Man confronts an Infowars reporter who was previously spotted
interrupting FBI press conferences, claiming that the Boston Marathon
bombings were an inside job false flag operation perpetrated by the U.S.
government.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Top Ten things that make Brian Schweitzer an awesome economic populist
With the news that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is retiring, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has launched a campaign to draft former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) to run for the spot.
As of this writing, over 15,000 Americans have signed onto the campaign, and have donated over $21,000 to a draft fund that will go to Schweitzer on Day One of his campaign.
Here’s why you should too –the top ten things that make Brian Schweitzer an awesome economic populist:
George W. Bush manure locker is now open
Charles P. Pierce | esquire.com
25 April 2013
The coverage of the opening of this vast temple to prevarication and ruin is not about bricks and mortar. It's about an attempt by the courtier press to absolve itself of a dereliction of duty that rivaled even that of the president in question while New Orleans drowned, and while the economy was bubbling toward disaster. (That dereliction of duty, it should be noted, now and forever, began with the coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign, and the disgraceful performance of the elite political press corps towards Al Gore.)
It's about their efforts to help the country absolve itself from the immense damage it brought upon itself by electing, and then re-electing, a half-bright dry drunk who wrecked nearly everything he touched, and who now is trying to rehabilitate himself by explaining that he hasn't ruined anything else since he left office, and doesn't that make him a swell fella. The elite press is dedicating an entire day of coverage to the perpetuation of a monstrous public lie. Electing George W. Bush twice was a monumental act of democratic self-destruction from which the country has yet to recover.
Celebrating him celebrating himself is simply to pour battery acid into the still-open wounds. I will take theories about dinosaurs in ancient China over the notion that George W. Bush was a good man confronted by insurmountable problems dropped on him by an implacable universe of chance. He was a career fk-up, from start to finish, and he finally found himself in a job where Daddy's money and Daddy's lawyers couldn't bail him out.
READ IT ALL:
25 April 2013
The coverage of the opening of this vast temple to prevarication and ruin is not about bricks and mortar. It's about an attempt by the courtier press to absolve itself of a dereliction of duty that rivaled even that of the president in question while New Orleans drowned, and while the economy was bubbling toward disaster. (That dereliction of duty, it should be noted, now and forever, began with the coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign, and the disgraceful performance of the elite political press corps towards Al Gore.)
It's about their efforts to help the country absolve itself from the immense damage it brought upon itself by electing, and then re-electing, a half-bright dry drunk who wrecked nearly everything he touched, and who now is trying to rehabilitate himself by explaining that he hasn't ruined anything else since he left office, and doesn't that make him a swell fella. The elite press is dedicating an entire day of coverage to the perpetuation of a monstrous public lie. Electing George W. Bush twice was a monumental act of democratic self-destruction from which the country has yet to recover.
Celebrating him celebrating himself is simply to pour battery acid into the still-open wounds. I will take theories about dinosaurs in ancient China over the notion that George W. Bush was a good man confronted by insurmountable problems dropped on him by an implacable universe of chance. He was a career fk-up, from start to finish, and he finally found himself in a job where Daddy's money and Daddy's lawyers couldn't bail him out.
READ IT ALL:
Friday, April 26, 2013
Six whistleblowers charged under the Espionage Act
John Light and Lauren Feeney
26 April 2013 | BillMoyers.com
The Obama administration has been carrying out an unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers, particularly on those who have divulged information that relates to national security.
The Espionage Act, enacted during the first World War to punish Americans who aided the enemy, had only been used three times in its history to try government officials accused of leaking classified information — until the Obama administration.
Since 2009, the administration has used the act to prosecute six government officials. Meet the whistleblowers.
READ IT ALL:
26 April 2013 | BillMoyers.com
The Obama administration has been carrying out an unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers, particularly on those who have divulged information that relates to national security.
The Espionage Act, enacted during the first World War to punish Americans who aided the enemy, had only been used three times in its history to try government officials accused of leaking classified information — until the Obama administration.
Since 2009, the administration has used the act to prosecute six government officials. Meet the whistleblowers.
READ IT ALL:
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Is the Press Too Big to Fail?
