Senate Considers Bill AUTHORIZING More Torture
“So a Middle East dictatorship has more democratic accountability for abuse of power, including torture, than the US under Obama.”
Merck Pays a Pittance for Mass Deaths
Q: Who killed more Americans —al Qaeda crashing airplanes into the World Trade Center, or Merck pushing Vioxx?
A: Merck, by a factor of 18.
Iranian students storm British Embassy in Tehran
"Smoke rose from some areas of the embassy grounds and the British flag was replaced with a banner in the name of 7th century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein. Occupiers also tore down picture of Queen Elizabeth II."
Wes Clark and the neocon dream
Six weeks later, I saw the same officer, and asked: “Why haven’t we attacked Iraq? Are we still going to attack Iraq?”
He said: “Sir, it’s worse than that. He said – he pulled up a piece of paper off his desk – he said: “I just got this memo from the Secretary of Defense’s office. It says we’re going to attack anddestroy the governments in 7 countries in five years – we’re going to start with Iraq, and then we’re going to move to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.”
Secret Fed Loans Helped Banks Net $13B
The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.
Two Scandals, One Connection: The FBI link between Penn State and UC Davis
"The names Spanier and Katehi are now synonymous with the worst abuses of institutional power. But their connection didn’t begin there. In 2010, Spanier chose Katehi to join an elite team of twenty college presidents on what’s called the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, which “promotes discussion and outreach between research universities and the FBI."
Occupy Wall Street Librarians Address Bloomberg for Destroying Books | OccupyWallSt.org
Over 4,000 Books, Documents, Were Trashed by NYPD & Dept. of Sanitation in Raid
OWS Library Staff Recovers Books and Supplies, Less Than One-Fifth is Usable
What: Press conference to address the destruction of the OWS People's Library by Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the 11/15 raid.
Magnificent Visions
After Spruce’s identification in the 19th century, it was Richard Evans Schultes who did much of the excellent taxonomic detective work in the 1940s and early 1950s. Schultes established that, in addition to Banisteriopsis caapi, ayahuasca tea contained admixture plants. Two of those identified by Schultes, Psychotria viridis (Chacruna) and Diplopterys cabrerana (Chaliponga), were found to contain a potent short-acting hallucinogen: N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. As the active alkaloids in the ayahuasca vine—the beta-carbolines harmine, tetrahydroharmine, and harmaline—were known to be only mildly psychoactive on their own, Schultes and his students speculated that ayahuasca’s dramatic effects were the result of a synergistic interaction between the alkaloids in the vine and the DMT in admixture plants. This would prove to be the case.
The beta-carboline alkaloids in ayahuasca were found to be powerful reversible inhibitors of monoamine oxidase, or MAO, an enzyme that normally deactivates DMT. MAO’s being inhibited by beta-carbolines allows DMT to pass the gut, enter the circulatory system, and ultimately cross the blood-brain barrier, where it produces the visions associated with ayahuasca. Unlike his great Victorian predecessor Spruce, Schultes tried ayahuasca many times, though he never allowed such visions as he experienced to carry him to any hyperbolic height. When William Burroughs, a fellow Harvard man, described his ayahuasca visions in florid, apocalyptic terms, Schultes famously replied, “That’s funny, Bill, all I saw was colors.”
Are big banks really changing their ways?
"The nation's 10 biggest banks could stand to lose as much as $185 billion in deposits in the next year due to customer defections,"
FBI declined to pursue NYC bomb plot
Federal authorities declined to pursue a case against an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of wanting to bomb police stations and post offices in New York City because they believed he was mentally unstable and incapable of pulling off the alleged plot, two law enforcement officials said Monday.
The roots of the UC-Davis pepper-spraying - Salon.com
The intent and effect of such abuse is that it renders those guaranteed freedoms meaningless. If a population becomes bullied or intimidated out of exercising rights offered on paper, those rights effectively cease to exist.
One in Three Americans in Poverty, or Just Above It
All told, that places 100 million people — one in three Americans — either in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it.
Thousands Occupy Wall Street: All Entry Points to New York Stock Exchange Blockaded
"At least 200 people have been arrested so far for peaceful assembly and nonviolent civil disobedience, including retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis. "All the cops are just workers for the one percent, and they don't even realize they're being exploited," Mr. Lewis said. "As soon as I'm let out of jail, I'll be right back here and they'll have to arrest me again."
