Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Wednesday, 5 June 2013


 Daily Headlines
Of all the charges against Bradley Manning, the most pernicious -- and revealing -- is "aiding the enemy."

By Salvatore Babones
When It Comes to Business Profits, It's the Plutonomy versus the Realonomy -- and the Plutonomy is Winning
If world's big corporations prefer to sit on trillions of dollars in order to avoid paying taxes, let them. If they won't invest, we should.
By Andrew Schmookler
Which Would Be Better? Getting These Judges Confirmed or Getting the Filibuster Rules Reformed?
It would be good to get some good judges onto the bench of the D.C. District Court of Appeals. But it would also be good to change the rules regarding the filibuster so that they cannot so readily be abused, the way the Republicans have been doing in so unprecedented a fashion. Which ever would be better, it is at least encouraging that the Democrats are fighting back and should gain ground in one way or another.
By Bob Alexander
Forward ... Into the Past
Greed, insanity, and denial keep rapacious capitalism going full steam ahead. The leaders at the front are greedy and insane. Their minions are simply insane. And both groups, along with just about everybody else, is in denial. Economist Herbert Stein said if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. There is no reason do to anything to make the unsustainable thing stop because it will stop of its own accord.

While the fawning millionaire courtiers who populate the United States Senate fall all over themselves to smooth the way for Chicago billionaire Penny Sue Pritzker Traubert to become the next Secretary of Commerce, one might wonder what the country is getting here. In terms of hope and change, for example, what might Pritzker (she goes by her maiden name) portend in light of her public record?
History keeps warning us it takes just a spark to light a political bonfire. The recent spark in Istanbul was provided by a small group of very young environmentalists organizing a peaceful sit-in, Occupy-style, in Taksim Square to protest the planned destruction of one of the city center's few remaining public green spaces, Gezi park.
Say goodbye to San Francisco as we know it. The artists, creatives, and dissidents that haven't left, are packing. Some are cashing in on the way out, making way for Plan Bay Area.
To convict Bradley Manning, it will be necessary for the US government to conceal crucial parts of his trial. Key portions of the trial are to be conducted in secrecy: 24 prosecution witnesses will give secret testimony in closed session, permitting the judge to claim that secret evidence justifies her decision. But closed justice is no justice at all.
Palestinians have no control over their borders, airspace, radio frequencies, water and other natural resources, not even over the currency or internal movement of goods and people. Everything depends on Israel's good will. And few investors will be prepared to bet on that.
Monsanto is now in full retreat against a global grassroots rejection of its poisons and lies. The company is backpedaling on every front now, even admitting defeat in Europe and now trying to focus its last, desperate efforts on the United States and Brazil.
Analysis of the political commentary in "Star Trek Into Darkness" with regards to the 'War on Terror' and the policies of both Bush and Obama.

You can't refinance, or get rid of the debt through bankruptcy. Here's how it's even more of a sham than you know;
While many scholars acknowledge that Jesus was a dedicated Jew till the end of his mortal life, it is widely believed that the Apostle Paul launched a new religion called Christianity. However, if Paul had simply stated to the Romans that he is not a Jew anymore but a leader of a new religion he would not have been arrested or executed. The evidence for this is right in "Acts of the Apostles"
After two years of civil war, support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad was said to have sharply increased. NATO has been studying data that told of a sharp rise in support for Assad. The data showed that a majority of Syrians were alarmed by the Al Qaida takeover of the Sunni revolt and preferred to return to Assad. The data, relayed to NATO over the last month, asserted that 70 percent of Syrians support the Assad regime. Another 20 percent were deemed neutral and the remaining 10 percent expressed support for the rebels.
Almost half of Iraq's oil production already is shipped to China, and those once vilified commies, reincarnated as today's robber barons, are bidding for an even larger stake in Iraq's oil field production. The Cold War is indeed over, but China's red capitalists have won.
The tornado that killed 18 people, including 4 storm chasers, west of Oklahoma City Friday was wider than any tornado ever observed or surveyed according to the National Weather Service and leading tornado researcher, Howard Bluestein. The massive El Reno, Okla. twister reached an unthinkable maximum width of 2.6 miles. "This is the biggest ever," Bluestein said.
The Bayou Corne Sinkhole berm built to contain the toxic waters of the sinkhole, caved in today. A recent depth survey shows that the sinkhole is 174' deep.
Eating Poison introduces investigative journalist Martha Rosenberg, and her book "Born with a Junk Food Deficiency: How flaks, quacks, and hacks pimp the public health". Author Kellia Ramares-Watson, herself an investigative journalist, adds her own research to give the reader a primer on two major causes of modern health problems: Processed foods and prescription drugs.
By robert braunstein
Free Bradley Manning
Opinion, Society, Government, First Amendment

Facts don't matter any more in news reporting. Gut feelings do.
By Kevin Anthony Stoda
Memory from Nazi Germany and Images of the Trial of Bradley Manning
Nazi-led Total War (1943-1945) under Goebbels and Hitler brought only further starvation and destruction to his homeland--even after Thoelking had been thrown in the brig and he had been threatened with charges of aiding and abetting the cause of the enemy. Why should not a soldier (Manning) speak the truth about war to his comrades and the powerful military brass in such an instance? Likewise, why should soldiers be prohi
Democrats didn't change Senate rules out of fear they'll soon be out of power. That may well guarantee it.

