thenatureofmind

CIA Drove Spike In Media Leak Investigation Requests Under Trump

New Data Obtained by The Intercept adds considerable detail to what we already know about former President Donald Trump’s relentless campaign against whistleblowers and leakers in the intelligence community. The Trump administration referred far more media leaks for criminal investigation each year than any of the previous 15 years, with the CIA accounting for the vast majority of such leaks, according to a trove of records released by the Department of Justice to the independent watchdog group Project On Government Oversight, or POGO, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

CIA Drove Spike in Media Leak Investigations Under Trump

Occupy 2.0

Occupy 2.0 Demands Worksheet

Please read, discuss, copy and pass along. Check those things you agree with, put an X beside those you don’t agree with. Write in those you want that are not here. Pass it on....

Government:

1. End the militarization of police. No military equipment or military type equipment to be used by police. No pepper spray, mace, rubber bullets, tear gas or ultra sound equipment to be used against citizens exercising their constitutional rights to redress grievances by the government. 
2. The complete restoration of the protections of the 1st amendment. The end of restrictions on protests and the end of harassment of protesters by police. Police have no role as to when and where people may exercise their 1st amendment rights.
3. End the direct hiring of returning soldiers from war zones into the police force. If a soldier is hired, require a minimum 2 year training period in which their understanding of police duties and how those duties differ from military duties are learned and their progress approved by their superiors.
4. All police budgets to be subject to the same constrains as schools, medical care and hospitals. When school budgets are cut, police budgets will be cut. 
5. The establishment of a citizens truth commission to allow citizens to bring forth their stories of mistreatment at the hands of the police and courts and lawyers to represent them to redress their grievances. 
6. The restoration of the protections of the 4th amendment with respect to illegal search and seizure. An end to searches of citizens or their effects without a court order.
7. An end to spying on US citizens. An end to tapping of phones and computer communications of US citizens. 
8. End the racially based “stop and frisk” in all its forms throughout the country, 
9. Repeal the Patriot Act.
10. The establishment of a basic universal income. 
11. End the foreign wars that are draining the economy
12. Close most of our foreign military bases
13. The restoration of the constitutional war making power to the congress. No war actions to be allowed without a congressional declaration of war. 
14. Cut the military budget in half
15. End the attacks on our unions by reinstating the Taft-Hartley Act.
16. Allow ALL citizens to form unions based on a simple majority vote. 
17. Prosecute union busting in all of its forms. 
18. Appoint a national commission to completely re-write the tax code, no politicians or corporate lobbyists allowed. Remove the industry written loopholes. Craft it to favor small businesses and not large businesses. 
19. Do everything that needs to be done to make starting and running a small business as easy as possible with special loan programs and mentorship programs specifically for small businesses. 
20. Re-instate and re-write the Glass-Steagall act to prevent bubbles in the economy and prevent recessions and depressions.
21. Close the CIA and appoint a special prosecutor with a large team of investigators to uncover the illegal actions of the CIA and prosecute the criminals. Prosecute all who violated the Geneva convention on torture. Document and prosecute all illegal activities of the CIA since it’s inception. The CIA now represents an illegal unrestricted 4th branch of government that is a threat to our freedoms. It was originally chartered to gather information. It has become an illegal army making war wherever and whenever it wants without the declaration of war by the congress. 
22. An end to torture, REALLY!
23. Close Guantanamo and give it back to the Cubans.
24. A constitutional amendment to ban unlimited campaign contributions.
25. A real congressional code of ethics preventing any Senator or Representative from voting on a measure affecting one of their campaign contributors.
26. Restoration of the equal time law that specifies that all broadcast media must provide free equal time for any partisan broadcasts.
27. Eliminate the so called “political debates” being run by for profit media organizations. Have them run by non political non-profit organizations. Allow all registered candidates to participate. 
28. The establishment of special government channel(s) like C-span for public political debate. ALL candidates would have free air time and would not be allowed to buy air time on the non-government channels thus eliminating the largest political campaign expenditure significantly reducing the need for large sums of money in politics.
29. Close the capital building to lobbyists. 
30. No lobbyist shall be eligible to run for elected office for 10 years after their last paycheck.
31. No congressperson or senator shall become a lobbyist for 10 years after leaving congress.
32. The acceptance of anything from a lobbyist, even a meal shall be grounds for expulsion from the congress.
33. No bill shall be presented to congress that is not written in the congress by paid congressional personnel. 
34. End the US government war against Julian Assange and Pvt. Bradley Manning. Reward the whistle blowers.
35. End the government secrecy policies and allow the citizens to know what is really going on in government. Publish the Warren Commission report. After 50 years we deserve to know the truth.
36. End the war on illegal immigrants. No person is illegal. 
37. An end to the economic blockade of Cuba.

