John Pilger reports from India on the illusions of an economic experiment as brutal as Pinochet's Chile, and a resistance building.

By Rana Awaisi | MEMO | January 2, 2014

Although Israeli law considers racial incitement illegal, the Israeli media consistently provides a platform for extremists who commit racial incitement against groups that Israelis perceive as an “enemy,” especially the Palestinian people.

I spent New Year's Eve watching undisturbed wildlife on the Galapagos Islands. It was truly awe-inspiring. The animals are so unafraid of humans that they are almost oblivious to our presence. One newborn baby sea lion mistook one of our party for its mother and tried to get close. We were all briefed in advance, of course, not to touch any animals. In the case of a baby sea lion it could be life and death.

By Ali Morgan | Green Numberplate | December 31, 2013

Eric Draitser of StopImperialism.com appears on RT to discuss the recent terror attacks in Volgograd, Russia. Draitser explains the political and geopolitical context within which the bombings should be examined.  He notes the connections to the upcoming Sochi olympics, as well as Russia’s policy in Syria, as possible motivations.

The distress call, the icebreakers, and the other scientific research.

Bilzerian Report / March 16, 2012

For more than 200 years the Rothschild family has kept their banks in family hands, out of the general view of the public, in an effort to conceal their vast wealth. The Rothschilds have taken advantage of tax-free jurisdictions and have purposefully established their banks in countries with strict banking secrecy laws like Monaco, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

January 2, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci) - In a last desperate bid to cling to power, the regime plans to once again bus in mobs of its fanatical "red shirts" on January 13, 2014, just as anti-regime protesters announced plans to stage a massive, city-wide rally on the same day. Thai PBS reported in its article, "UDD to stage counter-rally on January 13," that:

Twittter user @tekken8810

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBdDH73hsRUEric Draitser of StopImperialism.com appears on RT to discuss the recent terror attacks in Volgograd, Russia.  Draitser explains the political and geopolitical context within which the bombings should be examined.  He notes the connections to the upcoming Sochi olympics, as well as Russia’s policy in Syria, as possible motivations.

I’ve predicted failure for Secretary of State John Kerry’s push for peace negotiations and a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One of the (many) reasons past efforts to “broker” a deal have failed is because Israel makes a handful of demands that are beyond the pale and obviously unacceptable to the Palestinians, thus triggering a break-up in talks.

By Mark Weber | December 2013

It’s rare that I write about good news. But the editorial from yesterday’s New York Times is really good news.
Entitled “Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower,” the Times editorial board praises and defends Snowden’s decision to leak information about the NSA and argue he deserves some kind of clemency or pardon.

We can wrest back control of our economy, and finally our political system, from corporate speculators only by building local movements that decentralize economic power through the creation of hundreds of publicly owned state, county and city banks.The post Overthrow the Speculators appeared first on BSNEWS.

The Bête Noire of the French Establishment

Much has been made recently of the apparent tension between the U.S. and its longtime ally, Saudi Arabia. The thinking essentially goes like this: Washington hasn’t sufficiently bowed to Saudi interests on issues like post-Mubarak Egypt, the Syrian civil war, and the diplomatic opening with Iran. The Saudis would have preferred the Obama administration to crush the Egyptian revolution at the outset, intervene in the Syrian civil war to unseat Bashar al-Assad, and to resist a diplomatic opening with Iran, none of which happened.

By Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett | January 1, 2014

First of all, our very best wishes for the New Year!

Syria's Ambassador at the UN, Dr Bashar al-Jaafari, blamed Saudi, Qatari and Turkish intelligence agencies of funding and arming terrorists in his country (SANA 18 Dec). On 30 December Syria formally asked the UN Security Council to prosecute Turkey and other countries which have been helping terrorists pass freely into Syria.The post The Liberation of Adra appeared first on BSNEWS.

