Orwellian

Greenwald Uses Pre-Russia Snowden Data to Hammer the NSA Again.

"The NSA’s spying is comprehensive. Everyone is grist for the mill. Every foreign politician now knows that he is being monitored. Greenwald is using Snowden’s basket of eggs to cook up fresh eggs for Obama’s face every month. Nothing will change at the NSA, of course. Its gigantic hidden budget will not be touched. The spying will go on. Congress will do nothing. But the blowback will also go on. Obama will continue to look like a conniving functionary of the NSA, which he in fact is. The NSA is in charge; Obama isn’t. It’s very bad for creating the image of Obama as the man in charge. He is either out of the loop or low man on the totem pole." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGreenwald Uses Pre-Russia Snowden Data to Hammer the NSA Again.

The State, Not Manning, is the Criminal

"Manning is being punished for exposing government crimes, most famously U.S. troops shooting innocent civilians, including two Reuters journalists, in the Collateral Murder video. Manning’s disclosures also shed light on what McClatchy Newspapers called 'evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence.' The outrage caused by exposure of this brutal war crime helped end the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The perpetrators should have been held accountable. They were not. Instead, the state engaged in a series of crimes against Private Manning." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe State, Not Manning, is the Criminal

What Was Bradley Manning’s Sin?

"What was Bradley Manning’s sin that warrants a sentence of 35 years? It was a sin manufactured by the State against the State’s version of righteousness. A righteous person, according to the State, is a State co-conspirator who is required to keep silent when observing crimes of the State. There is a conspiracy of silence and secrecy, like the Mafia’s omerta. Manning joined the conspiracy and then broke the rule of silence. He failed to place his conscience on hold or abeyance while serving the State. Now he must pay for his 'sin', the State claims. What sin? There is no real sin here on his part, and no real crime. There is only a power play." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat Was Bradley Manning’s Sin?

Obama heckled over sentencing of Chelsea Manning

"President Barack Obama was interrupted by protesters on Thursday night amid a speech on college affordability. While Obama was speaking in Syracuse, New York, two woman began shouting at him. One of the women held up a giant 'Free Bradley Manning' sign. Both women were escorted out of the event. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for leaking thousands of secret U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. Her supporters have called on Obama to pardon Manning, arguing she is a whistle-blower who acted on behalf of the public." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama heckled over sentencing of Chelsea Manning

The Compulsion To Rule

"A system that insists on controlling others through increasing levels of systematic violence; that loots the many for the aggrandizement of the few; that regulates any expressions of human behavior that are not of service to the rulers; that presumes the power to wage wars against any nation of its choosing, a principle that got a number of men hanged at the Nuremberg trials; and finally, criminalizes those who would speak the truth to its victims, has no moral energy remaining with which to sustain itself. The treatment accorded private Manning may have been the final nail driven into the coffin of the American state." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Compulsion To Rule

We interviewed the guy who prank-called the NSA about his lost e-mail

"The NSA is in dire need of customer service training — at least in the case of Bahram Sadeghi, a Dutch-Iranian filmmaker who decided to call the surveillance agency for “help” after one of his e-mails was accidentally deleted. In a three-minute exchange with NSA spokespeople, Sadeghi manages to confound one with his request (you can almost hear the relief in her voice when Sadeghi asks to speak to someone else) and gets a curt reply from another. How did Sadeghi pull off his trick? In an interview Sunday, the prankster revealed how his plan came together and where it went off the rails. The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWe interviewed the guy who prank-called the NSA about his lost e-mail

50 unmarked graves found on segregated reform school campus in Florida

"A century-old Florida state school for troubled boys is now the site of a forensic investigation after more than 50 bodies were discovered, some in unmarked graves, next to a garbage dump on the side of campus where the African-American students were housed. Students like Richard Huntley, who was sent to the school in the late fifties, told Al Jazeera that he and his fellow inmate-students were forced to do farm work under dangerous conditions under threats of worse. 'This, to me, is a form of slavery,' he said, 'because they, damn it, beat you to what they wanted you to be.' Boys who didn’t comply with orders were sent to 'The White House,' which Huntley likened to a 'torture chamber.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading50 unmarked graves found on segregated reform school campus in Florida

School & Experts Put Genius Boy In Special Ed, Now On Track For Nobel Prize

"Numbers were his passion and he was getting bored of early grades of elementary school as they did not come close to challenging him. Finally, his parents made the decision to take him out of public school and special ed programs regardless of the fact doctors had diagnosed him with ASD. Jacob’s incredible memory and mind allowed him to attend university classes after he taught himself all of high school math in just two weeks. He is currently on track to graduate from college by the age of 14 and it is believed his research into math and physics may begin to challenge some of the established theories in physics." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSchool & Experts Put Genius Boy In Special Ed, Now On Track For Nobel Prize

Germany’s Hitler-Era Homeschool Laws Still In (Brute) Force

"The Wunderlichs simply felt that they could teach their children better. They opposed the idea of being forced to send them to the government-monopoly schools whose power is based on a law imposed during the WWII era. The Wunderlichs are Christian, and preferred that their children receive an education incorporating Christian themes, and devoid of some elements force-fed to German kids in the public schools. That doesn’t sit well with the German regime, however, which is, by its own admittance, in the business of preventing 'dissent,' including the emergence of 'separate philosophical convictions.' In other words, the ban on homeschooling is about control." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGermany’s Hitler-Era Homeschool Laws Still In (Brute) Force

The Tipping Point

"Jesus said that when a garment gets so old, attempting to patch it with new cloth will just tear it up worse. The authoritarian state seems to be reaching that point, beyond which any attempt to patch it up or prolong its life just hastens its demise. The interesting thing about the federal prosecutions of Aaron Swartz and Chelsea Manning is that the vindictive approach to piling up charges and seeking maximum sentences were calculated attempts to send a message to anyone else contemplating sabotage against the information control regime. But those attempts have done more to inspire sympathy among the uncommitted and galvanize the information freedom movement than to terrify would-be leakers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Tipping Point