Environment:

37. Craft environmental policy based on science and not on corporate propaganda
38. End all fossil fuel subsidies. 
39. Stop the Tar Sands project. The negative environmental consequences of this project will affect every man woman and child on this planet. It must stop
40. Ban fracking in the entire US. It is a dirty polluting technology. Concentrating any energy in this technology delays the finding of alternative energy sources.
41. Treat alternative energy the same way we undertook the space race and the national highway system. Give it top priority.
42. Allocate money and create jobs retrofitting the older buildings in the US to make them energy efficient. 
43. Tax cars based on size: the larger the car the higher the tax. Encourage the driving of smaller cars.
44. Tax gas to the same level as Europe so that people will buy smaller cars.
45. End strip mining

Economy:

46. Tax money earned through investment at the same tax rate as real labor. 
47. Restore the top tax rates to their levels in the 1950’s.
48. Our monetary system was devised over 100 years ago before the advent of computers. Create a national commission with the best of our economists and ordinary citizens (no politicians, no lobbyists) to address the problems and inequities in our monetary system. Eliminate the Fed or Federalize it.
49. Nationalize the Banks and create many local banks which will serve local communities. Too big to fail: too big to exist.
50. Allocate money and create jobs fixing the decaying infrastructure of the US
51. Allocate money and create jobs building a nationwide high speed train system.
52. Allocate money and create jobs building better local mass transit systems. Get people out of their cars.
53. Create a WPA type project to get people back to work rebuilding the decaying infrastructure and refurbishing our public parks and creating new green spaces.

Health Care:

54. Institute a single payer health care system guaranteeing health care for all. Decouple health care from employers. Free health care for all.
55. Examine drug company pricing and allow the selling of generic drugs when necessary to lower the cost of medicines.
56. Restore the patent system to its original time frames and not allow extensions.
57. Make the “drug problem” a health issue not a police issue. Set up centers where drug addicts can get the drugs they need at low cost and provide support services for health and for drug rehabilitation. Use Portugal’s program as a model.
58. Legalize non-addictive drugs: marijuana and psychedelics

Education:

59. Free education at all of our state universities and community colleges. Make a college education affordable to all students.
60. Free teachers’ education. Pay teachers what they should be paid. Make sure that our children are getting the best education possible.
61. The establishment of a special schools act that will use government money to address the inequality of education. All schools to be funded at the same level and that level to be determined by studying those schools of countries that have the highest standard of education. Use the lessons learned to determine curricula and to address the need of students to be able to have a marketable skill upon graduation. Forget testing, put the money where the students are.

Edward Snowden's Passport, Political Asylum and Related Issues News Conference March 25, 2014

How state secrecy protects government agencies from embarrassment, then and now

Often when the government wants to keep something secret, it claims that transparency would endanger national security. We’ve been hearing a lot of this lately in light of the new information about the FBI and NSA’s surveillance activities disclosed to the press by former contractor Edward Snowden. The leaks have caused “grave harm” to national security and even US foreign policy, Snowden’s critics repeat over and over again.

