Bill Ayers: Try Obama for War Crimes
June 18, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
With friends like these – Who needs enemies?
6.18, 2013
Bill Ayers discusses Obama’s presidency with Tom Bevan and Charlie Stone. Video HERE
Bill Ayers, whose relationship with President Obama was the subject of much intrigue during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, now says the president should be tried for war crimes.
Ayers, the former Weather Underground member and University of Illinois at Chicago professor, told Real Clear Politics that Obama is “absolutely” engaged in terrorist activity by using drones and “absolutely” should be tried for war crimes.
“Every president in this century should be put on trial,” Ayers said. “Every one of them goes into an office dripping with blood and then adds to it. And, yes, I think that these are war crimes. I think that they’re acts of terror.”
Ayers said he would give Obama a failing grade for his presidency but praised his personal style.
“I like him personally,” Ayers said. “I mean, he’s a really good guy.”
Conservatives alleged during the 2008 campaign that Obama’s ties to Ayers belied his extreme ideology and sought to connect him to Ayers frequently, though Obama said the two of them were never close.
Oh Thank God (cough) — Finally, War With Syria
June 18, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
Don’t you hate it when someone says, “I told you so?” We do. That’s why we’ll revise the common statement.
We told you so.
We first told you, 18 months ago and again here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here, that you couldn’t trust the Obama Administration when it began making noises about pushing out Syria’s President Bashar Assad for strictly “humanitarian reasons.” In fact, before that, we told you again and again and again (ok—we’ll stop) not to trust the Obama Administration when it urged intervention in Libya for the very same reasons.
Now, the Obama administration is preparing for war, in an astonishing echo of the George W. Bush administration’s misleading justifications for invading Iraq.
We saw the first little dribble to prepare us in a CNN Breaking News email Thursday, sent out at 5:14pm EST as most Americans were heading home.
Congress has been notified that the United States will acknowledge that Syria has used chemical weapons on a small scale multiple times and a “red line” has been crossed, according to congressional sources.
Friday, when it was clear that this trial balloon had met largely with silence — and certainly with no hail of outrage or skepticism—came the next salvo. Here, again, CNN Breaking News via email (this time, 4:53pm as most folks’s attention was fixed on the weekend):
United States military support for Syrian rebels will include small arms, ammunition and possibly anti-tank weapons, according to two officials familiar with the matter. The weapons will be provided by the CIA, the officials said.
Oh, and Obama is “considering” a no-fly zone. Where have we heard that before?
Expect the announcement that your son or daughter in uniform will not be home for Christmas to be sent out at 3am Sunday.
No one is likely to demand good hard evidence for the use of chemical weapons. After all, the Bush administration and its lies for war was so…very long ago.
War—What a Gas
None of these military adventures were ever about anything remotely honorable. So, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you just have to get over it. You may feel better believing the system of which you are part has noble intentions, or that the party you prefer is somehow more principled.
The truth is actually pretty simple: no matter which party is running things, globally dominant governments do not make decisions based on humane do-goodism. In the halls of power, decisions are based on a consensus of hard-headed “realists,” whose concerns do not extend to human rights, the safety of women and children and other civilians, or the “self-determination” of non-Americans. “Spreading democracy around world”? Um, no.
READ THE REST HERE
Free Markets, Central Planning and the Family Budget
June 15, 2013 by Szandor Blestman
Filed under Commentary
Recently a Facebook friend of mine commented on a story about austerity not working and made a statement to the effect that therefore Hayek was wrong and Keynes was right. I was quick to race to the defense of Hayek and free markets. I pointed out that we haven’t had a truly free market ever and that Keynesian policies had been in place since before Keynes even became a famous economist. I told him that if he was going to give Keynesianism credit for all the good that’s come from economic policy, he needed to blame it for all the bad repercussions also. We haven’t been vacillating between Keynesianism and free markets, we’ve been steadily but incrementally becoming more and more a Keynesian economy since at least the inception of the Federal Reserve and the institutionalizing of a fiat fractional reserve central banking system. Read more
David Icke – Syria:The Truth (Viewer Discretion Advised)
June 14, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
Or maybe the NWO er NATO is right…. You have to Kill the people to save them. Uh….
Latest scandal: Hillary’s State Dept. may have covered up pedophilia, sex abuse
June 14, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
CBS reported on June 10, 2013 that in an internal State Department Inspector General’s memo several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off.
Of the cancelled or delayed investigations, specific examples include:
- An unnamed State Department security official in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults” on foreign nationals hired as embassy guards.
