Imperial Hubris

US Still ‘Warning’ Antigua That It Better Not Set Up Piracy Hub, Even As WTO Gives Approval

"The United States warned Antigua and Barbuda on Monday not to retaliate against U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling by suspending American copyrights or patents, a move it said would authorize the 'theft' of intellectual property like movies and music. 'The United States has urged Antigua to consider solutions that would benefit its broader economy. However, Antigua has repeatedly stymied these negotiations with certain unrealistic demands,' said Nkenge Harmon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Still ‘Warning’ Antigua That It Better Not Set Up Piracy Hub, Even As WTO Gives Approval

Pentagon Needs Battle Plan for Troop-Suicide Threat

"The Pentagon said this week there were 349 suicides by active-duty members of the armed services in 2012, as opposed to 311 combat deaths. Before you jump to conclusions about the plight of battle- traumatized veterans failing to readjust to life stateside, consider this astounding fact: More than half of troops who killed themselves had never deployed from the U.S., and 85 percent never saw combat." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPentagon Needs Battle Plan for Troop-Suicide Threat

Internal Revenue Code severely punishes (other) countries which impose extraterritorial taxation

"Even more hilariously hypocritical than the 1974 Jackson–Vanik Amendment — which slaps trade sanctions on countries imposing unreasonable barriers to emigration of their citizens — I bring you 26 USC § 891: 'Doubling of rates of tax on citizens and corporations of certain foreign countries', a law originally passed in 1934 and still in effect today." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInternal Revenue Code severely punishes (other) countries which impose extraterritorial taxation

Mister Taxman: Why Some Americans Working Abroad are Ditching Their Citizenships

"The U.S. is the world’s only industrialized nation that taxes citizens who live overseas, even if their income is generated in a foreign country and they never return to America. And while high-profile cases like that of Tina Turner or that of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin catch public attention, the vast majority of expatriates affected by double taxation and increasingly draconian filing rules are middle-class or retired, or those who have never lived or worked in the United States at all, but were born to American parents overseas." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMister Taxman: Why Some Americans Working Abroad are Ditching Their Citizenships

Paul Craig Roberts: Attack On Sovereignty

"Those concerned about 'The New World Order' speak as if the United States is coming under the control of an outside conspiratorial force. In fact, it is the US that is the New World Order. That is what the American unipolar world, about which China, Russia, and Iran complain, is all about. Washington has demonstrated that it has no respect for its own laws and Constitution, much less any respect for international law and the law and sovereignty of other countries. All that counts is Washington’s will as the pursuit of hegemony moves Washington closer to becoming a world dictator." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Attack On Sovereignty

Obama’s Drug War: After Medical Marijuana Mess, Feds Face Big Decision On Pot

"The Department of Justice has cracked down hard on medical marijuana, raiding hundreds of dispensaries, while the IRS and other federal law enforcement officials have gone after banks and landlords who do business with them. Fours years after promising not to make medical marijuana a priority, the government continues to target it aggressively. U.S. attorneys in the states helped beat back local efforts to regulate the medical marijuana industry, going so far as to threaten elected officials with jail. The willingness of top prosecutors to use their power in brazenly political ways is, in many ways, the untold story of Obama's first-term approach to drug policy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s Drug War: After Medical Marijuana Mess, Feds Face Big Decision On Pot

Russia pulls out of decade-old drug control agreement with U.S.

"The United States on Wednesday criticized what it described as Russia’s 'self-defeating' decision to pull out of a decade-old drug control agreement. Nuland said the decision to end the program which had committed some $2 million for law enforcement training had come out of the blue, and Washington had only been informed of its this week. It is the third bilateral accord ripped up by Moscow in recent months — after the Russian government shut down the USAID aid agency offices last year and also banned adoptions of Russian children by US families." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRussia pulls out of decade-old drug control agreement with U.S.

Russia To West: We Told You Not To Overthrow Qaddafi!

"'Those whom the French and Africans are fighting now in Mali are the [same] people who ... our Western partners armed so that they would overthrow the Gaddafi regime,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference. The toppling of Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi led to 'perhaps the greatest proliferation of weapons of war from any modern conflict,' Emergency Director of Human Rights Watch Peter Bouckaert told The Telegraph. Those weapons stockpiles were raided by both sides, and both sides had connections with radical militants." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRussia To West: We Told You Not To Overthrow Qaddafi!

Israel Airstrike on Syria: Strange Bedfellows?

"Today Israel, without provocation or legal justification, bombed Syrian territory. As usual, the US government covers for Israeli military aggression in the region, however press reports that the US was scrambling for intelligence regarding the Israeli attack on Syria suggests that there was no forewarning by our 'ally' of a potentially enormously destabilizing escalation. What is most interesting is that Israel is targeting for military attack the same Syrian Army that the Islamist Free Syrian Army and the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front are fighting to overthrow. Why would Israel prefer foaming at the mouth Islamic decapitation experts to rule Syria?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIsrael Airstrike on Syria: Strange Bedfellows?

Antigua set to bypass US copyright law with WTO green-lit media, software sales website

"In a surprisingly legal move, the government of Antigua is planning to open a website selling media and software without paying any fees to American copyright holders. It comes after the US closed its market to Antiguan gambling companies. The small Caribbean nation once thrived on its gambling industry, which at one point employed 5 per cent of its people, TorrentFreak reports. When the US blocked the island's gambling companies from accessing American players, it pulled the rug out from under the whole industry. Antigua is now set to begin selling music, movies and software without having to pay a cent to the American firms holding copyrights on the wares." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAntigua set to bypass US copyright law with WTO green-lit media, software sales website