Year: 2014

AlterNet – by Arjun Sethi

The US government’s web of surveillance is vast and interconnected. Now we know just how opaque, inefficient and discriminatory it can be.

As we were reminded again just this week, you can be pulled into the National Security Agency’s database quietly and quickly, and the consequences can be long and enduring. Through ICREACH, a Google-style search engine created for the intelligence community, the NSA provides data on private communications to 23 government agencies. More than 1,000 analysts had access to that information.   Continue reading “The U.S. Government Can Brand You a Terrorist Based on a Facebook Post”

Charles Carroll Society

On the Charles Carroll Society (CCS) we have a regular segment we called theJackboot of the Week. It is where we try, in our small way give tribute to the victims of the Police State.  I have changed the focus of the Jackboot for a few weeks, because documenting Police State excesses gets depressing.   Marvin Louis Guy age 50 sounds like a drug user. He had a “glass pipe” in his house (according to police). Now, he had no drugs in his home or car, but he or the “49 year old woman” living in his home had a glass pipe, a laptop and a radio, but no drugs.  What he did have was weapons and the will to use them in defense of his home.  Apparently he has paid attention, and he likes the shotgun.  Pistols suck.   Continue reading “Jackboot of the week: When Marvin Louis Guy met Police employees Charles Dinwiddie, Odis Denton Killeen Police Department, Texas”

The Liberty Beacon – by Ron Ewart

Oh how simple it was to subjugate the American people.  All it took was for Americans to think that their government was honest and trustworthy and would not break their solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help them God.  But the cold, hard truth is, a government not held to that oath by the Consent of the Governed, is a government that will seek, by any means, absolute power.  We have 5,000 years of human history to prove that a government, left to its own resources, will, in the end, completely subjugate all who fall under its reign, unless the people surround government’s power with significant limits.   Continue reading “Be You Sovereign, Or Be You Slave?”

Lew Rockwell – by William Norman Grigg

During a lengthy career that includes stints as a federal prosecutor and judge, Paul Cassell has devoutly upheld the vision of 18th Century arch-authoritarian Joseph de Maistre, who taught that “all greatness, all power, all social order depends on the executioner.” The figure dispensing lethal violence on behalf of the state is both “the terror of human society” and the “tie that holds it together,” Maistre insisted. “Take away this incontrovertible force from the world, and at that very moment order is superseded by chaos, thrones fall, society disappears.”   Continue reading “Shielding the Executioner: Shaun Cowley, Paul Cassell, and the Murder of Danielle Willard”

Yahoo News – by Francois Becker

Rosny-sous-Bois (France) (AFP) – The death toll from an explosion in an apartment building outside Paris rose to seven on Monday, with rescue workers scrambling against time to find one last man still missing.

Local prefect Philippe Galli said a woman in her 80s who lived on the first floor was buried under the rubble after the four-storey residential block in the Paris suburb of Rosny-sous-Bois collapsed on Sunday morning.

“We have to dig her out. She’s stuck in the rubble,” Galli told reporters.   Continue reading “Death toll from Paris building explosion rises to seven”

The  World Post – by Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years, drawing Palestinian condemnation and a U.S. rebuke.

Some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared “state land, on the instructions of the political echelon” by the military-run Civil Administration.

“We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision,” a State Department official said in Washington, calling the move “counterproductive” to efforts to achieve a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.   Continue reading “Israel Announces Massive West Bank Land Grab”

AOL – by Sue Manning

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Young people aren’t the only ones who get back-to-school blues. Pooches used to months of constant playtime can get upset when their best buddies disappear with the dog days of summer.

Many dogs whine and wait eagerly at the front door but eventually adjust to the absence of their young owners when they are in class. But millions of dogs can feel abandoned, sad and unable to cope – and they look for ways to lash out.    Continue reading “Dogs get the blues when kids go back to school”

The World Post – by JACK CHANG and KELVIN CHAN

BEIJING (AP) — China’s legislature on Sunday ruled out allowing open nominations in the inaugural election for Hong Kong’s leader, saying they would create a “chaotic society.” Democracy activists in the Asian financial hub responded by saying that a long-threatened mass occupation of the heart of the city “will definitely happen.”

In setting tight limits on how far electoral reforms can go in Hong Kong, Beijing issued its firmest reminder yet that it’s still in charge despite the substantial autonomy it promised the city after taking control from Britain in 1997.    Continue reading “China: No Open Nominations For Hong Kong Leader”

Odenton-Severn Patch – by Elizabeth Janney

With a feral cat loose in one Anne Arundel County elementary school, administrators have decided to close school early on Friday.

Richard Henry Lee Elementary School in Glen Burnie will close at 9:45 a.m. on Friday, according to Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Typically, the school day at Richard Henry Lee Elementary starts at 8:45 a.m. The feral cat was discovered before the school day began, according to The Capital.   Continue reading “Feral Cat Causes School Closure”

Sent to us by the author.

Graywolf Survival

I see this crap all the time and it really bugs me. Too many people think they have the answer to what will happen after SHTF and that thinking makes their plans suck. Does your plan really make sense?

I write an article like 60 bug out bag gear items you probably don’t have orAlmost unlimited power for your camping or bug out bag electronics and inevitably, some idiot pipes up with, “That’s stupid. There won’t be any electricity after SHTF” or after Just what is the ultimate bug out vehicle?, I kept hearing, “You have to have a pre-XX car or it won’t work when SHTF.”   Continue reading “You DON’T know what will happen after SHTF so stop acting like you do”

Huffington Post – by Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Aug 29 (Reuters) – The U.N. racism watchdog urged the United States on Friday to halt the excessive use of force by police after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman touched off riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

Minorities, particularly African Americans, are victims of disparities, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) said after examining the U.S. record.   Continue reading “UN Condemns U.S. Police Brutality, Calls For ‘Stand Your Ground’ Review”

Wall Street Journal – by ALEJANDRO LAZO

A bill banning plastic bags in California grocery stores, pharmacies, liquor stores and other businesses is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk after the state legislature passed the measure Friday.

If signed by Mr. Brown, the bill would institute the first statewide ban on plastic bags in the U.S. A spokesman for the governor said Friday he hasn’t taken a position on the issue.   Continue reading “California Legislature Passes Ban on Disposable Plastic Bags”

IHS Janes 360 – by James Hardy

China continues to expand Woody Island, the largest of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

Satellite imagery shows that since October 2013 China has undertaken substantial land reclamation, harbour redevelopment and other infrastructure construction on the island, which is known as Yongxing Dao by China and Phu Lam Island by Vietnam.   Continue reading “China expands runway, harbour at Woody Island”

Press TV

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: In your perspective, if the United States and its Western and regional allies had not actually supported and created armed groups in Syria to fight against the Syrian government would we be seeing the same situation as we’re witnessing today with ISIL?   Continue reading “NATO behind creation of ISIL: Webster Tarpley”

I live in the D4 region here in California according to this Drought Monitor. Where I live, our faucets are still running and we have not been asked to ration our water in our homes. However, lawn watering and car washing is discouraged but not prohibited.

Our water comes from the Salinas River – dry above ground – but pumped from underground as it still flows. The Salinas River is the largest river of the Central Coast of California and flows north-northwest, drains into the Salinas Valley and empties into the Monterey Bay.   Continue reading “U.S. Drought Monitor”