Common Dreams – by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

There’s a rule of thumb in cyberspace etiquette known as Godwin’s Law, named after Mike Godwin, the Internet lawyer and activist who first came up with it. A variation of that law boils down to this: He who first compares the other side to Nazis loses, and the conversation is at an end. Unless you’re billionaire Tom Perkins, who seems dedicated to digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself.   Continue reading “Advice to Billionaire Perkins: Time to Shut Up!”

Indian police personnel escort men who are accused of a gang-rape to a court at Birbhum, India.The Guardian – by Jason Burke

A 20-year-old woman has been raped in public by as many as 12 men on the orders of tribal elders in a village in eastern India, according to local police.

The attack, in Birbhum district about 120 miles from Kolkata, was a punishment for an “unauthorised” relationship with a man from another village and the woman’s subsequent failure to pay a 50,000 rupee (£490) fine, local media reports said.   Continue reading “India reels from another horrific gang rape case in wave of sexual violence”

Common Dreams – by Lauren McCauley

“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass riot.”

That was the message received by all mobile phone users who were in the vicinity of protests in Kiev, Ukraine Tuesday morning.

In what many are saying is a move straight out of George Orwell’s novel 1984 the Ukrainian authorities are using cutting-edge pinpointing technology and presumably a “pirate” cell phone tower to intimidate and track protesters.   Continue reading “Ukraine’s Big Brother Text: “Dear Subscriber, You Are Registered as Participant in Mass Riot””

TruthDig

Wall Street’s fat cats will be just fine with Americans rolling fat joints en masse once the other 48 states go the way of Colorado and Washington on the marijuana legalization issue. Sure enough, as Capital New York’s Joanna Molloy put it, “Marijuana is going corporate.”

Investors are becoming emboldened and putting their money into an expected $3 billion cannabis market this year—double that of 2013—from sales in medical dispensaries in 20 states and D.C., and in retail boutiques in Colorado and Washington, where recreational use is now legal.   Continue reading “Where ‘Canabusiness’ Goes, Wall Street’s Sure to Follow”

Orwell Was Right

How long until the Rock becomes too pretentious for mainstream audiences? It won’t be long before all movie scripts will be required to use only monosyllabic words. Although many studios have already adopted this practice voluntarily.

Via The Daily Mash:

CULTURE is reaching a point of maximum dumbness, it has been claimed.   Continue reading “Things cannot be dumbed down any further, warn experts”

Common Dreams – by Andrea Germanos

The National Security Agency won’t deny that it may be spying on members of Congress, informing Sen. Bernie Sanders that the agency can’t tell him whether it snooped on his metadata because searching to find out would be illegal.

The Vermont Independent sent a letter earlier this month to NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander asking, “Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?”   Continue reading “NSA to Sen. Sanders: We Can’t Legally Tell You if We Spied on You”

Common Dreams – by Michael Winship

In the words of Howard Beale, the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves in the movie Network, “Woe is us! We’re in a lot of trouble!” And, as Beale would shout, we should be mad as hell.(Image: FreePress.net)

Issuing a decision that triggered dismay and anger among supporters of an Internet open and free to all, a federal appeals court on Tuesday overruled the Federal Communications Commission and set the stage for a near future in which such service providers as Verizon and AT&T could give preferential treatment to websites willing to pay a higher price for access and speed.   Continue reading “Door Closes to Open Internet, But All May Not Be Lost”

Newsweek-Obama-Gay-coverFront Page Mag – by Daniel Greenfield 

Obama sent 1,600 Americans to die in Afghanistan but never believed in it or cared about it. The only military issue he did care about was gays in the military. And that’s according to his own Secretary of Defense.

This is what a liberal at war looks like.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates sharply questions President Obama’s “passion” for military matters in his forthcoming memoir, and claims that practically the only time he saw that in the president was during his push to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”   Continue reading “Secretary of Defense: Only Military Issue Obama Cared About was Gays”

Activist Post – by Michael Snyder

If radioactive snow is falling in Missouri, is it safe to assume that much of the snow that is falling on the rest of the country is also radioactive?

What you are about to see is absolutely shocking.  A highly respected YouTube personality known as DutchSinse has released video of himself measuring radiation levels of the snow falling on St. Louis, Missouri.  What he discovered was that he got a reading that was about twice as high as he did on a sunny day when there is no precipitation.   Continue reading “Why Is Radioactive Snow Falling In Missouri?”

Washington’s Blog

JP Morgan: Ponzi Schemer

Bernie Madoff has said all along that JP Morgan knew about – and knowingly profited from – his Ponzi schemes.

So JP Morgan has agreed to pay the government $2 billion to avoid investigation and prosecution.

While this may sound like a lot of money, it is spare sofa change for a big bank like JP Morgan.   Continue reading “JP Morgan Pays $2 Billion to Avoid Prosecution for Its Involvement In Madoff Ponzi Scheme”

Common Dreams – by Jon Queally

John Rizzo, the chief legal counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency during the Bush presidency in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 has been opening up about what he experienced during those years as the administration, the agency, and its operatives, in the words of former Vice President Dick Cheney, “took the gloves off” in their war against terrorism.   Continue reading “CIA Lawyer: Stopping Torture ‘Would Have Been Easy,’ But I Approved It Anyway”

Truth Dig

The times, they are a changin’, and in Denver, you can tell by the smoke signals.

It is now legal to buy and sell marijuana for recreational use in Colorado. Demand is so high (woops, there’s a pun!), the Denver Post reports, one shop started price gouging. Not cool.   Continue reading “Mile High: Denver Celebrates 2014 With Legal Recreational Marijuana”

Washington’s Blog

Are “Digital” Troops Being Sent Into Our Digital Devices Like British Troops Were Sent Into American Colonists’ Homes?

We have extensively documented that the U.S. government is trampling virtually every single Constitutional right set forth in the Bill of Rights.

One of the few rights which we thought the government still respects is the the 3rd Amendment, which prohibits the government forcing people to house troops:   Continue reading “Is The NSA Quartering “Digital” Troops Within Our Homes?”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Once upon a time, money – in the form of precious metals – used to be literally dug out of the earth. Limitations on the amount that could be mined, and on how much growth could be borrowed from the future (all debt is, is future consumption denied), is why eventually the world’s central bankers moved from money backed by precious metals, to “money” backed by “faith and credit”, in the process diluting both. It was the unprecedented explosion in credit money creation that resulted once money could be “printed” out of thin air that nearly destroyed the western financial system. Which brings us to Bitcoin, where currency “mining” takes place not in the earth’s crust, or in the basement of the Federal Reserve, but inside supercomputers.   Continue reading “A Trip Through The Bitcoin Mines”

Washington’s Blog

Don’t Be Foolish

Albert Einstein said:

A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of the truth.

Indeed, scientists have shown that people will go to absurd lengths – and engage in mental gymnastics – in order to cling to their belief in what those in authority have said.   Continue reading “Albert Einstein: “A Foolish Faith In Authority Is The Worst Enemy Of The Truth””