15 Years after Invasion, Afghanistan Is a Mess Nobody Talks About

Clerk Note: Afghanistan resulted in commercial gains. Follow the money.

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15 Years after Invasion, Afghanistan Is a Mess Nobody Talks About

Wait Til You Read about Ghost Soldiers and Other Fraud

http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/10/11/15-years-invasion-afghanistan-mess-nobody-talks/

By: Bob Hennelly
Date: 2016-10-11

This presidential campaign has endured debates on a number of mundane issues, including the size of a candidate’s hands, who is more dishonest, and which candidate has the better temperament. One thing nobody is talking about is the staggering outcome of the war in Afghanistan — and that’s probably just the way those profiting from this trillion-dollar fiasco like it.

This month marks the 15th anniversary of the US-led intervention in Afghanistan, making it the nation’s longest war. It now appears, based on evidence gathered by a federal inspector general, that the whole undertaking was, and remains, an incredibly expensive disaster that has actually made Afghanistan more corrupt than it was before the US invasion back in 2001.

In one of his most stunning disclosures yet, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) revealed that, while the US Forces-Afghanistan reported that there were 319,000 Afghan soldiers, the actual number may only be 120,000. “Persistent reports” of discrepancies in Afghan troop strength “raise questions” over whether or not US taxpayers are actually paying for “ghost soldiers,” SIGAR John Sopko said in a letter to the Pentagon.

Bill Goodfellow, the executive director of the Center for International Policy, a nonprofit that promotes US foreign policy accountability and transparency, observes that despite reports like this, as well as the huge price tag and human cost, there’s been no discussion of Afghanistan in the presidential race.

“It doesn’t affect most people because the military is being staffed by economic conscription and the children of think tank analysts and journalists are not being drafted,” Goodfellow told WhoWhatWhy in a phone interview.

Pentagon Paid for Fake ‘Al Qaeda’ Videos

Clerk Note: Spot the parallelisms. The "No Plane Theory" (NPT) of 9/11 is a disinformation campaign, but among its nuggets of truth are that no planes crashed in Shanksville or the Pentagon. However a real plane was used to fly over the Pentagon very low. Therefore, the NPT theory was promoted and referenced exclusively at the towers, where video fakery and then holograms were meant to prop up the NPT claim precisely so they'd be discredited and get us to stop thinking about the real instances of no planes. Among its nuggets of truth are that imagery manipulation on 9/11 did happen, just not to the extent their NPT disinfo agents tout it. This article demonstrates another avenue of imagery manipulation and video fakery that Hollywood technology available to agencies foisted upon us.

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Pentagon Paid for Fake ‘Al Qaeda’ Videos

A controversial foreign PR firm known for representing unsavory characters was paid millions by the Pentagon to create fake terrorist videos.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/01/pentagon-paid-for-fake-al-qaeda-videos.html

By: Crofton Black & Abigail Fielding-Smith of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Date: 2016-10-01

The Pentagon gave a controversial U.K. PR firm over half a billion dollars to run a top secret propaganda program in Iraq, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal.

Bell Pottinger’s output included short TV segments made in the style of Arabic news networks and fake insurgent videos which could be used to track the people who watched them, according to a former employee.

The agency’s staff worked alongside high-ranking U.S. military officers in their Baghdad Camp Victory headquarters as the insurgency raged outside.

Bell Pottinger’s former chairman Lord Tim Bell confirmed to the Sunday Times, which has worked with the Bureau on this story, that his firm had worked on a “covert” military operation “covered by various secrecy documents.”

Bell Pottinger reported to the Pentagon, the CIA, and the National Security Council on its work in Iraq, he said.

Barbara Lee’s Lone Vote on Sept. 14, 2001, Was as Prescient as It Was Brave and Heroic

Clerk Note: A true hero of 9/11: speaking against the war crimes that were being steam rolled and snow-jobbed into happening.

