for life and liberty

Why Centralization Leads to Collapse

"A system that suppresses dissent is fault-intolerant, ignorant and fragile. Any event that does not respond to centralized, rationalized policy creates unintended consequences that throws the centralized mechanism into disarray. Lacking dissent and redundancy, the system piles on one haphazard, politically expedient 'fix' after another, further destabilizing the system. The event that triggers crisis and collapse isn't important; the system, rendered unstable and fragile by centralization, is primed for crisis and collapse. The dry underbrush is piled high, and if the first lightning strike doesn't start the fire, the second one will." Continue reading →

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A General Gets Knifed

"In an administration that loves leak investigations, this is arguably the most significant one to date. The foreign-policy implications of identifying the Stuxnet virus as the handiwork of U.S. spies were enormous. The Obama administration's protests against Chinese cyber-espionage are undermined by the fact that America fired the first shot in a global cyberwar. And it arguably led to an escalation. U.S. intelligence believes that the cyberattack on the facilities of Saudi Aramco last year was carried out by the government of Iran. Yet there were members of the intelligence community who believe that the Stuxnet leak had its benefits." Continue reading →

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Why Roger Stone’s JFK book has to be taken seriously

"Roger Stone is the first JFK assassination author to have worked in the White House and among the few who have personal acquaintances with JFK’s sucessors. Stone’s background doesn’t mean that his interpretation of November 22, 1963, is necessarily correct, but he cannot be dismissed as 'conspiracy theorist' who is deluded about the realities of American politics and power. To the contrary, he has far more first-hand experience with those Washington realities than an academic like John McAdams or a prosecutor like VIncent Bugliosi. I think Stone’s indictment of Lyndon Johnson deserves to be taken more seriously than anyone else’s." Continue reading →

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A Social Phenomenon: Protests Erupt in Brazil

"A girl organized a protest, expecting a few hundred people to attend. Instead, there were tens of thousands, and then a million. It was like throwing a seed crystal into a super-saturated solution and causing crystallization throughout the whole body of liquid. It was like a wildfire spreading. This is what we so far have NOT seen occur in America. This is, however, what the authorities are preparing for. They know that the array of grievances of Americans is growing by the day, week, month and year. They know that they have not addressed these grievances, and they know that when the promises of government cannot be kept, these grievances are going to spill into the streets." Continue reading →

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American killed in Egyptian clashes as Muslim Brotherhood offices attacked

"Egypt suffered renewed outbreaks of violence on Friday as Muslim Brotherhood offices were attacked in at least four provinces, two days before the scheduled start of mass protests against the president and Brotherhood associate Mohamed Morsi. Two people were killed in Alexandria on Friday – one was an American bystander who was watching an attack on local Brotherhood offices – and 70 were injured. Clashes were reported in several other cities between Morsi's often secular-minded critics, who seek his immediate resignation, and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, who defend his democratic legitimacy." Continue reading →

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Egypt’s army threatens to ‘intervene’ if unrest continues

"Egypt’s defence minister warned on Sunday that the army will intervene if violence breaks out in the country where opponents of President Mohamed Morsi are planning rallies against him this month. 'The armed forces have the obligation to intervene to stop Egypt from plunging into a dark tunnel of conflict and infighting,' Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on the eve of the first anniversary of Morsi’s election as opposition leaders clamoured for his resignation. Morsi’s opponents, who accuse him of hijacking the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s regime, plan a rally on June 30 to mark the day Morsi was sworn in as Egypt’s first civilian and Islamist president." Continue reading →

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US Marines Put On Alert To Move Into Egypt Amid Violent Protests

"Amid anti-government demonstrations planned for this weekend, roughly 200 combat-capable U.S. Marines in southern Europe have been put on an alert status should they need to protect the U.S. Embassy or American citizens in Egypt, CNN is reporting. The Marines were told to be ready to deploy within an hour, and would be flown in via MV-22 Osprey, the Marine Corps’ rapid deployment aircraft. A state department spokesman told CNN that the move is precautionary, and that the U.S. fully expects the Egyptian security forces to be able to protect the American diplomatic facilities." Continue reading →

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David Galland: What the Hell Is Wrong with Obama?

"It sure seems like we are following the script set down by the neocons (Kristol, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Abrams, et al.) that years ago infiltrated the US military-political complex. This is the 'Might is right' crowd who believe in exercising US power proactively to knock down the dominos of all Middle Eastern countries Israel feels threatened by, with the end goal of remaking the Middle East as a region dominated by friendly democracies (or, in the case of Saudi Arabia, friendly dictatorships). Failing functioning democracies, turning the outcast countries into failed states that pose no real threat to US or Israeli interests." Continue reading →

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US army blocks access to Guardian website to preserve ‘network hygiene’

"The US army has admitted to blocking access to parts of the Guardian website for thousands of defence personnel across the country. A spokesman said the military was filtering out reports and content relating to government surveillance programs to preserve 'network hygiene' and prevent any classified material appearing on unclassified parts of its computer systems. A spokesman for the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command (Netcom) in Arizona confirmed that this was a widespread policy, likely to be affecting hundreds of defence facilities." Continue reading →

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