Rebuffing President Barack Obama's latest plea, House Republicans on Monday proposed keeping open the military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by barring the administration from transferring its terror suspects to the United States or a foreign country such as Yemen.
San Francisco billionaire, the (former) hedge fund manager Tom Steyer is a friend of President Obama. Held a fundraiser for him at his SF digs. And we all know that Steyer is laser-focused these days on climate change, specifically on pounding his fellow Dems that he deems supportive of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. And now, Steyer is inching towards a line where he's about to take on his buddy the president. In Tuesday's edition of Politico, Steyer is writing an open letter to Obama saying that after some recent developments in Canada, there is no logical reason for Obama to support the controversial pipeline project.
Military leaders said Tuesday that sexual assault in the ranks is "like a cancer" that could destroy the force, but they rejected far-reaching congressional efforts to strip commanders of some authority in meting out justice. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., challenged the military leaders, telling them not all commanders are objective, with some who don't even want women in their ranks and some who fail to understand the serious of some offenses. "Not every single commander can distinguish between a slap on the ass and a rape," Gillibrand said.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a strong push for U.S. intervention in Syria Monday evening in her relatively new role as a paid contributor for CBS News. Rice told CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley that the country has no option to "sit on the sidelines" when it comes to the Syrian conflict. Rice echoed sentiments made by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who recently returned from a secret trip to the region, when she suggested that a military no-fly zone would be a viable option to challenge Bashar al-Assad"s regime.
We're six months away from full implementation of the Affordable Care Act. What will that process look like for people like me without meaningful health insurance coverage? I plan to blog about the experience. Let's find out what it looks like together.
By Tom Engelhardt
Noam Chomsky: The Eve of Destruction
It didn't take long. In the immediate aftermath of the dropping of the "victory weapon," the atomic bomb, on two Japanese cities in August 1945, American fears and fantasies ran wild. Almost immediately, Americans began to reconceive themselves as potential victims of the bomb.

 Latest Articles
Paraguay: a History Lesson in the Dehumanizing Effects of Concentrated Wealth and Power
The History of Paraguay is a lesson in the corruption, dehumanization, inequality, war, and suffering that follow from great concentrations of wealth and political power. Described in narrative outline in this article, Paraguayan history offers food for thought about how national domestic and foreign policies might be shaped to better serve the common good.
Religion can be utilized to solve many of the problems atheism has to confront but without religion's supernatural source. The key challenge is not to utterly reject religion, but to instead exploit the good ideas put forward by religion to boost atheism's chance of increasing its appeal to the masses who are habituated to religion. Atheists need to learn that people seem to be more strongly drawn to believe in something

This epic trial is being held in a tiny courtroom that only fits a total of 50 people. Only 16 spaces were allocated to the public; the rest had to go to an overflow theater that seated about 100, or a trailer next to the courtroom with room for 35. Manning's trial is the most stark example of the Obama administration's relentless stance against whistleblowers.

 Best News Links from the Web
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, in a decision fraught with political implications, announced on Tuesday that he would schedule a special election in October for the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank R. Lautenberg on Monday. Christie said he had yet to decide on whom he would appoint to fill the seat between now and the special election. He said he made no distinction between so-called caretaker appointees and those who would be candidates for the seat. "I'm going to pick a person I believe to be the best person," he said.

What is the future likely to bring? A reasonable stance might be to try to look at the human species from the outside. So imagine that you're an extraterrestrial observer who is trying to figure out what's happening here or, for that matter, imagine you're an historian 100 years from now -- assuming there are any historians 100 years from now, which is not obvious -- and you're looking back at what's happening today. You'd see something quite remarkable.
Scientists detected radioactivity in Pacific bluefin tuna swimming off the California coast. The source of the radioactivity was Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi powerplants, which were damaged by the strong earthquake and subsequent tsunami on 11 March 2011 and released large quantities of radioactivity into the Pacific Ocean.
"Rep. Michele Bachmann got it backwards in her surprising retirement announcement. Many of her "mainstream liberal media" critics will miss her, especially the fact-checkers."
"The Republican and Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate special election later this month are set to conduct their first of three scheduled debates Wednesday night."
"Alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told his mother that people are sending him money and that someone opened an accountfor him, according to a new recording of their first phone call from prison."
"President Barack Obama is announcing a series of actions today aimed at protecting technology and finance companies, retailers and end users from frivolous lawsuits and demands for fees by businesses that abuse the patent system."
"Former Miss America Erika Harold is expected to announce Tuesday that she'll run for Congress and challenge GOP Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois in a primary."
"Sitting almost motionless, Pfc. Bradley Manning listened to his attorney argue that the soldier was young and naive and only wanted to enlighten the public about the bitter reality of America's wars when he gave a massive amount of classified material to WikiLeaks."
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 16:25