May
20

High drama and political theater

They knew this would happen. Do you think for one instant that they do not have a back-up plan? Of course this had nothing to do with crime, criminals or terrorists, which is just a fancy name for a criminal.

This is about dissent. This is about what is happening in Chicago today and Chicago in 1886. This is about the Bonus Army, this is about Kent State. They never want you to see them kill your sons and daughters on film again. They would rather have them join the ranks of the Desaparecidos for demanding their rights.

Very simply, it is now obvious that the NDAA was written not to deal with terrorists or potential terrorists. After all, if the government has evidence that an individual or group is planning to commit a terrorist attack then they do not need an indefinite detention provision; all they need is to arrest such individuals and prove beyond reasonable doubt before a jury of their peers that a crime has been committed. That is how justice works — if the evidence exists you can bring a successful prosecution.

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Judge Katherine Forrest is a Modern American Hero
Sometimes, the greatest deeds are done by those who are just doing their jobs, like Judge Katherine Forrest who last week struck down the indefinite detention provision (§1021) of the National De…

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May
20

You just know that when an economist opens his essay with this, it is going to be…

You just know that when an economist opens his essay with this, it is going to be a good read.

If I and a few brutes appeared at the door of an unsuspecting individual and demanded monetary compensation less we drag him off to jail, this would be a clear cut case of robbery. It is a common tactic used by mobs or street gangs to offer protection with the barrel of a gun. The only difference between shakedowns by private thugs and those employed by the state is the badge. The badge legalizes extortion and imprisonment.

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Italy and the Great Tax Revolt
James E. Miller holds a BS in public administration with a minor in business from Shippensburg University, PA. He is the Editor in Chief at the Ludwig von…

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May
20

Bad enough that my government thinks I am a radical because I advocate for the e…

Bad enough that my government thinks I am a radical because I advocate for the environment.

Now the American government thinks I am a radical because I am capable of critical thinking?

Western governments’ actual enemy is the capacity for a people to exercise critical thought en route to intervening in and altering political-economic processes.

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THE FRAMEWORK FOR SUPPRESSING INFORMATION: Public Opinion in America's 21st Century Police State
The police state's framework for suppressing information and opinion arguably threatens all forms of independent thought and appears poised to intensify as the “war on terror” continues. As the re…

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May
20

No wonder they got rid of him

He was a drain on profits.

Freedom isn't free, as the saying goes, but we don't honor the work that actually achieves it. "War will exist," President Kennedy privately wrote, "until the distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today."

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Ending the Mindset That Gets Us into War | War Is A Crime .org
MAY 20, 2012, MILITARIZED CHICAGO — Next month in Baltimore they're going to celebrate the War of 1812. That's what we do with wars. We say they're the last resort. We say they're hel…

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May
20

People with signs and drums and… walkers

The other side? Batons, shields and… helicopters.

Why does this feel like theater?

A few protesters at the plaza greeted her and shared laughs amid the thunder of helicopters clattering overhead and people playing drums.

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Great-grandma: Ready to 'lose' my life protesting
CHICAGO — Nan Wigmore brought her walker and packed her sign, “Grateful Great Grandmas Circle The Wagons, Support Occupy,” and rode on a bus for some three days, sleeping in the same clothes, to make…

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May
20

And in the process he tells us exactly how to hurt them the most

As Alexander Haig once stated “they can protest all they want so long as they pay their taxes”. This statement is pretty telling in my opinion.

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Worldwide protest movements: are they helping or hurting?
Must read post at End the Lie – Independent News : By Curt Williams

Contributing writer for End the Lie and host of Room 101

Are the worldwide protests helping or hurting? That is the q[..]

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May
20

Sounds about right

In the struggle against the economic elite, therefore, working people haven’t ever needed the assistance of the state; they require only that it cease intervening on behalf of the rich, powerful and politically connected “captains of industry.”

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The State and Capital: A Love Affair
D'Amato: In banking, it's dog eat dog (and the reverse).

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May
20

Trolling takes on a whole new meaning

Firedoglake also recounts a similar incident involving other livestreamers and concludes, “In each of these instances, the police did not inform those detained why they were being detained. The police stopped them to find criminal activity that they could then use against the journalists to make arrests. And so far they have not been able to find any justification for arresting any of these people, but they have been able to briefly frighten and infuriate these journalists and also to impound a vehicle.”

