The truth is not only wasn’t there a decisive victory in Iraq. There was a sense of loss. A loss of 5,000 soldiers, a million Iraqis, trillions of dollars, and the demolishing of a country’s infrastructure based on a pack of lies by George Bush that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Continue reading
So who’s got the last laugh now? Iran’s reputed nuclear bomb, even if proved in the making today, would take a year to build. Yet, the more potent bomb, and less lethal to humans, is paying in gold for Iran’s oil, as India, China, Russia, and even Europe plan to do. This simple exchange could neutralize the military saber dance in the Strait of Hormuz, the central transportation link of oil from east to west and back. In fact, gold prices could spike with speculators, along with oil prices, causing more pain at home. Continue reading
This time it’s with smart phone apps and a request from the Department of Justice that seems harmless enough, or is it? It asks social media to “Please review the information (RFI) that is attached. The FBI is conducting market research to determine the capabilities of the IT industry to provide a social media application. The tool at a minimum should be able to meet the operational and analytical needs described in the attachment.” Market research for the FBI and DOJ, really? Continue reading
Onion is not a typo. It seems that the Union is like an onion because the more layers of corruption you peel off, the more it brings tears to your eyes. And at the very heart of the onion, the smell of corruption is so potent you cry as if you’d been pepper-sprayed. Need I say more? Yes. Continue reading
I’m not talking about Commander in Chief Obama, recently signing the National Defense Authorization Act, enabling even U.S. citizens to be detained indefinitely by the military if suspected of some terrorist doing, and without evidence, a trial, or an attorney. Then there’s Jon Corzine, former captain in the U.S. Senate, Captain of New Jersey, Captain of Goldman Sachs for so many years, jumping ship on $1.3 billion dollars of MF Global funds, among which his client’s funds were completely comingled with his own. Continue reading
It seems like every day someone wants to create a new law to inhibit freedom, whether it’s freedom of speech or to assemble peacefully or to release purported “classified” government documents as does WikiLeaks. Today, it’s SOPA, the bill in the House, with its corollary bill in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act. They both desire to “Protect the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, including [and this is a reach], the jobs and revenue, necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws especially against foreign websites.” Continue reading
According to the UK’s Telegraph, our cheery, red-checked, spirit of Christmas, Santa, had to deal with Americans buying record numbers of guns for Christmas, that is, a whopping surge of weapons gifts for themselves or others. That’s an eerie factoid in this season of “Peace on earth to men of good will,” wouldn’t you say? Continue reading
First, he promises us change. He’ll stop “the dumb wars.” Then he escalates the troops by 30,000 and $30 billion to pay for them in Afghanistan. Then he says Iraq is over, we’re out of there, but there’s a boatload of mercenaries left behind and a religious civil war in progress. Then he says he’ll straighten out the financial filth on Wall Street and we find out it’s dirtier than ever. Right, Jon Corzine? Right, Lloyd? Right, Jamie? Up front, he said he’d get rid of GITMO. But three years later he signs the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and with a stroke of the pen turns the world into GITMO, including U.S. Citizens. Though he says it doesn’t apply to U.S. Citizens, it can be changed if he deems it necessary. Got it both ways. Continue reading
My first and favorite revolution is the Occupy Wall Street movement, and I pledge to support its resolutions to level the playing field between the 99% of the American working (and unemployed) people and the rich 1%. I wish OWS all success in breaking the back of Wall Street corruption led by the various degenerates that helm the brokerages of Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Citibank and others (you know who you are); also the criminals of the ratings agencies who rate for profit only; and the fattened calves of the Fed who continue to print and pump fiat cash into the central banks of the US, including Fanny and Freddie, as well as the world, attempting to hide the massive fall about to come. Continue reading
Excuse my bowdlerizing Shakespeare’s line from Hamlet’s great speech, “To be or not to be.” Apropos, “to leak” substitutes for “to be,” as in being alive, conscious and conscionable. Continue reading
