Topic:
A long-awaited and frequently-requested discussion with Dan Carlin, the host of the Common Sense and Hardcore History podcasts.

Topic:
A long-awaited and frequently-requested discussion with Dan Carlin, the host of the Common Sense and Hardcore History podcasts.

Topic:A long-awaited and frequently-requested discussion with Dan Carlin, the host of the Common Sense and Hardcore History podcasts. Some of what we discussed:-What happened to the media?-Narrow-casting -Dan's transition from radio to podcasting, how did that happen?-The process for producing Hardcore History-Is history shaped more by philosophy/prevailing ideologies or by accidents/wildcard events?-The dreaded Nazi questions: could happen here? Is it happening here?

By Ramzy Baroud | Palestine Chronicle | May 16 2013

It is an event ‘of cosmic proportions’, said one Palestinian academic, a befitting description regarding Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott an Israeli academic conference slated for next June. It was also a decisive moral call which was communicated on May 8 by Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor.

United States European Command
May 16, 2013
115th FW Airmen train with Polish air force
Tech. Sgt. Kenya Shiloh 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
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Polish air force Col. Krystian Zięƈ, 32nd Tactical Air Base commander, said this is a unique opportunity for the United States and Poland to strengthen interoperability as NATO allies…”If we need a huge coalition going somewhere to make peace. we’re going to have some good quality aircraft,” he said.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Romain Rolland: Selections on war
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Romain Rolland
From Mother and Son (1926)
Translated by Van Wyck Brooks

By Ramzy Baroud | Palestine Chronicle | May 15 2013

The Nakba must not be assigned to the shelves of history

The Local
May 16, 2013
More Swedes in favour of joining Nato: poll
The number of Swedes who support joining Nato has gone up by 9 percentage points since 2011, a new opinion poll has revealed

The Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reported on Thursday that support for potential membership of the military alliance has increased.

This morning I was going over the Senate votes from Tuesday and I found a strange one. The Republicans successfully filibustered an amendment by Bernie Sanders to Boxer's Water Resources Development Act of 2013, which is co-sponsored by Louisiana Republican David Vitter. And in fact, Vitter was one of just 3 Republicans who broke with Miss McConnell's filibuster machine on Sanders' amendment.

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon | May 16, 2013

“If you’re not a terrorist, if you’re not a threat, prove it. This is the price you pay to live in free society right now. It’s just the way it is.”—Sergeant Ed Mullins of the New York Police Department   Immediately following the devastating 9/11 attacks, which destroyed the illusion of invulnerability which had defined [...]

A number of articles about the Boston terrorist attack that I have read recently reminded me that what is either kept out of the media or otherwise hidden is often more important than what actually appears. One was a feature article entitled “Ron Paul Slams Boston Police. Has he Gone too Far?” by Peter Grier [...]

Government is bad for personal freedom. That argument is premised upon the truism that everything government does interferes with freedom because it either prohibits or compels. Everything it owns it has taken from others. Much of what it says is divorced from the truth. President Obama, like President George W. Bush, has argued that his [...]

North Korea’s nuclear weapons and Iran’s purported nuclear ambitions are the subject of constant speculation by Western pundits. However, the connection between the two is often overlooked. Although Northeast Asia and the Middle East are home to different geopolitical realities, the resolution of tensions on the Korean peninsula will almost certainly influence calculations made in [...]

Every now and then, news about U.S. military bases abroad actually gets a little attention.  The most recent example: Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s announcement that the U.S. will be able to keep nine bases after the 2014 withdrawal of its combat troops.  (“‘They want nine bases… across the country, in Kabul, Bagram, Mazar, Jalalabad, Gardez, Kandahar, Helmand, [...]

Webster G. Tarpley Ph.D. Guns and Butter with Bonnie Faulkner May 15, 2013 [download audio]

Today James talks to Tami Canal, the founder and organizer of March-Against-Monsanto.com, a group that is bringing together tens of thousands of activists across the globe to participate in a day of protest on May 25th against Monsanto’s products and practices.

Bombs targeted Shi'ite districts in Baghdad.

