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Thursday, March 28, 2019

Victims of FBI Subversion Now Embrace America’s Secret Police

 
It shouldn’t come as a surprise the FBI and the DOJ obstructed justice last year when then acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe told the House Intelligence Committee to pound sand after Republicans demanded he hand over work-related texts.
The obstruction of justice, however, is a trivial matter for the FBI. It has engaged in criminal activity for decades. 
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It seemed like I’d entered a new dimension deep within Bizarro world labyrinth when Democrats suddenly became defenders of the agency. Liberals and leftists, especially those in the civil rights movement and actively opposed to the Vietnam War, were targeted by the FBI and its Operation COINTELPRO in the 1960s and 70s. Many of those targeted activists ended up in government and the ivory towers of academia. 
Likewise the Grand Inquisitor, Robert Mueller. He was FBI boss during the Bush and Obama administrations. He is a consummate insider. His mission as special prosecutor is to protect the establishment, the so-called Deep State. 
I can only conclude Democrats are either 1) suffering from a special kind of amnesia, or 2) they’re so ethically and morally bankrupt they will buddy up with an agency that seriously violated their rights in order accomplish the current objective: the impeachment and total destruction of Donald Trump. 
After J. Edgar Hoover died, the FBI remained the state’s secret police and kept busy sabotaging political opposition to the financial elite and its octopi tentacles, what we now call the Deep State, consisting of multitudinous “intelligence” (subversion and assassination) agencies, the national security state (NSC, Pentagon, and CIA), the ever-growing surveillance apparatus (NSA and appendages), and a hungry herd of “public-private” (in other words, fascist) business interests and contractors bidding to get a permanent spot at the federal feeding trough. 
From the Palmer raids prior to the establishment of the FBI (at the time the Bureau of Investigation in the Justice Department) to the Occupy Wall Street movement and beyond, the FBI has worked diligently to undermine antiwar, civil rights (the assassination of Martin Luther King), ethnic nationalist movements (Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, Puerto Rican separatists, and others), and individuals associated with those political groups. 
In the case of the Black Panthers, the preferred method of disruption was assassination (Fred Hampton and Mark Clark), while the antiwar movement and other leftist movements were discredited, members of those groups arrested (usually for drug possession), audited by the IRS, fired and denied employment, and harassed in multiple ways. Many of the victims are organizers of the current leftist agenda, while others have taken over the curriculum of major universities. 
Many of these individuals are not opposed to such tactics, so long as the victims are their ideological enemies. Most don’t realize they are being played. 
“Just as too many on the left sleep-walked through the past two years waiting for Mueller—a former head of the FBI, the US secret police, for chrissakes!—to save them from Trump, they have been manipulated by liberal elites into the political cul-de-sac of identity politics,” writes author and blogger Jonathan Cook. 
Just as Mueller put the left on standby, into waiting-for-the-Messiah mode, so simple-minded, pussy-hat-wearing identity politics has been cultivated in the supposedly liberal bastions of the corporate media and Ivy League universities—the same universities that have turned out generations of Muellers and Clintons—to deplete the left’s political energies. While we argue over who is most entitled and most victimised, the establishment has carried on raping and pillaging Third World countries, destroying the planet and siphoning off the wealth produced by the rest of us.
These liberal elites long ago worked out that if we could be made to squabble among ourselves about who was most entitled to scraps from the table, they could keep gorging on the main course.
From the very start of this fiasco, I realized it was a turf war within the establishment. The political elite are not about sharing and certainly have nothing to do with democracy (except as a deceptive advertising slogan). Trump is an outlier. He didn’t come up through the ranks. He is not acceptable to the establishment, including the Republicans who reluctantly accept him as the leader of their faction of the corporatist political party. For establishment Democrats, he is a spoiler, a man who stole the election from Hillary Clinton, the chosen successor to Barrack Obama. 
Like chickens sans heads, average Democrats by and large are running around wild-eyed, frantically warning Trump is the new Hitler, a racist, a white nationalist, and he must be deposed at all cost. As usual, these Democrats are clueless to the real state of affairs—diversionary politics designed to keep folks immersed in largely meaningless political issues while behind the scenes the bankers and corporatists continue to call the shots and fleece the people, whom they have nothing but contempt for, and in the process save a corrupt system already sagging and teetering. 
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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site: Another Day in the Empire.