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Barbara Lee’s Lone Vote on Sept. 14, 2001, Was as Prescient as It Was Brave and Heroic

https://theintercept.com/2016/09/11/barbara-lees-lone-vote-on-sept-14-2001-was-as-prescient-as-it-was-brave-and-heroic/

By: Glenn Greenwald
Date: 2016-09-11

Mainstream newspaper prints op-ed questioning 2014 Ottawa shootings

Mainstream newspaper prints op-ed questioning 2014 Ottawa shootings

https://truthandshadows.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/op-ed-ottawa-shootings/

By: Barrie Zwicker
Date: 2016-10-25

For 15 years I was paid to mainly find fault with the media, while on occasion celebrating well-crafted reporting, excellent think pieces, and the advent of independent journalism. A recent opinion piece that is worth celebrating is Prof. Graeme MacQueen’s op-ed in the Hamilton Spectator published on October 21^st.

In the article (reproduced in its entirety below), MacQueen raises a series of questions rarely posed in the media concerning the Parliament Hill shootings in Ottawa in October 2014. What is truly impressive is not just the considerable depth of research that went into compiling the questions but also that these doubts about the official story of this event were printed in a mainstream newspaper at all.

Soldiers on the scene of Parliament Hill shooting in 2014.

Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes — combined

Clerk Note: Cannabis then was a profit center for the for-profit prison system and in the war on drugs (e.g., war on minorities) was tool to disenfranchise voters, both those convicted of felons in states that don't allow felons to vote and those caught in the computer voter rolls purging of "felons" (and those with names similar to "felons" being purged from the voter registration list.)

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Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes — combined

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/12/police-arrest-more-people-for-marijuana-use-than-for-all-violent-crimes-combined/

By: Christopher Ingraham
Date: 2016-10-12

On any given day in the United States, at least 137,000 people sit behind bars on simple drug-possession charges, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch.

Nearly two-thirds of them are in local jails. The report says that most of these jailed inmates have not been convicted of any crime: They're sitting in a cell, awaiting a day in court, an appearance that may be months or even years off, because they can't afford to post bail.

"It's been 45 years since the war on drugs was declared, and it hasn't been a success," lead author Tess Borden of Human Rights Watch said in an interview. "Rates of drug use are not down. Drug dependency has not stopped. Every 25 seconds, we're arresting someone for drug use."

WikiLeaks Emails Expose Alcohol Industry’s Paid Campaign to Stifle Pot Legalization

WikiLeaks Emails Expose Alcohol Industry’s Paid Campaign to Stifle Pot Legalization

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/wikilieaks-marijuana-alcohol-lobby/

By: Matt Agorist
Date: 2016-08-08

When the good people at Marijuana.com went through the WikiLeaks dump of the DNC emails, they found something unrelated to the trove of damning information on the criminal Hillary Clinton. Within the mountains of email texts, was a paid segment by the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), stoking fear within Washington, encouraging politicians to be wary of marijuana legalization.

The May 24, 2016 edition of Huddle, a daily Politico newsletter for Capitol Hill insiders, contained this paid advertisement:

** A message from Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America: While neutral on the issue of legalization, WSWA believes states that legalize marijuana need to ensure appropriate and effective regulations are enacted to protect the public from the dangers associated with the abuse and misuse of marijuana.

23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medicinal marijuana while Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and D.C. have legalized possession and recreational use. In the years since the state legalized medicinal use, Colorado law enforcement officials have documented a significant increase in traffic fatalities in which drivers tested positive for marijuana.

Congress should fully fund Section 4008 of the FAST Act (PL 114-94) in the FY 2017 Appropriations process to document the prevalence of marijuana impaired driving, outline impairment standards and determine driving impairment detection methods.

Bill Clinton Is Right, For-Profit Healthcare Is the 'Craziest Thing in the World'

Bill Clinton Is Right, For-Profit Healthcare Is the 'Craziest Thing in the World'

Beneath the misleading headlines and corporate spin, former president gave a robust argument in favor of single-payer system

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/04/bill-clinton-right-profit-healthcare-craziest-thing-world

By: Lauren McCauley
Date: 2016-10-04

Bill Clinton gave a robust argument in favor of a single-payer healthcare system on Monday night—but you wouldn't know it if you read the news, or paid any attention to Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Speaking at Hillary Clinton campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, the former president discussed the importance of expanding access to Medicare and Medicaid while lambasting the for-profit insurance model that overcharges people and reaps enormous profit.