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Occupy livestreamers detained at gunpoint by twelve Chicago police cars | The Raw Story
Occupy Wall Street livestreamers Tim Pool, Luke Rudkowski, and Jeoff Shively, along with two other friends, were driving back to their apartment around midnight on Satuirday, after a long day covering…

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May
19

They don't much care what your ideology is

They'll arrest anybody who doesn't show the proper amount of fear.

Reshared post from +Bill Clay

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Arrested For Taking Pictures; Tortured For Being ‘A Teabagger’ : Personal Liberty Alerts
Nancy Genovese was arrested in New York for taking pictures. She was imprisoned and tortured over several days to send a message to “Teabaggers.” In the holding cell, she was interrogated without bein…

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May
19

Psychopaths are more attractive to women

There is a link between high testosterone levels in men and attractiveness to women. They did a study that showed that women, asked to choose for attractiveness from a pool of photographs, consistently chose men with higher levels of testosterone.

Cortisol, the stress hormone, destroys testosterone. The more stressed a person is, the higher the cortisol levels and the lower the testosterone. Stress is produced when humans are in situations where they are uncomfortable, physically, emotionally and psychologically.

Psychopaths do not care. It is what makes them psychopaths. This removes two of the realms of human stress from their psyches. They can never be stressed emotionally. They can never be stressed psychologically. They simply do not care.

So in a pack of 100 men, viewed under varying social circumstance, 1 or 2 of them will never be stressed, will always have high levels of testosterone and will consistently rank higher in attractiveness to most women.

So I would say we are slowly becoming more psychopathic. And as our culture is becoming more accepting of the behavior, we are not doing a very good job at identifying or protecting ourselves from these unfortunate people.

Psychologist Robert Hare has argued that psychopathy does indeed have a genetic component. He has observed how many (male) psychopaths have a pattern of mating with, and quickly abandoning women, and as a result, have a high fertility rate. His contention is that these children may inherit a predisposition to psychopathy.

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Are humans becoming more or less psychopathic?
Readers of this blog know that I've started to develop a bit of a fascination with psychopathy. It all got started after attending the Moral Brain conference at NYU last April. The more I look int…

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May
19

Release oil from reserves, lower prices briefly, boost economy, get elected

Sounds like a great strategy, except for the other consequences. Like the buying opportunity for China it will provide. Or the fact that later on it will have to be replaced with oil at a higher price on the taxpayer's dime. Or that by artificially pushing down the price he is discouraging investment in alternative energy and new exploration and extraction of conventional energy.

All of our energy choices going forward are bad choices. Playing politics with the issue doesn't help. What is needed is market pricing, including the environmental costs, up front. Artificial measures to hold the price lower are not helpful in the larger picture. We are going to have to address the problem at some point. How much further can we kick this can?

Speculation has been growing that Obama would use an energy session at the G8 to seek support to tap emergency oil reserves before a European Union embargo of Iranian crude takes effect in July and tough new U.S. sanctions come into force in late June. Exports have already fallen by more than a fifth this year.

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G8, raising pressure on Iran, puts oil stocks on standby
CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) – Leaders of the Group of Eight major economies raised the pressure on Iran on Saturday, signaling their readiness to tap into emergency oil stockpiles quickly this summ…

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May
19

To serve and provoke protect

Cowards. The jury mainly, but also the 6 armed thugs who thought it prudent to beat a defenseless 15 year old boy.

After Holley falls to the ground, he is clearly seen surrendering and putting his hands behind his head. But instead of placing him in handcuffs, Bloomberg and six fellow officers proceed to attack Holley with stomps and kicks.

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All-White Jury Acquits Houston Ex-Police Officer in Videotaped Beating of Black Teen Chad Holley
Hundreds of people rallied in Houston on Thursday to protest the acquittal of a former police officer in the videotaped beating of an African-American teenager. On Wednesday, the officer, Andrew Bloom…

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May
19

Makes me wonder how many of these thugs would even know anything about the Haymarket…

Makes me wonder how many of these thugs would even know anything about the Haymarket Martyrs.