The real war on America has not been fought by terrorists who resent our “freedoms.” Unfortunately, we have a track record against nations whose dissidents bloomed in response to our politicians destroying their freedoms and countries. That is in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Libya, for starters. Continue reading
Decades ago, many American films were made about good guys who patently sacrificed for others in war and peace, like George Bailey, the working class hero of Frank Capra’s 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life. Originally created to be a Christmas movie, today it’s considered one of the best 100 American films ever made. Bailey is a hero who sacrificed for his family and the common good. Today’s he’d be part of the 99%, challenging the 1% me-crowd. Continue reading
The postmaster general’s not-so-bright idea has managed to put the Postal Service on the chopping block with a first whack of $3 billion in cuts that affect first class “one day” mail for the first time in 40 years. But that’s not all . . . Continue reading
What follows is a shockingly revealing interview conducted by James J. Puplava CFP, President and Chief Investment Strategist at PFS Group in San Diego. On his radio show, Financial Sense Newshour, he speaks with broker Ann Barnhardt, who pillories Jon Corzine for his unprecedented theft of MF Global investor accounts. She claims, and rightly so, that Corzine committed the most egregious financial crime when he comingled client monies with company monies in high-risk investments, without informing clients, literally stealing their money. This occurred while the Chicago Mercantile Exchange [the “Merc” duh] looked on and did nothing. Continue reading
Forgive me Burt Bacharach and Hal David for borrowing your song title and dipping into some of your lyrics. But in the face of revelations that the Fed laid out secret loans to Wall Street, amounting to 7.7 trillion dollars, netting the banks $13 billion, in the imminent demise of the euro back-dropped by the illegal take-downs of Libya, now Syria, Egypt in turmoil again, GMO Monsanto sucking up patents for all of earth’s foods, the Keystone XL pipeline being thrust up our whazoo, and a million other articles, headlines, sound bites, of imminent disaster and doom, including myself pondering over my bills and checkbook, this simple little tune pops into my head, and revives another thought that it is Seasons Greetings time. Continue reading
A bill even bigger and worse than the PATRIOT Act is waiting in the wings for American citizens. It’s called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 (S. 1253) and has received less coverage than the true amount of radiation levels at Fukishima, and can prove to be as lethal. Continue reading
Fittingly, it wa a sad gray rainy day in New York City on the 48th anniversary of John F Kennedy’s death, ruthlessly slaughtered in Dallas on Friday, November 22, 1963, 48 years ago Tuesday at the age of 43. It reminds me of Billy Joel’s great song, Only the Good Die Young. And seeing the effects of Occupy Wall Street about me, I asked again, are we throwing our young to the wolves? The savagery exhibited by police across the nation has a commonality about it. And the AlterNet article that follows asks the right question about it: More on Police Departments’ Collusion in Defense of 1%: Who’s the Organization Coordinating Those Crackdown Calls? Continue reading
In this seemingly scant, New York Times story of what seems to be a major event, we are told “An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House believed he was Jesus and thought President Barack Obama was the anti-Christ. He had become increasingly agitated with the federal government, and at one point suggested the president was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children, according to court documents and those who knew him. Continue reading
I woke up at 7 A.M. literally to the sound of NY1.com announcing a crackdown on Zuccotti Park, which had occurred in the stealth darkness of 1 A.M., under media blackout. I was later to find out from alternet.org that pepper spray and batons were used to clear tents as bedraggled protestors left their home in the park to reconvene for a General Assembly in Foley Square. They vowed to keep going with the occupation. Over 200 were arrested, including city Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez. Continue reading
For me, Occupy Wall Street represents the most significant and widespread protest movement since the 1960s movement against the Vietnam War. The oft-heard criticism that OWS doesn’t have “a clear focus” misses the mark. The anti-war movement of the 60s also opened its arms to embrace the civil rights movement, from Huey Newton and the Black Panthers to Martin Luther King to Malcolm X, including Elijah Mohammed’s Nation of Islam, among other causes. Continue reading