How state secrecy protects government agencies from embarrassment, then and now | Privacy SOS.

CIA and NSA Wrong Doing Requires Independent Investigation, Says Former Church Committee Staff

New studies: ‘Conspiracy theorists’ sane; government dupes crazy, hostile

Recent studies by psychologists and social scientists in the US and UK suggest that contrary to mainstream media stereotypes, those labeled “conspiracy theorists” appear to be saner than those who accept the official versions of contested events.

The most recent study was published on July 8th by psychologists Michael J. Wood and Karen M. Douglas of the University of Kent (UK). Entitled “What about Building 7? A social psychological study of online discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories,” the study compared “conspiracist” (pro-conspiracy theory) and “conventionalist” (anti-conspiracy) comments at news websites.

New studies: ‘Conspiracy theorists’ sane; government dupes crazy, hostile | Veterans Today.

Jailed whistle-blowers to Edward Snowden: Don't come home

Every day at 5:45 a.m., John Kiriakou wakes up. He pulls on green pants and a green button-down shirt with his name and number on the front. Breakfast is at 6. He watches the news from 6:30 to 7:30, then goes back to sleep. He wakes up again at 11 a.m. for lunch, after which he exercises until around 2:30 in the afternoon. Mail call is at 3:30. Dinner is at 5 p.m.

Kiriakou, a former CIA agent, is serving 30 months in prison. He emailed a freelance reporter the name of a covert CIA officer, violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The name was never published, but Kiriakou became one of eight people charged by the Department of Justice since 2008 for leaking classified information under the Espionage Act.

 Jailed whistle-blowers to Edward Snowden: Don't come home.

Snowden: Chemtrails in the Air Causing Cancer and Other Illness

This article is jaw dropping. Another Snowden revelation.

The reasons given by the government for the need for chemtrails are to control the weather and  for global warming. How does that stack up against getting sick with cancer, Alzheimer’s, etc?

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower on the NSA, has revealed some details. Chemtrails began in the 1960s as a major part of a secret lab called Muad’Dib with Monsanto very much involved.

He said the chemtrails were not difficult to hide because they were disguised in commercial aircrafts as additives and that the chemicals released are very dangerous, even in minute quantities. He further says, The most dangerous thing is that although chemtrails are keeping the climate of the U.S. reasonably stable, citizens are bombarded every day with an invisible rain of carbon-laden molecules, and the effect on health is totally unknown.

Chemtrails in the Air Causing Cancer and Other Illness.

Nikolas Kozloff: Chiquita (United Fruit Co.) from Arbenz 1954 to Zelaya 2009

This is a perfect example of why what journalist Glen Greenwald is doing is so important. The mainstream press in the United States ducked these stories. The people of the United States need to know the illegal activities that the US government hides under the veil of national security and state secrecy. This mechanism  is for the most part designed to hide the government's activities from US citizens and not our enemies. 

Nikolas Kozloff: Chiquita (United Fruit Co.) from Arbenz 1954 to Zelaya 2009

Obama Administration Excludes National Security Policies from Commitment to Transparency

A chief counselor for the White House’s Open Government Partnership spoke at a Sunshine Week event on Monday and declared, “President Obama understands our government’s obligation to serve the American people to the best of our ability. He has made clear that citizens deserve accountability, and the opportunity to participate in their government – and that this will make our government better.”

The statement from Lisa Ellman came during a week where the press, civil society organizations and United States citizens are celebrating open government and the public’s right to know. It stood in sharp contrast to what was outlined by human rights and counterterrorism investigator, United Nations Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson. In a recent report, he mentioned the US government has adopted an “unjustifiably broad interpretation of the state secrets privilege” in US courts. The CIA’s secret detention, rendition and torture program of the Bush-era CIA, according to the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) has adopted a concept of state secrets that “has often been invoked to obstruct the search for the truth.”

Obama Administration Excludes National Security Policies from Commitment to Transparency