"Our political system should serve all of us — not just the very rich and powerful. Right now Wall Street owns Washington," said participant Beka Economopoulos. "We are the 99% and we are here to reclaim our democracy.""
"Our political system should serve all of us — not just the very rich and powerful. Right now Wall Street owns Washington," said participant Beka Economopoulos. "We are the 99% and we are here to reclaim our democracy.""
OWS-inspired activism
"But the same factors that rendered this police crackdown inevitable will also ensure that this protest movement endures: the roots of the anger are real, profound and impassioned. Just as American bombs ostensibly aimed at reducing Terrorism have the exact opposite effect — by fueling the anti-American sentiments that cause Terrorism in the first place — so, too, will excessive police force further fuel the Occupy movement. Nothing highlights the validity of the movement’s core grievances more than watching a piggish billionaire Wall Street Mayor — who bought and clung to his political power using his personal fortune — deploy force against marginalized citizens peacefully and lawfully protesting joblessness, foreclosures and economic suffering. If Michael Bloomberg didn’t exist, the Occupy protesters would have to invent him."
New technology improves both energy capacity and charge rate in rechargeable batteries
Imagine a cellphone battery that stayed charged for more than a week and recharged in just 15 minutes. That dream battery could be closer to reality thanks to Northwestern University research.
A police raid suffused with symbolism
"A military style raid on peaceful protesters camped out in the shadow of Wall Street, ordered by a cold ruthless billionaire who bought his way into the mayor’s office."
more from Glenn
more from Glenn
UPDATE II: To justify his raid, Mayor Bloomberg said: ”We must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws.” Leaving aside the fact that torturers, illegal eavesdroppers, wagers of aggressive war, Wall Streets defrauders, and mortgage thieves are some of his best friends who thrive and profit rather than sit in a jail cell, this is the same Mayor Bloomberg who, now beyond all dispute, is knowingly and deliberately breaking the law by violating a Court Order of which he is well aware. He’d be arrested for that if he weren’t a billionaire Mayor (and indeed, having seen that bevvy of political and financial elites break the law in the most egregious ways with total impunity over the last decade, why would Bloomberg be afraid of simply ignoring the law?). Today really is the most vivid expression seen in quite some time of the two-tiered justice system I wrote my new book to highlight; the real criminals are not only shielded from the law’s mandates, but affirmatively use it as an instrument to entrench themselves in power and protect their ill-gotten gains.
NYPD IS RAIDING OCCUPY WALL STREET
- 3:36 a.m. Kitchen tent reported teargassed. Police moving in with zip cuffs.
- 3:33 a.m. Bulldozers moving in
- 3:16 a.m. Occupiers linking arms around riot police
- 3:15 a.m. NYPD destroying personal items. Occupiers prevented from leaving with their possessions.
- 3:13 a.m. NYPD deploying sound cannon
- 3:08 a.m. heard on livestream: "they're bringing in the hoses."
- 3:05 a.m. NYPD cutting down trees in Liberty Square
- 2:55 a.m. NYC council-member Ydanis Rodríguez arrested and bleeding from head.
- 2:44 a.m. Defiant occupiers barricaded Liberty Square kitchen
- 2:44 a.m. NYPD destroys OWS Library. 5,000 donated books in dumpster.
- 2:42 a.m. Brooklyn Bridge confirmed closed
- 2:38 a.m. 400-500 marching north to Foley Square
- 2:32 a.m. All subways but R shut down
- 2:29 a.m. Press helicopters evicted from airspace. NYTimes reporter arrested.
- 2:22 a.m. Frontpage coverage from New York Times
- 2:15 a.m. Occupiers who have been dispersed are regrouping at Foley Square
- 2:10 a.m. Press barred from entering Liberty Square
- 2:07 a.m. Pepper spray deployed -- reports of at least one reporter sprayed
- 2:03 a.m. Massive Police Presence at Canal and Broadway
- 1:43 a.m. Helicopters overhead.
- 1:38 a.m. Unconfirmed reports of snipers on rooftops.
- 1:34 a.m. CBS News Helicopter Livestream
- 1:27 a.m. Unconfirmed reports that police are planning to sweep everyone.
- 1:20 a.m. Subway stops are closed.