It was 10 years ago Wednesday that then President George H. Bush signed into law the USAPATRIOT Act, passed by the 107th U.S. Congress, titled ”Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.” All blame for the terror events of 9/11/2001 were laid on 19 Islamic terrorists, 15 of them Saudis. Continue reading
Let’s begin with a legal appraisal from the Jurist in an article, The Rule of Law and the Extrajudicial Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, by Curtis Doebbler of Webster University and the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, in Geneva Switzerland. Doebbler writes, “The killing of Muammar Gaddafi appears to be another violation of international law involving the US, sending the dangerous message that one must kill or be killed.” Continue reading
Yahoo News hypes that “Libyan dictator Moammar Qadaffi, the most wanted man in the world, has been killed,” or at least so claims the Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril today. We see a photograph of a “dead” Qadaffi’s blood splattered face and another less bloody while he was still alive (a little Photoshop work here?). Continue reading
As I popped out of the subway at Times Square, Saturday at 5 PM, I was immediately hit by that blast of New Year’s Eve-size crowds. Only this time, it was October 15, and within the crowd’s roar came the rhythmic, dynamic chants of Occupy Wall Street, this time, “We see something/So we’re saying something,” bless their giant hearts, crowds of thousands on each side of Seventh Avenue chanting, surrounded by an army of cops—on foot, motorcycles, horses, in cars, trucks, loaded for bear, guns, yellow plastic bracelets, night sticks, batons, the works, a giant Sikorsky-size helicopter above. “Happy Occupy Times Square.” Continue reading
The administration claims that U.S. born Anwar Al-Awlaki was killed for being involved in Al Qaeda operational activities in Yemen. Yet, when asked for proof by ABC News White House Correspondent Jack Tapper, the neophyte press secretary, Jay Carney, fumbled for an answer, saying he couldn’t say any more about it. Nor could he explain why President Obama provided the CIA with a “kill or capture” list including Awlaki’s name. Continue reading
The OCCUPIED Wall Street Journal was the title of the first publication thrust in my hand as I walked down Broadway to Liberty Plaza. It was given to me by a smiling, well-built guy in a flak jacket. Continue reading
The much-touted new feudalism can be best defined in my mind by the 46 million poor in America, the largest number ever who, unlike the serfs of old do not possess a plot of land granted to them by the lord of the manner to work and give a tithe of income to, while the lord keeps the rest. Continue reading
President Obama spoke at the U.N. General Assembly meeting Thursday concerning statehood for Palestine, which could be built on a joint settlement as Israel and Palestine speak and work together. Continue reading
There they were, thousands of young and older people crowding into Wall Street on 9/17/2011 as I took the luxury of celebrating my 73rd birthday. But what a gift to see these protestors streaming online, holding the bull by the horns (if not the cojones), calling the Street for what is, a collection of murderous gangsters who’d sell their mothers for a dime. Still the cops crept in on cats’ feet surrounding them then barricading Wall Street and pushing the young people over to Zuccotti Park. Here are some great pictures and posters from it. Was it for real? Will it last? Is it sponsored by dark forces? Who knows? For now, let’s go with the flow. Continue reading
Anyone who knows anything about Ground Zero and 9/11 knows the name William or ”Willie” Rodriguez, the last man out of the World Trade Center North Tower who helped save hundreds of lives. Continue reading
Speaking of angst, here was the phys-ops circus again. Thursday, Sept. 8, three days before 9/11: full-dress cammo-wearing, armed soldiers, police and police cars galore, helicopters buzzing overhead, airport personnel opening bags, scanning bodies, old folks shivering with fright at attack dogs, a wide shot of the Brooklyn Bridge, icon of Walt Whitman and Hart Crane’s downgraded America on the TV screen, mainstream media poised for the event . . . a field-day for Homeland Security, defense stocks climbing, just like a decade ago, and . . . Continue reading
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Honey, is that a drone hovering over the house?
Posted on February 13, 2012 by Jerry Mazza
In a recent interview on Russia Today (RT.com) with Liz Wahl, the raspy-voiced Alex Jones spilled the beans on a new draconian-plus effort of the U.S. Congress to cede the running of this country to the Department of Defense and the Pentagon. It seems there’s a bill already approved saying Congress OKs 30,000 flying drones spying on Americans across U.S. Cities. Continue reading →