Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

OpEdNews

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If you have a problem reading this email, please click here to see the web page version You received this email because you signed up for it at OpEdNews. Unsubscribe instructions are at the bottom of this email. Two top headlines- Bob Burnett's Waiting for the Revolution  and, Danny Schechter's Mandela and Snowden: Heroes With More In Common Than We Know They add up to something. We have reached a point where we have to face the reality that electoral politics will not change anything significant. The corruption, the lobbying, the corporatization, the gerrymandering have all taken their toll. But all is not lost. We have each other and we have the power. Yes. We DO have the power. I've been to demonstrations where 130 people are arrested for civil disobedience. We have Ed Snowden sacrificing a comfortable life for a life of uncertainty, as Nelson Mandela, the man most respected as a hero in the whole world, did.  We can change America. It will take courage and sacrifice as Mandela and Snowden have demonstrated.  Let's make this  happen.  And please, help support opednews as we try to make it happen, reporting on activists, reporting against corporatists of all parties. Click here to donate today. thanks,  rob kall Support Opednews. Make a tax deductible donation to make OEN Strong. Daily Headlines By Bob Burnett Waiting for the Revolution In the latest recovery, 93 percent of the gains went to the top 1 percent. How long will it take before the 99 percent realize they're getting shafted? When will American workers revolt? By Danny Schechter Mandela and Snowden: Heroes With More In Common Than We Know Is there any connection between Snowden and Mandela. News Dissector Danny Schechter thinks so. By Robert De Filippis Businesses Add Costs to Social Programs and Complain About Taxes They Don't Pay Can we have it both ways? Lower prices and living wages for the working poor. Yes we can as long as we're willing to pay the taxes that support the social programs they use to survive. By Greg Palast The Drone Ranger: Obama's Dirty Wars Every Tuesday, President Obama personally checks off the names of people he wants killed. George Bush, a bit more squeamish than Obama, never did that; but Mr. Obama felt those decisions were the president's responsibility: he want[s] to keep his own finger on the trigger," according to one report. A tidy, scheduled man, the President only picks his victims once a week, now called "Terror Tuesday." By Pepe Escobar See You On The Dark Side Former NSA and DNI director Mike McConnell now happens to be vice chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton -- Snowden's employer up to this week. Talk about revolving door; from the NSA to Booz Allen to DNI and back to Booz Allen. Only this year McConnell has already raked in US$1.8 million by selling Booz Allen shares and options.[3] Clapper, the current DNI, is a former Booz Allen executive. By Robert Reich The Two Centers of Unaccountable Power in America, and Their Consequences It is rare in these harshly partisan times for the political left and right to agree on much of anything. But the reason, I think, both are worried about the encroachments of the NSA on the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, as well as the depredations of "too big to fail or jail" Wall Street banks on our economy, is fundamentally the same. By Timothy Gatto US to Supply Syrian Rebels with Heavy Weapons Americans are being railroaded into another lose/lose situation in the Middle-east to stop the political hemorrhaging here in America. This is unacceptable and Americans should see this as just what it is. War in order to keep dissent to a minimum is an old trick. People need to look at this for what it really is, something thrown into the mix to keep our eyes off the ball. By Ray McGovern Secrecy's Tangled Web of Deceit U.S. government officials insist that their secret surveillance techniques are so valuable in fighting "terrorism" that they must be kept completely in the dark -- along with the American people. This alleged imperative has justified even lying to Congress. By Steven Jonas Barack Obama: Bill Clinton/DLC 2.0 Concerned about "Obama cooperating with the Right?" It all started with Bill and his colleagues at the old DLC. This column is about that relationship. (Not considered here is the outburst from Bill on Obama not intervening in Syria. Why do that? Well, it has nothing to do with any feasible policy. It has everything to do with trying to create, even this early, distance between Obama and Hillary when she runs in 2016.) By michael payne The Reality Of What Happens After A U.S. President Enters The Oval Office What we may be witnessing is an America that's rapidly evolving into the modern-day version of Orwell's "1984". But this is not to say that President Obama is Big Brother because we could conclude that every president who enters the Oval Office immediately comes under the control of this extremely powerful consortium of high level officials who run this government and use the president as the chief facilitator of their agen By Bob Gaydos Biceps, triceps, deltoids, oh my! A report on a lifestyle makeover prompted by a visit to the doctor. Green Party urges mass protest against "adversarial government", end to National Surveillance State initiated under Bush The Green Party urges push back against the governments continues abuses of the fourth amendment and other civil rights. Paul Krugman: Sympathy for the Luddites Today, a much darker picture of the effects of technology on labor is emerging. In this picture, highly educated workers are as likely as less educated workers to find themselves displaced and devalued, and