- 1:20 a.m. Brooklyn bridge is closed.
- 1:20 a.m. Occupiers chanting "This is what a police state looks like."
- 1:20 a.m. Police are in riot gear.
- 1:20 a.m. Police are bringing in bulldozers.
Congress Must IMMEDIATELY Pass HR 1148: The "Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge" Act
"To prohibit securities and commodities trading based on nonpublic information relating to Congress, and to require additional reporting by Members and employees of Congress of securities transaction, and for other purposes." Wonder why you have never heard of HR 682, aside from the obvious: that Congress would never vote in a law to cut off this massive illegal form of funding for itself: "This bill never became law." Well, duh.
Questioning Pelosi: Steve Kroft heads to D.C.
it's about fricking time someone looked into this!
It turns out that it is not illegal for member of Congress to make stock trades using inside information they learn while working on legislation, and Steve had some questions about some specific stock trades.
Since nobody involved would give him an interview, Steve had to find other ways to get some answers. As you'll see on Overtime this week, Steve looked for some lawmakers at their homes, attempted to track others down in their offices, and finally ended up asking questions at press conferences held by Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner."
Ron Paul and Occupy Protests Join Forces In Demanding an End to Crony Capitalism
more from Washington's Blog...
How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS Protests
I have a confession to make. At first, I misunderstood Occupy Wall Street.
The first few times I went down to Zuccotti Park, I came away with mixed feelings. I loved the energy and was amazed by the obvious organic appeal of the movement, the way it was growing on its own. But my initial impression was that it would not be taken very seriously by the Citibanks and Goldman Sachs of the world. You could put 50,000 angry protesters on Wall Street, 100,000 even, and Lloyd Blankfein is probably not going to break a sweat. He knows he's not going to wake up tomorrow and see Cornel West or Richard Trumka running the Federal Reserve. He knows modern finance is a giant mechanical parasite that only an expert surgeon can remove. Yell and scream all you want, but he and his fellow financial Frankensteins are the only ones who know how to turn the machine off.
OCCUPY DENVER ELECTS LEADER
Brilliant!
In response to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s insistence that Occupy Denver choose leadership to deal with City and State officials, and drawing inspiration from the notion that corporations are people, Occupy Denver’s General Assembly has elected a leader: Shelby, a three year old Border Collie. “Shelby is closer to a person than any corporation: She can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion. Either Shelby is a person, or corporations aren’t people,” said a Shelby supporter at the time of her election.
LifeStraw Brings Clean Water To Almost One Million In Kenya (video) | Singularity Hub
LifeStraw, a portable water filter that you sip from, was donated to nearly a million households in Kenya last April. The water filter is easy to use, cheap to make, and adds to the growing number of technologies developed by wealthy countries to improve the lives of the people living in impoverished ones.
City's Homeless Count Tops 40,000
The number of people in New York City's homeless-shelter population exceeded 40,000 last week for the first time, capping a rapid rise in homeless children and families since the spring when the city eliminated a rent subsidy program, according to a report to be released Wednesday.
Big Banks Plead with Customers Not to Move Their Money
“You’ll be back. Credit unions can’t provide the services you need.” We’ll see about that. She withdrew over $200k from Wells Fargo.
Private investigator working for Murdoch tabloid spied on Prince William, other celebs - The Washington Post
wonder what the fallout of this will be...
Victims speak out about North Carolina sterilization program, which targeted women, young girls and blacks
unbelievable this kind of crap went down.
Occupy The Highway: The 99% March to Washington
On November 23rd, the Congressional Deficit Reduction Super-Committee will meet to decide on whether or not to keep Obama's extension to the Bush tax-cuts - which only benefit the richest 1% of Americans in any kind of significant way. Luckily, a group of OWS'ers are embarking on a two-week march from Liberty Plaza to the Whitehouse to let the committee know what the 99% think about these cuts. Join the march to make sure these tax cuts for the richest 1% of Americans are allowed to die!
Camera Man Shot with a Rubber Bullet Simply for Filming Police at Occupy Oakland
these cops in Oakland are unreal.
Most of the unemployed no longer receive benefits
The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.
Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more."
Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more."
Foxconn Wants to Build “Intelligent Robotics Kingdom” to Replace Human Workers with Robots
"I love how they mention that this facility will create jobs! Yeah, 2000 jobs for people who are tasked with figuring out how to eliminate millions of other people’s jobs."
