it can’t happen here

Genocide: Worse Than War [2010]

"Watch Daniel Goldhagen's ground-breaking documentary focused on the worldwide phenomenon of genocide, which premiered on PBS on April 14, 2010. 'By the most fundamental measure -- the number of people killed -- the perpetrators of mass murder since the beginning of the twentieth century have taken the lives of more people than have died in military conflict. So genocide is worse than war,' reiterates Goldhagen. 'This is a little-known fact that should be a central focus of international politics, because once you know it, the world, international politics, and what we need to do all begin to look substantially different from how they are typically conceived.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGenocide: Worse Than War [2010]

Snapshots of Soviet America: The Rita Hutchens Story (Teaser)

"Rita Hutchens, a middle-aged quilt artist from Sandpoint, Idaho, experienced the dreaded 'midnight knock' -- the hallmark of a totalitarian police state -- as part of a Soviet-style campaign of official persecution. Her 'offense' was to seek redress for being assaulted by a police officer in what was ruled to be an illegal arrest. (This is the teaser for a full-length documentary.)" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnapshots of Soviet America: The Rita Hutchens Story (Teaser)

Memory’s Half-Life: A Social History of Wiretaps

"American attitudes towards wiretapping significantly shifted during the 1940s, as the war and changes in the class distribution of telephones helped shift judicial acceptance of wiretaps. President Roosevelt issued a secret executive order authorizing widespread Justice Department wire-taps of 'subversives' and suspected spies. Hoover used these vague new powers to investigate not just Nazis but anyone he thought subversive. The social history of wiretaps is a history of mission creep, where FBI agents initially hunting for wartime Nazi spies soon monitored progressive activists fighting racial segregation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMemory’s Half-Life: A Social History of Wiretaps

SWAT Cop: American Neighborhoods Are ‘Battlefields’

"This battlefield mindset is the product of a generation of politicians telling police that they're at war with things -- drugs, terrorism, crime, etc. -- and have then equipped them with the uniforms, tactics, weapons, and other accoutrements of war. One essay by Sgt. Glenn French was particularly disturbing. French serves as commander of a SWAT team in Sterling Heights, Michigan. French doesn't criticize me for arguing that too many police officers have adopted this battlefield mindset. Rather, he embraces the combat mentality, and encourages other cops to do the same." Continue reading →

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This Public Preschool Looks Like a Prison

"The front entrance is card key secured, and a thick metal door attached to a gated metal security tunnel with a metal walkway leads back to a hallway of numbered, metal buildings. Every single window, including the little ones on the thick metal doors inside, have metal gratings bolted on the outside of them. It felt like I was walking through a medium security prison facility. Four-year-olds attend this campus. That means these little ones are spending the majority of their weekdays all day long inside this place." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThis Public Preschool Looks Like a Prison

One By One, California Agents Track Down Illegally Owned Guns

"In a recent operation, a caravan of four unmarked trucks traversed the bedroom communities of San Francisco's East Bay. The trucks carry nine state agents wearing bulletproof vests and armed with .40-caliber Glock pistols and Tasers. They'll spend the next six hours looking for illegal guns, explains Special Agent Kisu Yo of the California Department of Justice. Beginning In 2007, California officials began collecting names from court records, medical facilities and lists of known or wanted criminals, then cross-referenced them against the federal instant criminal background check system for gun-buyers. The list is updated every day." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOne By One, California Agents Track Down Illegally Owned Guns

Son of legendary Chinese Communist military leader apologizes for Cultural Revolution

"The son of a legendary Communist military leader and politician in China has publicly apologised for persecuting people at his school during the Cultural Revolution, according to a blog. Chen Xiaolu offered his remorse to teachers, staff and students at his former school in Beijing for leading denunciations and sending people to labour camps. Chen said that while there were moves by some in China to argue in favour of the Cultural Revolution, such 'inhumane violations of human rights should not appear again in any form in China'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSon of legendary Chinese Communist military leader apologizes for Cultural Revolution

Outrageous Julian Assange Tweet By Time Reporter Michael Grunwald

"A TIME magazine reporter caused ire on Twitter Saturday night when he said that he 'can't wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out' Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Michael Grunwald's tweet, since deleted, was quickly met with outrage and bewilderment. Glenn Greenwald, who recently broke several revelations about NSA surveillance programs based on documents provided to him by leaker Edward Snowden, was particularly vocal in expressing his disgust with Grunwald's statement. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOutrageous Julian Assange Tweet By Time Reporter Michael Grunwald

This failure rate will shock you

"There’s always a new elite showering themselves with unchecked dictatorial powers– from control of the money supply to control of the military. For example, four men control over 70% of the world’s money supply in our modern central banking system. They have the power to conjure unlimited quantities of currency out of thin air in their sole discretion. Meanwhile, the 'richest' countries in the world (US, Europe, Japan, etc.) are so deeply in debt that they have to borrow money just to pay interest on the money they’ve already borrowed. This isn’t rocket science. Predicting the end of this system is not attention-seeking sensationalism; it’s just common sense." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThis failure rate will shock you

NSA Says It Was All a Series of Mistakes.

"The NSA is having a PR problem with documents provided by Edward Snowden before he arrived in Russia. The Post article indicated that the NSA is spying on Americans inside the USA. Snowden is the source of the NSA’s problems. He provided evidence. Over half of the American public thinks he did wrong. The voters are content with the loss of privacy. They want negative sanctions imposed on Snowden, not the NSA. The NSA will simply hunker down. This will blow over soon enough. Eventually, the media will run out of leaked documents. Then it will be business as usual. Over half the public does not care." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA Says It Was All a Series of Mistakes.