- Yet another unnamed individual, this time an ambassador who “routinely ditched … his protective security detail” and the IG believes this was in order for him to “solicit sexual favors from prostitutes.”
- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail “engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries” — a problem the IG describes as “endemic.”
Meanwhile At NBC…
Despite a name of a certain US ambassador posted in Europe percolating on various news portals, NBC has elected to play their cards close to their vest by plainly stating that, yet again, an unnamed diplomat has been cited as not only soliciting standard run-of-the-mill prostitution, but prostitution of the pedophile kind.
In what could be more than a slight detriment to her run for the Democratic presidential nomination, the alleged felonies happened under the Hillary Clinton watch at State.
To make matters worse, NBC reports that the investigation was ordered by, yet again, unnamed “top state department officials” to “cease the investigation.”
A New York State Of Mind…
The New York Post took a journalistic leap of faith in citing a source initially named by CBS that the whistleblower, former State Department IG senior investigator Aurelia Fedenisn, found during the course of her investigation that “a DS (Diplomatic Security) agent was called off a case against US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman over claims that he solicited prostitutes, including minors.”
Biden Warns: GOP Led By Two Young Senators, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul
June 12, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
Via Neo Con Central: The Weekly Standard
At a high-dollar fundraiser last night in Washington, D.C., Vice President Joe Biden warned his fellow Democrats about the Republicans.
“It’s a pretty simple proposition: The United States of America, and the state of Massachusetts, does not need another Republican in the Senate,” Biden told the assembled donors, according to the press pool report. “I’m being straight about this. This is not your father’s Republican Party. It really is a fundamentally different party. There’s never been as much distance, at least since I’ve been alive, distance between where the mainstream of the Republican congressional party is and the Democratic Party is. It’s a chasm. It’s a gigantic chasm.”In particular, Biden shared his distrust of two young Republican senators, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.“I’m not talking about the character or even the quality of the minds of the people I’m going to mention. But the last thing in the world we need now is someone who will go down to the United States Senate and support Ted Cruz, support the new senator from Kentucky — or the old senator from Kentucky,” said Biden.
“Think about this. … Have you ever seen a time when two freshman senators are able to cower the bulk of the Republican Party in the Senate? That is not hyperbole.”
“On the gun issue, I don’t care what your position is — I called 17 senators out, 9 of whom were Republicans. … Not one of offered an explanation on the merits of why they couldn’t vote for the background check. But almost to a person, they said, ‘I don’t want to take on Ted Cruz. I don’t want to take on Rand Paul. They’ll be in my district.’
“I actually said, ‘Are you kidding? These are two freshman,’” Biden said, according to the pool report. “This is a different, party folks. They’re not bad guys, and they’re both very bright guys. And I’m not questioning their motive.”
Intelligence officials overheard talking about how NSA leaker (and reporter Glenn Greenwald) should be ‘disappeared’
June 10, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
- Editor-at-large of The Atlantic Steve Clemons tweeted the ‘disturbing’ discussion after overhearing it at Washington’s Dulles airport on Saturday
- The four men were speaking loudly and ‘almost bragging’
- They said both the leaker and Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story, should be ‘disappeared’
- Comes after National Intelligence director James R Clapper defended the surveillance programs for keeping America safe
- NSA filed criminal report with Justice Dept. in relation to leaks to The Guardian and The Washington Post
A group of intelligence officials were overheard yesterday discussing how the National Security Agency worker who leaked sensitive documents to a reporter last week should be ‘disappeared.’
Foreign policy analyst and editor at large of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons, tweeted about the ‘disturbing’ conversation after listening in to four men who were sitting near him as he waited for a flight at Washington’s Dulles airport.
‘In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit,’ he tweeted at 8:42 a.m. on Saturday.
According to Clemons, the men had been attending an event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.
Disturbing: Steve Clemons, pictured left, tweeted the conversation after overhearing the officials saying the NSA leaker and Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, pictured right, should be ‘disappeared’ on Saturday
One of the officials was wearing ‘a white knit national counter-terrorism center shirt,’ Clemons told the Huffington Post. He added that it was clear from their conversation they were among the intelligence community.
Clemons said the conversation initially centered around the event the men had just attended but soon turned to the NSA leaks, which were first reported by Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald.
The term ‘disappeared’ refers to a secret murder or assassination carried out by dictatorship governments.
Clemons described the discussion on Twitter as ‘bravado’ and said he believed the disappearing comment was ‘half joke half serious.’