"The insurance model doesn't work here," he said, "it's not like life insurance, or casualty insurance. It doesn't work."

"The current system works fine," Clinton continued, referring to President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA), "if you're eligible for Medicaid, if you're a lower-income working person; if you're already on Medicare, or if you get enough subsidies on a modest income that you can afford your health care. But the people that are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies."

"Why?" he asked, "because they are not organized, they don't have bargaining power with insurance companies and they are getting whacked." As Clinton explained, insurance companies assessing risk for a small pool of people "overcharge, just to make sure, and make a whopping profit off the people least able to pay."

"So you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world," he continued.

Former President Bill Clinton, campaigning for his wife at the University of Michigan Flint Campus, said that when it comes to public health, "The insurance model doesn't work." (Photo: Virginia Lozano /The Detroit News)

Does Fear of Black Men Satisfy the "Objective Reasonableness" Standard?

Does Fear of Black Men Satisfy the "Objective Reasonableness" Standard?

The case that set the standard on when police officers are justified in using excessive force is Graham v. Connor. But how that standard is applied needs deep consideration.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/09/21/does-fear-black-men-satisfy-objective-reasonableness-standard

By: Brian Purnell
Date: 2016-09-21

Another video. Another police shooting. Another Black person body dead on an American road.

Every person is innocent until proven guilty.

That is true for Betty Shelby, the police officer who shot and killed Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma on September 16, 2016.

It also should have been true for Terence Crutcher.

So what did Crutcher do to justify a death sentence?

Enough of these killings have happened to unarmed Black people that citizens can and should begin to ask more serious questions about circumstances that justify police officers using deadly force against citizens. (Photo: Screenshot/Police footage)

It's Outrageous That I'm Facing 45 Years in Prison for Filming a Climate Protest

Clerk Note: Freedom of the press was written into our Constition, of course that was back in the day when printing presses were heavy to move about and conceal. It is also written into our Constitution that when the elected officials vote/sign treaties and internal laws, they become the law of the land, our land, our nation. If not our military, then military tactics deployed by the police are enforcing commerce instead of the rights of the citizens with long-standing treaties. Don't we look silly that the UN is judging the USA for not living up to things. The UN should put some election inspectors on the ground in the USA, for when the exit polls deviate (by more that 2%) from the machine counted votes.

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It's Outrageous That I'm Facing 45 Years in Prison for Filming a Climate Protest

Filmmaker arrested for documenting last week's #ShutItDown protests speaks out

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/10/18/its-outrageous-im-facing-45-years-prison-filming-climate-protest

By: Deia Schlosberg
Date: 2016-10-18

My name is Deia Schlosberg and I am an independent filmmaker and climate reporter. I was arrested while filming an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in North Dakota and I'm currently facing felony charges that I believe are unjust. I am a climate reporter; my specialty is following the story of how humankind is creating a grave problem for civilization by continuing to flood the atmosphere with greenhouse gases through the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial processes. I don't think there is nearly enough reporting on climate change nor the movement of people around the world working to lessen the impacts of climate change.

When I was arrested, I was doing my job. I was reporting. I was documenting. Journalism needs to be passionately and ethically pursued and defended if we are to remain a free democratic country. Freedom of the press, guaranteed by the First Amendment, is absolutely critical to maintaining an informed citizenry, without which, democracy is impossible.

It is the responsibility of journalists and reporters to document newsworthy events, and it is particularly important for independent media to tell the stories that mainstream media is not covering. The mainstream did not break the story on fracking nor did it break the story about what is happening at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, nor the stories told in my most recent film with Josh Fox, How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change. With this and other recent films, I have sought to portray and humanize the climate movement that is fighting for all of us with integrity, resilience and deep compassion.

Journalist and documentary filmmaker Deia Schlosberg, pictured here at the 35th College Television Awards, was arrested for filming those taking direct action against the fossil fuel industry. (Photo: Danny Moloshok / Invision)

11 Tactics Used by the Mainstream Media to Manufacture Consent for the Oligarchy

Clerk Note: Lying by omission; controlling the debate; scripting and synchronizing news... It behooves us to see the mechanics of the media, so we can separate the conveyed message from the agenda.

