Richard Engel of NBC, reporting from Maidan Square in Kiev, described what he witnessed as the Feb. 19 truce collapsed. Police began to back away from their positions in the square, said Engel. And the protesters attacked. Gunfire was exchanged and the death toll, believed to be in the dozens, is not known. In short, […]
If one is to believe the folks calling themselves modern-day Vikings, the Norse apocalypse starts tomorrow. Ragnarok, the "Twilight of the Gods," was described in a 13th-century poem as the end of Asgard and a new beginning for the world. How has Hollywood not been all over this? Though the prospect of some divine apocalypse […]
In all the brouhaha over Edward Snowden’s exposure of the National Security Agency’s invasion of our home computers, we seem to have forgotten about a long-dormant threat that is now rearing its ugly little head: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Created in 1934 by President Franklin Roosevelt to oversee our then nascent television and radio […]
At least 70 people were killed and 93 more were wounded today. The worst attack occurred in Mussayab. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government is now offering a bounty of $17,200 for every militant killed and $25,800 for each one captured.
A quick timeline of the backstory:
Late last month, international charity Oxfam split with “ambassador” Scarlett Johansson over her involvement with SodaStream, an Israeli company with a factory in the occupied West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. SodaStream accused Oxfam of having joined the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement against Israel.
Merlin Miller was pulled out of line, subjected to interrogation, and treated as if he were a terrorist. Miller is President of Americana pictures and is a producer, writer and director. He has been stopped many times and supposedly randomly selected for special attention by the TSA. People who are flagged SSS are always selected for this intensive scrutiny.
ObamaCo abandons its unilateral “Grand Bargain” scheme that included cuts to future increases in Social Security…it’s about time!….Click here for free audiobook download from Audible, and generate $15 to the PBC Podcast!
–Public Sector cuts part-time shifts to duck Obamacare
–Obama touts NAFTA, TPP in Mexico
–Gitmo prisoner takes guilty plea
Press TV – February 21, 2014
A federal court in the United States has rejected a civil rights lawsuit challenging the New York Police Department’s spying activities against Muslims.
On Thursday, the court in Newark in the state of New Jersey ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to show that the NYPD’s intelligence unit had discriminated against Muslims by spying on mosques and other locations in New Jersey.
Nebraska? It's a conservative bastion. Even the occasional Democrat who gets elected to something there is conservative-- think Ben Nelson, one of the Insurance Industry asswipes who destroyed the public option and ruined the Affordable Care Act. The state has one of the biggest percentages of registered Republicans of any state in the Union-- and they hold every federal and every statewide office. Of the state's 93 counties, no fewer than 89-- and in one case, all 93-- have gone red in the last 4 presidential races!
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1878 – The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1919 – German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
1924 – Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe was born
1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
A recently commissioned Pentagon review corresponds with earlier intelligence assessments in predicting that once the U.S. draws down in Afghanistan, the Taliban will surge.
The Guardian:
You can, if you so chose to, watch the video... hereI am not posting it, because it is a propaganda video. It's purpose is to draw you in emotionally which will cause you to think irrationally and uncritically
We'll never know for sure how deeply involved Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) was in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people and injured another 700. But we do know that the militia groups involved were in touch with his office about the bombing and that he has been highly sympathetic to their paranoid-- if not psychotic-- cause.
It was reported this week that the Department of Homeland Security, the most conspicuous behemoth of all the national security state agencies, wants to impose “a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers.”
The Washington Post:
Voice of Russia
February 20, 2014
Ukraine: sick fascist filth and gangland violence as political opposition – Rick Rozoff
Audio
For her brave decision to blow the whistle on systemic government deception and wrongdoing, Cheslea Manning was awarded the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. Snowden received the same award, presented to him by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, and Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, last October.
The center of Kiev has been transformed into a battleground as rioters clash with police on Independence Square.
Ukraine has seen some of the worst scenes of violence over the last few days, with over thirty five dead and dozens injured in the escalating conflict.The post 12 most dramatic Kiev videos showing true scale of Ukraine mayhem appeared first on BSNEWS.
Despite the entire industry, both private and governmental, devoted to whipping up fear, it is plain to pretty well everyone by now that terrorism is about the most unlikely way for you to die. A car accident is many hundreds of times more likely. Even drowning in your own bath is more likely. Where is the massive industry of suppression against baths?The post The Security State Crushes Ever Tighter appeared first on BSNEWS.
Paul Ryan-- wrong on everything/protected by Steve Israel's DCCCHave you ever heard of Vote Them Out 2014? The organization has picked half a dozen crucial House roll calls and suggests voters use them to see if their incumbent is really who they want to represent them in Congress. They emphasize that they're a non-partisan outfit and back defeating both Democrats and Republicans with bad voting records.
Last week I wrote about the news that the Obama administration is considering whether to assassinate another American citizen in a drone strike.
RT | February 20, 2014
Threats of sanctions against the Ukrainian government look like blackmail, and a demand for early elections is a way to force Kiev towards the EU, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The sanctions will only encourage extremists, he added.