‘They were loud. Almost bragging. Lacked circumspection about comments & jokes,’ he wrote about the conversation in the busy airport lounge.
Defensive: Director of National Intelligence James R Clapper said in a statement Saturday that disclosures on intelligence gathering practices were ‘reckless’
Clemons said he didn’t know the identities of the officials or which agency they worked for. He wrote on twitter that he recorded part of the conversation and took a number of poor quality photos, which he said he would post online.
‘Was a shock to me and wasn’t prepared,’ he tweeted.
The dinner was in honor of former NSA director Michael Hayden and chaired by former Ambassador John Negroponte.
More…
The news comes after Director of National Intelligence James R Clapper responded on Saturday to the defended the classified government surveillance programs that were leaked during the week, insisting the measures kept Americans safe and were ‘authorized by Congress’.
Hoping to ‘dispel some of the myths’ after leaked documents published by The Guardian and The Washington Post shed light on two top-secret government surveillance programs, Clapper said in a statement the purpose of the programs is ‘to obtain foreign intelligence information, including information necessary to thwart terrorist and cyber attacks against the United States and its allies’.
The classified document, published by The Guardian, detailed how a division of Verizon was ordered to give cell phone records to the NSA. The Guardian and The Washington Post also reported that another program, called ‘PRISM’, was used by U.S. intelligence agencies to gain access to the files maintained by top Internet companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook. In statements, those companies denied providing the government with special access to their files.
Informant: The Director of National Intelligence James R Clapper, left, released a statement on PRISM, which is reported to have been used to gather information from the data centers of Internet companies like Facebook, one of which is pictured left
‘Necessary’: The top intelligence official, James R Clapper, said the NSA’s intelligence measures disclosed in recent reports were ‘used to keep Americans safe’
Both the phone-records program and PRISM were approved by a judge, but PRISM allowed government agencies to gain access to various Internet conversations, including email.
In his statement, Clapper said PRISM, which was authorized in the Patriot Act, has been in place since 2008.
The Associated Press reported on Saturday that earlier this week the NSA filed a criminal report with the Justice Department in relation to the leaks.
Clapper called the disclosures ‘reckless’.
‘In a rush to publish, media outlets have not given the full context–including the extent to which these programs are overseen by all three branches of government–to these effective tools,’ he said. ‘In particular, the surveillance activities published in The Guardian and The Washington Post are lawful and conducted under authorities widely known and discussed, and fully debated and authorized by Congress.’
Clapper’s statement came as a new Guardian report revealed more information on the NSA’s tool for recording and analyzing intelligence.
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal the government uses a data mining tool, called Boundless Informant, to map information the agency collects. The Guardian reported the agency collected ‘almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March 2013′.
National security: Top intelligence official James R Clapper said secret programs revealed in recent news reports are ‘necessary to thwart terrorist and cyber attacks against the United States and its allies’
‘The tool allows users to select a country on a map and view the metadata volume and select details about the collections against that country,’ according to an NSA fact sheet about the program obtained by The Guardian.
In his statement, Clapper said the agency is limited in discussing their intelligence gathering practices by the NSA’s need to protect their methods and sources.
‘Disclosing information about the specific methods the government uses to collect communications can obviously give our enemies a “playbook” of how to avoid detection,’ Clapper said.
Clapper added the recent disclosures have caused ‘significant misimpressions’, adding he could not correct all ‘inaccuracies’ without revealing even more classified information.
In order to ‘dispel some of the myths’, the NSA also released a three-page fact sheet on intelligence collection as outlined by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The fact sheet noted the government ‘does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers’ but only through court approval with provider’s knowledge.
Congress also authorized the use of PRISM, which the fact sheet called an ‘internal government computer system’ and ‘not an undisclosed collection or data mining program’.
The fact sheet also tried to dispel many Americans’ concerns, noting the government cannot target anyone’s computer or phone records without ‘an appropriate, and documented, foreign intelligence purpose for the acquisition (such as for the prevention of terrorism, hostile cyber activities, or nuclear proliferation) and the foreign target is reasonably believed to be outside the United States.
The fact sheet detailed how their intelligence gathering was approved or overseen by the three branches of government.
‘Finally, the notion that Section 702 activities are not subject to internal and external oversight is similarly incorrect. Collection of intelligence information under Section 702 is subject to an extensive oversight regime, incorporating reviews by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches,’ the fact sheet said.
In the fact sheet, Clapper also highlighted how intelligence gathered using these programs has provided ‘insight into terrorist networks and plans’.
