thenatureofmind

Washington and the Corporate Media Are in Full Propaganda Mode on Ukraine

The lies, propaganda and rank hypocrisy emanating from Washington, and echoed by the US corporate media regarding events in Ukraine are stunning and would be laughable, but for the fact that they appear to be aimed at conditioning the US public for increasing confrontation with Russia – confrontation which could easily tip over the edge into direct military conflict, with consequences that are too dreadful to contemplate.

It would be beyond ironic if, a quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of nearly half a century of Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction, during all of which time US and Russian soldiers never fought against each other, we now ended up with soldiers from our two countries actually doing battle with each other, instead of just fighting proxy wars.

Washington and the Corporate Media Are in Full Propaganda Mode on Ukraine | NationofChange.

U.S. No Longer A Democracy, Says New Princeton Study

According to a new Princeton study, the U.S. can no longer be strictly called a democracy, as ordinary citizens have effectively lost their say over public policy. Instead, the U.S. more precisely resembles an oligarchy, or a form of government in which the economic elite — less than 1 percent of the population — has control over most of the policymaking decisions.

The study, conducted by Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University, will be published this fall in the journal Perspectives on Politics. Their conclusions, though unsurprising, are nevertheless chilling and raise some serious questions about the direction our country is headed in.

U.S. No Longer A Democracy, Says New Princeton Study | DemoNews.org.

Kangaroo Court Alert: Covert inquiry by FBI rattles 9/11 tribunals

Two weeks ago, a pair of FBI agents appeared unannounced at the door of a member of the defence team for one of the men accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As a contractor working with the defence team at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the man was bound by the same confidentiality rules as a lawyer. But the agents wanted to talk.

They asked questions, lawyers say, about the legal teams for Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other accused terrorists who will eventually stand trial before a military tribunal at Guantánamo. Before they left, the agents asked the contractor to sign an agreement promising not to tell anyone about the conversation.

Covert inquiry by FBI rattles 9/11 tribunals | Business Standard.

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to find Google alarming

Its colossal power has worrying implications not only for the health of Europe's digital economy, but for the individual freedom of citizens

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to find Google alarming| theguardian.com.

Bill Moyers on America’s Mad Dash Toward Oligarchy

In the One-sided Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, It's Hard to Get The Whole Story

While most courts in the United States are adversarial—each party presents its side and a jury, or occasionally a judge, makes a decision—in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), only the government presents its case to a judge. While typically two opposing sides work under public review to make sure all the facts are brought to light, in the FISC the system relies on a heightened duty of candor for the government. As is illustrated all too well by recent developments in our First Unitarian v. NSA case, this one-sided court system is fundamentally unfair.

In the One-sided Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, It's Hard to Get The Whole Story | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The mentality of J Edgar Hoover’s FBI undergirds today’s surveillance state

The new documentary 1971, about the formerly anonymous FBI burglars who exposed the crimes of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, debuted to a rapt audience at the Tribecca film festival last night. As the filmmakers noted in an interview with the AP, the parallels between Nixon-era FBI whistleblowers and Edward Snowden's NSA revelations are almost eerie in their similarity.

But while the NSA connection seems obvious, the movie will actually shed light on the domestic intelligence agency with far more power over ordinary Americans: the modern FBI.

Everyone seems to forget that the FBI is the NSA's primary partner in the latter's domestic spying operations and that, in fact, the NSA's job would be impossible without them. Whenever you see a company deny giving any data to the NSA remember: It's because it's not the NSA asking (or demanding) the information of them, it's the FBI. They use the same Patriot Act authorities that the NSA does, and yet we have almost no ideawhat they do with it.

The mentality of J Edgar Hoover’s FBI undergirds today’s surveillance state | theguardian.com.

Watch the Astounding Dexterity of Honda’s Dancing Humanoid Robot

How the Crazies in Washington are Ready to Start WWIII

Europe will now think twice before following Washington's orders - Ex-CIA Officer