News Commentary

PRISM Takeaway: Are We Citizens or Serfs? Should Obama Resign?

"The leaked news about the FBI and NSA PRISM surveillance project may well be the most important news event of your life. I would say it is the most important news story. They so far are downplaying revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepts every email and text and other data and stores them on a giant supercomputer in Utah, placing the NSA coverage below such pressing concerns as immigration reform and Supreme Court decisions concerning gay marriage. Alternatively, I would call it the PRISM scandal, but I can’t do that either. It’s not a scandal unless people are up in arms, and there is no evidence of that." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPRISM Takeaway: Are We Citizens or Serfs? Should Obama Resign?

How Bad Is The Surveillance State?

"Even more baffling to me is the reaction of some 'conservatives' who deny the scope of spying activities and, at once, minimizing the civil-liberties threat and justifying the activities as absolutely necessary and vital for the protection of the country. The truth is that the network television show 'Person of Interest' is much closer to reality than most people think – except for the fact that no one is actually using the mining of data to protect the lives of innocent American citizens caught in the crossfire. Let’s look at some of the hard, cold facts of today’s surveillance state." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Bad Is The Surveillance State?

No Rose Can Mask the Stench of Obama’s Tyranny

"Mr. Obama considers government's power to be illimitable, and individual freedom to be a revocable gift conferred by those who presume to rule the rest of us. This was made abundantly – and redundantly – clear in a recent interview Obama gave to the repellently sycophantic PBS host Charlie Rose regarding the totalitarian NSA surveillance program. Speaking about what he called 'tradeoffs' between freedom and security, Obama said: 'I don’t think anybody says we’re no longer free because we have checkpoints at airports.' There are dozens of imaginable variations on the official lie Obama decanted on the Charlie Rose program." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNo Rose Can Mask the Stench of Obama’s Tyranny

6 Insidious Ways Surveillance Changes the Way We Think and Act

"When I moved to a Czech village in 1994 to teach English, I was fascinated by the cultural difference between Americans like me and my new community. At that time, the oppressive memory of the dreaded Communist secret police, the StB, was still fresh. As a brash young ex-pat, born after the era of McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, I understood little of what it felt like to live under constant surveillance. The Czechs knew better. Several decades under the watchful eyes of the StB (and before that, the spies of the Habsburg Empire) had molded their attitudes and behavior in ways that were both subtle and profound." Continue reading →

Continue Reading6 Insidious Ways Surveillance Changes the Way We Think and Act

Why Is No One Listening to the US Government?

"When Snowden reports on his government’s abuses, however, he is charged with espionage – of aiding the enemy. But who is the enemy? Likewise, the US media dutifully repeats attacks on Snowden by US politicians for seeking asylum in countries whose media does not get a clean bill of health from the US State Department. The irony of such a position escapes the US mainstream media, which has long ago traded real investigative reporting for reading out government talking points. So the US government finds itself powerless to demand that the rest of the world do as it demands. It attacks at home that which it promotes overseas." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy Is No One Listening to the US Government?

Ron Paul: The Death of Daniel Somers

"The numbers sadly tell the story: more military suicides than combat deaths in 2012, some 22 military veterans take their lives every day, nearly 30 percent of veterans treated by the VA have PTSD. We should be saddened but not shocked when we see the broken men and women return from battles overseas. We should be angry with those who send them to suffer and die in unnecessary wars. We should be angry with those who send them to kill so many people overseas for no purpose whatsoever. We should be afraid of the consequences of such a foolish and dangerous foreign policy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: The Death of Daniel Somers

Where Is He Now?

"The American government, with all of its supposed intelligence-gathering capacities - the revelations of which are at the core of the case against Snowden - cannot locate this man's presence. 'All the king's horses, and all the king's men' - even with access to all communications of all Americans - can no more find him than could they anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union or the attacks of 9/11. The entire affair - along with the actions of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and other whistleblowers - helps answer the pessimists who ask 'but what can one person do?'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhere Is He Now?

Edward Snowden: Master of Realpolitik

"Snowden is simply doing what states do all the time, which is to engage in realpolitik in pursuit of their own interests. Why is it immoral for Snowden to play the Russian regime against the American one, when it is moral for the American regime to pit the Syrian 'rebels' (who eat the internal organs of their victims) against the Syrian regime? Over the years, the United States has allied itself with an endless list of mass murderers ranging from Stalin to Pol Pot to Pinochet and Saddam Hussein. But Snowden lived in China for a little while! What a horrible guy!" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEdward Snowden: Master of Realpolitik

Our Rulers’ $1.5 Billion “Backup Hard Drive”

"The Feds have invested $ 1.5 billion of our money in a 'data farm' in Utah despite all their hype about 'sequestration.' But you may not realize that this boondoggle is even more offensively wasteful than you thought: it is 'essentially the world’s largest backup hard drive… It’ll be one of several data farms that make up the [NSA'a] digital backbone, but information kept there won’t be unique. … Utah’s center will house the most data but everything is networked and if the center goes down, [Lonny] Anderson[, the NSA’s chief information officer] says, no data will be lost.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOur Rulers’ $1.5 Billion “Backup Hard Drive”

Paul Craig Roberts: Washington Is Driving The World To The Final War

"It is not possible for a true patriot to support a government that destroys the Constitution. The United States is the Constitution. Our country is not the Obama regime, the Bush regime, or some other administration. Our country is the Constitution. The Constitution is our country. Beyond obligations to one’s own country, all humans have a responsibility to human life itself. Washington’s puppet states, such as the NATO countries, Japan, and Colombia, by providing cover and support for Washington’s aggression are enabling Washington to drive the world into World War III." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Washington Is Driving The World To The Final War