Native History: Columbus--Icon and Genocidal Maniac--Lands in New World, This Date in Native History: On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Guanahani, now known as the Bahamas, wreaking hell and havoc as he went.
Uncle Sam Shuts Down: The State Is Out Of Date by Gregory Sams. "Timing doesn’t get much more appropriate than this. On Oct 1st, the very day the US government grinds to a standstill, my book, The State Is Out of Date – We Can Do It Better, is released in its Kindle edition by Disinformation Books (special shutdown price: $2.99!)"
‘Totally Self-Inflicted Damage:’ US on Verge of Default as Pain from 16-Day Shutdown Spreads. The partial shutdown of the federal government has entered its sixteenth day and the nation is now on the brink of a default as the government’s borrowing authority ends tomorrow. On Tuesday, Fitch Ratings warned it could cut the U.S. government’s AAA debt rating if a deal to raise the debt limit is not reached.
Fox News Coverage Of Obamacare Was Extremely Misleading. Fact-finding expedition on Sean Hannity reveals Fox News deceived audience
Food stamp recipients panic as federal EBT system crashes; government IT systems rapidly unraveling
Food Stamp Outage Highlights Problems With Privatization of Public Services. The government shutdown was not to blame for the crashing of the food stamp program for poor families in 17 states over the weekend, just the latest in a long line of snafus by private contractors hired by government
Chomsky: For Almost 70 Years the U.S. Has Been the World Leader in Spreading Destruction and Misery Across the Planet. Despite Obama's noble words, America has imposed vicious dictatorships and supported horrendous crime
Americans Need to Discover How the World Sees Them. By Timothy Garton Ash The erosion of American power is happening faster than most of us predicted - while the politicians in Washington behave like rutting stags with locked antlers.
Letter To European Friends Understanding "The Stupid" In U.S. Politics By Bernard Weiner. I suggest that what might help you Europeans understand how Americans got to this dangerous political place is a bit of historical context:
Martial Law and the Economy: Is Homeland Security Preparing for the Next Wall Street Collapse? Reports are that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is engaged in a massive, covert military buildup. An article in the Associated Press in February confirmed an open purchase order by DHS for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. According to an op-ed in Forbes, that’s enough to sustain an Iraq-sized war for over twenty years. DHS has also acquired heavily armored tanks, which have been seen roaming the streets. Evidently somebody in government is expecting some serious civil unrest. The question is, why?
Americans Are Being Treated to Political Theater: Forget the Government Shutdown – It’s About Shutting YOU Down. The government is red, the middle class is dead & they want us all dead. Americans are being treated to political theater at its finest. It’s not a theater of entertainment, however, but a coliseum of enslavement where in the world of deception, perception becomes reality. This theater requires audience participation, where we, the theater-goers, become part of the play. We are a truly captive audience, entranced into mindlessly choosing sides at the frenzied urging of the corporate media and partisan cheerleaders firmly seated behind the microphones and television cameras of the nationally syndicated media
Are Americans Dumb? By Sadhbh Walshe. For those of you who prefer to reserve judgment until definitive proof is on hand, then I'm afraid I have some depressing news.
Sickening US Hypocrisy By John Haylett. Washington's self-appointed right to kidnap and kill across the world shows double standards.
Issues and Alibis
"A Corporate Trojan Horse": Obama Pushes Secretive TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S. Laws
A Caesar In Our Future? By Paul Craig Roberts. What Happens If The Shutdown Causes The Treasury To Run Out Of Money.
Edward Snowden's Brave Integrity. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaking in Moscow on Oct. 9, 2013, after receiving an award from an organization of former U.S. intelligence officials. (From a video posted by WikiLeaks. President Obama says he welcomes the debate on post-9/11 surveillance of Americans and the world, but that debate was only made meaningful by the disclosures of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was then indicted and sought asylum in Russia, where he just met with some ex-U.S. intelligence officials, including Ray McGovern.