The Deplorable State of Human Rights in America

The Deplorable State of Human Rights in America

China's Annual Report, UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights
In response to annual US reports on human rights in China, Beijing issues its own on the deplorable state of human rights in America.
It’s latest report made the following introductory remarks, saying:
As in previous years, the latest US reports on human rights in world community nations “continued pointing fingers at and slandering human rights situations in over 190 countries, while blindly ignoring its own serious human rights problems.”
“If one takes a glimpse into the human rights situation of the United States in 2018, it will not be difficult to find that the United States government, a self-styled ‘human rights defender,’ has a human rights record which is (deeply) flawed…(T)he double standards of human rights it pursues are obvious.”

Examples are numerous, including far greater gun violence per capita in America than other developed nation, tens of thousands instances annually, affecting men, women, and children.
“Religious intolerance remarks were on the rise,” notably affecting Muslims, falsely claiming they’re “inherently violent or pose an imminent threat” – Trump and other right-wing extremists proliferators of the Big Lie.
They’ve “called for Muslims to be denied basic rights or declared that Islam is not a religion.”
Big Brother Internet surveillance in the US is a major issue, along with “warrantless wiretapping…vacuuming up emails, Facebook messages, Google chats, Skype calls, and the like.”
Big money controls US elections. “The total cost of the 2018 mid-term elections was $5.2 billion,” 35% more than in 2014 in nominal dollars, “making them by far the most expensive mid-term elections on record. The US government is representing the super rich” exclusively at the expense of most others.
Among Western countries, the US has the greatest income inequality. Its super-rich never had things better. The vast majority in the nation struggle to get by, most earning poverty or near-poverty wages with few or no benefits.
The “land of the free and home of the brave” is pure fantasy. So is “America the beautiful” – except for its privilege few.
America’s top 1% owns nearly 40% of the nation’s wealth, the disparity becoming greater annually. “Nearly half of the American households live in financial difficulties, and 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty.”
Hate crimes are at a record high – 7,175 reported by the FBI, 17% more than in 2017, Black Americans harmed most of all, their overall status deplorable.
“The median white family has about 10 times as much wealth as the median black family. African Americans are 2.5 times as likely to be in poverty as whites, about twice as likely to be in unemployment as whites, and more than 6 times as likely as whites to be incarcerated.”
“The infant mortality rate is 1.3 times higher for African Americans, whose average life expectancy is about 3.5 years shorter than whites.”
Countless numbers of school shootings occur annually – 94 last year, killing or wounding 163 people, the worst year on record for these incidents.
“Women are living in fear of sexual harassment and sexual assaults. A survey found that 81 percent of women interviewed had experienced some form of sexual harassment, and 27 percent said they had been sexually assaulted.”
Trump racist immigration policy separated at least 2,000 unwanted alien children from parents, traumatizing many, instances of sexually abused alien juveniles reported.
The Trump regime withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran, the INF Treaty with Russia, UN Human Rights Council, the Paris Climate Agreement and UNESCO. It illegally moved its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, a UN recognized international city.
It cut or eliminated aid to Palestinians, especially its millions of refugees. It maintains a global gulag of torture prisons, Guantanamo the tip of the iceberg, most in them held indefinitely for political reasons.
Numerous cases of violent crime, gun crimes, abuse of power by police, and press freedom abuses were reported.
According to the FBI, there were an “estimated 1,247,321 violent crimes, including 17,284 incidents of murder, 135,755 rapes, 810,825 aggravated assaults, as well as 319,356 robberies.”
“Among the cases, 72.6 percent of murders, 40.6 percent of robberies, and 26.3 percent of aggravated assaults were committed with firearms.”
Press freedom in America deteriorated further, including “journalists attacked, searched, arrested, intercepted at borders, and restricted from publishing public information.”
Special UN rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston published a report, explaining that wealthy Americans get preferential judicial treatment, ordinary Americans charged with offenses treated much differently.
Washington is corporate occupied territory, money power running the country, House and Senate members serving their interests exclusively, ordinary people exploited and otherwise abused.
Poverty is America’s leading growth industry. Around half the nation’s households are financially stressed. Low-income ones lack proper health insurance. They’re either uninsured or way underinsured, unprotected in case of serious illnesses or injuries.
Homelessness and hunger get scant attention. The world’s richest country increasingly ignores the needs of its most disadvantaged citizens and residents.
“Systematic racial discrimination has long existed in the United States. Ethnic minorities faced restrictions in exercising their voting rights. The law enforcement and judicial departments made no progress in reducing racial discrimination.”
“Racial discrimination causes health disparities. When looking at the 10 leading causes of death in the United States, including cancer, stroke and heart disease, mortality rates among black Americans were higher than among white Americans. Compelling evidence suggests both individual- and institutional-level discrimination causes this disparity.”
Women face discrimination, on average earning 80% as much as men with similar skills for similar work. Polls show nearly half of women dissatisfied with their position in US society, treated unequally compared to men.
UN special rapporteurs on human rights, international solidarity, the right of everyone to be treated equitably, the right to non-discrimination, against racism, torture, and other inhuman treatment criticized the way America treats refugees and asylum seekers.
“The United States shirked international responsibilities, carried out the unilateralist America First policies unscrupulously, repeatedly withdrew from international organizations, bullied the weak, and caused human rights disasters in its overseas military operations, and became a ‘trouble maker’ that the international community widely condemned.”
Endless US wars rage, nations attacked for refusing to subordinate their sovereignty to US interests, no end of them in prospect, new ones in the wings to be waged.
The US is the world’s leading human rights abuser on a global scale, including at home against its poor, people of color, unwanted aliens, Muslims from the wrong countries, and anyone against its rage to rule the world unchallenged.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