RT
January 2, 2014
US the biggest threat to world peace in 2013 – poll
The US has been voted as the most significant threat to world peace in a survey across 68 different countries. Anti-American sentiment was not only recorded in antagonistic countries, but also in many allied NATO partners like Turkey and Greece.

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Marcel Aymé
From The Transient Hour (Le Chemin des écoliers) (1946)
Translated by Eric Sutton

"College graduates who borrowed for bachelor’s degrees granted in 2012 have an average student loan debt of $29,400, the highest average student loan debt on record."-- finding of the Institute for College Access and Success, quoted by Allison Kilkenny"For this story, I interviewed people who developed crippling mental and physical conditions, who considered suicide, who had to

Millions of older Americans say they will never be able to retire. They simply don’t have the savings. According to CNN, “Roughly three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings…50% have less than a three-month cushion and 27% had no savings at all….” The post Don’t Plan on Retiring – Work Until You’re Dead? appeared first on BSNEWS.

The simple fact is that the sectarian bloodshed inundating Syria and Iraq, and increasingly now in Lebanon, as well as in countries as far apart as Yemen and Russia, would not be happening if it were not for the blood money flowing from Saudi Arabia.The post Saudi ‘gift’ to hide its terror hand appeared first on BSNEWS.

No doubt 2013 will go down as Barack Obama’s annus horribilis. The President of the United States (POTUS) currently faces a 55 percent disapproval rating on “the way he is handling his job,” according to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll.The post Obama 2013: How low can you go? appeared first on BSNEWS.

CAPO also confirmed to have lied about "police dressed as protesters," in yet another egregious episode exposing Shinawatra regime as illegitimate and intolerable. January 2, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci) - It is now confirmed that black-clad gunmen seen atop the Labour Ministry building on December 26, 2013 during deadly violence last month that left two dead were in fact police. Thai PBS reported in an article titled, "National police chief admits men in black are police," that: 

It is sometimes disorienting to note that a federal bureaucracy that we have grown to mistrust over the past decade occasionally can be a source of reliable information that actually discredits what the government itself is saying. On those all too rare occasions Leviathan appears to be so unfocused that his right hand and left […]

Over 10,000 people were killed in Iraq during 2013, making it the worst year since 2008 by most measures. In December, this column found 1180 reported fatalities from various sources. Across the country today at least 47 people were killed today, and another 60 were wounded.

[*TO MEET THE JANITOR OF LUNACY, SEE PART 1]Can you tell when this fellow is fibbing? Rafael "Ted" Cruz pretends that the government shutdown wasn't his doing! (And oh yes, he's got a coloring book!)by NoahRepublicans, with the help of their vast assortment of cloying, butt-kissing media allies, keep pushing the envelope. America accepted George W. Bush. The media loved him. He was from Texas. He was President Assclown.So what does the Crackpot Party do next?

Global Times
January 1, 2014
Egypt knows it has other options in multipolar world
By Clifford A. Kiracofe
Egypt’s foreign policy is bound to change after the turmoil of the last two years. Dissatisfaction with Washington and emerging multipolarity in the international system influence decisions of top leaders around the world. Egypt is no exception and the handwriting has been on the wall for US-Egypt relations.

John Pilger describes censorship in 'free societies' on a special edition of BBC Radio 4's Today programme guest-edited by artist and musician PJ Harvey.

Oh wait, this is the wrong Anton Rogers. This isn't the Green Bay Packers QB, the NFL's 2011 MVP, it's the charming British actor Anton Rodgers who played the father in the father-and-son-lawyers Britcom May to December. (In his younger years, a less charming Anton was one of the early No. 2's on The Prisoner.)"I'm just going to say I'm not gay. I really, really like women.