Inside Silk Road's drug market: U.S. pot and cocaine are cheap
US Globalized Torture Black Sites. Guantanamo is the tip of the iceberg. Dozens of US torture prisons operate globally. Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many other complicit US allies host them. America is by far the world’s leading human rights abuser. No nation in history matches its ruthlessness. It’s out-of-control. It’s unaccountable. It’s waging war on humanity. It’s doing it globally
Libyan Captive Faces Interrogation Aboard Floating US 'Black Site'. Move signals Obama administration use of warship prisons to deny legal rights
Killed by Cops Over a Movie Ticket: How Police Hurt the Disabled. A man with Down syndrome died in a confrontation with police. Officers need better training before more people die.
How the FBI Manipulates Grand Juries to Intimidate Political Dissidents and Radicals. Grand juries have seen a resurgence as the FBI cracks down on radical communities.
America's Police Are Looking More and More Like the Military. A Defense Department program transfers military-grade weapons and vehicles to local law enforcement. It's the last thing we need.
Pentagon Spent $5 Billion on Weapons on Eve of Shutdown 01 Oct 2013 The Pentagon pumped billions of dollars into contractors' bank accounts on the eve of the U.S. government's shutdown that saw 400,000 Defense Department employees furloughed
U.S. infrastructure boom in Afghanistan: $37 million aviation facility used to store opium 21 Sep 2013 The U.S.-led effort to train the Afghan air force faces big challenges ranging from security threats to possible repercussions from a new review of infrastructure and equipment projects, the U.S. general in charge said.
Evidence Big Pharma Owns The U.S. Government. Pulling Back the Curtain on the Organized Crime Ring That Is the Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel. Kills Far More People Than the Mob... Are They Jeopardizing YOUR Health? drug commercials misleading. They bribe their pawns with cash and sexual favors. They target whistleblowers right down to their home addresses. They've corrupted science, so what you see has a 4 in 5 chance of being false or misleading. And they're largely influencing your health...
Government shutdown would close EPA, too. Congratulations, Congress! When you cripple the federal government, you'll also scuttle the agency that tries to keep polluters at bay. By John Upton
Salmonella and Hepatitis Outbreaks Start Up as Government Shuts Down Dual outbreaks of salmonella and non-viral hepatitis sicken hundreds and leave one person dead, as thousands of federal food safety agency workers have been furloughed from a system neglected for years.
Over 865,200 Gallons of Fracked Oil Spill in North Dakota, Public in Dark for Days Due to Government Shutdown Though the spill occurred on September 29, the US National Response Center - tasked with responding to chemical and oil spills - did not make the report available until October 8 due to the ongoing government shutdown.
After Sparking Outrage in Detroit, Koch Brothers’ Tar Sands Waste Now Piling Up in Chicago. Petroleum coke, a byproduct of tar sands refining, is building up along Chicago’s Calumet River and alarming residents, reported. Midwest Energy News. Petroleum coke is a high-carbon, high-sulfur byproduct of Canadian tar sands that are shipped from Alberta to the U.S. to be refined and is rapidly becoming a cause for concern in Chicago. "It’s growing by leaps and bounds," Southeast Environmental Task Force member Tom Shepherd, told Midwest Energy News. ‘It’s coming at a breathtaking rate."
10 Things I Wish All Americans Knew About The Meat & Dairy Industries. David Simon writes "Are you being manipulated into buying things you don't want or need? In my book Meatonomics, I show that animal food producers control our everyday food-buying choices with misleading messaging, artificially low prices, and heavy control over legislation and regulation."
