Friday, August 28, 2015

2015-08-29 PALESTINE: Routines of the occupation...

2015-08-29 PALESTINE: Routines of the occupation...
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On Monday, Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar faced a military hearing at Ofer, an Israeli army base in the illegally-occupied West Bank. Jarrar's only "crime" is speaking out against against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and for the rights of Palestinian political prisoners.
At the hearing Monday, the two witnesses brought by the prosecution (an army officer) before the judge (also an army officer) said that false confessions had been extracted from them by Israel under the duress of torture in Israeli detention. The prosecutor then farcically had the witnesses designated by this kangaroo court as "hostile" and was able to cross examine them.
This was a brave move by the witnesses, who were essentially forced to testify and will likely now face ominous consequences when they head back to Israel's notorious prisons system, which habitually tortures its victims.
The Israeli columnist Gideon Levy, who has been covering the case for Haaretz, says that the case demonstrates again that the whole of Israel's military court system (used almost exclusively for Palestinians, and not for Jewish citizens) is a "ridiculous costume party ... a system where the judge salutes the prosecutor, who outranks him militarily".
On Monday, Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar faced a military hearing at Ofer, an Israeli army base in the illegally-occupied West Bank. Jarrar's only "crime" is speaking out against against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and for the rights of Palesti
middleeastmonitor.com

2015-08-29 US: Can an African American man open carry in front of cops?

2015-08-29 US: Can an African American man open carry in front of cops?
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https://www.facebook.com/countercurrentnews/posts/694744244003692?ref=notif&notif_t=notify_me_page
Could you imagine telling two cops: “you’re being disrespectful to me, I’ll be disrespectful to you,” and managing to walk away from the confrontation? That's...
countercurrentnews.com

2015-08-28 Postcard from the End of America: Don Hensley in Huntingburg, Indiana

2015-08-28 Postcard from the End of America: Don Hensley in Huntingburg, Indiana
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Linh Dinh
I’ve prowled around Gary, relaxed in New Harmony and explored downtown Indianapolis after midnight. There is a bronze statue of John Wooden. Kneeling and suited, the basketball coach is surrounded by five young pairs of male legs, their bodies disappearing above the pelvis. It is very creepy and gay. One of these days, I must barge into the dismal looking Whistle Stop, just across the street from Indianapolis’ Greyhound station. I need to see more of Indiana, that’s for sure....
The one friend I have in Indiana, I haven’t met in person. On July 31st, 2015, 62-year-old Don Hensley emailed to say he appreciated my articles. Then, “Our family farm is gone and I’m the last from the old homestead. Dad made me and my twin brother promise to find any other job but farming. He used to joke that the only certain way he knew to become a millionaire farming was to start out with $10M… You’ve made me shed a tear more than once, but I’m left feeling that I’ve met people I never would have. Home, a job, family and food on the table is really all most of us hope for out of life.”

2015-08-28 Postcard from the End of America: Woodbury, NJ

2015-08-28 Postcard from the End of America: Woodbury, NJ
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By Linh Dinh
Two much larger race riots happened in 1969 and 1971, and their consequences can still be seen and felt today. The 1971 one was triggered by the beating death of an unarmed Puerto Rican motorist by two white cops, one an Army vet who had volunteered for Vietnam combat after being assigned to South Korea.
Nearly all the whites have fled Camden. Today, blacks and Hispanics make up 95% of its population. Camden is surrounded by towns that are mostly white, however, and the contrast between decaying Camden and charming Collingswood, for example, borders on the bizarre.
The first recorded race riot in Camden occurred on September 12th, 1864. The Philadelphia Inquirer: A riot, which threatened serious consequences, took place on...
unz.com
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2015-08-28 The Meaning of the US Saber-Rattling at the Borders of Russia

2015-08-28 The Meaning of the US Saber-Rattling at the Borders of Russia
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By the Saker
Then, it is really dangerous to see the kind of completely irresponsible statements regularly made by top US officials ranging from Obama’s idiotic claim that Russia is somewhere between ISIS and the Ebola virus in the list of major threats to the world or the more recent declaration of a JCS Nominee General Joseph Dunford who seriously declared that “Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security”. This kind of reckless fear-mongering can become a self-fulfilling prophecy and result in an actual war, if only because of the confrontational atmosphere it creates....
The US will probably only achieve a moderate degree of success in its desperate campaign to present Russia as a threat to the world. After all, there are only so many gullible doubleplusgoodthinkers out there willing to buy this silly notion. The problem is that regardless of the real feelings of most Europeans, the EU’s comprador ruling class will continue to act as if the threat was real. The same goes for the Empire’s propaganda machine (aka “corporate media”).
The current saber-rattling is therefore likely to continue as long as the EU is run by US-puppets.
Hardly a day ever passes without the western corporate media reporting that USN warships have entered the Black Sea, the US Army is sending instructors to train...
unz.com

2015-08-28 Europe in Free Fall...

2015-08-28 Europe in Free Fall...
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An alternative good review of the European landscape today...
And it seems to only scratch the surface on various aspects of the situation...
Europe is in free fall. Nobody can doubt that any more. In fact, the EU is simultaneously suffering from several severe problems and any one of these could potentially become catastrophic. Let’s look at them one by one. The 28 member EU...
unz.com

2015-08-28 PALESTINE: Chomsky on apartheid...