Father Philoumenos (Hasapis) was the Monk of the Greek Orthodox monastery of Jacob’s Well near the city of Samaria, now called Nablus (Neapolis), in the West Bank. The Saint experienced a martyric death November 16,1979 at the hands of extremist Jewish Zionists who massacred him with an ax in the evening, while he was performing Vespers at the Well of Jacob where he lived as a loyal guardian of the Holy Places and centuries old way of life.

first published at Crescent International, Eva Bartlett
[see Observations from Occupied Palestine, Part 1]

By Noel Brinkerhoff | AllGov | January 1, 2014

The United States is barely growing in terms of population, falling to its lowest growth rate since the Great Depression.
In 2013, the nation expanded by less than a percentage point (0.72%), according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

"As The New York Times stated, the Benghazi incident has been billed as "the most significant attack on United States property in 11 years, since Sept. 11, 2001," an event that launched the much-ballyhooed war on terror. But as with that attack 11 years earlier, the perps turned out to be people the U.S. secret agencies had once trusted. . .

ICC | December 2005

by Judith Curry The drama and the irony of  the Antarctic expedition stuck in summertime sea ice. The aim of the Spirit of Mawson expedition: . The Antarctic remains one of the last great unexplored regions on Earth. In spite … Continue reading →

By Mike Masnick | Techdirt | December 31, 2013

RT | December 31, 2013

During the last few hours of a lengthy tenure atop the New York Police Department tainted by both scandal and success, outgoing-NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly echoed soon-to-be-ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg with big words about the city’s boys in blue.

By Noel Brinkerhoff | AllGov | January 1, 2014

Sophisticated as it is with myriad forms of electronic spying at its disposal, the National Security Agency (NSA) sometimes resorts to old-fashioned, hands-on methods of breaking into someone’s computer system.

Last June, Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian revealed that Edward Snowden was the NSA insider behind “one of the most significant leaks in US political history.” Snowden explained his motivations through Greenwald by saying, “There are more important things than money…. harming people isn’t my goal.

Press TV
January 1, 2014
US seeks ‘long-term interests’ in Afghanistan
Audio
America’s pressure on Afghanistan to sign a bilateral security deal, which authorizes an enduring US military presence, indicates that the US invaded the country “with long-term geostrategic interests,” says an anti-war activist.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Arthur Schnitzler: Cannot praise war in general and oppose individual wars

Image: Regime's campaign poster with "idiot" spray-painted on it.

Ma’an – 01/01/2014

BETHLEHEM – The United States is set to increase financial aid to the Palestinian Authority in 2014, the PLO ambassador to Washington said Tuesday.
Maen Erekat told Ma’an that the US Congress agreed to allocate $440 million of financial aid to the Palestinian Authority in 2014. He highlighted that in 2013, US aid was $426 million, $495 million in 2012 and $545 million in 2011.

We've written about Buck McKeon's Drone Caucus-- they call it the Unmanned Systems Caucus-- before. It's little more than a way of exchanging bribes from drones makers for voters from some of Congresses sleaziest and most contemptible members. And, of course, like most Beltway bribery schemes, it's bipartisan. McKeon's co-chairman is George Bush's favorite Democrat, Blue Dog Henry Cuellar.

By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News | December 31, 2013

Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon declared, on Tuesday, that former British International Development Secretary Clare Short and three other European legislators would be arrested if they try to come to Israel, due to their involvement in a European-Palestinian organization calling for an end to the Israeli siege on Gaza.

One of the most influential Saudi Arabian princes, Turki al-Faisal – the former Saudi intelligence chief who clearly reflects the Saudi royal government’s view – recently criticized President Barack Obama for weakness in the Middle East. Although not friendly with Saudi Arabia, the Israeli government is similarly disenchanted with Obama’s regional performance. Prince Turki’s comments […]

There’s no question what the big foreign policy issue for the Obama administration is going to be in 2014: Iran. How the US navigates the small space between war and peace in the volatile Middle East is going to determine the fate of our overextended and nearly bankrupt empire, and Tehran – the epicenter of […]

"Either cheer up or take off the hat."by KenAs I hinted in my post earlier today, "Ready for New Year's Eve?