Tue Jun 18 2013

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National Issues : Recent Articles

Are we being trolled by the NSA?
by Gerry Bello
The Guardian’s recent revelations concerning the intelligence community collecting cell phone call and location data from every single American, as well as the massive cataloging of social media interactions has jump-started a new national dialogue on privacy. This new social dialogue has not yet begun to include questions about the intelligence community speaking secretly rather than listening secretly. The public may be only just beginning to understand how the intelligence community can and does intervene anonymously in national politics.
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Three things young people should know to save the world
by David Swanson
Of course, old people should know these things too, and some small percentage does know them, but energy seems better invested in trying to teach them to young people who have less to unlearn in the process.
1. Obedience is extremely dangerous.
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For All Children Everywhere
by Robert C. Koehler
We can end war.
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Through the looking (Google) glass
by Gerry Bello
Mere hours after the revelation by the Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian.uk that Verizon had been handing over data on all its domestic subscribers to secret state police forces in the United States, an even more chilling story on domestic spying was broken. Mirroring the long term coordination between Bletchly Park and Fort Meade, the Washington Post and the Guardian released another story about domestic spying complete with classified documents confirming its existence.
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Bradley Manning Is Guilty of “Aiding the Enemy” -- If the Enemy Is Democracy
by Norman Solomon
Of all the charges against Bradley Manning, the most pernicious -- and revealing -- is "aiding the enemy."
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The Lever of Social Action
by Robert C. Koehler
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
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Hacktivist faces 10 years in plea agreement for exposing corporate spying on human rights activists
by Gerry Bello
Hackivist Jeremy Hammond accepted a non-cooperating plea agreement Thursday, May 30 in the Stratfor case which could land him in prison for 10 years. Hammond was arrested in March 2012 for his role in the LulzSec hacking attacks on private security and public safety servers.
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State Crimes against Democracy? Or a "Conspiracy Theory"?
by Pete Johnson
Recent events at Sandy Hook, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Oklahoma tornado have brought forth some outlandish conspiracy theories. Alex Jones called the Boston bombings a "false flag" operation without offering a motive beyond the general motive of pushing America farther down the road of "fascism". Jones again weighed in on the Oklahoma tornado , claiming it was an exercise in weather control. Even more outlandish were the people, including Alex Jones, who believed that Sandy Hook never happened , that it was a staged event which would then allow the government to take your guns away.
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Recovery? Not for the common people
by Rev. Jesse Jackson
Without vision, the Bible teaches, the people perish. And in Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Newark and cities across the country, the people are perishing.
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Our Twisted Politics of Grief
by Norman Solomon
Darwin observed that conscience is what most distinguishes humans from other animals. If so, grief isn’t far behind. Realms of anguish are deeply personal -- yet prone to expropriation for public use, especially in this era of media hyper-spin. Narratives often thresh personal sorrow into political hay. More than ever, with grief marketed as a civic commodity, the personal is the politicized.
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