitutional Rights says it requires no level of suspicion & does not require a showing of probable cause. This secret order is just data mining w/o cause or suspicion & clearly unConstitutional.

If you are these Republican guys -- that is, completely amoral, care not a whit for your country and seek power at all costs - what do you do? You gin up "scandal" of course, and hope that, even though people hate you, they might just hate the other guy more once you are done.
Maryland v. King and the Total Loss of Our Bodily Integrity
Now, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's devastating decision in Maryland v. King --in which a divided Court determined that a person arrested for a crime who is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty must submit to forcible extraction of their DNA--you can add invasive DNA sampling to the list of abuses being "legally" meted out on the long-suffering American populace.
Engelhardt: At World's End and Back Again
Here may be the most commonplace sentence anyone could write about graduation day in any year: when I think back to my own graduation in 1966, an eon, a lifetime, a world ago, I have no memory of who addressed us. None. I have a little packet of photos of the event: shots of my parents and me, my grandmother and me, my aunt and me, my former roommates and me, my friends and me.
The drone spin in the American press

President Obama has been under attack by the right-wing media for a series of so-called "scandals." If you look into these stories, you don't find much there. But what would they talk about on Fox without them?
Burma: Conflict and human trafficking on the Kachin-China border
The report highlights 24 cases of actual or suspected trafficking from Kachin border areas since the resumption of fighting in June 2011, mostly involving young women and girls displaced by the war, who have been tricked, drugged, raped, and sold to Chinese men or families as brides or bonded laborers for as much as 40,000 Yuan (about $6,500 USD) per person. Some ended up as far east as Shandong and Fujian provinces.
Perfect Symbol for Green Party: A Patiently Boiling Frog
A typically scathing (for those who know me as author) denunciation of the Green Party, predominantly on target in its views, for a standoffish political self-righteousness that never seeks to recruit--or, more importantly, cooperate with--fellow progressives, whether Democrats of progressive independents.
Serengeti
Obama holds court in the White House, with his sycophantic supporters, while murdering innocent people in foreign lands.
What I Like About OpEdNews Platform
This is a public endorsement of the qualitative efforts and hard work of OpEdNews. Thanks OpEdNews for accepting me a part of this great platform.
How the Pentagon Removes Entire Peoples
The U.S. military has displaced and continues to displace for the construction of its bases the entire populations of villages and islands, in blatant violation of international law, basic human decency, and principles we like to tell each other we stand for.

 Best News Links from the Web
In October 2009, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that a new national VAT was "on the table" to help the federal government garner needed revenues. After her speech the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) group urged the public to contact their members of Congress to oppose this potential measure. President Barack Obama was reported to be open to a national VAT. One day later, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner stated that President Obama does not support a VAT. The U.S. has tried -- and failed -- to neutralize foreign VATs highlights America's attempts to neutralize our now-$500B trade disadvantage for 50 years. Jim Clifton, Gallup Chairman's November 2009 interview The Next Generation of Leadership starts with the following quote: "The old rules still apply. But to win in the new world, leaders must understand their constituents' state of mind, says Gallup's chairman and CEO."

Billions of dollars in funding cuts for food stamps, contained in bills moving through Congress, have split Democratic lawmakers and angered advocates for the poor, who criticize the cuts as heartless attempts to reduce the federal budget deficit. The anti-hunger lobbyists are especially disappointed by Democrats who in recent weeks have voted for the cuts in legislation that passed the House of Representatives and Senate agriculture committees last month, measures that also contain controversial aid to farmers.
Koch Brothers Try to Pollute Clean Electricity Law in Maine Through Front Organizations
A new report by the Maine Conservation Alliance, ME’s Majority Education Fund and ME People’s Alliance, issued earlier this month, sheds some light on the powerful forces fueling LePage and his allies’ efforts to weaken ME’s RPS: Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists from Kansas and owners of the second largest private company in the U.S. with revenues estimated at $100 billion a year. They have an aggressive network of front groups at their behest in our state, which they leverage frequently to help them promote and pursue their financial interests. These groups operate for the most part behind the scenes in the form of think tanks, campaigns, nonprofit organizations and legislative PACs. The activities of this network are deceptive by design to mask their deep self-interest: The Kochs have no stake in the long-term viability of our state, aside from making sure
The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person's movements and contacts over time. The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy. Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who know about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