pushing for more education may create as many problems as it solves. Education is no longer the answer to rising inequality, if it ever was (which I doubt). I can already hear conservatives shouting about the evils of "redistribution." But what, exactly, would they propose instead? By Jeffrey Dach New Study Shows Natural Thyroid Better than Synthetic Natural Thyroid has been used successfully for more than 100 years, and it is blatantly obvious to any experienced clinician that natural desiccated thyroid is superior to T4-only medications such as Synthroid and Levothyroxine. By Sergey Sorin The Ugly Duckling Syndrome and the Inner Swan In almost any society, there is a group or multiple groups that is/are deemed the "black sheep". On a higher note the "ugly duckling" was never a "duckling" to begin with. So in a way, the "ugly" component, so prevalent in the story, is only as real as one will allow it. Letting go of that and simply releasing it is as quick and simple as realizing and acknowledging the true beauty and magnificence of each and every one. State of Emergency: 12 Years and Counting, from Washington's Blog President Bush declared a State of Emergency after 9/11 that has never been lifted. This means that a kind of martial law has been in effect all this time. Government has continued by Executive Orders from the President. There are dozens of undisclosed Presidential directives that define U.S. national security policy and task government agencies, but whose substance is unknown either to the public or to Congress. We have no idea what our government is up to. In 2007, Rep Peter DeFazio, on the Homeland Security Comm, asked about "Continuity of Government" - a shadow govt that makes the real decisions, unbeknownst even to most elected officials. He was stonewalled. The entire Committee was refused access. DeFazio concluded: "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right". The massive spying on Americans "revealed" last month has been in place at least since 2008. The Death of the Internet NUMERIAN: "If there is anything that drives Washington to a greater frenzy than spying on all Americans, it is the opportunity to do that spying in the private sector, as subcontractors to the NSA. In 1999 a middle-management employee of the NSA was given the task of analyzing how the NSA was going to develop the capability to analyze the growing volume of data being produced in the digital world. That employee, James R. Clapper, formed a one-man task force and came to the conclusion it wasn't possible for the NSA to do this task; or, better put, "why should it reinvent the wheel." The work of metadata analysis, as it was now called, was already being done suitably in the corporate world, so he recommended the NSA outsource this work to corporations." "Anthropocene Astronomy: Thwarting Dangerous Asteroids Begins with Finding Them" | Beyond The Beyond | Wired.com I do believe this is the only meaningful next step for humanity, thanks to its grossly aggressive past, to redeem itself by using the fruits of war to save the planet. Rubio Says It Should Be Legal To Fire Someone For Being Gay Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is touted as a top GOP presidential prospect in 2016, thinks it should be legal to fire someone for their sexual orientation. Though Rubio bristles at the notion of being called a "bigot," he showed no willingness to help protect LGBT workers from discrimination. "I'm not for any special protections based on orientation," Rubio told ThinkProgress. By Abdus-Sattar Ghazali Republican Congressman broad-brushes American Muslims The American Muslim community was alarmed by Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo's statement that the Muslims here have not condemned acts of terrorism against the U.S. and therefore are complicit in those and any future attacks. By Ralph Nader Obama: Sweat The Small Stuff For Big Justice The imaginative uses of the mighty presidency in American history and its bully pulpit have rarely been much above amateurish when it comes to helping people empower themselves. Undercover CIA agent sues agency over stalled probe of alleged war crimes A senior undercover CIA officer, accused by the spy agency of "war crimes", has alleged that it halted an internal investigation that could have exonerated him and placed him under surveillance instead. By Ritt Goldstein Swedish Riots: An Exclusionary Economy, "Daily Racism," and Politics of the 1930s? This journalist was warned about Swedish rioting in March, two months before it occurred. Given Sweden's status as something of a political icon, the startling truths revealed here are indeed worth reading. Syria regime used chemical weapons against rebels, US officials say The US said it would provide military support to the Syrian rebels on Thursday after confirming it now believed there was concrete evidence of limited nerve gas attacks by government forces against rebel groups. White House officials said that President Barack Obama had decided to provide military support to the rebels but declined to reveal what kind. Earlier on Thursday, his spokesman Jay Carney dismissed comments from former president Bill Clinton who appeared to endorse the position of senator John McCain and others who support arming rebels. By Democracy Now Is Edward Snowden a Hero? A Debate with Journalist Chris Hedges & Law Scholar Geoffrey Stone Edward Snowden's decision to leak a trove of secret documents outlining the NSA's surveillance program has elicited a range of reactions. Among his detractors, he's been called "a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison. To supporters, Snowden is a hero for showing that "our very humanity [is] being compromised by the blind implementation of machines in the name of making us