We’ll Be So Much Better Without Them

We’ll Be So Much Better Without Them



There are millions of people – a majority in many places – who believe in a liberty philosophy: That the golden rule is the right way for humans to interact, that centralization is a problem, that leaving markets alone is better than rigging them, and so on. But there is a problem: Rather than pushing forward into action, most of these well-intentioned people limp along in uncertainty.

There are many explanations for this, of course, but the root is probably a fear that rulers have some kind of magic. We fear that without them we’d crash and burn. After all, we’ve been trained in precisely that for a hundred generations. Rationally we know it isn’t true, but emotionally we’re not entirely convinced.

So today I’d like to make an important point: That we’ll be better off – massively better off – without them. The nagging fear that we’re missing something is simply false. The better we get away from rulership, the better off we’ll be.

The Numbers
I like crunching the numbers on these things because the failure of rulership is hidden in plain sight, little recognized. Digging into numbers the rulers themselves publish can help break through the blockage.

And so…

In the US, the social safety net costs at least 2.5 trillion dollars per year. If you add up the federal programs ($717 billion back in 2010 and more now), the state programs ($210 billion in 2010), Medicare and Social Security ($1.3 trillion) and perhaps a few smaller items, it comes to that.

Now, here’s what you should know: That annual spending equates to 7 million new houses, plus feeding 100 million families, plus providing health care for 100 million families. The second year we could build another 7 million houses as well as feeding and doctoring almost everyone in the country… again.

If you have a nagging feeling that these numbers can’t be right, please find them and run them for yourself, it’s not that hard to do and it’s likely to help you a great deal.

Now, let’s look at the “keep us safe” expenses.

The US military budget is $686 billion per year. The US intelligence budget is close to $80 billion (but probably more). So, we’ll call it $766 billion.

Given 247 million adults and 127 million households in the US, with $766 billion we could give each adult a .30-06 rifle with scope and gear, 1000 rounds of ammunition, training and a bulletproof vest. On top of that we can add a mortar launcher, a case of 12 shells, training, and a sighting scope for each family… the first year.

The second year we could provide a Stinger missile system to every 12th family. The third year we could give a tank and training to each grouping of 100,000 people. The fourth year, I don’t know… what else do we need?

Again, please run the numbers yourself. Maybe your numbers won’t agree with mine. I used more of a national average on house prices for example, which may be lower than you’re used to. Do it your way and see how it comes out. Maybe you’ll only come up with money enough for 4 million free houses per year. But if so, please remember, that’s four million free houses per year! (Plus food and doctors!)

And bear in mind that none of the numbers above include police departments.

What This Means
What this means is that our superstitions are very expensive, and that they’re holding us down financially. Badly.

It is clear… glaringly obvious… that what the rulers “do for us” (with our own money) is being done horribly. I once wrote a line about governments sending our wealth down the twin sewers of welfare and warfare, and I still think it was well said. None of us who has run a business or a household could survive operating so incredibly stupidly.

Once we see this, and accept that it’s really true, we see that liberation from rulership is not just a liberty issue, it’s a legitimate financial issue, and a big one[1].

So, for an increasing list of reasons, it behooves us to start building our better world, laying aside the fear that we’re somehow missing some crucial ability. We aren’t, and that feeling is merely an old superstition.