Bank Transfer: 650,000 Answer the Call
As the social media-sparked Bank Transfer Day approaches, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) reports that over 650,000 people have joined credit unions in the last four weeks.
REAL Capitalists Move Their Money from Big Banks to Credit Unions
Conservative free market entrepreneurial capitalist Karl Denninger notes:
If you have an account at a BANK, go move it to a CREDIT UNION.
You know, a place that you own and is a mutual association of people?
Yes. One that you own. Where the fees assessed go to provide services to…. you, not to feather the nests of bank executives and stockholders.
Flex your rights: The top 3 things to do in every police encounter
Pro tip: If an officer asks you to empty your pockets, respectfully decline and reiterate that you do not consent to any search. Emptying your pockets is the same as saying you consent. The officer may still reach into your pockets if they claim to have felt something that may be a weapon, but by refusing you retain constitutional protections later on.
Fabled Viking 'sunstone' shown to really work
"These sunstones are mentioned in several contemporary texts, and were said to work even when the sky was completely overcast or the sun was below the horizon - as it is for long periods at such northern latitudes.
"The weather was thick and stormy... The king looked about and saw no blue sky," reads the 13th-century Hrafns Saga. "Then the king took the sunstone and held it up, and then he saw where [the sun] beamed from the stone.""
"The weather was thick and stormy... The king looked about and saw no blue sky," reads the 13th-century Hrafns Saga. "Then the king took the sunstone and held it up, and then he saw where [the sun] beamed from the stone.""
Fukushima residents' urine now radioactive
More than 3 millisieverts of radiation has been measured in the urine of 15 Fukushima residents of the village of Iitate and the town of Kawamata, confirming internal radiation exposure, it was learned Sunday."
Catholic Church faces hardcore porn shame
as Kevin at cryptogon pointed out, this is not from the Onion
"Germany's biggest Catholic-owned publishing house has been rocked by disclosures that it has been selling thousands of pornographic novels with titles such as Sluts Boarding School and Lawyer's Whore with the full assent of the country's leading bishops."
What They Don't Tell You: Tired of banks charging you unnecessary fees? Here's how to get 'em back!
I've been doing this for some time, on the advice of my aunt.
Occupy Wall Street to Obama: Don't Be Big Banks' Puppet; No Immunity Deal for Crooks
President Obama is on the brink of cutting a backroom deal that would give bankers broad immunity for illegally throwing tens of thousands of Americans out of their homes. The Administration is pressuring state attorneys general to abandon an ongoing investigation into the massive "robo-signing" fraud, in exchange for a relatively small payoff by the banks.
Census: 1 in 15 Americans Among the Poorest of the Poor | PBS NewsHour
It's a stark portrait of America, its haves and especially its have-nots. New census data out today showed one in 15 Americans now lives in extreme poverty, the poorest of the poor, defined as earning less than 50 percent of the official poverty line. In 2010, that meant an income of around $5,500 for an individual and just over $11,000 for a family of four.
There was also a new analysis of poverty in the last decade today from the Brookings Institution, among its findings, a rise in the concentration of poverty, particularly in the Midwest and Sunbelt, and increasingly in the suburbs, and a jump in the population living in extremely poor neighborhoods, where at least 40 percent of individuals live below the poverty line.
Protesters sit in at Mitch McConnell’s office
About 30 protesters have occupied a waiting area in an office belonging to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), saying they are speaking up for unemployed and under-employed people in the District.
The protesters, all said to be District residents, were organized by a new nonprofit group, OurDC. They arrived about 10:30 a.m. at McConnell’s third-floor office in the Russell Senate Office Building, an organizer said. A staffer offered to meet with the group, but the group insisted on meeting with McConnell himself.
“The Senator needs to see their pain, hear their stories, and really needs to look them in the eye,” said James Adams, one of the group’s organizers. The protesters said they wanted to lobby McConnell to support some of President Obama’s jobs proposals, because they include millions of dollars in funding for projects in the District.
