By Paul Balles
 
In August 2004 Richard Hugus, critic of progressive injustice, wrote an article called “Lies of the Israeli peace movement”.
Richard Hugus
What Hugus wrote almost 10 years ago has as much forgotten or neglected relevance today.

by Judith Curry The UK House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee has invited submissions to an inquiry on the IPCC 5th Assessment. The Committee requested submissions that address the following questions: How robust are the conclusions in the … Continue reading →

Shady billionaire-backed Ro Khanna primarying Mike HondaBlue America has endorsed only 2 House incumbents facing reelection difficulty. And one, Mike Honda, represents Silicon Valley-- CA-17, a heavily Democratic area-- D+20 which Obama took with 72% last year. Honda even did better than that, beating his Republican opponent 74-26%, more than 100,000 votes separating them.

Speech delivered in 2009 by Nadine Rosa-Rosso

The massive demonstrations in European capitals and major cities in support of the people of Gaza highlighted once again the core problem: the vast majority of the Left, including communists, agrees in supporting the people of Gaza against Israeli aggression, but refuses to support its political expressions such as Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

REVISIONIST NEWS FROM MICHAEL HOFFMANwww.revisionisthistory.orgDecember 18, 2013I.

Interfax
December 18, 2013
Lavrov: Iranian nuke problem settlement makes unnecessary European missile defense
MOSCOW: The settlement of the Iranian nuclear problem will make unnecessary the deployment of missile defense in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Voice of Russia
December 18, 2013
Russia prepares response to US Prompt Global Strike program

Al-Akhbar | December 18, 2013

Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered deposed President Mohammed Mursi and 34 other Islamists to stand trial on charges including conspiring with foreign organizations to commit terrorist acts in Egypt and divulging military secrets to a foreign state.
In a statement, the prosecutor said that Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood had committed acts of violence and terrorism in Egypt and prepared a “terrorist plan.”

When did "Question Authority" stop being applicable?

Gary North – December 18, 2013
Bitcoins have just suffered another huge hit. The other shoe has just fallen.
Bitcoins were selling at $1,242 on November 29. The headlines were all over the Web: “Bitcoins surpass the price of gold.” That was the peak. They are around $500 today. That is a decline of 60%.
When an investment fad ends, it usually ends spectacularly. A 60% decline in less than three weeks indicates that the Bitcoins fad is over.

Russian Information Agency Novosti
December 18, 2013
Russia Condemns Pressure on Ukraine to Turn Towards Europe
MOSCOW: Russia is surprised by blatant attempts to pressure Ukraine into signing an association agreement with the European Union, Russia’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Selma Lagerlöf: The Fifth Commandment. The Great Beast is War.
====
Selma Lagerlöf
From Mårbacka (1922)
Translated by Felma Swanston Howard

The Old Soldier

Monday there were two votes in the Senate on Presdient Obama's nomination of Jeh Johnson to be Secretary of Homeland Security. First came a cloture vote. There were 57 ayes and 37 nays, with 6 Republicans not voting.

Ma’an – 18/12/2013

BETHLEHEM – Israeli forces vacated the Bethlehem village of Arab al-Rashayida on Tuesday after conducting military drills in the area for several hours, locals said.
Fawaz al-Rashayida, head of the local village council, told Ma’an that 5,000 heavily armed Israeli soldiers arrived in the village at dawn on Tuesday.

Judge dismisses U.S. sailors’ Fukushima radiation lawsuit

–Lawsuit argued TEPCO, in concert with government of Japan, lied about amount of radiation leakage from nuclear plant

 *First African American DHS Sec.
*Johnson’s first name (pronounced “Jay”) is taken from a Liberian chief, who reportedly saved his grandfather’s life while Dr. Johnson was on a League of Nations mission to Liberia in 1930

Federal Judge Rules Against N.S.A. Phone Data Program, Calls Technology ‘Almost Orwellian’

December 18, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - With the ongoing counter-color revolution unfolding in Thailand against the Wall Street-backed regime of Thaksin Shinawatra, here are some stories published on Alternative Thai News that weren't yet posted on Land Destroyer.

One of the most dangerous international disputes that the United States could get dragged into has little importance to U.S. security – the disputes nations have over small islands (some really rocks rising out of the sea) in East Asia. Although any war over these islands would rank right up there with the absurd Falkland […]

Dear Readers, Aside from the holiday, I’ve got some personal business to take care of so there will be no Friday column, unfortunately. But I’ll be back on Monday, so please watch this space. My regular readers may recall one of my more controversial columns, wherein I made the case against boycotting Israel: my argument […]

Blue America doesn't do many live events. But on November 12, 2011 we were very excited to offer all of our Southern California members an opportunity to meet Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson at the Brave New Films studios in Culver City. John Amato, Digby and I had worked with Robert Greenwald to host the free event featuring Grayson.

At least 33 people were killed and 62 more were wounded in fresh attacks, several of them against pilgrims who are walking to Karbala for Arbaeen observances.

by Judith Curry Little boys and girls in ancient Athens grew up wanting to be philosophers. In Renaissance Florence they dreamed of becoming Humanists. But now a new phrase and a new intellectual paragon has emerged to command our admiration: … Continue reading →

To this day, I am still shocked that people do NOT see the obvious... That is of course the fact that the "shooting" that occurred over one year ago at Sandy Hook "Elementary" School in Newtown Connecticut was a complete hoax.   I have long said that it was a preplanned and well orchestrated simulated shooting operation that the criminals decided to go "live".   I am also stating again that I am fully convinced more than ever that absolutely NOBODY died in this operation.

