Senate report on CIA torture claims spy agency lied about 'ineffective' program

Senate report on CIA torture claims spy agency lied about 'ineffective' program

Report released by Senate after four-year, $40m investigation concludes CIA repeatedly lied abou

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-released

By: Spencer Ackerman, Dominic Rushe, and Julian Borger
Date:

The full extent of the CIA’s interrogation and detention programmes launched in the wake of the September 11 terror attack was laid bare in a milestone report by the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday that concluded the agency’s use of torture was brutal and ineffective – and that the CIA repeatedly lied about its usefulness.

The report represented the most scathing congressional indictment of the Central Intelligence Agency in nearly four decades. It found that torture “regularly resulted in fabricated information,” said committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, in a statement summarizing the findings. She called the torture programme “a stain on our values and on our history”.

“During the brutal interrogations, the CIA was often unaware the information was fabricated.” She told the Senate the torture program was “morally, legally and administratively misguided” and “far more brutal than people were led to believe”.

The report reveals that use of torture in secret prisons run by the CIA across the world was even more extreme than previously exposed, and included “rectal rehydration” and “rectal feeding”, sleep deprivation lasting almost a week and threats to the families of the detainees.

Could the U.S. election be hacked? It's not so unlikely

Could the U.S. election be hacked? It's not so unlikely

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pringle-election-hacking-1.3713911

By: Ramona Pringle
Date: 2016-08-10

Recent attempts at campaign-directed cyber-attacks have raised red flags about just how vulnerable the upcoming U.S. election is to hackers.

With the FBI currently investigating alleged Russian efforts to undermine the Democratic Party through hacking attempts, how concerned should elections officials – and voters — be about the security of electronic voting procedures?

What is to keep the U.S. election process free of hackers when even large corporations can't keep their data secure?

Yes, It's Possible to Hack the Election

Yes, It's Possible to Hack the Election

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hack-election/story?id=41489017

By: Richard Clarke
Date: 2016-08-19

After reports of alleged Russian hacking into Democratic Party computer networks, some commentators have suggested that the Russians could hack the results of the U.S. elections. Other analysts have, well before this year’s campaign, suggested that election results in the U.S. could be electronically manipulated, including by our fellow Americans. So could an American election’s outcome be altered by a malicious actor on a computer keyboard?

I have had three jobs that, together, taught me at least one thing: If it’s a computer, it can be hacked. For Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, I served as the White House senior cybersecurity policy adviser. For President Barack Obama, I served on his five-person post–Edward Snowden investigative group on the National Security Agency, intelligence and technology. And for over a decade I have advised American corporations on cybersecurity.

Those experiences confirm my belief that if sophisticated hackers want to get into any computer or electronic device, even one that is not connected to the internet, they can do so.

The "Shocking" Truth About Election Rigging in the United States

The "Shocking" Truth About Election Rigging in the United States

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37486-the-shocking-truth-about-election-rigging-in-america

By: Victoria Collier
Date: 2016-09-05

RICK: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
POLICE CAPTAIN RENAULT: I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
CROUPIER (handing Renault a pile of money): Your winnings, sir.
CAPTAIN RENAULT: Oh, thank you, very much... Everybody out, at once!
(Scene from  Casablanca.)

If there is anything positive to say about the 2016 elections, it's that they have finally forced an end to the official denial of computerized election rigging. In the past month, the fact that our voting technology is a hacker's paradise has been validated by no less than all the major TV news networks: NBC, ABC, CBS, Reuters, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, USA Today, The Hill, The Guardian, Mother Jones, Politico, and a dozen other outlets.

Of course, the corporate media and political parties are now professing "shock" at the very prospect that US elections can be manipulated, and yes, even stolen. 

Yet it has long been an open secret that game-changing races have been decided not by voters, but by insiders; from the presidential race of 1960, appropriated for John Kennedy by Democratic muscle in Chicago, to the two victories secured for George W. Bush by GOP fixers in  Florida and hackers in  Ohio. Among other  suspect elections in recent years are key Congressional races hijacked by combinations of voter suppression, gerrymandering, dark money and the ugly little secret of American elections: rigged voting machines.

Eustace Moitt checks voting booths for supplies at a polling station in New York, on June 26, 2012. (Todd Heisler / The New York Times)

Fabricated Claims About Russian “Covert Plot” to Disrupt US Elections

Fabricated Claims About Russian “Covert Plot” to Disrupt US Elections

http://www.globalresearch.ca/fabricated-claims-about-russian-covert-plot-to-disrupt-us-elections/5544484

By: Stephen Lendman
Date: 2016-09-08

Hillary is so irreparably tainted and unfit to serve, her key strategy is diverting attention from her wrongdoing two ways – bashing Trump beyond customary campaign jousting and spreading misinformation and Big Lies about Russia, using the media as press agents to do her dirty work.

Neocon Washington Post editors and staff one-sidedly support her, one of many examples of how low US media scoundrels have sunk – transforming themselves into disgraceful laughing stocks.

The way to stay misinformed and brainwashed is by following their reports. WaPo’s latest anti-Russia harangue is claiming a potential covert plot to disrupt November elections.

The Dirty Tricks of Election Thieves

The Dirty Tricks of Election Thieves

http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/08/31/dirty-tricks-election-thieves/

By: Dan Engelke
Date: 2016-08-31

Republican operatives have employed a series of “dubious practices” that will result in millions of eligible voters to be purged from the rolls ahead of the election, investigative reporter and filmmaker Greg Palast told WhoWhatWhy.

Among these tactics is the implementation of the “Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program” that is used in 30 GOP-controlled states. Its stated purpose is to make sure that voters are not registered in different states. Supposedly, a strict methodology is applied to guarantee that eligible voters are not inadvertently included.

However, Palast claims the program is being used to prevent millions of likely Democrats from voting. In his new film “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,” he details the “scams” used to steal the 2016 presidential election.

Greg Palast Photo credit: Greg Palast / YouTube

Open Letter to NBC Moderator Calls for Candidates to Debate 'Democracy Itself'

Open Letter to NBC Moderator Calls for Candidates to Debate 'Democracy Itself'

Issues such as voting rights, campaign finance, and freedom of the press impact, "at the most fundamental level, who has power in this country and who doesn't"

http://commondreams.org/news/2016/09/08/open-letter-nbc-moderator-calls-candidates-debate-democracy-itself

By: Deirdre Fulton
Date: 2016-09-08

Before they tackle foreign policy, climate change, the economy, or public education at upcoming presidential debates, "the candidates must first debate democracy itself," reads an open letter to NBC's Lester Holt, who will moderate the first face-off between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump later this month.

"As the moderator of this year's first presidential debate, you have significant flexibility to select the topics you chose to cover," says the letter, co-signed by a coalition of more than 30 organizations representing millions of Americans nationwide. "While there are a number of critical policy differences between the candidates, there is one subject so fundamental to our future—so essential to our national identity—that its inclusion in this debate must be guaranteed."

"It's critical that Lester Holt give voters a chance to hear from our presidential candidates about their take on our democracy and how they plan to restore people's faith in the system," said Rahna Epting, chief of staff at Every Voice. (Photo: AP)

Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

Clerk Note: Worth going to the source URL to see the interactive images as you scroll down the short article.

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Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/01/us/elections/nine-percent-of-america-selected-trump-and-clinton.html?_r=0

By: Alicia Parlapiano and Adam Pearce
Date: 2016-08-01

The United States is home to 324 million people. Each square here represents 1 million people.

Justice Department Pressed to Intervene When Police Arrest Grassroots Journalists

Justice Department Pressed to Intervene When Police Arrest Grassroots Journalists

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/justice-department-pressed-intervene-when-police-arrest-grassroots-journalists

By: Shahid Buttar
Date: 2016-08-25

Across the country, civilian journalists have documented government violence using cell phones to record police activities, forcing a much-needed national discourse. But in case after case after case after case, the people who face penalties in the wake of police violence are the courageous and quick-witted residents who use technology to enable transparency.

Earlier this month, the International Documentary Association launched an online petition to the Department of Justice asking the federal government to intervene when local police arrest or otherwise harass civilians who document and record police violence. EFF was proud to sign the petition, since this is an issue on which we have been increasingly active.