Its easy to label those you do not agree with. It takes courage to engage their ideas and to find out that they too, are humans being.

Seems our leaders and their minions are lacking.

"There were guards walking by making statements into the door along the lines of 'hippie,' 'communist," 'pinko,'" a tired-looking Annussek told reporters just after his release.

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3 charged with terror conspiracy ahead of NATO  |
CHICAGO — Three men arrested earlier this week when police raided a Chicago apartment were being held on terrorism conspiracy charges Saturday stemming from allegations that they tried to make Molotov…

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May
19

This is reminding me of the massive protests before the second Iraq war

The corporate media did not report on those protests either. I was going to link to the comprehensive coverage from RT, but people keep hammering away on what a propaganda organ it is. So looked for alternative sources about this news. Ironic, as propaganda in our neck of the world is delivered more by what the media is allowed to cover than by spinning what they do cover.

The Depaulia, a student newspaper, apparently didn't get the memo and posted coverage.

Are we finally figuring out that moral behavior on the global stage is no longer relative? That there are objective measures that you can use as a thinking human being to tell whether your leaders are criminal scum or not? In a country built on the premise that one of the tools of a free citizenry is a free and independent press, we should be especially aware when this major check on power is corrupted or co-opted.

Scum is scum, it doesn't really matter what color the flag they wrap themselves in is. Nationalism, as a method of controlling populations, is as destructive a force as religion, as a method of controlling populations.

Now all the nationalists will chime in telling me how America is the bestest ever place in the whole wide world and all the other places are worse. But all that does is point out that in a world of scum, we are slightly less scummy.

And in case you think the entire event was newsworthy and interesting, here is a link to the RT story.

http://rt.com/usa/news/chicago-nato-summit-nurses-655/

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Storify: National Nurses United protest
On Friday, May 18, National Nurses United, joined by members of the Occupy movement, marched and rallied in Chicago's Daley Plaza to protest against the current financial crisis affecting nurses and …

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May
18

(No title)

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May
18

You mean they aren't even trying yet?

You mean they aren't even trying yet?

Reshared post from +James Barrow

"The new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public. “It removes the protection for Americans,” says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law. “It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.”"

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Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban
Propaganda that was supposed to target foreigners could now be aimed at Americans, reversing a longstanding policy. "Disconcerting and dangerous," says Shank.

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May
18

Shit be getting real. In Obama's hometown

They will have a ways to go yet to outdo Harper from the last round. We'll see what happens.

Lawyers from The NLG were allowed to meet with nine individuals and reported that they were in low spirits, confused about why they were arrested and shackled at both their hands and feet at the meeting. No charges have been filed against them almost 24 hours after their arrest and an Illinois States Attorney at the station refused to meet with the NLG lawyers.

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Lawyers Guild claims NATO activists "disappeared" without warrant or charges
According to an interview with National Lawyers Guild (NLG) spokesman Kris Hermes, Chicago police officers raided a Bridgeport apartment complex on Wednesday ev

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May
18

Well these legislators seem to have a handle on medicine

I wonder how they are with auto mechanics. My car has a funny little shimmy at about 65 on the highway.

The Arizona bill (SB 1359), which would protect doctors if they accidentally neglect to warn patients about potential birth defects, is sponsored by Republican state Senator Nancy Barton, who said that she’s backing the law in order to stop parents from blaming doctors if their child is born with a disability. The bill was proposed to Arizona lawmakers by the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative advocacy group with a strong anti-abortion stance.

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States pass bills allowing doctors to withhold information from pregnant patients
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor In Arizona, Republican senators have passed a bill that would allow doctors to withhold important medical information from their pregnant patients. The legisl…

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May
18

A "civil defense force"?

Right. In case Canada invades again. If war comes to the US, it will be at the tips of missiles. No civil defense force in the world is going to protect you from that. This is almost as ridiculous as the Conservatives in my country building $12B worth of new prisons in a country with a falling crime rate. When asked for a rationale, they told it it was to account for all of the "unreported crime".

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Obama's Plan for The Draft- MANDATORY SERVICE everyone 18-25

Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America
Amendment XIII.
Ratified December 6, 1865
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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May
18

"One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are…

"One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision" – Bertrand Russell

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