"At a time when the political news is dominated by a debate between do-little conservatism and do-nothing conservatism -- which is to say, between a right-tilting Republican establishment and the radical tea party -- [Senator] Gillibrand's package includes building blocks for a broader counter-vision inspired by the idea of an Empowering Government."-- E. J.

Long-lost diary of Nazi Alfred Rosenberg turned over to Holocaust MuseumBy Michael E. Ruane  Washington Post, December 17, 2013 Alfred Rosenberg joined the Nazis before Adolf Hitler did. He later served as the party’s interim leader. He wrote a virulent, best-selling book about the “Aryan” struggle against Jews....On Tuesday the Nazi theorist’s 425-page, handwritten diary, which vanished after the war, was transferred by federal authorities to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which had been searching for it for years. ...Rosenberg was tried as a war criminal and hanged in 1946.

U.S. Department of Defense
December 16, 2013
DOD Continues Central African Republic Peacekeeping Support
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON: The Defense Department sent another Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport jet from Burundi to the Central African Republic today in support of the African Union-led International Support Mission in that beleaguered nation, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters here.

U.S. Air Forces Europe – Air Forces Africa
December 17, 2013
Missile air defense mission changes hands in Turkey
By 1st Lt. David Liapis
39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

The Republican civil war is pretty front and center and getting quite a lot of media attention. There is also something of a Democratic civil war brewing, a more ideological/less careerist based one. You may have seen sparks of it last week when the Wall Street owned ConservaDem group, Third Way, went on the attack against Elizabeth Warren and the progressive populism she espouses. Third Way, the Blue Dogs and the New Dems are the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Monday’s Washington Snowden storm:  White House rejects amnesty as Obama meets with angry tech execs and court rules against NSA…Click here for free audiobook download, and generate $15 to PBC Podcast from Audible!
Press secretary Jay Carney punctured the NSA trial balloon about amnesty for Ed Snowden, as Snowden offers to help Brazil confront NSA spying in exchange for permanent asylum.  And as tech CEO’s meet with Obama and Biden about the healthcare website, the techies press their demands to rein in NSA.

Free Preview Clip
http://www.peterbcollins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Blumenthal.mp3
Max Blumenthal’s courageous, bluntly honest look at Israel and its treatment of Arabs and Palestinians; Prof. David  Lloyd of UC Riverside on ASA boycott vote…Click here for free audiobook download, and generate $15 to PBC Podcast from Audible!

The Who, What, and Why's of Thailand's Ongoing Protests.December 18, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - This coming Sunday (December 22, 2013) will be the third and potentially largest mass mobilization yet by the anti-regime movement in Thailand.

By Yosi Gurvitz | Yesh Din | December 17, 2013

By Lucy Adler | The Argentina Independent | December 17, 2013

Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa (photo by Miguel Ángel Romero/Ecuadorean presidency)

By Tess Bennett | The Argentina Independent | December 17, 2013

Definitely a beneficial agreement for the Ukrainian people

Pope sends GOP's fanatic, hate-filled cardinal, Ray Burke, a messageIf you're not from La Crosse or St. Louis, it's possible you first heard about the curia's most anti-Jesus cardinal, right-wing hack Ray Burke, here at DWT.

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” ~ Aldous Huxley (Brave New World)

In California, low-income car buyers are subsidizing the top 1% who purchase Tesla electric vehicles.

By Tim Cushing | Techdirt | December 17, 2013

Xinhua News Agency
December 17, 2013
U.S. reiterates need to continue missile deployment in Europe despite Iran deal
• Hagel told Shoygu the U.S. and its allies would continue implementing missiles defense plans.
• Hagel stressed that the U.S. and NATO missile defense efforts “pose no threat” to Russia.
• Russia confirmed it has deployed its tactical Iskander-M missiles along borders with NATO countries.

By Noel Brinkerhoff | AllGov | December 17, 2013

With the help of physicians, pharmaceutical makers have made billions of dollars peddling medicines to treat attention deficit disorder, leading some experts, and even one pharmaceutical executive, to declare that the marketing push has gone too far.

Ministry of Defence of Georgia
December 17, 2013
Report to Defence Attaches

The do-nothing House is on vacation already, again. But the Senate is still working. It still haven't approved the awful Paul Ryan-Patty Murray "compromise," in which the plutocrats compromise nothing (as usual) and all the compromise is on the backs of working people. Amazingly, though, it's Senate Republicans threatening to kill the whole thing. There are probably only 3 progressive Democrats in the Senate willing to vote no today.

Voice of Russia
December 17, 2013
Iskander-Ms deployed by Russia along western border (years ago)
John Robles

The New England Committee to Defend Palestine

Myth: “‘Israel’ was a land without a people for a people without a land.”

The Nation
December 17, 2013
Anti-Nato demo continues

====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Giuseppe Berto: Selections on war
====
Giuseppe Berto
From The Sky Is Red (1947)
Translated by Angus Davidson