Third Party Loyalists: Insanity Redefined or Political Attention Deficit Disorder?

Third Party Loyalists: Insanity Redefined or Political Attention Deficit Disorder?

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/09/02/third-party-loyalists-insanity-redefined-or-political-attention-deficit-disorder

By: Tom Gallagher
Date: 2016-09-02

One audience member on the comment line following a recent Oakland, CA Green Party discussion panel—titled "Growing the Political Revolution: What's Beyond Bernie?"—cited Albert Einstein for having once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting things to turn out differently. This maxim is actually invoked with some regularity these days as a caution against American left efforts within the Democratic Party. As the argument goes, these endeavors have been so obviously unsuccessful that any non-insane observer can see the futility of their continuation and recognize the need for a "third party" candidacy instead. The presence of this viewpoint at a Green Party event is to be expected, naturally. Nonetheless, standards of evidence should still prevail and it seems fair to pose the question of what you call it when someone fails to notice that things have turned out differently.

Insanity? Perhaps not.

Political attention deficit disorder? Maybe.

Supporters of Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders cheer during a Sanders rally at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington March 25, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Amazing Classical Mashup between 33 composers

Amazing Classical Mashup between 33 composers

http://vlocal.ca/amazing-classica-mashup/

57 famous classical tunes by 33 composers woven together . How many can you identify?

Get the Sheet music here !!

Solution:

Dark Journalist: Deep State Occult Election 2016

Dark Journalist: Deep State Occult Election 2016 – Dr. Joseph Farrell

http://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/dark-journalist-deep-state-occult-election-2016-dr-joseph-farrell/

By: Dr. Joseph Farrell
Date: 2016-09-11

Clinton vs. Trump: Is the Deep State at war with itself? Dark Journalist, Daniel Liszt and ‘Giza Death Star’ book series author, Dr. Joseph Farrell examine the covert elements at work behind the scenes in the 2016 US Presidential Election.

Some of Farrell’s most exciting research is about the rise of Donald Trump, which he opines may originate from that part of the Deep State that’s connected with the Mafia, a longstanding relationship that is well-documented.

Entire US Presidential Election is Fake, From Start to Finish

Entire US Presidential Election is Fake, From Start to Finish

http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/us-presidential-election-fake-start-end/

By: Makia Freeman
Date: 2016-09-06

The US presidential election just keeps getting fa

the more it goes on. Yes, it’s bread and circus time again in America, but this time around the rulers are putting on an entertainment show which has lost its ability to convince and persuade. It’s just too damn fake. We know the US and many other Western “democracies” are rigged one-party states where all the major candidates are controlled, bribed and/or blackmailed. We know that US presidents are selected, not elected. In the 2016 US presidential election, we’ve witnessed all sorts of fakery right from the start. Hillary blatantly rigged the Democratic Primaries in several states (Iowa, Nevada, Arizona and California just to name a few). She colluded with the DNC board, led by the disgraced Wasserman-Schultz, to keep Bernie out of the nomination. Then, at the DNC convention, she pulled out all the stops with a grand display of riggery and fakery, including paying people to sit there to hold her signs, playing white noise machines to drown out protests, having DNC officials turn off the lights above Bernie supporters to plunge them into darkness and all sorts of other dirty tricks.

Hillary’s Fake Health and Fake Transparency

The fakery continued after Clinton’s nomination coronation as queen at the DNC. Ever since the topic of Hillary’s health has come to light, Hillary has been in damage control mode, trying to convince a skeptical public she is well enough for the office of president, despite her coughing fits, bouts of dizziness and confusion, struggling to walk up stairs, tripping and falling, bouts of inappropriate laughter, wild crossed-eyed looks and her public seizures (see The Real Hillary Clinton for more info). Wikileaks apparently discovered that Hillary was searching online for adult diapers. Maybe she currently wears them.

Meanwhile, corrupt Hillary continues her campaign without conducting press conferences, which is highly unusual for a US presidential candidate. Zero Hedge reports it has been 273 days (absolute zero) since her last press conference! Clearly we can deduce from this that Hillary is scared of being asked some tough questions, given how flooded she is with scandal after scandal (Clinton Foundation fraud and corruption, email deletions, foreign bribery, pay to play shenanigans, the growing Clinton Body Count, etc.). There’s nothing open and transparent about her; she’s barely holding on, keeping quiet and hoping Trump will shoot himself in the foot some more between now and November 8th.

The Scourge of Neoliberalism: Why the Democratic Party Is Failing the Poor

The Scourge of Neoliberalism: Why the Democratic Party Is Failing the Poor

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/22/scourge-neoliberalism-why-democratic-party-failing-poor

By: Jake Johnson
Date: 2016-08-22

When Democrats began their rightward lurch in the late 1960's, they were not content to merely broaden their coalition in order to quell the rise of the ultra-reactionary right; they have been concerned, also, with preventing left-wing insurgencies that could spook their patrons and push the party left.

After Ronald Reagan's decisive victories — first in 1980 against an incumbent president whose administration had, in many ways, fueled the neoliberal turn, and again in 1984 — the efforts of Democrats eager to transform the party, both superficially and ideologically, intensified.

"The only alternative for Democrats now was to modernize," notes Shawn Gude, summarizing the prevailing attitude of the Democratic leadership. "Anything but a wholesale rethink of the party's more social-democratic commitments would invite future electoral disaster."

'The problem is, ultimately, systemic: It is about who writes the rules, and how these rules act in the real world to create extraordinary gains for some while leaving others to compete, endlessly and ruthlessly, for the rest.' (Image: DonkeyHotey/flickr/cc)

Race, Class and Justice in America

Race, Class and Justice in America

http://www.globalresearch.ca/race-class-and-justice-in-america/5540711

By: Abayomi Azikiwe
Date: 2016-08-12

I am gratified to honor another invitation from the Detroit Unitarian Universalist Church where I have spoken before from this pulpit and other areas of this historic structure. It is important that this institution remains within this area now known as Midtown as a beacon of solidarity with an open door to those who have ideas and personal instincts that challenge the dominant intellectual and spiritual cannons that have shaped the United States and world over the last several centuries.

Our topic today addresses three of the most important unresolved questions of the 21^st century where we find ourselves in a global community with the capacity to rapidly and effectively communicate and influence those around the world. Despite our technological achievements in the ability to generate, calculate, analyze, disseminate, and file data the world system of capitalism has failed to provide an adequate standard of living to the majority of humanity.

Right here in the city of Detroit people are being driven out through state-sponsored efforts utilizing the tax revenue of working families to evict and displace those who are literally paying for their own oppression and exploitation. Thousands more households remain without water due to the egregious cut-offs–and in the case of Flint, the water is not fit to drink.

Although there have been nine indictments related to the Flint water crisis and a civil suit filed by the Michigan Attorney General’s office in Lansing, no real effort is being made to rebuild the majority African American city as a wholesome and safe place to live and work. Now a situation has arose over the disposal of trash compounding the social ills related to lead poisoning in children, legionnaire’s disease, skin problems and inflated water bills for an unclean product.

The Shocking Advance Hints of the 9/11 Attacks

Clerk Note: I don't find many of the "coincidences" in the following so coincidental. "Lazy" is a better word. If you want people to think of money or wealth, simply show the dollar sign ($). So are we programmed by repetition. If you are in marketing or propaganda, use what works and keep re-enforcing the brand. If you want readers to think of the military in any way, simply flash a picture of the Pentagon. Likewise, if you want readers to think of financial power, simply flash a picture something so pompously named the World Trade Center.

Although promoted by sources that I consider disinformation, one 9/11 theme is that the WTC was never really completed or fleshed out on the inside. This and under-occupancy at the time of destruction helps explain the relatively low 9/11 death count, why more survivors aren't vocal about the WTC, why simvictims are a very real and plausible thing with regards to 9/11 and were promoted by the military as early as 1960 in Operation Norwood presented to JFK with regards to Cuba. [Simvictims being made-up, their actor families are easy to stage and get promoting other agenda milking emotions for all their worth. Control the message: a military objective in all conflicts.]

Think about it. If you wanted to create two symbols of over-towering wealth and power, if money was tight, and if their full usage could torpedo the local real estate market and overwhelm localized services, would you really need to finish every single god-damn floor in both towers?!! No. You could cut corners by concentrating on, say, only the lower 1/3 and the upper 1/3 (if not less). Flesh out various levels only when demand says so.