Todd Gitlin | TomDispatch.com
25 April 2013
Everyone knows this story, though fewer and fewer read it on paper. There are barely enough pages left to wrap fish. The second paper in town has shut down. Sometimes the daily delivers only three days a week. Advertising long ago started fleeing to Craigslist and Internet points south. Subscriptions are dwindling. Online versions don’t bring in much ad revenue. Who can avoid the obvious, if little covered question: Is the press too big to fail? Or was it failing long before it began to falter financially?
In the previous century, there was a brief Golden Age of American journalism, though what glittered like gold leaf sometimes turned out to be tinsel. Then came regression to the mean. Since 2000, we have seen the titans of the news presuming that Bush was the victor over Gore, hustling us into war with Iraq, obscuring climate change, and turning blind eyes to derivatives, mortgage-based securities, collateralized debt obligations, and the other flimsy creations with which a vast, showy, ramshackle international financial house of cards was built. When you think about the crisis of journalism, including the loss of advertising and the shriveled newsrooms -- there were fewer newsroom employees in 2010 than in 1978, when records were first kept -- also think of anesthetized watchdogs snoring on Wall Street while the Arctic ice cap melts.
Deserting readers mean broken business models. Per household circulation of daily American newspapers has been declining steadily for 60 years, since long before the Internet arrived. It’s gone from 1.24 papers per household in 1950 to 0.37 per household in 2010. To get the sports scores, your horoscope, or the crossword puzzle, the casual reader no longer needs even to glance at a whole paper, and so is less likely to brush up against actual -- even superficial -- news. Never mind that the small-r republican model on which the United States was founded presupposed that some critical mass of citizens would spend a critical mass of their time figuring out what’s what and forming judgments accordingly.
READ IT ALL:
25 April 2013
Everyone knows this story, though fewer and fewer read it on paper. There are barely enough pages left to wrap fish. The second paper in town has shut down. Sometimes the daily delivers only three days a week. Advertising long ago started fleeing to Craigslist and Internet points south. Subscriptions are dwindling. Online versions don’t bring in much ad revenue. Who can avoid the obvious, if little covered question: Is the press too big to fail? Or was it failing long before it began to falter financially?
In the previous century, there was a brief Golden Age of American journalism, though what glittered like gold leaf sometimes turned out to be tinsel. Then came regression to the mean. Since 2000, we have seen the titans of the news presuming that Bush was the victor over Gore, hustling us into war with Iraq, obscuring climate change, and turning blind eyes to derivatives, mortgage-based securities, collateralized debt obligations, and the other flimsy creations with which a vast, showy, ramshackle international financial house of cards was built. When you think about the crisis of journalism, including the loss of advertising and the shriveled newsrooms -- there were fewer newsroom employees in 2010 than in 1978, when records were first kept -- also think of anesthetized watchdogs snoring on Wall Street while the Arctic ice cap melts.
Deserting readers mean broken business models. Per household circulation of daily American newspapers has been declining steadily for 60 years, since long before the Internet arrived. It’s gone from 1.24 papers per household in 1950 to 0.37 per household in 2010. To get the sports scores, your horoscope, or the crossword puzzle, the casual reader no longer needs even to glance at a whole paper, and so is less likely to brush up against actual -- even superficial -- news. Never mind that the small-r republican model on which the United States was founded presupposed that some critical mass of citizens would spend a critical mass of their time figuring out what’s what and forming judgments accordingly.
READ IT ALL:
Monday, April 22, 2013
What Jesus wouldn't do
1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people.
2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian World.
4. Baptists do not recognize each other at "Hooters."
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
The New American Confederacy
Max Eternity, Truthout | Op-Ed
16 April 2013
Max Eternity argues that the continuity between the Bush and Obama administrations is evidence of a new American confederacy - a conspiracy against the American people.
Truth often shows up at the most inopportune times, especially for politicians. "You have to hand it to Barack Obama when it comes to having it both ways" writes the publisher of Harpers Magazine, John MacArthur, in a recent article, entitled "Obama's Real Political Program."