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11 Tactics Used by the Mainstream Media to Manufacture Consent for the Oligarchy

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/07/08/11-tactics-mainstream-media-manufacture-consent/

By: Sigmund Fraud
Date: 2014-07-08

The mainstream media is aging and collapsing under the weight of its own hubris and arrogance. Now entirely formulaic in presentation and predictable in substance, the ‘major’ outlets of news, which are monopolized under only a small handful of corporations, serve the purpose of misleading the public on important issues and manufacturing consent for government and the oligarchs.

The public is still largely numb to this reality, and in a wicked catch-22 for modern man, many people are still addicted to the very media that serves as the primary weapon of social control against them. The tide is turning, however, and to help break the spell we bring you this comprehensive list of 11 tactics used against the public by the mainstream media to coerce consensus, divide, conquer, ridicule and stifle truthful or meaningful conversation about the state of our world.

Noam Chomsky reveals the political mechanics behind his gradual expulsion from mainstream media

Noam Chomsky reveals the political mechanics behind his gradual expulsion from mainstream media

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/noam-chomsky-reveals-the-political-mechanics-behind-his-gradual-expulsion-from-mainstream-media/

By: Alexandra Rosenmann
Date: 2016-10-15

Ralph Nader and leading linguist Noam Chomsky engaged in a much anticipated discussion in early October on Ralph Nader Radio Hour. The two raised questions about changing the media narrative in a totalitarian-like state, and how Chomsky got dismissed from the mainstream altogether.

“How often have you been on the op-ed pages of the New York Times?” Nader asked Chomsky.

For Chomsky, the last time was over a decade ago.

“[I was asked] to write about the Israeli separation wall, actually an annexation wall that runs through the West Bank and breaking apart the Palestinian communities… condemned as illegal by the World Court,” Chomsky told Nader.

Chomsky would later pen a similar piece for CNN on the 2013 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But Chomsky has never been interviewed on the network; nor has he appeared on NBC, ABC or CBS.

Noam Chomsky appears on 'The Empire Files' on Oct. 25, 2015. (YouTube)

Trump Has 75 Ongoing Legal Battles -- Which Media Are Ignoring During Their Breathless FBI Letter Coverage

Clerk Note: If a US citizen is paying attention, they'll see the dark underbelly of political pedophilia creeping up in the alternative news (oh, no; never in the mainstream news) to smear both campaigns. The new Clinton emails with trips through serial sexter (with under age girls) Anthony Weiner give the FBI director some CYA, because how could this be missed and how could they save face if Trump wins? The point is, both Clintons may have pedophile skeletons. Certainly the court case against Trump, as well as his modeling agency, Miss USA Pageant, and Miss Teen USA Pageant suggest possibly human trafficking, if the Russian connection doesn't bring him down. Thank goodness for the Green Party.

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Trump Has 75 Ongoing Legal Battles -- Which Media Are Ignoring During Their Breathless FBI Letter Coverage

http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/10/31/trump-has-75-ongoing-legal-battles-which-media-are-ignoring-during-their-breathless-fbi-letter/214211

By: Jared Holt
Date: 2016-10-31

Media have breathlessly covered a new letter from the FBI saying the agency is looking into newly discovered emails surrounding Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server as secretary of state. But as outlets continue to obsess over Clinton, they are ignoring the many actual lawsuits and scandals associated with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Media Breathlessly Hype FBI Letter

Media Hype False Idea That The FBI “Reopened” Clinton Email Investigation. After Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) claimed that a letter FBI director James Comey sent to congressional leaders meant the FBI had “reopened” its investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, media adopted the spin even though the letter did not actually state that the case was being re-examined. [Media Matters, 10/28/16]