To act positively is to expand life. To remain frozen in place is to paralyze life. Pick a spot and start acting.


 FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

The Making of a Monster:

The Making of a Monster: 

We’re All Lab Rats in the 

Government’s Secret Experiments


Requiem For The American Dream

 Requiem For The American Dream
By Noam Chomsky
Watch 

Noam Chomsky describes the systems that have led to financial inequality, and the current concentration of wealth and power.
Chomsky argues there are 10 principles which lead to the concentration of wealth and power:

Reduce Democracy
Shape Ideology
Redesign the Economy
Shift the Burden
Attack Solidarity
Run the Regulators
Engineer Elections
Keep the Rabble in Line
Manufacture Consent
Marginalize the Population
Posted March 26, 2019

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

How Much Israel Is Spending to Buy Washington Politicians

How Much Israel Is Spending to Buy Washington Politicians
Israel's Influence in Washington - 2019 Edition


Thanks to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics and its Open Secrets website, those of us on the outside, get a glimpse of how the "wheels" of Washington are "greased".  Open Secrets provides an up-to-date database of the role that money plays in politics through lobbying and campaign donations.  In this posting, I want to take a look at one of Washington's more influential parties, the nation of Israel. 
We will open this posting with an examination of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.  Here is a summary of the pro-Israel lobby from Open Secrets:
"One of, if not the most, powerful international issue lobby is that of the pro-Israel crowd. Well-financed and politically powerful, the pro-Israel lobby is a major force on American foreign affairs that looks to continue America's military and fiscal support of the Jewish nation-state."
Here is a graphic showing how much the pro-Israel lobby has spent on convincing Washington to see things its way going back to 1998:
The pro-Israel lobby spent a record $5.02 million in 2018, up slightly from $4.96 million in 2017 but up substantially from $1.71 million a decade earlier in 2007.
Here are the biggest pro-Israel lobbying organizations in order of the amount spent on lobbying:
 
American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC is, by a wide margin, the biggest spender on lobbying, accounting for 70.1 percent of the total spent by all pro-Israel lobbyists.Of the 26 reported lobbyists working for 9 clients, there are 6 "revolvers" as shown here:
 
Open Secrets defines "revolvers" as former federal government workers who now work as lobbyists, consultants and strategists.  These people have access to the key players and key decision makers in Washington that Main Street America can only dream of.Now, let's look at the pro-Israel campaign contributions.  Here is a summary of the top contributors during the 2018 midterm elections:
 
Here is a table showing the pro-Israel campaign contributions going back to the 1990 election cycle:
 
Here is the same data in graphic form:
 

 
 
You will note that among all groups donating to politicians running for office in Washington that the pro-Israel lobby is ranked between 24th place overall (in 1990) to 60th place in 2000 and, in 2018 was ranked in 50th place.  The 2018 midterm election saw the pro-Israel lobby donate a record amount of money to a midterm cycle with donations totalling $14.9 million compared to $12.1 million during the 2014 midterm election.  In addition, the pro-Israel lobby seems to prefer candidates running for the Democrats; over the nearly three decades, the pro-Israel lobby has donated 60 percent or $85.365 million to the Democrats compared to 40 percent or $54.308 million to the Republicans.Here is a graphic summarizing the political donations from the pro-Israel lobby during the 2018 midterm cycle for both political parties in the House and the Senate:
 
Here are the top 20 recipients of pro-Israel lobby during the 2018 midterm cycle:
 

 
Here are the top 20 recipients who are Members of the House:
 
Here are the top 20 recipients who are Senators:
 
 
I believe that is enough to absorb for this posting.  According to the Pew Research Centre, here is a breakdown of religious affiliation in the United States from its Religious Landscape Study:
 

Given that not all Jews and Evangelical Christians support Israel's agenda, it is interesting to see how less than one-quarter of Americans are driving Washington's pro-Israel agenda and its accompanying narrative.  This suggests the extreme power that the pro-Israel lobby exerts in the nation's capital.  Given all of this data, it is most important to keep in mind that taking an anti-Israel/anti-Netanyahu stance does not mean that one is anti-Semitic or that one doesn't believe that Israel has a right to exist, it simply means that there is not universal approval of Israel's actions in the Middle East and its ability to sway governments to see things its way by spending millions on lobbying and influence American elections through donations to its preferred candidates.This article was originally published by "Viable Opposition" -