The point is, hollow (or mostly empty) symbols to wealth & power can be constructed, advertised, worshiped, hyped, etc. without ever really having to prove, floor by floor, that they are anything more than a fascade.

Be that as it may, hollow or not, empty or not, if you got symbols that you want to flash to the world, "all publicity is good publicity" even if symbolically targeted and "destroyed" in a fictional movie or on an album cover. Easy. And lazy to get your message across.

Doesn't make the following any less fascinating.

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THE SHOCKING ADVANCE HINTS OF THE 9/11 ATTACKS

http://www.tomatobubble.com/id884.html

By: Mike King
Date:

As even the most novice student of the 9/11"conspiracy theory" is aware of, several media hints and warnings precededthe horrific events of that unforgettable history-altering day. But what many aren't aware of is just how many of these in-your-facehints there actually were and, in some case, just how diabolically detailed they were. Most disturbing of all isthat the trail of hints stretches back as much as 25 years before the big event!

That may seem unbelievable to some - "coincidental" they will say. Butwhen we study the long term planning of this 250 year old thing we call "The New World Order",we find that 10, 30 or even 50 year plans, within the multi-century Grand Plan, are quite common. You see, unlike the self-obsessed,live-for-the-day little political servants of The New World Order; the inner-core planners play the long game for the sakeof their Tribe's posterity or, for the deluded but idealistic ones, for the sake of some great Global civilization of thefuture.

With this reality in mind, some of the older hints of the 9/11 attacks begin to take on the appearance of a deliberate ritualistic mockery over what is to come.Even if some of these messages can be dismissed as "coincidental"; the sheer amount of the "coincidences",coupled with the fact that we KNOW that the official story of 9/11 is a Globalist-Zionist monster-lie, proves that many predictivesigns (some of them outrageous in scope) were indeed deliberately placed in front of our collective faces. Evidently,these Satanic psychos derive some perverse kick out of this ghoulish game of demonic deceit.

Noting that the Zionist-Globalist influence in the world of Comic Books, HollywoodFilms, TV Shows, Advertising, Video Games, and Music is immense - let us now review, in reverse chronological order, a comprehensivecollection of the hints and 'predictive programming' of the pivotal event which has since altered the course of world historylike no other event since Pearl Harbor. 

"I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die" unreleased audio

"I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die" unreleased audio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6BtEM1w19Q

By: George Carlin -
Date: 2016-09-11

George Carlin - "I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die" unreleased footage shot on the two days prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The footage remained unreleased until now due to the coincidental timing of the stand-up routine and the terrorist attacks.

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The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Once too raw, a George Carlin special resurfaces

Once too raw, a George Carlin special resurfaces

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2016/09/04/once-too-raw-carlin-special-resurfaces/PjkoqNmm5yxJmzt3P0MJOP/story.html

By: Jason Zinoman
Date: 2016-09-04

NEW YORK — On Sept. 10, 2001, George Carlin, the greatest political comic in history if measured only by stand-up specials, recorded a bracing hour of social commentary for his new HBO special. The next day, he shelved it.

It wasn’t only the title, “I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die,” that seemed in bad taste after nearly 3,000 people were killed a day later in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Carlin also told a joke about a fart so potent it blew up an airplane. “You know who gets blamed? Osama bin Laden,” Carlin joked. “The FBI is looking for explosives. They should be looking for minute traces of rice and bok choy.”

If timing is everything, Carlin had nothing.

Fifteen years later, his lost special is finally being released. (It is on Sirius XM, though it will be for sale as a download or DVD on Sept. 16, at Amazon and iTunes, among other outlets.) It will be a revelation for comedy fans nostalgic for the days when you could expect a series of articulate salvos from Carlin about every two years. This special is not bonus track material. It’s a polished hour of new jokes with a virtuosic centerpiece, an intricate and elusive nearly 10-minute story that inspired its title, firmly in the tradition of Carlin’s comedy but also a fascinating departure.

A long-shelved recording of a George Carlin routine — taped Sept. 10, 2001 — will soon be released. In it, he makes a joke about Osama bin Laden being blamed for the downing of an airplane.

Pentagon Has No Idea Where Hundreds of Thousands of Guns Went in Iraq and Afghanistan

Pentagon Has No Idea Where Hundreds of Thousands of Guns Went in Iraq and Afghanistan

Over half of 1.4 million guns U.S. shipped into Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 are unaccounted for in DoD's own records, watchdog discovers

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/25/pentagon-has-no-idea-where-hundreds-thousands-guns-went-iraq-and-afghanistan

By: Nika Knight
Date: 2016-08-25

The U.S. government has shipped over 1.4 million guns to Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11, according a new analysis by the U.K.-based watchdog Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), but the Pentagon is only able to account for fewer than half of them.

AOAV released its analysis of publicly available data on U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracts on Wednesday, and added that when requested to provide its own accounting for the small arms provided to the war-torn nations, "the DoD data shows that over 700,000 small arms were sent from the U.S. to Iraq and Afghanistan within these periods. However, this amount only accounts for 48 percent of the total small arms supplied by the U.S. government that can be found in open source government reports."

"What to do?" writes C.J. Chivers in the New York Times. "If past is precedent, given enough time one of the United States' solutions will be, once again, to ship in more guns." (Photo: Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)

Provoking Nuclear War by Media

Provoking Nuclear War by Media

http://www.globalresearch.ca/provoking-nuclear-war-by-media/5542176

By: John Pilger
Date: 2016-08-23

The exoneration of a man accused of the worst of crimes, genocide, made no headlines. Neither the BBC nor CNN covered it. The Guardian allowed a brief commentary. Such a rare official admission was buried or suppressed, understandably. It would explain too much about how the rulers of the world rule.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has quietly cleared the late Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, of war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including the massacre at Srebrenica.

Far from conspiring with the convicted Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, Milosevic actually “condemned ethnic cleansing”, opposed Karadzic and tried to stop the war that dismembered Yugoslavia. Buried near the end of a 2,590- page judgement on Karadzic last February, this truth further demolishes the propaganda that justified Nato’s illegal onslaught on Serbia in 1999.

Drones in the Sky: Operating the Mechanized Kill Machine

Drones in the Sky: Operating the Mechanized Kill Machine

http://www.globalresearch.ca/drones-in-the-sky-operating-the-mechanized-kill-machine/5541239

By: Dr. Binoy Kampmark
Date: 2016-08-16

Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war. Lt. Gen. Frank Benson (Alan Rickman), Eye in the Sky(2015)

All it takes is a boffin on the trigger, then goodnight all.  That is the gist of Horace Rumpole’s words in John Mortimer’s legal creation by that name – the ever direct barrister who finds himself acting in a court martial in Germany on behalf of a British soldier, member of the famed Seraphs.

Such is the ethics of modern affair: the lethal trigger instead of the bloody sword; the weapon fired at a safe distance against a human opponent with little if no chance to retaliate in fair play.  Gone are the days of empty headed light brigades charging foolishly yet breathtakingly against strong positions.

Mortimer’s reflection was penned some decades ago, primarily on the issue of potential nuclear extinction. The button of contemplation (watch those nuclear keys!), the bomb, the nuclear deterrent, had done away with the traditional players, who were essentially frustrated thespians uniformed for life’s great show.

From triggers to sticks, the emergence of the drone system, remote, piloted warfare, has further given cause to the soldier actor, where simulation has greater significance than what is being simulated.  What matters now is that the computer addled actor is a true killer, a veritable Xbox-trained murderer.  The soldier in that setting becomes a games operator framed by a world of piloted projections. Never mind that these simulations somehow disperse themselves into the effulgent destruction of a target, in all its carnage.

The Earth Just Experienced the Hottest Month on the Books. Period.

The Earth Just Experienced the Hottest Month on the Books. Period.

Plus, scientists say there's a "99 percent chance of a new annual record in 2016"

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/15/earth-just-experienced-hottest-month-books-period

By: Lauren McCauley
Date: 2016-08-15

On Monday it was confirmed that the Earth has broken an ominous climate milestone amid a wave of troubling records: July 2016 was the hottest recorded month—ever.

