Author: rbeason

CNN – by Al Goodman and David Simpson

The release of further allegations of National Security Agency surveillance efforts caused the Spanish government to summon the U.S. ambassador Monday, and The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House ordered a halt to some eavesdropping on foreign leaders after learning of it this summer.

Quoting unidentified U.S. officials, the newspaper’s website said the wiretapping of about 35 foreign leaders was disclosed to the White House as part of a review of surveillance programs ordered by President Barack Obama after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information on the NSA’s phone monitoring systems.   Continue reading “Report: White House stopped phone tapping of foreign leaders this summer – Yeah Right”

The Economic Collapse – by Michael Snyder

Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs?  Did you know that 1.2 million public school students in the U.S. are currently homeless?  Anyone that uses the term “economic recovery” to describe what is happening in the United States today is being deeply insulting to the nearly 150 million Americans that are considered to be either “poor” or “low income” at this point.  Yes, things are great in New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, but almost everywhere else economic conditions continue to steadily get worse.    Continue reading “29 Incredible Facts Which Prove That Poverty In America Is Absolutely Exploding”

Eric Peters Autos – by Eric

How addled is the electorate?

I think a good measure is the extent to which office-seekers bray about “creating jobs.” In the first place, a politician no more creates jobs than a mule creates new mules. Politicians redistribute other people’s property. Qua Dr. Evil, it’s what they do.

It’s all they do.   Continue reading ““Creating Jobs””

ABC News – by CHET BROKAW Associated Press

Joe Carley has nearly finished burying the cattle he lost in a freak early fall blizzard that killed tens of thousands of cattle in western South Dakota. Now, he’s figuring out how to dig himself out of the financial hole left after about a quarter of his cows and maybe a third of his calves died in the storm.

“There’s some sleepless nights. There’s a lot of worry. My brain’s always rolling. We’re pulling ourselves out of it, you know. We’re trying to figure things out and step forward,” Carley, 40, of Philip, said during a break from herding cattle at the local livestock sale barn, where he works to help make ends meet.   Continue reading “S. Dakota Ranchers Vow to Survive Cattle Disaster”

The New American – by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D

The Fourth Amendment protects the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Based on reports of the number of domestic phone calls being recorded by the National Security Agency, the Obama administration must have probable cause to suspect millions of us of threatening national security.   Continue reading “Document Reveals NSA Monitored 125 Billion Phone Calls in One Month”

Drone Wars – by Chris Cole

Four important reports relating to the use of armed drones have been published over the past ten day.  Two official reports by UN Special Rapporteurs examine the legal issues surrounding the use of armed drones.  These were closely followed by a detailed report from Amnesty International on the impact of drones in Pakistan and a related report by Human Rights Watch on the impact of drones in Yemen.  All four are important and worth reading in detail.   Continue reading “UN pushes hard for more transparency on drones”

The Japan Times – by KYODO

The U.S. National Security Agency sought the Japanese government’s cooperation in 2011 over wiretapping fiber-optic cables carrying phone and Internet data across the Asia-Pacific region, but the request was rejected, sources said Saturday.

The agency’s overture was apparently aimed at gathering information on China given that Japan is at the heart of optical cables that connect various parts of the region. But Tokyo turned down the proposal, citing legal restrictions and a shortage of personnel, the sources said.   Continue reading “NSA asked Japan to tap regionwide fiber-optic cables in 2011”

The Guardian – by Samuel Gibbs

A high-profile file-sharing site has been revealed to be a year-long pirate “honeypot”, collecting data on users, file hosters and websites.

The revelation, which had users of the forum up in arms, accompanied the purchase of the UploaderTalk (UT) site by US-based anti-piracy company Nuke Piracy.

A honeypot is a facility, in this case a site, run under false pretences that encourages criminal behaviour in an effort to collect incriminating data.   Continue reading “Filesharing site revealed to be anti-piracy ‘honeypot’”

Forbes – by Bill Frezza

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) quietly dropped a bomb in its October Fiscal Monitor Report. Titled “Taxing Times,” the report paints a dire picture for advanced economies with high debts that fail to aggressively “mobilize domestic revenue.” It goes on to build a case for drastic measures and recommends a series of escalating income and consumption tax increases culminating in the direct confiscation of assets.   Continue reading “The International Monetary Fund Lays The Groundwork For Global Wealth Confiscation”

Stephen Lendmen

Two UN reports highlight the problem. More on them below.

Sixteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai is an activist for women’s education, a blogger, and Sakharov Prize winner. She’s a Pakistan National Youth Peace Prize recipient.

She was a 2013 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Desmond Tutu nominated her for the International Children’s Peace Prize. On October 16, Canada said it plans to grant her honorary citizenship.   Continue reading “Lawless Drone Killings”

Continue reading “This Map Showing What Each Country Leads The World In Is Really Quite Cool”

Free-Man’s Perspective – by Paul Rosenberg

I’m going to use a couple of passages from the Bible (the original set of moral standards for our Western civilization), followed by an examination of both Bitcoin and cartel money, to see how they hold up in comparison.

As for my use of the term “cartel money,” it’s the best short description I know for the dollars, euros, yen (and so on) that we use in our daily commerce. They are produced by secretive and monopolistic groups of private banks. That rather precisely matches the definition of cartel.   Continue reading “Is Bitcoin More Dangerous than “Cartel Money”?”

Press TV

In terms of pure projectable power, there’s never been anything like it. Its military has divided the world — the whole planet — into six “commands.” Its fleet, with 11 aircraft carrier battle groups, rules the seas and has done so largely unchallenged for almost seven decades.

Its Air Force has ruled the global skies, and despite being almost continuously in action for years, hasn’t faced an enemy plane since 1991 or been seriously challenged anywhere since the early 1970s. Continue reading “Why Washington just can’t stop making war”

Press TV

The 10 highest-paid chief executives officers (CEO’s) in the United States each received at least $100 million in 2012, even as the wages of working people sinks, according to a new survey of executive pay.

According to GMI Ratings annual poll of executive compensation, released on Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder, was America’s highest-paid boss in 2012, earning a staggering $2.27 billion or more than $6 million a day.    Continue reading “Top 10 US CEOs earned nearly $5bn”

Free-Man’s Perspective – by Paul Rosenberg

One of the cool things about the Bible is that it contains some very interesting passages that no one seems to read.

Understand, please, that I’m neither promoting a literal interpretation of the Bible nor giving you a sermon. I’m just pointing out a fascinating fact that most everyone seems to have missed, religious folks included.   Continue reading “The Road to Hell Is Paved…With Fear”

Naked Capitalism

Readers have often been using the term “neofeudalism” to describe the outlines of the new economic order, in which the uber wealthy and a thin cadre of their advisors, managers, and other elite professionals do well, with a network of less lofty managers helping oversee and orchestrate the provision of services to the broad base of the public, and they struggle to eke out a meager existence.

Debt appears to be the “one ring that rules them all” of this emerging order. And if that is the case, it’s likely to be much more like the old sharecropper system of the post Civil War era, where poor whites and blacks were kept on a debt treadmill that turned them into slaves in all but name. As Matt Stoller wrote in 2010:   Continue reading “The Rise of an American Debtcropper System for the Young”

Lew Rockwell – by Ron Paul

Washington, DC, Wall Street, and central bankers around the world rejoiced this week as Congress came to an agreement to end the government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling. The latest spending-and-debt deal was negotiated by Congressional leaders behind closed doors, and was rushed through Congress before most members had time to read it. Now that the bill is passed, we can see that it is a victory for the political class and special interests, but a defeat for the American people.   Continue reading “Debt Ceiling Deal: DC Wins, Americans Lose”