‘For example, the intelligence community acquired information on a terrorist organization’s strategic planning efforts,’ he said in the fact sheet. ‘Communications collected under Section 702 have yielded intelligence regarding proliferation networks and have directly and significantly contributed to successful operations to impede the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and related technologies.’
President Barack Obama also noted the importance of the intelligence programs in an event in California Friday.
‘I came in with a healthy skepticism about these programs,’ he said according to multiple reports. ‘My team evaluated them. We scrubbed them thoroughly–we actually expanded some of the oversight, increased some of the safeguards. But my assessment and my team’s assessment was that they help us prevent terrorist attacks. You can’t have 100 per cent security and also then have 100 per cent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going have to make some choices as a society.’
Read more: Here
VIDEO: The 29-year-old source behind biggest intelligence leak in NSA history explains his motives...
'I do not expect to see home again'...
'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things'...
'I believed in Obama's promises'...
'Presidents openly lie to secure the office'...
'Government has granted itself power it is not entitled to'...
Suggests he's defecting -- to China?
Former CIA Officer: 'Potential Chinese Espionage'...
Extradition Calls Begin...
REPORT: Intel officials overheard saying NSA leaker should be 'disappeared'...
America’s Student Loan Racket: Stiffer Debt Bondage Coming
June 10, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
For growing numbers of American youths, higher education is increasingly out of reach. High tuition and fees make it unaffordable. So does a disturbing government/corporate partnership.
Millions of students need financial aid. They’re exploited for profit. Providers are enriched. Higher education involves debt entrapment.
Students graduate tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Some post-graduates face burdens up to $100,000. If unpaid after 30 years, it’s multiples higher. If default or declare bankruptcy, it’s unforgiven. Bondage is permanent until repaid.
Loan providers thrive from defaults. Wages can be garnished. So can unemployment benefits, disability payments, tax refunds, as well as Social Security and other retirement benefits.
A conspiratorial alliance of lenders, guarantors, servicers, and collection companies derive income from debt service and inflated collection fees. College marketing officers, state and federal legislators, and administration officials are complicit with them.
Principle, accrued interest, late payment and collection agency penalties create enormous burdens to repay. Private lenders are exempt from federal fair debt collection requirements. Federal loans have minimal safety net protection.
Lenders operate virtually risk-free. The system is rigged against borrowers. Loans are easy to get. They’re tough to service. They’re not forgiven. Burdensome debt escalates higher. A vicious circle entraps graduates and dropouts. For many it’s permanent.
Once entrapped, escape is impossible. Unless repaid, future lives and careers are impaired. Today’s economic crisis exacerbates conditions. Job opportunities are scarce. High-pay/good benefit ones are fast disappearing.
A lost generation threatens. At issue is exploiting ordinary people for profit, transferring maximum wealth to corporate favorites and super-rich elites, as well as thirdworldizing America. A race to the bottom defines it.
What began decades earlier, Obama accelerated. He’s beholden to monied interests. He spurns populist ones. He’s done so throughout his tenure.
He’s waging class war. He’s in lockstep with Republicans and most Democrats. He’s gutting America’s social contract en route to eliminating it altogether.
For millions of higher education aspirants, affordability puts it increasingly out of reach. Others attaining it face onerous debt repayment burdens.
From 1971 – 1989, Robert Stafford was Republican Senator from Vermont. He was considered moderate compared to bipartisan extremists now running things.
In 1988, Congress renamed the Federal Guaranteed Loan program in his name. It did so for his work on higher education. Eligible students in accredited US institutions may apply for Stafford Loan help.
They’re federally guaranteed. Lower interest rates are offered. As explained above, repayment is mandatory. Debt bondage on all student loans remains until repaid.
If default or declare bankruptcy, it’s unforgiven. It’s the only loan obligation mandated this way.
PLUS Loans are offered to parents. They’re committed to repay. They’re for students enrolled at least half time.
They must be in eligible undergraduate or post-graduate institutions. Currently, fixed 7.9% interest rates are charged. They’re from initial disbursement until final loan repayment.
On July 1, Stafford rates will double. PLUS Loan rates will increase. They’ll do so unless Congress intervenes. Republicans, most Democrats and Obama agree in principle.
In 2012, bipartisan agreement was reached. It was for one year only. Subsidized Stafford Loan rates remained 3.4%.
At issue now is what follows. The fate of million of students hangs in the balance. Both parties claim they want rates kept from doubling. Rhetoric differs from policy. Republicans control the House.