Journalists Obsess Over FBI Letter On Sunday News Shows. Political reporters appearing on Sunday news shows October 30 failed to ask surrogates for Republican nominee Donald Trump about new investigative reports regarding Trump sexually “humiliating” one woman and assaulting another, lying about charitable donations, and withdrawing an offer to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to be his vice presidential running mate. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos was the only host to challenge a Trump surrogate on any of these reports, while other solely discussed Comey’s letter to congressional leaders. [Media Matters, 10/30/16]

Trump Faces At Least 75 Pending Lawsuits On A Variety Of Matters

USA Today: “At Least 75 Of The 4,000-Plus Lawsuits Involving Trump And His Businesses Remain Open.” “The number of unresolved cases” regarding Trump and his businesses, campaign, and other organizations is “unprecedented for a presidential candidate,” according to a USA Today special report. The newspaper’s “ongoing, nationwide analysis of state and federal court records” found that “at least 75 of the 4,000-plus lawsuits involving Trump and his businesses” remained open two weeks before Election Day. From the October 25 article:

The Taboo Subject of Class in this Election

The Taboo Subject of Class in this Election

http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/10/14/taboo-subject-class-election/

By: Jeff Schechtman
Date: 2016-10-14

The one subject that seemingly gets overlooked in today’s political discussion is the issue of America’s class divide and the rise of White Trash America. It’s a divide that has been in the making for a long time. Nancy Isenberg, the author of “White Trash,” tells WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman in this week’s podcast that, at best, we’ve had a “democracy of manners.” Not only has White Trash become politicized, low income Caucasians have moved to the center of the debate.

Isenberg explains the history of this issue and that even Ben Franklin hoped that the size of the country would flatten out the class system. But it never happened.

In fact, the explosive ideas of eugenics and of a “cognitive class” have never really been far from the surface.

Today’s politics seem to be bringing all of this out into the open — even if we’ve been reluctant to talk about it.

White Trash by Nancy Isenberg. Photo credit: Penguin and Mindy Stricke / Penguin

Why Women Should Vote

Why Women Should Vote

Article relates the plight of suffragists who were arrested for picketing the White House in 1917.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/womenvote.asp

By: David Mikkelson
Date:

Claim:   Article relates the plight of suffragists who were arrested for picketing the White House in 1917.

Status:   True.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, August 2008]

 Paul Ryan: If Republicans Lose the Senate, Bernie Sanders Wins

Paul Ryan: If Republicans Lose the Senate, Bernie Sanders Wins

The house speaker knows that if the GOP loses seats in Congress, Bernie Sanders could become the Senate Budget Committee Chairperson.

https://www.thenation.com/article/paul-ryan-inadvertently-makes-the-best-case-for-a-democratic-senate-budget-chair-bernie-sanders/

By: John Nichols
Date: 2016-10-17

Paul Ryan is famously described as what Republicans think a smart person sounds like. But sometimes the speaker of the House outsmarts himself.

Ryan lectured Young Republicans in his native Wisconsin last Friday, and the national news media were invited to listen along. The speaker wanted to make the case for Republican voters to turn out and back GOP congressional candidates, even if they can’t stomach their party’s scandal-plagued presidential ticket. Implicit in Ryan’s argument was the suggestion that a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate could be counted on to obstruct Hillary Clinton’s supposedly “liberal progressive” agenda.

But in a question-and-answer session following his unremarkable speech, Ryan inadvertently made a case for liberals and progressives to turn out in big numbers in order to elect Democratic candidates in the fight for control of the Senate.

As he outlined his Wall Street–friendly proposals for tax reforms that would more rapidly redistribute wealth upward, and for budgets that would put vulnerable Americans at greater risk while increasing burdens for middle-class families, the speaker explained that his agenda can advance only if Republicans control both the House and Senate. “If we keep control of the Senate in the Republican hands…a nice guy named Mike Enzi from Wyoming is the Senate budget chair and he helps us get these budgets to the president’s desk, gets these tax bills through,” he said.

On the other hand, Ryan warned, “If we lose the Senate, do you know who becomes chair of the Senate Budget Committee? A guy named Bernie Sanders. You ever heard of him?”

? House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks during an appearance with a group of College Republicans at the Masonic Center in Madison, Wisconsin, Friday, October 14, 2016. (AP Photo / John Hart)