Government "Washes its Hands" of Meat and Poultry Safety Inspections. Remember in the mid-1990s when USDA began telling people to wash their cutting boards and utensils after preparing meat and always use a meat thermometer? Because US meat and poultry is so full of pathogens, if you don't kill them they might kill you? That was the beginning of the government's move to pass food safety risks on to customers, and, more distressingly, to meat processors themselves. The move is continuing
Unease in Hawaii’s Cornfields. The balmy tropical isles here seem worlds apart from the expansive cornfields of the Midwest, but Hawaii has become the latest battleground in the fight over genetically modified crops. The state has become a hub for the development of genetically engineered corn and other crops that are sold to farmers around the globe. Monsanto and other seed companies have moved here en masse, and corn now sprouts on thousands of acres where sugar cane or pineapples once grew. But activists opposed to biotech crops have joined with residents who say the corn farms expose them to dust and pesticides, and they are trying to drive the companies away, or at least rein them in. The companies counter that their operations are safe and that the industry is essential to Hawaii’s economy. In the last two weeks, legislative committees on the islands of Kauai and Hawaii have approved proposed ordinances that would restrict the ability of the seed companies to operate. The Kauai bill will go before the full County Council on Tuesday
Petition against a Monsanto executive from winning this year’s "Nobel Prize of agriculture" -- the prestigious World Food Prize -- for creating GMOs. In an obscene development, a Monsanto executive is winning this year’s "Nobel Prize of agriculture" -- the prestigious World Food Prize -- for creating GMOs. Receiving it legitimizes the sort of rampant genetic modification Monsanto pioneered, and helps validate a ruthless business model that impoverishes farmers and monopolizes our food. If that wasn't baffling enough, the founder of Syngenta, the same biotech giant joining Bayer in suing Europe to keep selling bee-killing pesticides, will also win the prize -- and with it, a share of the $250,000 prize money. We cannot allow this prize to legitimize frankenfoods and bee killers. The ceremony is in less than two weeks, so we need to act now.
Secret list of food companies funding GMO-labeling opposition slush fund revealed after illegal activities of GMA
Is America Teetering on the Edge of the Hunger Cliff? Poverty rates have not gone down and hunger in our country may be at its highest levels since the Great Depression.
Salmonella breaks out around U.S. as feds stay home. As more than 100 people have been sickened by antibiotic-proof salmonella, 30 federal food-safety workers are ordered back on the job.
Death of Impoverished Pennsylvania Professor Illustrates Plight of Adjuncts. The majority of college instruction in America is now provided by part-time workers. These professionals- called adjuncts- receive no benefits or security. Their pay is paltry. Their numbers are growing. Why are they treated so poorly? It's because college administrations realize that they comprise a cheap labor source. They are exploited in the name of naked profit
4 in 5 in USA Face Near-poverty, No Work. By Hope Yen, AP Business Writer. "It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position,"
The Bay Area's 1 Percent Forces Out the 99. Gibson writes: "The San Francisco Bay Guardian highlighted how speculators and hedge funds have figured out ways to game the system to their benefit by exploiting a loophole in housing law."
The True Cost of a Flawed Health Care Paradigm
Read Before Paying Your Next Hospital Bill: Could Save You Bankruptcy or Thousands of Dollars.
How American Paranoia About Islamic Terrorism Parallels the War on Drugs. The author of the book 'Tripping With Allah' puts his Islamic identity in conversation with psychedelic drug use, and American culture.
Autistic Teen Tricked into Buying Weed for Undercover Cop [Video]This is a grotesque example of how war on drugs policies encourage law enforcement officials to use predatory tactics.
Why Didn't the Shutdown Cut Funding for the DEA? It's One of the Least 'Essential' Govt. Agencies. The DEA is a failed institution.
US Supreme Court Rejects Marijuana Reclassification Appeal. So, marijuana remains in the category reserved for the most dangerous substances.
Jerry Brown Vetoes California "Defelonization" Bill. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) Saturday vetoed a bill that would have allowed prosecutors or judges to charge simple drug possession as a misdemeanor instead of a felony. The bill would have made drug possession a "wobbler," meaning it could be charged either way, based on judicial or prosecutorial discretion.
