American businesses have never been afraid to compete amongst each other within reason. Competition is what has driven our economy to produce higher quality products at better prices. But now that competitiveness is being threatened by an international pact from hell called The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will severely tie our hands when trying to compete with certain foreign corporations. Continue reading
While the world may be warming up to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took an unwelcome message this week to the White House and the United Nations: “Don’t be fooled by Tehran’s new leadership.” Continue reading
Guardian reporter Lisa O’Carroll last Friday wrote, “Seymour Hersh has some rogue ideas on how to fix journalism: close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists which, he says, is to be an outsider.” Right on, Sy. Continue reading
Al Shimari v. CACI is a federal lawsuit brought by four Iraqi torture victims against private US-based contractor CACI International Inc., and CACI Premier Technology, Inc. It asserts that CACI participated directly and through a conspiracy in war crimes, including torture, and other illegal conduct while it was providing interrogation services at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Continue reading
A staff report prepared for Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and released last week finds numerous failings in the Accountability Review Board’s (ARB) report on Benghazi released last year. The new report overturns some of the conclusions of the official ARB report. It finds that Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy, who was not criticized in the ARB report, should have been held accountable. Continue reading
President Vladimir Putin of Russia met with President Barack Obama in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico, as far back as June 18, 2012, according to the Life, Hope & Truth’sl News and Prophecy blog. But after two full hours together, Putin was still balking, appearing afterward with Obama before reporters in a grim tableau that seemed to express frustration on both sides. Continue reading
Aaron Alexis, 34, a civilian contractor from Fort Worth, Texas, was identified by officials as the shooter who was killed in a gun battle with police responding to Monday morning’s attack at the Washington Navy Yard that left 12 employees dead. Continue reading
Thanks to Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, another amazing feat has been accomplished. They have raised the money to create an educational campaign for the entire month of September at a scale larger than anything ever done in the movement for truth and justice for the 9/11 attacks. Just one aspect of this campaign is the below billboard in Times Square. Continue reading
WASHINGTON—Secretary of State John Kerry hedged when asked whether intervention in Syria could lead to American “boots on the ground,” saying that while neither he nor President Barack Obama wanted that to happen, he was not willing to rule out the option. Continue reading
For Barack Obama, the G20 summit in St. Petersburg will be like side-stepping into an IED when he comes face-to-face with Mr. Putin, the first encounter since the chemical weapon attack in Damascus. One of these gentlemen flinched; the other one remains very focused. Guess who flinched? Continue reading
First, we have a purported dictator bad guy Bashar El-Assad inviting Doctors Without Borders to hospitals around the country, shortly after claims were made that 1,000 people were chemically gassed and 300 of them died. Why would he be willing to make himself culpable and vulnerable if he committed the heinous act? Sounds like a false-flag operation to me. Continue reading
The story of 25-year-old Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, now convicted of espionage, demoted and sentenced to 35 years at Fort Leavenworth prison, has taken a bizarre turn. In the same week, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a bearded jihadist wearing an Army uniform, sat in a Texas courtroom hearing evidence of his mass murder, which will probably bring him the death penalty. Both cases raise similar questions: Did political sensitivities increase dangers that could have been avoided? Or was political insensitivity in the first place largely responsible for what occurred? Continue reading
Below is the transcript of a powerful speech Noam Chomsky delivered at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, to which I have taken the liberty of interjecting my comments. Continue reading
Even if you don’t live in or near New York City, it’s too easy and dangerous not to care about the controversial “stop and frisk” policy the NYPD has implemented here. Even for tourists visiting Manhattan, there’s a chance you could be stopped and frisked on a public street. If you frequently travel to the city for business, you’re likely to go near a “high crime area” that triggers these police stops. If you’re white, you enjoy the illusory security that the NYPD infers these practices bring. If you’re a person of color, it’s a whole other ball of wax. Continue reading
After I wrote for Intrepid Report, As U.S. automakers thrive, Detroit goes Bankrupt, I saw a brilliant piece by Joseph E. Stiglitz. Stiglitz moderates and writes The Great Divide, a series on inequality for the New York Times—about the haves, the have-nots and everyone in between—in the United States and around the world, and its implications for economics, politics, society and culture. Continue reading
Wells Fargo is your neighborhood mega-money laundering, drug war profiteering, prison-industry enlarging bank, one big elite networking operation that’s not afraid to get its hands covered in blood money. Yes siree, they’re a whole new coach of pain on wheels, coming right at you. Continue reading