Media Silence and the Agrochemicals Industry: The Slow Poisoning of Health and the Environment

Media Silence and the Agrochemicals Industry: The Slow Poisoning of Health and the Environment

http://www.globalresearch.ca/media-silence-and-the-agrochemicals-industry-the-slow-poisoning-of-health-and-the-environment/5540625

By: Colin Todhunter
Date: 2016-08-11

It’s an all too common tale of dirty deeds, shady deals and propaganda. Rosemary Mason’s recent open letter to journalists at The Guardian outlines how the media is failing the public by not properly reporting on the regulatory delinquency relating to GM food and the harmful chemicals being applied to crops. Much of the media is even (unwittingly) acting as a propaganda arm for big agritech companies.

An open ‘Letter from America’ was penned in November 2014 warning countries in Europe and EU regulators not to authorise (chemical-dependent) GM crops because of the devastating effects on human health and the environment. Mason notes that David Cameron ignored that advice. The European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority also ignored it and have continued to allow GM into food and feed in the EU and sanction the ongoing use of dangerous pesticides.

Humans are Poisoning the Ocean—and It's Poisoning Us Back

Humans are Poisoning the Ocean—and It's Poisoning Us Back

New study shows deadly bacteria levels spiking in North Atlantic as ocean temperatures rise

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/09/humans-are-poisoning-ocean-and-its-poisoning-us-back

By: Nika Knight
Date: 2016-08-09

It's no secret that we have trashed, poisoned, and warmed oceans at an unprecedented rate via human-caused climate change and pollution.

It seems that oceans may be paying us back in kind, according to a new study that found levels of bacteria responsible for life-threatening illnesses spiking in the North Atlantic region.

Bacteria that causes life-threatening infections in humans and fish is increasing in the North Atlantic. (Photo: Barbara Eckstein/flickr/cc)

Why The Illuminati Killed Michael Jackson Full Documentary

Clerk Note: Brought to our attention by an alert reader.

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Why The Illuminati Killed Michael Jackson Full Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VISu6vTzbM&feature=youtu.be

Date: 2016-08-16

Why The Illuminati Killed Michael Jackson Full Documentary

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance and fashion along with his publicized personal life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

21 Goals of the Illuminati by Dr. John Coleman

Clerk Note: I don't like re-posting things from InfoWars. I find them to be conspiracy showman just trying to excite controversy to earn a buck. I was duped into posting this, because the link provided me and that piqued my interest wasn't to InfoWars. All disinformation has nuggets of truth. In loving memory of the Vatic Master who loved this sort of illuminati shit, I yield and go with the duping.

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21 Goals of the Illuminati by Dr. John Coleman

http://www.infowars.com/21-goals-of-the-illuminati-and-the-committee-of-300/

By: Infowars.com
Date: 2013-03-27

Public Enemy’s Professor Griff, Wednesday’s guest on the Alex Jones Show, reminded us of an excellent work by author and intelligence community historian Dr. John Coleman.

An excerpt from Dr. Coleman’s work, The Conspirators’ Hierarchy: The Committee of 300, covering the major goals of the Illuminati is posted below.

By: Dr. John Coleman
From: Conspirators’ Hierachy: The Story of The Committee of 300

1. To establish a One World Government/New World Order with a unified church and monetary system under their direction. The One World Government began to set up its church in the 1920:s and 30:s, for they realized the need for a religious belief inherent in mankind must have an outlet and, therefore, set up a “church” body to channel that belief in the direction they desired.

2. To bring about the utter destruction of all national identity and national pride, which was a primary consideration if the concept of a One World Government was to work.

Jesuit-trained Tim Kaine Selected To Succeed Hillary When She….

Clerk Note: Conspiracies on the internet strongly hint with some substantiation that Secretary Hillary Clinton's health isn't the best. We need to be wary that Reagan had a strong VP who was ex-CIA in George H.W. Bush. Cheney was a strong VP to George W. Bush. By "strong" I mean that they did bad things outside the limelight that the President couldn't.

Be watching Kaine and Pence, because they could be more dangerous than their running mates particularly when they'll be handed power (as indicated by Trump).

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Jesuit-trained Tim Kaine Selected To Succeed Hillary When She….

Why was Jesuit-educated Tim Kaine chosen and who does he really serve?

http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=45781

By:
Date: 2016-08-11

“The Jesuits are a MILITARY organization, not a religious order. Their chief is a general of an army, not the mere father abbot of a monastery. And the aim of this organization is power – power in its most despotic exercise – absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man [i.e., the Black Pope, the Superior General of the Jesuits]. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms [sic] – and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses…”
— Napoleon I (aka Napoleon Bonaparte; 1769-1821; Emperor of the France)

Very few people really understand the hidden world power structure.

Many will tell you that the Jews run the world or that the Zionists control the planet. Others will say it Jewish Freemasons or Kabbalists who dictate from Tel Aviv.

As the Chosen People, there’s no question that the Jews were ‘chosen’ to run Hollywood (they’re great comedians), the banking and investment industry (they were the first to charge interest), the medical and legal professions (they have golden hands and silver tongues), as well as a number of other important spheres of life.

However, the leaders in each of these major arenas, which are used to control Western societies everywhere, suffer from extremely high visibility.  Exposure is the first thing that real power-brokers and controller types avoid like the plague.  Those who really control the earthly realm operate in utter secrecy.  They always have and they always will since it is secrecy that is the very basis of their power and influence.

No one knows this fact of life on Earth better than the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits and ‘Soldiers of God’.  This Roman Catholic denomination was founded as a military organization and built around a classic pyramid of power hierarchy.  The Jesuit General who resides at the very peak of the pinnacle of this pyramid enjoys absolute authority.  However, he, too, is completely controlled by those who occupy a level of authority much higher than the lowly Jesuits.

Clinton’s Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold

Clerk Note: {forgotten}

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Clinton’s Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/22/clintons-transition-team-corporate-presidency-foretold

By: Norman Solomon
Date: 2016-08-22

Like other Bernie Sanders delegates in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I kept hearing about the crucial need to close ranks behind Hillary Clinton. “Unity” was the watchword. But Clinton has reaffirmed her unity with corporate America.

Rhetoric aside, Clinton is showing her solidarity with the nemesis of the Sanders campaign—Wall Street. The trend continued last week with the announcement that Clinton has tapped former senator and Interior secretary Ken Salazar to chair her transition team.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is introduced by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., center, and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter before Clinton speaks in the east Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, Oct. 24, 2008. (Photo: David Zalubowski/AP)

Iraq War Architect Wolfowitz Putting His 'Hopes' in Clinton Presidency

Iraq War Architect Wolfowitz Putting His 'Hopes' in Clinton Presidency

Former U.S. deputy secretary of defense says 'I might have to vote for Hillary Clinton'

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/31/iraq-war-architect-wolfowitz-putting-his-hopes-clinton-presidency

By: Andrea Germanos
Date: 2016-08-31

Just ahead of a speech by Hillary Clinton in which she is expected to trumpet "American exceptionalism," the Democratic presidential nominee appears to have received public backing from Iraq War architect Paul Wolfowitz.

The 72-year-old deputy secretary of defense under President George W. Bush and cheerleader for the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq told Politico that Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump are "both so far from what I believe in." Yet, he added, "There's a little bit of hope for Hillary. With Trump, you just have to make this incredible bet that he doesn't believe anything he says, and once he really sees the situation he'll be different. But it's an incredible gamble."

Then-World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz speaking at an IMF meeting in 2007. (Photo: IMF Staff/Stephen Jaffe/flickr/cc)

Hillary Clinton Is Spreading Islamist Extremism, Hillary’s Saudi Sponsors Support Terrorism

Hillary Clinton Is Spreading Islamist Extremism, Hillary’s Saudi Sponsors Support Terrorism

http://www.globalresearch.ca/hillary-clinton-is-spreading-islamist-extremism-hillarys-saudi-sponsors-support-terrorism/5542522

By: Andre Vltchek
Date: 2016-08-26

If the West in general and the United States in particular, left the Arab and Muslim world alone and in peace, we would most likely never see all those terrorist attacks, which are rocking the world from Indonesia to France. There would be no Mujahedeen and its mutation into al-Qaeda; in Afghanistan or elsewhere. There would be no traces of the ISIS (or ISIL or I.S. or Daesh or however you choose to call it), in Syria, Iraq, Libya or anywhere else.