By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim | Venezuelanalysis | February 19, 2014
Merida – Anti-government demonstrations turned deadly again today, following yesterday’s arrest of far right leader Leopoldo Lopez.
By Jonathon Cook | February 20, 2014
A decade ago, I wrote a commentary for the International Herald Tribune (now the International New York Times) arguing that Israel’s wall that was then just starting to be built in the West Bank was really a land grab. Difficult to believe now, but in those days that was a controversial opinion.
Stop NATO
February 20, 2014
1) Western news media coverage of Ukraine perverted: Russian foreign minister
2) “The West makes no comment on throwing of cocktail bombs or seizing of buildings”: Russian foreign minister says U.S. responsible for armed extremists in Ukraine
3) Speaker of the Crimean parliament: Well-train and well-armed contingent of 5,000 foreign mercenaries active in Kiev
4) Russian Foreign Ministry blames extremist gunmen for Ukrainian violence
5) Russia demands Ukrainian opposition halt violence
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Maritime Command
February 18, 2014
OPERATION OCEAN SHIELD VISITS TANZANIA
Álvaro de Bazán
Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA: On Sunday, 16 February 2014, NATO’s counter-piracy flagship, ESPS ALVARO DE BAZAN, concluded a visit to Dar es Salaam in support of the Tanzanian authorities’ efforts to combat piracy at sea.
BRICS Post | February 20, 2014
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government is taking measures to avert a confrontation over disputed territory between Amazon Indian tribes and farmers who are believed to have encroached on their historic lands.
It says it will begin to forcibly evict non-indigenous people occupying reserves and protected forests who have been ordered off the land by local courts.
Abdullah Muhammad al-Tisi holds a photo of his son, who was killed in a US drone strike in December. Credit: Human Rights Watch
In the Obama administration’s drone war, there are two sets of laws. First, there is constitutional and international law which the United States and he, as president, is obliged to follow. Then there are much broader, mostly secret bureaucratic rules and unorthodox interpretations of the first set of laws.
Al-Akhbar | February 20, 2014
A Saudi court has jailed seven protesters for up to 20 years for joining a demonstration and chanting anti-government slogans in the kingdom’s Eastern Province, local media reported Thursday.
The Eastern Province, where Qatif is located, was the site of frequent Shia-led protests between February 2011 and August 2012.
IRIN - 19/02/2014
JERUSALEM — The European Union has long been one of the most reliable foreign sources of humanitarian, economic and political aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), providing 426 million euros ($575 million) in 2013 alone.
In 2011, overall overseas development aid to the OPT was worth $2.5 billion, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Ukrainian media have reported that a former Israeli army officer is playing a leading role in the anti-government protests in the former Soviet republic.
Considering all that has been and is still ongoing in this nation, I gotta admire these people for their courage Truly amazing people Apparently there have been rallies across Syria in support of the current government.Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad participate in a demonstration with government force
By Charlie Andreasson | International Solidarity Movement | February 19, 2014
Palestinian fishermen paddle a small fishing boat, or hasaka, off the Gaza coast. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia three years to the date of Mr. McGovern's brutal and false arrest at GWU during a speech of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After the arrest, the PCJF uncovered that then 71-year-old McGovern was put on a "Be On the Look-Out" list, and agents were instructed to stop and question him on sight.
Yesterday, Greg Sargent at the Washington Post used North Carolina's hapless Republican Senate primary frontrunner, immensely unpopular Speaker Thom Tillis, to demonstrate the conundrum Republican candidates find themselves in when trying to deal with repealing the Affordable Care Act-- at least when they talk with non-Foxified normal voters.
Feb 19, 2014, Media Monarchy & Geopolitiks
I had an enjoyable discussion with James Evan Pilato of Media Monarchy for his new series: Geopolitiks.
On Friday, Feb. 14, 92 prisoners escaped from their prison in the Libyan town of Zliten. 19 of them were eventually recaptured, two of whom were wounded in clashes with the guards. It was just another daily episode highlighting the utter chaos which has engulfed Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Ghaddafi in 2011. Much […]
“And believe it or not, so far, so good. Most news reaching the United States about Afghanistan is troubling, but the election campaign is going reasonably well” – Michael O’Hanlon, Foreign Policy magazine – 1/14/14 A few weeks after the never-prescient O’Hanlon (whose crystal ball might as well be a bowling ball when it comes […]
Maybe he should have joined another conservative felon, coke dealer and former South Carolina Treasurer Tom Ravenel, on his new BRAVO reality show, Southern Charm but, fresh out of prison, like Ravenel, ex-Governor Edwin Edwards-- who had his own reality show, The Governor's Wife, already anyway-- announced he's running for the open House seat that Bill Cassidy is giving up to run for the Senate seat Mary Landrieu holds.
The violence was spread far and wide today. Bombings took place in several cities. Security operations against militants also too place throughout the country. At least 87 people were killed and 121 more were wounded.