A large U.S. military force has reportedly arrived at a port in the south of Jordan, ready to be deployed at the country's border with neighboring Syria. The Israeli military intelligence website DEBKAfile has reported that 1,000 U.S troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force arrived at the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba on Tuesday and made their way to the north of the country under heavy Jordanian military escort. According to DEBKAfile, Washington imposed a blackout on the arrival of the rapid-response force as the Pentagon only reported the sending of a Patriot missile battery and F-16 warplanes to Jordan for a military drill.
The number of hunger-striking Guantanamo detainees being force fed by military medical teams has jumped to 41 and now makes up a quarter of the camp's prisoner population. In all, 103 inmates are now on hunger strike, with four being hospitalized. The number of inmates being force fed was 31 on the eve of a speech by President Obama last month in which he promised to work towards closing the base and allow the release of many of the 86 prisoners held there who have been cleared for transfer.
Rebels fighting the Syrian government seized the only border crossing along the Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line in the Golan Heights on Thursday, according to the Israeli military and rebel groups, forcing the United Nations peacekeeping soldiers who patrol the crossing to vacate it and bringing the Syrian conflict ever closer to Israeli-held territory.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on Thursday announced the appointment of Jeffrey S. Chiesa, the state's attorney general, to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank R. Lautenberg. On the Democratic side, Representative Rush Holt, who has represented central New Jersey for eight terms in Congress, on Thursday announced his intention to compete for the seat.
A huge sinkhole in southern Louisiana that has already forced hundreds of residents out of their homes continues to expand and buck local efforts to prevent it from contaminating other areas. The Bayou Corne sinkhole, a 15-acre-wide hole that opened up last year in rural Assumption Parish, swallowed a berm on Tuesday that was intended to stave off contamination.
Trauma surgeon Ross Miller battled to save the Senator's life but his heroic role was relatively unknown until his reporter-daughter's search
Here's how grassroots advocates beat the biotech and food lobbies.
Early Earth was not very hospitable when it came to jump starting life. In fact, new research shows that life on Earth may have come from out of this world.
Surprisingly large amounts of discarded trash end up in the ocean. Plastic bags, aluminum cans, and fishing debris not only clutter our beaches, but accumulate in open-ocean areas such as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Now, a paper by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) shows that trash is also accumulating in the deep sea, particularly in Monterey Canyon.
Researchers from the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology have isolated a new population of primitive, stress-resistant human pluripotent stem cells easily derived from fat tissue that are able to differentiate into virtually every cell type in the human body without genetic modification.
The Federal Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit is the second most powerful court in the nation after the Supreme Court. It often gets the last word on a wide variety of regulations, including those on Wall Street and polluters like oil companies and utilities, as well as on labor and national security matters. It doesn't matter if we pass Obamacare or Dodd-Frank or unions work hard to win new protections for workers if the D.C. Circuit simply strikes down our accomplishments later.Despite its evident importance, more than a quarter of the seats on the D.C. Circuit are sitting empty today -- one since 2005. Today, President Obama set about fixing that. He nominated three highly-qualified individuals to fill the remaining three vacancies. These are vacancies the president noted that the Constitution compels him to fill --
Debt Doom Cycle - Roosevelt Institute
What does it mean when someone refers to the "Doom Cycle," or "Doom Loop"? **This concept will be discussed in detail at the Roosevelt Institute's March 3rd conference in New York, "Make Markets Be Markets', and also in a report written by Simon Johnson, Rob Johnson (Director of the Roosevelt Institute's Project on Global Finance), Nobel Laureate Joe Stiglitz (Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute), Elizabeth Warren, and others. Stay tuned for updates on this much-anticipated event.
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 16:53