And the super-conservative Wahhabi Islam, that outdated, freak Saudi mutant, would remain in the religious schools of the ultra-regressive Kingdom, instead of gaining ground all over Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Hilary Clinton – History Repeats Itself?

Hilary Clinton – History Repeats Itself?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/hilary-clinton-history-repeats-itself/5540699

By: Andre Vitchek
Date: 2016-08-12

Once upon a time, there was a man called James Buchanan. He was a Democrat, a Secretary of State and then the President of the United States. A good friend of mine, a historian, told me about him.

Buchanan was the last U.S. President who previously served as Secretary of State. He was a Pennsylvania native, and he took his place in the Oval Office in 1857.

Now, more than 150 years later, Hilary Clinton may be about to follow in his footsteps. And some footsteps they were!

Vote for the Lying Neoliberal Warmonger: It’s Important

Vote for the Lying Neoliberal Warmonger: It’s Important

An explanation for why defeating Donald Trump—despite what we know about Hillary Clinton—should be the left's primary national electoral objective this November

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/18/vote-lying-neoliberal-warmonger-its-important

By: Adolph Reed Jr.
Date: 2016-08-18

In 1991, former Klansman and American Nazi Party functionary David Duke ran for governor of Louisiana and made the runoff election against Democrat Edwin Edwards, the popular but scandal-plagued three-term former governor. Duke had made the runoff between the two top vote-getters since no one received a majority in the first primary. Duke had received just over 31% of the vote in the first primary, and Edwards had just over 33% in a twelve-person field.

The stage was set for a bitter, intense campaign between a Republican with a history of open advocacy of virulent racism and nativism and a deeply flawed corporate Democrat. The many different dangers that a Duke victory augured for the state provided the basis for a broad and bipartisan business-center-left electoral alliance that condensed around a least common denominator slogan that no doubt every Louisianan who was sentient at the time recalls: “Vote for the Crook: It’s Important.” Edwards won, with more than 61% of the vote, and a potential political and economic disaster for the state was avoided. (In 2001 Edwards, who had boasted during an earlier investigation that the only way Louisianans would turn on him would be if he were “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy,” was convicted of racketeering and spent the next decade in prison.)

Hillary Clinton at a post-DNC rally in Philadelphia last month. (Photo: neverbutterfly/flickr/cc)

Hillary Clinton and the Big (Neoliberal) Lie

Hillary Clinton and the Big (Neoliberal) Lie

http://www.globalresearch.ca/hillary-clinton-and-the-big-neoliberal-lie/5540315

By: Eric Draitser
Date: 2016-08-05

This election season has brought to the surface an issue that, until recently, seemed to have become a neoliberal sacred cow, the holy writ of the lords of capital: free trade. And while this cornerstone of US economic hegemony has come under fire from a deeply reactionary, and to varying degrees racist and xenophobic, perspective, as expressed by Donald Trump, it has nevertheless sparked a much needed conversation about free trade and its destructive impact on both the American working class, and the Global South as well.

But free trade having become a campaign issue has also spotlighted for the umpteenth time the breathtaking hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton who I have previously referred to as the high priestess of the Church of Free Trade and Neoliberalism. For it is, in fact, Hillary Clinton who has for more than two decades been one of the loudest and most resolute voices championing neoliberalism and free trade. And still, despite her record, Clinton today presents herself as a friend of the working class. The same working class that has been all but eviscerated by the policies she herself has supported.

Operation Mockingbird 2.0? Former CIA Director Planting Conspiracy Theories: Trump is an “Unwitting” Russian Agent

Operation Mockingbird 2.0? Former CIA Director Planting Conspiracy Theories: Trump is an “Unwitting” Russian Agent

http://www.globalresearch.ca/operation-mockingbird-2-0-former-cia-director-planting-conspiracy-theories-trump-is-an-unwitting-russian-agent/5540746

By: Timothy Alexander Guzman
Date: 2016-08-11

Are we are now experiencing Operation Mockingbird 2.0? The CIA has been collaborating with the Mainstream Media (MSM) for some time is now selling one of the most ridiculous “Conspiracy Theories” in recent years (Obama’s “I killed Osama Bin Laden” Hoax tops the list).

Former CIA director, Michael J. Morell has claimed that the Republican presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump is an “Unwitting Agent” of Russia. Another lie or what we can call a “real conspiracy theory” is that Russia hacked into the DNC servers and obtained emails that exposed corruption within the Democratic Party with no evidence whatsoever which I will discuss shortly.

In fact, the MSM in collusion with the CIA has been relentless in their pursuit for decades to convince the public that alternative news sources publish conspiracy theories to discredit any questionable story that they themselves (the MSM) present to the public. The CIA created the “Conspiracy Theory” label in 1967 to discredit anyone (especially journalists) who questioned the U.S. government’s “Official Narrative” of a particular situation. Now, fast forward to 2016, Morell wrote a New York Times OP-ED claiming that Donald Trump is working for Russian President Vladimir Putin:

Mr. Putin is a great leader, Mr. Trump says, ignoring that he has killed and jailed journalists and political opponents, has invaded two of his neighbors and is driving his economy to ruin. Mr. Trump has also taken policy positions consistent with Russian, not American, interests — endorsing Russian espionage against the United States, supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea and giving a green light to a possible Russian invasion of the Baltic States.

In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation

Donald Trump and the ‘Banality of Evil’

Donald Trump and the ‘Banality of Evil’

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/10/donald-trump-and-banality-evil

By: Peter Dreier
Date: 2016-08-10

Donald Trump’s comment on Tuesday about how “Second Amendment people” could stop Hillary Clinton if she gets elected is hardly subtle. This is a clear provocation to commit murder, however he and his handlers may try to spin it.

At a rally in Wilmington, N.C. , Trump told the crowd that “Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment.” Of course, this isn’t true. This is how Trump and his NRA friends refer to people who want tougher gun control laws. But that wasn’t the most inflammatory thing he said.

European Copyright Leak Exposes Plans to Force the Internet to Subsidize Publishers

Clerk Note: With the drip-drip-drip of boring legislation, the mighty rock of freedom is cracked. Follow the money.

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European Copyright Leak Exposes Plans to Force the Internet to Subsidize Publishers

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/european-copyright-leak-exposes-plans-force-internet-subsidize-publishers

By: Jeremy Malcolm
Date: 2016-08-26

A just-leaked draft impact assessment on the modernization of European copyright rules could spell the end for many online services in Europe as we know them. The document's recommendations foreshadow new a EU Directive on copyright to be introduced later this year, that will ultimately bind each of the European Union's 28 member states. If these recommendations by the European Commission are put in place, Europe's Internet will never be the same, and these impacts are likely to reverberate around the world.

The 182-page document identifies three general objectives—ensuring wider access to content, adapting copyright exceptions to the digital and cross-border environment, and achieving a well-functioning marketplace for copyright. In this initial article we examine the recommendations that fall under the third of these three objectives, which are amongst the most alarming proposals, including new obligations on Internet platforms, and new copyright-like powers for news publishers.

Martin Luther King survived shooting, was murdered in hospital: an interview with William Pepper

Martin Luther King survived shooting, was murdered in hospital: an interview with William Pepper

https://truthandshadows.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/king-murdered-in-hospital/

By: Craig McKee
Date: 2016-09-03

For one bright moment back in the late 1960s, we actually believed that we could change our country. We had identified the enemy. We saw it up close, we had its measure, and we were very hopeful that we would prevail. The enemy was hollow where we had substance. All of that substance was destroyed by an assassin’s bullet. – William Pepper (page 15, The Plot to Kill King)

The revelations are stunning. The media indifference is predictable.

Thanks to the nearly four-decade investigation by human rights lawyer William Pepper, it is now clear once and for all that Martin Luther King was murdered in a conspiracy that was instigated by then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and that also involved the U.S. military, the Memphis Police Department, and “Dixie Mafia” crime figures in Memphis, Tennessee. These and many more incredible details of the King assassination are contained in a trilogy of volumes by Pepper culminating with his latest and final book on the subject, The Plot to Kill King. He previously wrote Orders to Kill (1995) and An Act of State (2003).