For "[n]ever has a leading American Democrat" done so little, MacArthur says, "in support of less-privileged people while getting so much undeserved credit for 'trying' to help them."
Truly, what a strange and bitter pill to swallow.
An article I wrote 2 years ago, titled "Obama's Right Wing Success: Silencing Black America and the Left," then quoted a young, progressive veteran named Evan Knappenberger, who wrote poignantly about this painfully odd dilemma in an editorial, entitled "Obama's Betrayal of Generation Hope."
It's worth mentioning again here, because it is so heartfelt and lays bare what Knappenberger sees as Obama's cruel hypocrisy:
16 April 2013
Max Eternity argues that the continuity between the Bush and Obama administrations is evidence of a new American confederacy - a conspiracy against the American people.
Truth often shows up at the most inopportune times, especially for politicians. "You have to hand it to Barack Obama when it comes to having it both ways" writes the publisher of Harpers Magazine, John MacArthur, in a recent article, entitled "Obama's Real Political Program."
For "[n]ever has a leading American Democrat" done so little, MacArthur says, "in support of less-privileged people while getting so much undeserved credit for 'trying' to help them."
Truly, what a strange and bitter pill to swallow.
An article I wrote 2 years ago, titled "Obama's Right Wing Success: Silencing Black America and the Left," then quoted a young, progressive veteran named Evan Knappenberger, who wrote poignantly about this painfully odd dilemma in an editorial, entitled "Obama's Betrayal of Generation Hope."
It's worth mentioning again here, because it is so heartfelt and lays bare what Knappenberger sees as Obama's cruel hypocrisy:
READ IT ALL:Most disappointing of all to the youth, though, is Obama's betrayal of their values. Particularly, his extensions of Bush policies and war-mongering. Obama's "dumb war" theory (i.e. that some wars are just and some are just "dumb") is, to us, a complete abomination of the concept of peace. By evoking the Reverend Doctor King in his Nobel acceptance speech while in the same breath dismissing nonviolence, Obama has bastardized the concept of peace and alienated us, antiwar youth permanently from his politics."
Sunday, April 14, 2013
NPR story on Texas construction industry highlights GOP hypocrisy, harm
JerryNA | dailykos.com
11 April 2013
A two part news series on NPR by Wade Goodwyn displayed the Texas construction industry as harmful to itself and its workers. Worker injury and death is much higher than the national average and twice California's average. People are treated as disposable, with no repercussions.
Construction booming in Texas but many workers pay dearly.
Texas contractors say playing by the rules doesn't pay.
(One quibble- what they call "playing by the rules" I call "following the law".)
The reporter completely missed two natural followups: 1. How the GOP plays a part in this massive illegal tax evasion and exploitation of undocumented workers by an entire industry. Texas government (i.e. Texas GOP) prides and promotes itself on how "business-friendly" it is, and how few regulations an industry has to follow. Tax evasion and illegal employment (and exploitation) of undocumented workers cannot take place on an industry-wide scale without collusion by the state regulatory agencies.
The NPR reporter quoted or played recordings of construction company owners saying that for 15 or more years they have been hiring workers as "contractors" instead of employees in order to pay wages below industry norm, even below living wages, and as a way to evade paying Social Security and workers compensation insurance. One owner said he did not believe his contractors paid taxes, and did not think more than a fraction were in the country legally. No wonder he did not want his last name quoted- he was admitting on the radio to several felonies. (Want to bet how he votes? There is a better than 57% chance it is for the GOP. This is Texas, though, so in some counties it's much much higher.)
Texas is a "right to work" state, so the laws are deliberately lax, but it's even worse for 'contractors' than for employees. The reporter touched on but did not elaborate on the fact that these 'contractors' got no other benefits as well- no overtime, no health insurance, no sick leave, no vacation time, no freaking nothing except for the right to be worked to death for subsistence wages, all so Texans can buy cheaper houses.