2015-08-28 PALESTINE: Chomsky on apartheid...
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“In the Occupied Territories, what Israel is doing is much worse than apartheid,” Chomsky says, according to Days of Palestine. “To call it apartheid is a gift to Israel, at least if by ‘apartheid’ you mean South African-style apartheid.
“What is happening in the Occupied Territories is much worse. There is a crucial difference. The South African Nationalists needed the black population. That was their workforce…
“The Israeli relationship to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is totally different. They just do not want them. They want them out, or at least in prison.”
“When what is called Israeli jet planes bomb defenceless targets in Gaza, that is US jet planes with Israeli pilots,” he said. “And the same with the high-tech munition and so on and so forth. So this is, again, sadism masked as compassion. Those are the actions.”
Famous American linguist Noam Chomsky has described the actions of the Israeli occupation in Palestine as “worse than South African apartheid”.
mintpressnews.com|By IMEMC News

2015-08-28 CLOSE GITMO NOW!

2015-08-28 CLOSE GITMO NOW!
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American military forces captured only three out of the 116 prisoners still remaining at the Guantanamo Bay prison complex in Cuba, a new analysis by the Guardian discovered. Many of those left were sold to the US for monetary rewards.
rt.com

2015-08-28 US: Persecution of whistle-blowers - a cardinal sign of a corrupt regime!

2015-08-28 Cold War 2.0 - the Propaganda Wars - US media spread false news on 2,000 Russian casualties in E Ukraine

2015-08-28 Cold War 2.0 - the Propaganda Wars - US media spread false news on 2,000 Russian casualties in E Ukraine
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The false news report started at Forbes, and from there spread to other US media...

A Forbes report on alleged Russian army casualties in Ukraine citing a dodgy Russian website has sparked a media and Twitter storm. Some said Russia had “finally...
rt.com

2015-08-28 UK: [video] Banksyland

2015-08-28 UK: [video] Banksyland
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Visitors to Banksy’s Dismaland bemusement park are being asked to bring a form of ID to prove they are the person named on the ticket in an attempt to clamp down on...
rt.com

2015-08-28 STOP TTIP!

2015-08-28 STOP TTIP!
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One of the biggest scams in human history...
Redacted documents detailing covert meetings between the European Commission (EC) and powerful tobacco lobbyists have compounded fears a secretive EU-US...
rt.com

2015-08-28 US: News from the American Gulag...

2015-08-28 US: News from the American Gulag...
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With only 5% of the world's population, the US today holds 25% of the world's prisoner population... ACLU
A riot suppression operation at a private prison near Kingman, Arizona, last July was even more violent than the riot itself, with SWAT-style officers beating even...
rt.com

2015-08-28 World under the Greater Depression

2015-08-28 World under the Greater Depression
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Contrary to various governments falsely claiming "recovery", the Greater Depression, which started with the 2008 banking crisis in the US, is here to stay. Like the Great Depression of the 20th century, its core cause is vast corruption of the financial system with government complicity.
Until corruption of the financial system and corruption of governments are addressed, there is no chance of true recovery...
The first half of 2015 has seen the worst decline in world trade since the 2009 crisis, according to World Trade Monitor. The data could imply that globalization has reached its peak.
rt.com

2015-08-28 YEMEN: A mini-war

2015-08-28 YEMEN: A mini-war
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he stark facts of yet another horrible and unjustified US backed war in the Mid-east, where civilians are suffering starvation and worse. US foreign policy can not get any more wrong-headed. H/T Dennis Marburger
Saudi Arabia wreaks havoc on its poorest neighbor—with U.S. help.
theamericanconservative.com

2015-08-28 The myth of Russian "Threat"

2015-08-28 The myth of Russian "Threat"
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The story is pretty clear: What bothers US/UK more than all is "losing the information war", e.g, the phenomenal success of Russia Today. And the response is the only response US/UK, a one trick pony know - naked aggression. The truth is particularly clear, if one compares Russia and China: China has both the capability and the capability and the intention to depose the US. But China, which operates on a different time scale and is indifferent to the information war is not a threat at all... jz
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Pepe Escobar writes:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey entered certified Donald “known unknown” Rumsfeld territory when he recently tried to conceptualize the “threat”; “Threats are the combination, or the aggregate, of capabilities and intentions. Let me set aside for the moment, intentions, because I don’t know what Russia intends.”
So Dempsey admits he does not know what he’s talking about. What he seems to know is that Russia is a “threat” anyway — in space, cyber space, ground-based cruise missiles, submarines.
And most of all, a threat to NATO; “One of the things that Russia does seem to do is either discredit, or even more ominously, create the conditions for the failure of NATO.”
So Russia “does seem” to discredit an already self-discredited NATO. That’s not much of a “threat”.
All these rhetorical games take place while NATO “does seem” to get ready for a direct confrontation with Russia. And make no mistake; Moscow does view NATO’s belligerence as a real threat.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included...
informationclearinghouse.info

2015-08-28 Climate change

2015-08-28 Climate change
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Aerial photograph of thousands of Pacific walrus coming ashore near Point Lay, on the north-west Arctic coast of Alaska, on Sunday. Photograph: Gary Braasch/Corbis
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For anybody, who visited anywhere close to the polar regions, climate change effects have been blatant for years. The entire denial story is amazing... Enough money can turn even the climate truth upside down... A sign of the times... Enough money could apparently turn day into night... at least in mainstream media...
Survival of walruses threatened as they wash ashore on a remote barrier island just before Obama is due to visit region to draw attention to climate change
theguardian.com|By Suzanne Goldenberg

2015-08-27 Cold War 2.0: CHINA gave US notice on T-bill liquidation...

2015-08-27 Cold War 2.0: CHINA gave US notice on T-bill liquidation...
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Let the games begin..
As Bloomberg reports, "China has cut its holdings of U.S. Treasuries this month to raise dollars needed to support the yuan in the wake of a shock devaluation two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the matter. Channels for such transactions include China selling directly, as well as through agents in Belgium and Switzerland, said one of the people, who declined to be identified as the information isn’t public. China has communicated with U.S. authorities about the sales."
China’s government intervened to boost the stock market Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.
bloomberg.com