Shockingly, AlterNet reports that over the past decade, our nation’s suicide rate has been steadily climbing, rising a staggering 23 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 700,000 emergency room visits in 2010 alone for self-inflicted injuries. Continue reading
In August 1969, the Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place on a dairy farm in Bethel, NY. Over half a million people came to a 600-acre farm to hear 32 acts (leading and emerging performers of the time) play over the course of four days (August 15–18). Continue reading
NEW YORK—The federal government has launched a rare criminal prosecution of a major Wall Street firm: SAC Capital Advisors, a hedge-fund operator that investigators have long suspected of illegally trading on inside information, ironically reported by the L.A. Times. Continue reading
Due to a decision by the Supreme Court to strike down key sections of a law that protects black voters, the 50th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr.-led March on Washington has gone from being seen by many as primarily about the past to being urgently about the present. Continue reading
Amid all the furious debate generated by gun tragedies like the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, citizens in too many states have been quietly, legally arming themselves at alarming rates that offer little optimism for reining in the nation’s runaway gun culture. One look at your local movie theater’s trailers should give you an idea, not only of what’s new in concealed-carry guns, but massive fire-power weapons blowing away screens and minds all over America. Continue reading
Back in the post-war ‘50s, Charlie Wilson, the then CEO of GM said, “As GM goes, so goes America.” Today’s events belie that optimism and may more likely be prophetic of the U.S.’s stagnating economy. But then The Motor City was the car capital of the world in 1955. Six decades later, the “motor” has mostly moved out of the city, and the ugly shade of bankruptcy crept in, Bloomberg news reported. Continue reading
Since the Guardian and The Washington Post revealed the existence of the NSA’s PRISM program, there’s been a confusing debate about what exactly the program is and how it works. While the Obama administration has tacitly acknowledged the program’s existence, tech companies have angrily denied that they had given the NSA “direct” or “unfettered” access to their servers. So what’s going on? Let’s try to separate the facts from the hype. Continue reading
The battle continues in the documentary sequel on the increasing perils of hydraulic fracturing, commonly knownas fracking, in Josh Fox’s Gasland Part II, recently shown on HBO. The line “Don’t frack my mother,” as in mother earth, appears as a battle cry in the Gasland II documentary, given the danger fracking has presented to the earth itself. Continue reading
Reuters reports that Jon Corzine, the former chief of MF Global, and former CEO of Goldman Sachs, testified at a House panel last year, which in essence was a criminal investigation into the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global he was previously managing, during and after the disappearance of about $1 billion in customer money. The investigation is now heading into its final stage without charges expected against any top executives. Continue reading
First it was Verizon in my computer, now the National Security Agency is not only on my phone but millions of other Americans and millions of citizens around world and their governments, including allies as well as enemies or potential enemies, which includes almost everyone in the globally paranoid state-world of the U.S.A. Continue reading
A senior Italian cleric has been arrested in connection with an inquiry into a Vatican bank scandal over allegations of corruption and fraud. Continue reading
Arriving in a cab at the massive Cathedral of Saint John the Divine was like driving into a movie shoot itself, something Coppola would do. Crowds were amassed on Amsterdam Avenue from West 110th to 114th Street, with every television station in New York City’s video vans and their huge antennas leaning in for a look at the tribute. My 24-year old son, Michael, was with me to battle the crowds, which were fortunately quite orderly and respectful. The first one I ran into was an actor friend of mine, with whom my son and I bonded for the service. Continue reading
James Gandolfini, the Emmy Award-winning actor who shot his way to fame on the HBO drama “The Sopranos” as Tony Soprano, the tough-talking, hard-living crime boss with a stolid exterior but rich interior life, died last Wednesday. He was 51. This extends the celebrity for Italian-American film characters of high crime, including Joe Pesci in Casino, Al Pacino in The Godfather, Robert DeNiro in the Godfather and Good fellas, along with Lorraine Bracco, in the latter and the Sopranos. Continue reading
The US is “debating” setting up a no-fly zone across Syria and along Jordan’s border—a matter said obviously to be difficult and costly but still being given serious consideration after dubious claims that nerve gas was used by the Syrian government. Continue reading
Following the Peter Principle that “work expands to fill the time allotted for it,” so too does the eight-hundred pound gorilla of the Military Budget that hardly ever enters into the discussion of our inflated national debt expand, closing the door on infrastructure development, entitlements, educational debt and a myriad of other worthy causes. But let’s take a look at that ever Expanding U.S. Military Budget, from Wikipedia. Read as much of it as you can take. Continue reading
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The opened money floodgates aren’t enough for Mitch McConnell, he wants a tsunami
Posted on October 11, 2013 by Jerry Mazza
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the single most important campaign finance case since the Citizens United case. Continue reading →