What Gives? California Gov. Jerry Brown Lines Up With NRA and Prison-Industrial ComplexThe only explanation for Brown’s maddening decisions is that he's positioning himself for re-election in November 2014
Who Masterminded U.S. Pot Prohibition? Harry Anslinger testified that marijuana induces homicidal mania, but he was just one witness in a strange show trial.
Ethan Nadelmann's Visionary Speech on How Society Should Deal with Drug UseThe failure of the War on Drugs has never been more obvious.
The New Reefer Madness: Drug War Crusaders Blame Pot Growers for Dead Animals -- But the Drug War's to Blame. Law enforcement is now pointing to the environmental harms caused by illegal pot farms to justify the ongoing Drug War. But they've got it backwards
Denver floats new rules that could make even the odor of pot a crime. Even the smell of marijuana wafting from your backyard could be illegal if Denver City Council in Colorado USA passes a new ordinance. Denver officials, responding to fears that public pot consumption could become an ever-present problem in the Mile High City, will propose a set of new rules for open consumption and possession of marijuana. The ordinance, being introduced at a committee meeting Monday in advance of the legalization of retail pot sales in January, would specifically ban marijuana from parks and the 16th Street Mall. It also would prohibit smoking on private property if it is visible to the public, such as on a front porch or in a car, or if the odor of pot could be detected from a neighboring property
The truth about marijuana: Bridging the gap between health care and hippies. Americans can't seem to come to a consensus on pot.
Vets and Seniors Are Ending the Drug War Our political system is still very much a democracy when this many people care.
Alcohol Has Killed Thousands Of People Since This Morning. Pot Use Has Killed Zero Since Forever.
The White Man's Last Tantrum. Parry writes: "The real question is not what policy concessions the Tea Partiers may extract, but rather can a determined right-wing white minority ensure continuation of white supremacy in the United States?"
WAR:W
2500+ Murdered by US Drones in Pakistan, Names of Victims Now Available. Video By Real News U.S. government claims drone victims are mostly militants, but about half identified victims thus far are civilians and children.
The government's reptile brain remains in full operation. It hasn't shut down war, just compassion and common sense
POLITICAL:PO
4 Reasons Right-Wing Christians Salivate for the End Times. People like Michele Bachmann and Pat Robertson seem to yearn for the apocalypse.
Will Obama Abandon Tens of Millions of Seniors to Get a Budget Deal with Right-Wing Republicans? Are cuts to Social Security and Medicare on the table?
Tea Party Shows Racist Roots at White House Protest. Capehart writes: "If you want to curdle the blood of an African American and send a message of menace without resorting to burning a cross on the lawn or marching around in white sheets all one need do is wave the Confederate flag. So imagine my revulsion at the sight of one outside the front gates of the White House."
The GOP's little rule change they hoped you wouldn't notice
George W. Bush and the Real Story of the Great Recession. Grossman writes: "The bulk of the blame for the crisis must be assigned to the Bush administration's fiscal policy and the Greenspan Fed's monetary policy. Why? Quite simply: fear and greed."
ECONOMY:
EC
Get Your Fiscal House in Order: China Warns US as Asia's Expresses Concern for $1.3tn of Investments. 'Clock is ticking', says Chinese minister, as US fails to break deadlock over government shutdown and fast-approaching ‘debt ceiling’ deadline
Interview with World Bank whistleblower - Economy is about to crash bigtime!
The Vipers of High Finance. Who controls your life? Who decides your future—and whether or not you're going to have one? Not you. Who do your kids depend on for the food on the table and the education—such as it is—that they receive? Not you and not their teachers. We live in what is essentially a vast slave state that is international in scope, upon which we are all dependent for our livelihoods and our lives. This slave state uses our work as collateral on which it loads endless masses of debt. It has mortgaged our futures, our children's and grandchildren's futures and—in fact—the future itself, in service to a vast, immeasurably cruel and universal system of servitude
SURVEILLANCE/FRINGE POSSIBILITIES:
|
| 