Wherever You Go, Cameras Are Watching You | Singularity Hub
The modern digital camera is small enough to fit on a phone, powerful enough to record in high definition, and popular enough to be almost everywhere. With the rise of camera technology have come two dueling trends: the popularity of sharing videos and pictures online, and the fear that we’re losing privacy to security surveillance. Which force is more powerful: Big Brother or Big Social Sharing? And where is all this camera technology leading us in the years ahead? Our friends at Mezzmer Eyeglasses have created another compelling infographic to give you the details about digital recording in the 21st Century. Delve into the exclusive Singularity Hub image below. Wherever you go, cameras are watching you. It’s about time to figure out what’s going on behind those electronic eyes.
Handful of Violent Rioters Don't Represent "Occupy" Protests
An agent provocateur may be a police officer or a secret agent of police who encourages suspects to carry out a crime ….
A political organization or government may use agents provocateurs against political opponents. The provocateurs try to incite the opponent to do counter-productive or ineffective acts to foster public disdain—or provide a pretext for aggression against the opponent (see Red-baiting).
Historically, labor spies, hired to infiltrate, monitor, disrupt, or subvert union activities, have used agent provocateur tactics.
There are numerous, documented cases from around the world of government provocateurs acting violently at peaceful protests in order to discredit the peaceful movements.
Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for American Revolution
“Bloomberg lied yesterday when he claimed that a sexual assault suspect was merely kicked out of the park, when in fact OWS security personnel forcibly removed the individual and handed him directly to the NYPD,” said Andrew Smith, a member of OWS’s overnight Community Watch. “The Mayor should get his facts straight before he calls responsible citizens protecting our community ‘despicable.’”
NY mayor lashes out at Occupy Wall Street protesters
oh, he of the change the rules so that I can have a third term...Bloomberg can bite me!
We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies
Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as "flaking," on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop Henry Tavarez, whose buy-and-bust activity had been low.
System D: The Shadow Superpower
System D is a slang phrase pirated from French-speaking Africa and the Caribbean. The French have a word that they often use to describe particularly effective and motivated people. They call them débrouillards. To say a man is a débrouillard is to tell people how resourceful and ingenious he is. The former French colonies have sculpted this word to their own social and economic reality. They say that inventive, self-starting, entrepreneurial merchants who are doing business on their own, without registering or being regulated by the bureaucracy and, for the most part, without paying taxes, are part of “l’economie de la débrouillardise.” Or, sweetened for street use, “Systeme D.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders: The Veil of Secrecy at the Fed Has Been Lifted, Now It's Time for Change
Over two years ago, I asked Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, a few simple questions that I thought the American people had a right to know: Who got money through the Fed bailout? How much did they receive? What were the terms of this assistance?
Incredibly, the chairman of the Fed refused to answer these fundamental questions about how trillions of taxpayer dollars were being spent.
The American people are finally getting answers to these questions thanks to an amendment I included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill which required the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit and investigate conflicts of interest at the Fed. Those answers raise grave questions about the Federal Reserve and how it operates -- and whose interests it serves.
The People vs. Goldman Sachs - Trial and March! | OccupyWallSt.org
On November 3rd, the People, the 99 percent, will hold A People’s Hearing of Goldman Sachs in Liberty Square Park and march on Goldman Sachs! The people will bring to justice perhaps the single most egregious perpetrator of economic fraud and corruption in the United States. The Hearing will include testimonials from individuals directly affected by Goldman’s fraudulent manipulation of financial markets, including victims of housing foreclosures, pension losses, public lay-offs and untenable student debt.
Thirty companies paid no U.S. income tax 2008-2010: report
"Corporations will say rightly that the loopholes that let them slash their taxes were perfectly legal, the report said.
"But that does not mean that low-tax corporations bear no responsibility ... The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support," the report said.
Some of the 30 companies disputed the report's findings."
"But that does not mean that low-tax corporations bear no responsibility ... The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support," the report said.
Some of the 30 companies disputed the report's findings."
The human toll of the U.S. drone campaign
more death and destruction, aka, your tax dollars at work.
US Food Stamp Usage Hits New Record
in August, a new all time record number of Americans, or 45.8 million, relied on food stamps for sustenance. So for those who are looking for those up and coming states where the population has decided that slowly but surely work of any kind is an anachronism we suggest you move to Alabama, Delaware, Utah, or Washington: all states that have seen at least a 3% sequential increase in food stamp usage.
Sage words from the Mahatma
I think it would be a good idea.
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
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