In this edition of the ongoing Questions For Corbett podcast series, James answers your questions on credit unions, radiation maps, OPPT-IN and more, including his Japanese abilities (or lack thereof).
CLICK HERE for the mp3 audio version of this podcast.
SHOW NOTES
Japan Environment Agency Letter on Fluoridation
Safecast Radiation Maps

By Chris Soghoian | ACLU | May 15, 2013

By Gabe Rottman | ACLU | May 15, 2013

Although the president’s press secretary noted yesterday then-Senator Obama’s support for a federal shield law to protect reporters from having to disclose their sources, he failed to mention how the White House deep-sixed a comprehensive shield bill back in 2009. That bill could have prevented the extraordinary Associated Press subpoena, which was disclosed this week.

On March 4, 2013, ‘rebel’ groups overran government forces in al-Raqqa city, the first provincial capital and only urban center to fall to the armed groups since the start of the Western-backed insurgency in Syria. According to the Institute for the Study of War, “al-Raqqa serves as an important test case for how the opposition […]

U.S. Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
May 14, 2013
Stratcom Strives to Build Coalitions for Space Operations
By Donna Miles
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“Our intent with combined space operations is to mirror some of the partnerships we have in other mission areas that are long-term and enduring.”
Space is vital to military operations, providing an array of capabilities that give space-faring nations’ forces a military advantage…
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Press TV – May 15, 2013

Canada says it will not take part in the upcoming UN Conference on Disarmament under the pretext that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be assuming the rotating presidency of the event.
Rick Roth, a spokesman for Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird, announced on Tuesday that Ottawa would sit out the sessions of the conference, which will be chaired by Iran.

Advertisement banned by The American Conservative magazineAdvertisements for Michael Hoffman's book Usury in Christendom: The Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not are banned from the pages of The American Conservative magazine, a publication affiliated with Patick J. Buchanan. Advertising director Ronald Burr informed Independent History and Research on May 15 that The American Conservative will not accept an ad for the book.

Press TV
May 15, 2013
‘US denial of Afghan civilian deaths absurd, ludicrous’
AUDIO

U.S. accusations that the Taliban killed civilians in air strikes on April 6 are “absurd” and “ludicrous”, says Rick Rozoff, manager of the Stop the NATO organization.

Via NPR, Holder said yesterday in a news conference that he’s not sure how many times he’s signed off on Justice Department requests to spy on journalists:
“I’m not sure how many of those cases…I have actually signed off on,” Holder said. “I take them very seriously. I know that I have refused to sign a few [and] pushed a few back for modifications.

International Mediterranean News Service
May 15, 2013
Bonino confirms 200 NATO troops in Sicily
US forces near in case of escalating violence in Libya
Rome: Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino on Wednesday confirmed that only 200 American NATO troops were being moved to Sicily to be ready for rapid deployment if any new attacks occur in Libya.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Aldous Huxley: Selections on war
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Aldous Huxley
From Ends and Means (1937)

Blythe: Hello, I am Blythe Masters, Vice-President of Global Commodities here at J P Morgan. As you know, I am the creator of Credit Default Swaps, a 700 trillion dollar plus market. I want to welcome the two of you as J P Morgan’s newest board members. I am going to give you a tour and brief introduction into how Morgan and the world really works. I am sure you know you were selected for the board because we are expanding into areas that require your corporate expertise, in Internet surveillance and mercenaries.

With the manufactured Benghazi scandal tying with the IRS for the story that the right is pretending is a story, it’s worth looking back at what a real scandal looks like. Most people think of Watergate when they think “scandal” but by Nixon standards, Watergate is just a little icing on the cake.

CEPR | May 14, 2013

The Washington Post long ago abandoned the separation between news and editorials, routinely running pieces advocating cuts in Social Security and Medicare in its news section. It now appears as though the New York Times is following the Post’s lead.

Some of the latest and some of it is bring you all up to date on events from last week. Lots of ground to cover today, so let's get started!IMPORTANT UPDATE BELOW!!!

RT | May 15, 2013

The US military officer overseeing sexual assault prevention at the Fort Hood base in Texas is now under investigation for sexual assault, including allegations of maltreatment of subordinates and running a prostitution ring.