CHEMTrail Plane Shot Down Above China

CHEMTrail Plane Shot Down Above China

http://www.disclose.tv/news/chemtrail_plane_shot_down_above_china/133831

By: Lukas Magnuson
Date: 2016-08-11 (?)

Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are stating that a US government contracted airplane piloted by American CIA agents and carrying a cargo of a "mutated" swine flu virus intended for aerial spraying was shot down at China's Shanghai Pudong airport by a saboteur team of what are believed to be Israeli Mossad soldiers seeking to prevent an American attack upon one of their Central Asian bases located in the Central Asian Nation of Kyrgyzstan.

US government contracted airplane was shot down by Israeli Mossad soldiers

According to Chinese media reports on this incident the stricken Zimbabwean MD-ll plane, owned by the CIA linked Avient Aviation company operated by a former British military officer named Andrew Smith and registered in the UK, killed 3 American CIA agents and injured 4 other personal who are reported to be from United States, Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe.

Interlocking Agencies that Conspire to “Create Terror”: We Do Not Need the Police to “Create More Terrorists”

Interlocking Agencies that Conspire to “Create Terror”: We Do Not Need the Police to “Create More Terrorists”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/interlocking-agencies-that-conspire-to-create-terror-we-do-not-need-the-police-to-create-more-terrorists/5540454

By: Mark Taliano
Date: 2016-08-10

Unsuspecting citizens are paying for a nexus of interlocking agencies that conspire to create terror, war, and police-state legislation in a War of Deception that serves to devastate humanity.

Without its arsenal of fabricated war pretexts, and its fabricated Fear apparatus, the warmongering oligarchy would be denuded and reveal itself as the mass-murdering terrorist entity that it is.

Most recently, in Canada, Justice Catherine Bruce disclosed the true nature of an RCMP terror plot when she overturned terror convictions against two patsies – John Nuttal and Amanda Korody – who were set up by police operatives to commit a terrorist act for which they would otherwise be totally incapable of performing.

Creating a New Paradigm

Creating a New Paradigm

http://www.wanttoknow.info/070707newparadigm

By: Want To Know .info
Date: 2016-09

The Old Paradigm

Together, we are creating a new paradigm on Earth. Yet in order to give meaningful suggestions to further support this, we first need to speak candidly about the old paradigm. It appears that there are factions within the world's power elite which still desire to exert as much control as possible over the world.

Their primary means for establishing control are through promoting fear, secrecy, and polarization, and through distracting people from their deeper purpose in life. When these factions gain greater power and control, our freedoms and liberties are increasingly taken away, sometimes without our even realizing it.

Fear is used as a powerful tool of control by these factions of the global elite. "The terrorists want to kill us all. Your job, home, and retirement are no longer secure. You are either for us or against us. We might be attacked at any time." All of these messages push us towards fear. And by encouraging us to focus blame on others such as terrorists and "evil" leaders, the global power brokers push us away from feeling in control of our lives and towards the role of powerless victims, so that we look to them for protection. The more we slip into fear and being victims, the easier it is for us to be manipulated.

This Company Has Built a Profile on Every American Adult

This Company Has Built a Profile on Every American Adult

Every move you make. Every click you take. Every game you play. Every place you stay. They’ll be watching you.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-05/this-company-has-built-a-profile-on-every-american-adult

By: David Gauvey Herbert
Date: 2016-08-05

Forget telephoto lenses and fake mustaches: The most important tools for America’s 35,000 private investigators are database subscription services. For more than a decade, professional snoops have been able to search troves of public and nonpublic records—known addresses, DMV records, photographs of a person’s car—and condense them into comprehensive reports costing as little as $10. Now they can combine that information with the kinds of things marketers know about you, such as which politicians you donate to, what you spend on groceries, and whether it’s weird that you ate in last night, to create a portrait of your life and predict your behavior.

IDI, a year-old company in the so-called data-fusion business, is the first to centralize and weaponize all that information for its customers. The Boca Raton, Fla., company’s database service, idiCORE, combines public records with purchasing, demographic, and behavioral data. Chief Executive Officer Derek Dubner says the system isn’t waiting for requests from clients—it’s already built a profile on every American adult, including young people who wouldn’t be swept up in conventional databases, which only index transactions. “We have data on that 21-year-old who’s living at home with mom and dad,” he says.

The Conspiracy Theory Narrative: Are You a Mind-Controlled CIA Stooge?

The Conspiracy Theory Narrative: Are You a Mind-Controlled CIA Stooge?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-conspiracy-theory-narrative-are-you-a-mind-controlled-cia-stooge/5543367

By: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Date: 2016-08-31

Do you smirk when you hear someone question the official stories of Orlando, San Bernardino, Paris or Nice? Do you feel superior to 2,500 architects and engineers, to firefighters, commercial and military pilots, physicists and chemists, and former high government officials who have raised doubts about 9/11? If so, you reflect the profile of a mind-controlled CIA stooge.

The term “conspiracy theory” was invented and put into public discourse by the CIA in 1964 in order to discredit the many skeptics who challenged the Warren Commission’s conclusion that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was assassinated while in police custody before he could be questioned. The CIA used its friends in the media to launch a campaign to make suspicion of the Warren Commission report a target of ridicule and hostility. This campaign was “one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.”

The Shadow Brokers Publish NSA Spy Tools, Demonstrating Possible Flaws in the NSA’s Approach to Security Vulnerabilities

The Shadow Brokers Publish NSA Spy Tools, Demonstrating Possible Flaws in the NSA’s Approach to Security Vulnerabilities

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/shadow-brokers-publish-powerful-nsa-spy-tools-demonstrating-flaws-nsas-approach

By: Rainey Reitman
Date: 2016-09-02

The Vulnerabilities Equities Process in Unaccountable, Secretive, and Nonbinding

A group calling itself the Shadow Brokers recently released powerful surveillance tools publicly on the Web and promises to publish more dangerous tools for the price of one million bitcoin – or to whomever makes the best offer, if they can’t get to a million.1

Snowden Calls 'Shadow Brokers' Hack of NSA Hackers 'Significant' Turn in Spy Wars

Snowden Calls 'Shadow Brokers' Hack of NSA Hackers 'Significant' Turn in Spy Wars

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/17/snowden-calls-shadow-brokers-hack-nsa-hackers-significant-turn-spy-wars

By: Nika Knight
Date: 2016-08-17

Calling leak of sophisticated spy tools unprecedented, whistleblower says things 'could get messy fast'

"This leak is likely a warning that someone can prove U.S. responsibility for any attacks that originated from this malware server," Snowden tweeted. "That could have significant foreign policy consequences." (Photo: AP/Patrick Semansky)

The National Security Administration (NSA) was allegedly hacked by a mysterious group calling itself "The Shadow Brokers," and the "most powerful espionage tools" of the NSA's elite hacker team, as the Washington Post put it, were leaked to the internet this weekend.

Powerful NSA hacking tools have been revealed online

Powerful NSA hacking tools have been revealed online

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/powerful-nsa-hacking-tools-have-been-revealed-online/2016/08/16/bce4f974-63c7-11e6-96c0-37533479f3f5_story.html

By: Ellen Nakashima
Date: 2016-08-16

Some of the most powerful espionage tools created by the National Security Agency’s elite group of hackers have been revealed in recent days, a development that could pose severe consequences for the spy agency’s operations and the security of government and corporate computers.

A cache of hacking tools with code names such as Epicbanana, Buzzdirection and Egregiousblunder appeared mysteriously online over the weekend, setting the security world abuzz with speculation over whether the material was legitimate.

The file appeared to be real, according to former NSA personnel who worked in the agency’s hacking division, known as Tailored Access Operations (TAO).

By November, Russian hackers could target voting machines

Clerk Note: Russian hackers? Ha! Red Herring alert. Who's being scape-goated here? What about our own (US-based) devious aparatuses motivated to manipulate the elections, as the Democratic Primary clearly demonstrated in many states? This article has the whiff of disinformation.

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By November, Russian hackers could target voting machines

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/27/by-november-russian-hackers-could-target-voting-machines/

By: Bruce Schneier
Date: 2016-07-27

Russia was behind the hacks into the Democratic National Committee’s computer network that led to the release of thousands of internal emails just before the party’s convention began, U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly concluded.