safe. By Joel Hirschhorn Limbaugh Mocks Free Speech Limbaugh is not just entertaining, he is destroying the US political system and our democracy. He continues to make extreme statements that have no factual basis, the latest being we are in a coup d'etat. By willy scanlon America is a terrorist Nation Part2 Latest drone attack in Pakistan was heinous and visciopus By David Swanson Syria: Pros and Cons Mr. President, if I were a professional con artist paid to give you the pros and cons on engaging in a war in Syria, here's what they would be: By Kathy Malloy One Step Forward Thanks, in part, to actress Angelina Jolie who underwent a preventative double-mastectomy as a result of genetic screening that revealed she had a serious risk of developing breast cancer, the US Supreme Court has decided that private companies cannot patent the human genome. By Kurt F. Stone One Fella's Fact is Another Fool's Fable Some people deny that the Holocaust ever happened. We call them crazy, hateful, deluded . . . and worse. Some deny the reality of man-made global warming; we call them members of Congress. Indeed, "One Fella's Fact is Another Fool's Fable." Latest Articles Playing the Obama Bumper Sticker Game There's no easier way to gauge the disappointment that liberals and progressives should feel toward President Obama than to look at their cars -- more specifically, their bumper stickers. I've been playing this game for years. Best News Links from the Web Americans' Confidence in Congress Falls to Lowest on Record Americans' confidence in Congress as an institution is down to 10%, ranking the legislative body last on a list of 16 societal institutions for the fourth straight year. This is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record. Americans remain most confident in the military, at 76%. Ultra-Orthodox Jews In Israel Face Reform Drive As Haredim Resist Rapid Change Often living in de-facto ghettos of their own making, the majority of Haredi men are allowed to shun the army and dedicate their life to religious study, living off donations, state benefits and the often meager wages of wives, many of whom work. In a country where most 18-year-old Jewish men and women are conscripted to maintain a standing and reserve army over 600,000 strong, such treatment is causing growing resentment. Bill Clinton: Obama May Look Like A "Wuss" Over Syria In sharp remarks directed against his Democratic successor and his wife's former boss, President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that President Barack Obama risks looking like a "wuss," a "fool," and "lame" for not doing more to influence events in Syria. Responding to a question from McCain about how he views Obama's Syria policy, Clinton said that any president who avoids a military intervention in order to satisfy short-term political objectives would come to regret it in the end. Supreme Court says genes can't be patented; patient advocates and researchers cheer The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that companies cannot patent human genes, a decision that patient advocates said would increase competition and lower the cost of screenings for cancer risk and other genetic tests. DNA is "a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated," the court said. In something of a compromise, it ruled that genetic material created in laboratories is eligible for patent protection. Rubio: "I'm Done" With Immigration Reform If Bill Includes LGBT Protections Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that he would abandon the Senate "Gang of Eight" immigration bill if it includes protections for LGBT couples, marking the senator's latest threat to torpedo the legislation he co-authored. "If this bill has something in it that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I'm done," Rubio said. Bill Clinton cautions Obama: Beware looking like a "total wuss" and "total fool" In a rare split over foreign policy, former President Bill Clinton said President Obama risks looking like a "total wuss" if he lets public and political opposition to intervening in Syria dissuade him from taking decisive action to help rebels topple the Assad regime. "You just think how lame you'd be," Clinton said. "Suppose I had let a million people, two million people be refuges out of Kosovo, a couple hundred thousand people die, and they say, 'You could have stopped this by dropping a few bombs. Why didn't you do it?' And I say, 'because the House of Representative voted 75 percent against it?' "You look like a total wuss, and you would be." World Population to 11 Billion? A new statistical analysis shows the world population could reach nearly 11 billion by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report issued June 13. That's about 800 million, or about 8 percent, more than the previous projection of 10.1 billion, issued in 2011. LEDs Cheaper, Greener? Researchers at the University of Washington have created a material they say would make LED bulbs cheaper and greener to manufacture, driving down the price. Their silicon-based nanoparticles soften the blue light emitted by LEDs, creating white light that more closely resembles sunlight. Western Emperors Have No Clothes Why were the 30,000 inhabitants of Qusayr obliged to hide in their homes for the past year while gangs of Libyan, Egyptian, Tunisian, Saudi, Chechen, Yemeni, French and British self-styled jihadists and, yes, local Syrian criminal opportunists, roamed the streets, looting and brutalizing? When these Western-backed killers and bandits were eventually run out of Qusayr last Wednesday, why did the inhabitants greet the Syrian army and their Lebanese Hezbollah comrades with relief and gratitude? Why have street celebrations been held in Qusayr feting the restoration of civilian life?