Furthermore, the GOP both promotes and benefits from this illegal activity. The GOP blocks minimum wage increases. The GOP blocks a path to citizenship- a path to paying taxes for both employees and employers. The GOP keeps these workers "illegal" so the workers are afraid to make legal complaints about being exploited, and their families cannot take legal action for the people killed. The GOP underfunds or actively cuts state and federal regulatory agencies, stopping from having the resources to raid businesses which break the law. The GOP promotes and exploits the fear of undocumented workers, but their campaign contributors and voters actively exploit those same workers. There is a lack of empathy in all of this exploitation which seems inhuman to me.
READ IT ALL:
11 April 2013
A two part news series on NPR by Wade Goodwyn displayed the Texas construction industry as harmful to itself and its workers. Worker injury and death is much higher than the national average and twice California's average. People are treated as disposable, with no repercussions.
Construction booming in Texas but many workers pay dearly.
Texas contractors say playing by the rules doesn't pay.
(One quibble- what they call "playing by the rules" I call "following the law".)
The reporter completely missed two natural followups: 1. How the GOP plays a part in this massive illegal tax evasion and exploitation of undocumented workers by an entire industry. Texas government (i.e. Texas GOP) prides and promotes itself on how "business-friendly" it is, and how few regulations an industry has to follow. Tax evasion and illegal employment (and exploitation) of undocumented workers cannot take place on an industry-wide scale without collusion by the state regulatory agencies.
The NPR reporter quoted or played recordings of construction company owners saying that for 15 or more years they have been hiring workers as "contractors" instead of employees in order to pay wages below industry norm, even below living wages, and as a way to evade paying Social Security and workers compensation insurance. One owner said he did not believe his contractors paid taxes, and did not think more than a fraction were in the country legally. No wonder he did not want his last name quoted- he was admitting on the radio to several felonies. (Want to bet how he votes? There is a better than 57% chance it is for the GOP. This is Texas, though, so in some counties it's much much higher.)
Texas is a "right to work" state, so the laws are deliberately lax, but it's even worse for 'contractors' than for employees. The reporter touched on but did not elaborate on the fact that these 'contractors' got no other benefits as well- no overtime, no health insurance, no sick leave, no vacation time, no freaking nothing except for the right to be worked to death for subsistence wages, all so Texans can buy cheaper houses.
Furthermore, the GOP both promotes and benefits from this illegal activity. The GOP blocks minimum wage increases. The GOP blocks a path to citizenship- a path to paying taxes for both employees and employers. The GOP keeps these workers "illegal" so the workers are afraid to make legal complaints about being exploited, and their families cannot take legal action for the people killed. The GOP underfunds or actively cuts state and federal regulatory agencies, stopping from having the resources to raid businesses which break the law. The GOP promotes and exploits the fear of undocumented workers, but their campaign contributors and voters actively exploit those same workers. There is a lack of empathy in all of this exploitation which seems inhuman to me.
READ IT ALL:
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Bill Moyers: living in the United States of Inequality
"Marching in lockstep beneath a banner that now stands for “Guardians of Privilege” -- GOP -- Republicans refuse to raise revenues, while Democrats have a president whose new budget contains gimmicks that could lead to cuts in Social Security. Social Security! The one universal safety net -- and a modest one at that – and yet the main source of purchasing power for millions of aging Americans.
"This, from a Democrat – the heir of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who pulled us to our feet when the Great Depression had America on its knees. But those were the days when our political system rallied to the defense of everyday Americans. Now a petty, narcissistic, pridefully ignorant politics has come to dominate and paralyze our government, while millions of people keep falling through the gaping hole that has turned us into the United States of Inequality."
"This, from a Democrat – the heir of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who pulled us to our feet when the Great Depression had America on its knees. But those were the days when our political system rallied to the defense of everyday Americans. Now a petty, narcissistic, pridefully ignorant politics has come to dominate and paralyze our government, while millions of people keep falling through the gaping hole that has turned us into the United States of Inequality."
Friday, April 12, 2013
Sen. Whitehouse speaks out against Chained CPI
April 11, 2013 — At the Budget Committee Hearing on the President's
Budget, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse lets OMB's Acting Director know that he is
committed to fighting against Chained CPI and preserving Social Security
benefits for seniors.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
The Daily Show | Jimmy Carter part 2
Former President Jimmy Carter explains why the United States never signed a peace treaty with North Korea.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
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