The FBI is investigating. WikiLeaks promises there is more data to come. The political nature of this cyberattack means that Democrats and Republicans are trying to spin this as much as possible. Even so, we have to accept that someone is attacking our nation’s computer systems in an apparent attempt to influence a presidential election. This kind of cyberattack targets the very core of our democratic process. And it points to the possibility of an even worse problem in November — that our election systems and our voting machines could be vulnerable to a similar attack.

If the intelligence community has indeed ascertained that Russia is to blame, our government needs to decide what to do in response. This is difficult because the attacks are politically partisan, but it is essential. If foreign governments learn that they can influence our elections with impunity, this opens the door for future manipulations, both document thefts and dumps like this one that we see and more subtle manipulations that we don’t see.

Retaliation is politically fraught and could have serious consequences, but this is an attack against our democracy. We need to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin in some way — politically, economically or in cyberspace — and make it clear that we will not tolerate this kind of interference by any government. Regardless of your political leanings this time, there’s no guarantee the next country that tries to manipulate our elections will share your preferred candidates.

Even more important, we need to secure our election systems before autumn. If Putin’s government has already used a cyberattack to attempt to help Trump win, there’s no reason to believe he won’t do it again — especially now that Trump is inviting the “help.”

How Many Guns Did the U.S. Lose Track of in Iraq and Afghanistan? Hundreds of Thousands.

How Many Guns Did the U.S. Lose Track of in Iraq and Afghanistan? Hundreds of Thousands.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/magazine/how-many-guns-did-the-us-lose-track-of-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-hundreds-of-thousands.html?_r=1

By: C. J. Chivers
Date: 2016-08-24

Early this year, a Facebook user in Baghdad using the name Hussein Mahyawi posted a photograph of a slightly worn M4 assault rifle he was offering for sale. Veterans of the latest war in Iraq immediately recognized it. It was a standard American carbine equipped with a holographic sight, a foregrip that was military-issue during the occupation and a sticker bearing a digital QR code used by American forces for inventory control. Except for one detail — an aftermarket pistol grip, the sort of accessory with which combatants of the current generation often pimp their guns — it was a dead ringer for any of the tens of thousands of M4s the Pentagon handed out to Iraqi security forces and various armed militias after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003. And here it was on the open market, ready for bids.

Was this a surprise? No. A little more than four years after the United States withdrew all its military forces from Iraq, and not quite two years after a smaller number of American troops began returning to the country to help fight the Islamic State, the open sale of such an M4 was part of Iraq’s day-to-day arms-trafficking routine. Mahyawi’s carbine was another data point attesting to an extraordinary and dangerous failure of American arms-trafficking and public accountability and to a departure from a modern military’s most basic practice: keeping track of the guns.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States has handed out a vast but persistently uncountable quantity of military firearms to its many battlefield partners in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today the Pentagon has only a partial idea of how many weapons it issued, much less where these weapons are. Meanwhile, the effectively bottomless abundance of black-market weapons from American sources is one reason Iraq will not recover from its post-invasion woes anytime soon.

An inkling of just how expansive these arms transfers were, and how stubbornly resistant they are to precise measurement, is apparent in a new attempt at weapons-tallying compiled in a project led by Iain Overton. Overton is a former BBC journalist who is now the executive director of Action on Armed Violence, a charity based in London that researches and lobbies against weapons proliferation and violence against civilians; he is also the author of “The Way of the Gun,” a dark examination of some of the roles firearms play in modern society. With a string of Freedom of Information Act requests that began last year, he and his small team of researchers pooled 14 years’ worth of Pentagon contract information related to rifles, pistols, machine guns and their associated attachments and ammunition, both for American troops and for their partners and proxies. They then crosschecked the data against other public records. Overton is releasing the data and his analysis today. It covers 412 contracts and merits pause for reflection as the parties to the international Arms Trade Treaty gather this week in Geneva. The treaty, which took effect in 2014 and of which the United States is a signatory, is intended to promote transparency and responsible action in the transfer of conventional arms and to reduce their diversion to unintended hands — exactly what the United States often failed to do in recent wars.

In all, Overton found, the Pentagon provided more than 1.45 million firearms to various security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, including more than 978,000 assault rifles, 266,000 pistols and almost 112,000 machine guns. These transfers formed a collage of firearms of mixed vintage and type: Kalashnikov assault rifles left over from the Cold War; recently manufactured NATO-standard M16s and M4s from American factories; machine guns of Russian and Western lineage; and sniper rifles, shotguns and pistols of varied provenance and caliber, including a large order of Glock semiautomatic pistols, a type of weapon also regularly offered for sale online in Iraq.

Labor Day Is a Scam to Keep You Broke and Miserable Forever

Labor Day Is a Scam to Keep You Broke and Miserable Forever

http://usuncut.com/class-war/labor-day-is-a-scam/

By: Tom Cahill
Date: 2016-09-05

Labor Day is our annual reminder that our government has managed to turn a day of revolutionary action into a day of sleeping late and binge drinking.

May 1, which is known throughout the world as International Workers’ Day (or May Day), remains one of the chief exports of the United States, as the holiday we created is celebrated as an official state holiday in over 90 countries. One of the greatest accomplishments of the US government is the elimination of May Day from American culture. Labor Day is a sorry replacement for a day originally rooted in direct action.

U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds

Clerk Note: September 10, 2001 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon could not account for $2.3 Billion. The next day, the investigators and records from the Office of Naval Intelligence, the only group to move into the newly remodeled Pentagon wing, were killed and destroyed by an alleged aircraft.

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U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/19/reuters-america-us-army-fudged-its-accounts-by-trillions-of-dollars-auditor-finds.html

By: Scot J. Paltrow
Date: 2016-08-19

NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The United States Army's finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced.

The Defense Department's Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up.

As a result, the Army's financial statements for 2015 were "materially misstated," the report concluded. The "forced" adjustments rendered the statements useless because "DoD and Army managers could not rely on the data in their accounting systems when making management and resource decisions."

Beyond Misinformation: 9/11 FGNW

Clerk Note: Pretty much sums up why my belief that 9/11/2001 was nuclear.

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Beyond Misinformation: 9/11 FGNW

http://maxwellbridges.blogspot.com/2016/03/beyond-misinformation-911-fgnw.html

By: Maxwell C. Bridges
Date: 2016-03-11

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This article makes the case that Fourth Generation Nuclear Devices (FGND) were used on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center. In doing so, it discusses why the leading theory of Nano-Thermite proposed by many influential leaders in the 9/11 Truth Movement does not go the whole distance and is therefore wrong. This work demonstrates evolution in the beliefs of the author when presented with new information, although much of this article's content has been published previously.

9/011 a conspiracy theory

Clerk Note: Such as awesome, brief summary.

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9/011 a conspiracy theory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWDHYh-gccY

By: Corbett Report
Date: 2015-02-09

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The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Saudi Arabia’s Alleged Involvement in the 9/11 Attacks and the 28 Pages: “Red-Herring”, Propaganda Ploy

Saudi Arabia’s Alleged Involvement in the 9/11 Attacks and the 28 Pages: “Red-Herring”, Propaganda Ploy

http://www.globalresearch.ca/saudi-arabias-alleged-involvement-in-the-911-attacks-red-herring/5442545

By: Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Date: 2014-04-14

BBC live report of the collapse of WTC building 7, more than minutes before the collapse took place. Building Seven in the background is still intact.

Author’s note

Fifteen years ago. Commemorating 9/11: September 11, 2001: The following article was published in April 2015.  In the meantime, the issue of the mysterious 28 pages has resurfaced. the 28 pages were made public. Essentially they serve as a distraction which undermines 9/11 Truth. They revive the role of Al Qaeda supported by Saudi Arabia. But Al Qaeda was not behind the attacks and therefore the links to Saudi Arabia constitute a non sequitur .  

It is fairly well established that Al Qaeda could not been behind the 9/11 attacks. This is confirmed by the analysis of Richard Gage and Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. The WTC towers were brought down through controlled demolition.  

Bob McIlvaine on how his son’s death points to controlled demolition

Clerk Note: Mr. Craig McKee does good work. I was not aware of the explosive damage to the 23rd floor, but do not dispute it. I'd like to know sources.