RT | May 15, 2013

Mounting pressure from national media and the local community still has not convinced California police to offer any explanation for why they confiscated cell phone video taken by witnesses who say eight or nine officers beat a helpless man to death.

An Phoblacht
May 15, 2013
Neutrality debate: ‘Cold War relic NATO should be shut down’
Heated exchanges at Dublin meeting
Mark Maloney

There was tension in the air on Tuesday evening as scores of people packed into Wynn’s Hotel, Dublin, to listen to a debate chaired by Irish Times journalist and security analyst Tom Clonan on whether or not the Irish state should join NATO.

In this edition of the ongoing Questions For Corbett podcast series, James answers your questions on credit unions, radiation maps, OPPT-IN and more, including his Japanese abilities (or lack thereof).
For those with limited bandwidth, CLICK HERE to download a smaller, lower file size version of this episode.
For those interested in audio quality, CLICK HERE for the highest-quality version of this episode (WARNING: very large download).

By James M. Wall | May 14, 2013

University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking stunned Israel last week with his announcement that he would boycott the fifth annual Israeli Presidential Conference, scheduled to be held in Jerusalem, June 18-20.

While preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is preferable, the United States could successfully contain a nuclear Iran, according to a new report released here Monday by the Center for a New American Security, an influential think tank close to the administration of President Barack Obama. The report, “If All Else Fails: The Challenges [...]

If after the debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya (dare I say Vietnam?) some people still want the U.S. government to intervene — further — in the war inside Syria (but fueled by outsiders), we must conclude, not that they can’t learn the lessons of recent history, but that they won’t because doing so would [...]

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kusinski was arrested the other day for groping a woman in a parking lot at one in the morning in Washington, D.C.’s Crystal City. Just another incident involving sexual coercion and an American solider, one of a number of recent incidents that have dramatized the alarming extent of the problem – except [...]

Now that Republicans have legitimate and troubling scandals on which to criticize the Obama administration—the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s broad seizure of the Associated Press’s phone records—hopefully they will forget their inane focus on the “cover up” involving the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic compound in Libya. But [...]

At least 24 people were killed and 22 more were wounded in fresh violence. Gunmen attacked a row of liquor stores in Baghdad.

Webster G. Tarpley Ph.D. The Webster Tarpley Program – UnboundRadio.com May 14, 2013 [download audio]

Key to encircling and containing China, US sets proxies in motion for color revolution in Malaysian streets. Image: US-proxy Anwar Ibrahim leads a Bersih rally in Malaysia. While Bersih has attempted to claim it is "independent" and simply pursusing "fair and clean elections," it is clearly a vehicle for returning Anwar Ibrahim back into power.

I had just put up an amazing video in my last article that shows the truth about how Canada now shows itself openly as being nothing more than Israel's b*tch.   I have long said that this proud nation has now slid down the road to tyranny and the Harper government in Ottawa does nothing more than obey anything that Israel demands and desires.... It is absolutely sickening to behold...Now I discover that there is more to this sad story about how my Canada is on the road to ruin with its outright and tragic support for the criminally psychotic state of Israel....

When I saw the criminal Harper(stein) government in Ottawa throw Canada's support behind the murderous psychopaths in Israel that had just nuked the innocent country of Syria that killed thousands of people in the process last week, I wanted to throw up.   I have long said that this country is no longer free and is in fact the most Israeli occupied country on Earth....

By Allan Nairn | May 11, 2013

General Efrain Rios Montt has been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.  He has already begun his “irrevocable” sentence of 80 years in prison.
The court that convicted Rios Montt has also ordered the attorney general to launch an immediate investigation of “all others” connected to the crimes.

Al-Manar | May 14, 2013

Nawaz Sharif who is to be Pakistan’s prime minister for a third time, called Washington to end its drone strikes in the Asian country.
Sharif said the drone strikes pose a “challenge” to Pakistan’s national sovereignty, the Associated Press quoted him as talking to reporters from his family’s estate outside the eastern city of Lahore on Monday.