On May 23, they passed HR 1911: Smarter Solutions for Students Act. Smarter for whom wasn’t explained. Not for students for sure. Passage reflects greater debt bondage.
Obama and most Democrats rhetorically distanced themselves from Republicans. Doing so differs from what they support. Both parties largely agree.
Republicans want interest rates tied to 10-year Treasury note yields + 2.5% and 4.5% for Stafford Loans and PLUS loans respectively. They’d be capped at 8.5% and 10.5%.
In December 2008, the Fed cut its overnight federal funds rate to a range of zero – 0.25%. Banks can borrow short-term for virtually nothing.
They can keep doing so by borrowing to repay what’s owed. At the same time, the Fed pays interest on required reserve balances. It does so for amounts held at Reserve Banks.
The Fed is privately owned and controlled. Major Wall Street banks do so. Reserve Banks issue stock shares to members. It’s conditional of being part of the system.
They can’t be sold, traded or pledged for loans. Why bother in today’s near-zero rate environment? Banks alone benefit. Dividends are guaranteed. By law, they’re 6% annually. It’s sure money. It accrues to bottom line profits.
Borrowing for virtually nothing helps maintain them. Republicans wants student loan rates up to 10.5%. Democrats aren’t much better. Obama’s plan may be worse.
It offers short-term relief only. He’s comfortable with much higher long-term costs. Republicans want rates capped.
Obama excludes doing so. He wants market forces setting them. He wants them based on when loans were issued. Eventually rates will rise. From past experience, they could be well into double digits at some point.
With no cap, the sky’s the limit. In 1979, the fed funds rate averaged 11.2%. In June 1981, it peaked at 20%. Savers were well compensated. Today they’re cheated.
Borrowers were severely penalized. They still are via credit cards, other consumer rates, and student loans. Bipartisan complicity wants them more made more onerous.
Debt entrapment already is policy. It’s long-term or permanent. Obligations can’t be erased. Raising interest rates exacerbates today’s burden.
Regardless of inflation changes, tuition and fees rise annually. Future costs become less affordable. Greater burdens are created. For many students, higher education’s out of reach entirely.
Worse still is how few good jobs await graduates. Desired careers become unattainable. Low-pay employment makes debt service and loan repayments harder.
For many, permanent debt bondage is certain. There’s no escape. Around 38 million borrowers face loan repayment burdens. About 10% default within two years. Many more do thereafter. Doing so means added penalties.
Last March, student debt topped $1 trillion. Currently it’s over $1.1 trillion. It increases by about $3,000 per second. Only home mortgage debt exceeds it. Some economists call it a dangerous bubble. Bursting would impact economic conditions significantly.
The student loan crisis grows increasingly worse. Relief is badly needed. Nothing ahead appears promising. America’s ownership society is heartless. Popular interests don’t matter. What’s ahead looks grim.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
http://www.dailycensored.com/americas-student-loan-racket-stiffer-debt-bondage-coming/
Canadian Minister of Defense (on ETs): “We must overthrow the Illuminati “
June 8, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
Not finding the words to tag this post – so just check it out. Most interesting, is that this man “discloses” how the elites control technology for their own green and power. (he should know) Suppression of this technology is dangerous and suicidal.
Bilderberg 2013: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, David Rockefeller and Henry Kissenger in attendance
June 7, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
Although the ‘official’ guest list for Bilderberg has been made public through the major media for the first time this year, the real interest will be in who is NOT on the list…
Today’s Bilderberg coverage which was streamed live on the Guerilla Media Network, saw the UK’s Liberty Tactics team reveal from reports on the ground in Watford that both Hillary Clinton and her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, were spotted entering Bilderberg’s Grove Hotel today, along with luminaries David Rockefeller and Henry Kissenger.
Both the jet-setting Clintons were also present at Kissenger’s 90th birthday party this past Monday night in New York City.
James Britpod from Liberty Tactics explains about Bilderberg’s non-guestlisters who have been spotted, “We do have Hillary, Bill, as well as quite a lot of others”.
Sadly, American Free Press veteran journalist Jim Tucker passed away in April, Tucker’s baton has been passed to his fellow reporter Mark Anderson, including old and new inside contacts within the Bilderberg organisation itself.
When asked about the difficulty in seeing Bilderberg VIP’s through the parade of tinted windows, journalist Anderson aptly explained how, “The dark windows match the dark personalities inside”.
Follow Liberty Tactics live reporting around the clock from this week’s Bilderberg 2013 online at the and also follow Liberty Tactics on Twitter here.
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