In the article, Mr. McIlvaine said:

... [T]he tower was divided into three vertical sections. Each elevator (except for the basement-to-penthouse maintenance elevator) serviced only one section. Thus, someone travelling from top to bottom would have had to take three different elevators. This configuration would have prevented fuel from pouring down elevator shafts and causing the destruction.

A minor quibble. If a person / WTC employee wanted to get from the lobby to any floor other than the penhouse visitor center or restaurant or floors below the first transfer floor, they would need to take at least two elevators: (1) an express to a transfer floor and (2) a local elevator servicing 1/3 of the building between transfer floors.

I do not believe that tourists were required to use more than one elevator. Therefore, it could be said that these would be express ground-floor-to-penthouse.

For those morbidly curious to see disinformation at play, follow the link to its source and see what happens in the comments, leading Mr. McKee to close them a day later. Dr. James Fetzer arrives on the scenes. I think he is right about nuclear devices, although could maybe refine his argument further with Dr. Andre Gsponer's fourth generation nuclear devices. Were he to do so, he'd more easily be able to withstand the Travis & sockpuppet2012 attacks about radioative dust. FGND describe the nature of the beast appropriately.

Dr. Fetzer doesn't go into FGND or my premises, even after contacted directly for opinions on article "Beyond Misinformation: FGND". Dr. Fetzer is a showman procuring a little fame and retirement income. If he keeps some batshit crazy in his portfolio, it provides some insurance against being taken out. Therefore he won't correct mistakes in his understanding.

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Bob McIlvaine on how his son’s death points to controlled demolition

https://truthandshadows.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/mcilvaine-controlled-demolition/

By: Craig McKee
Date: 2016-09-10

This article is a lightly modified version of a piece I just wrote for Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which you can read here. I thank the staff at AE911Truth for making it possible for me to speak with Bob McIlvaine and write this article.—CM

Bob McIlvaine and his family are not alone in having suffered a devastating personal loss on September 11, 2001. The loved ones of the nearly 3,000 victims of the destruction at the World Trade Center know what he has endured for the past 15 years.

But McIlvaine is different from most of these families in important ways. In addition to his unwavering and often lonely fight to expose the complicity of the U.S. government in this false flag attack, he has strong forensic evidence that his 26-year-old son, Bobby, was killed by a powerful explosion as he was about to enter the lobby of the North Tower. That evidence is corroborated by the accounts of many FDNY members, police officers, and workers who reported explosions in the lower parts of the towers before the buildings were destroyed—some of them even before the first airplane struck.

America Nuked on 9/11

Clerk Note: I give Dr. Fetzer credit for his skills in self-promotion. The conspiracy theory realm is a hard market to earn a living in. At some point, the limits of our wallets and our patience turns many into embracing bat-shit crazy things if it can increase market share and revenue in a market that is both small and monetarily poor (because, "Hey, the Federal Reserve is neither and makes fiat money out of literally nothing, the system is rigged, and I can be spiritually happy and richer by pursuing other things.")

I don't have time or inclination to go into all of the rabbit-holes that Dr. Fetzer promotes. Many I agree with, or more correctly, haven't researched to the depths where I would find disagreement. For example, the JFK conspiracy; I agree and don't really know what nuances Dr. Fetzer brings to the table.

On the other hand, I have have issues with Dr. Fetzer in a couple of areas of 9/11. He embraces in a very lame way "no planes at the WTC" (NPT) using dubious physics, ignoring evidence of aircraft parts, and relying on disinformation sources (Rich Hall). Holograms is part of his answer (that has to badly misstate radar capabilities as well as cloaking technologies), and can't be defended with real-world examples that would be convincing from many perspectives on a small scale, let alone the grand scale needed for 9/11. [NPT (@ WTC) is a disinformation campaign in part designed to distract and detract from the real instances of no planes at the Pentagon and Shanksville that would, could, should bring down the official government theory AND THOSE IN LEADERSHIP PROMOTING IT like the house of cards they are.]

The realm of America being nuked on 9/11 is one where Dr. Fetzer and I have agreement. (Maybe I should be concerned about that.) I haven't acquired or read his book yet. From discussions we've had through various blogs and email, he never brought up anything to counter or enhance "Beyond Misinformation: 9/11 FGNW". I'm sure his book relies on many of the same information sources.

In the near future, I will probably make an investment in Dr. Fetzer's retirement by purchasing and reading this book.

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America Nuked on 9/11

http://moonrockbooks.com/america-nuked-on-9-11/

By: Dr. James Fetzer
Date: 2016-07-11

Compliments of the CIA, the Neocons in the DoD & the Mossad

If you want to know the WHO, the HOW and the WHY of 9/11, this book provides the answers. In 28 extensive, thorough and detailed studies, 14 authors contribute their expertise on different aspects of 9/11 to resolve the issues decisively. 9/11 was brought to us compliments of the CIA, the neocons in the Department of Defense and the Mossad in order to justify the transformation of U.S. foreign policy from one in which we never attacked any nation that had not attacked us first to one in which we became the greatest aggressor nation in the world, launching a series of invasions intended to take out seven governments over the next five years, as Wesley Clark, former Commanding General of NATO, has explained. It hasn’t played out that way, but not for lack of trying.

28 pages and 80,000 pages: The hunt for a Saudi support network for 9-11 hijackers

Clerk Note: Amazing what time does to a person. In past years, I'd have been all over this 9/11 almost-revelation. Now I see it as stage craft; going through the motions on 9/11.
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28 pages and 80,000 pages: The hunt for a Saudi support network for 9-11 hijackers
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/06/28-pages-and-80000-pages-the-hunt-for-a-saudi-support-network-for-9-11-hijackers/

By: Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Date: 2016-06-01

Lawyers for the Florida Bulldog have asked a federal judge to award substantial attorney fees for years of efforts to obtain secret reports about the FBI’s post-9/11 investigation of Saudis in Sarasota with apparent ties to the suicide hijackers.
The court papers filed Tuesday seek a court hearing and also show how the Fort Lauderdale Freedom of Information (FOI) case ties into a better-known push to declassify 28 pages that were cut out of a 2002 report by Congress’ Joint Inquiry into the terrorist attacks. Those censored pages involved “specific sources of foreign support” for the hijackers while they were in the U.S.

Demolition Expert Debunks the Debunkers

Clerk Note: Very much a scripted event, chocked full of truth. Alas, A&E9/11 Truth's analysis is limited, because it doesn't attempt to explain all of the evidence. "Sags/arches", "steel doobies", and under-rubble hot-spots that burned for weeks come to mind. The latter alone represents massive quantities of chemical materials, unspent from their original pulverizing purposes.

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Demolition Expert Debunks the Debunkers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns_hjONWZ88

By:
Date: 2010-07-05

Former explosives technician from Controlled Demolition, Inc explains why controlled demolition could have been used to destroy the WTC.

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The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

The Half-Life of Deindustrialization: Why Donald Trump Is Just A Symptom

The Half-Life of Deindustrialization: Why Donald Trump Is Just A Symptom

Its economic, social and psychological effects continued for decades after plants closed and across generations.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/19/half-life-deindustrialization-why-donald-trump-just-symptom

By: Sherry Linkon
Date: 2016-08-19

Every four years, the white working class gets a fresh round of attention from candidates and the media. At campaign stops in Rust Belt cities, candidates promise to fix the economy, while pundits yet again claim that white working-class voters are the key to election victory. The pattern is being repeated this year, but this time, both the news media and social media seem especially baffled by the attitudes and behavior of working-class voters.

As a number of commentators have noted, the roots of this year’s populism lie in deindustrialization, though some seem baffled that white working-class people are still troubled by either NAFTA, which went into effect in 1994, or the loss of industrial jobs, which peaked in the early 1980s. In a recent New York Times column, David Brooks suggested that working-class people should not be so strongly affected by the economic hardship of deindustrialization. After all, he suggested, it’s not as if life in a coal town was ever easy. What he and others don’t realize is that deindustrialization was never only about economics. Its economic, social and psychological effects continue for decades after plants closed and across generations, affecting the worldviews of younger people who never worked in steel mills or auto plants. Like radioactive waste, deindustrialization has a half-life.