‘Mozilla recently announced their intent to deprecate the insecure HTTP protocol in Firefox in favor of HTTPS (https://). In practice, they plan to do this by gradually removing the ability for HTTP websites to use various web features. They’re joined by the Chrome security team, who declared something similar in December…’
via We're Deprecating HTTP And It's Going To Be Okay.
Author: jd
Goodbye LieberLand #StupidLibertarians
perhaps he can use his bitcoins to bail himself out?
#StupidLibertarians
On Saturday, less than a month after Czech activist Vit Jedlicka declared himself president of a patch of land between Serbia and Croatia, and named it Lieberland, he was shortly detained by Croatian border police. Police from Serbia and Croatia have tried to prevent several people entering Lieberland.
Croatian police arrest ‘president’ of Lieberland
Libertarian Paradise 4EVAR…
American ‘Democracy’ is a Big Business, and a scam
also watch the video below from Iowa in 2012
‘…in 2008, something truly remarkable happened. Greasy little snake-oil salesmen like Mike Huckabee realized that if you run for president on a platform of fetuses and Jesus, you can make so much money that you’ll have to buy wheelbarrows to carry it all away. It doesn’t matter if you’re facing certain defeat; quack the proper crap, and the segment of the population who thinks dinosaurs never existed because they aren’t mentioned in the Bible will vacuum up quarters from between the couch cushions and send them to you. Combined with the vast cash coming in from the big-money donors, it’s better than winning the lottery.
In 2008, the Republicans had some fairly heavyweight contenders. Romney, Giuliani … but Mike Huckabee stayed in the race, and stayed in the race, and stayed in the race even though he knew the exercise was a fool’s errand. In primary after primary, he pulled 25 percent of the vote, slicing the hamstrings of the major candidates by sucking up the votes from the no-dinosaurs-because-Jesus people, until he eventually ran the other contenders off the road, and John McCain won the nomination by default … and then picked Sarah Palin as a running mate, and the rest is sadly hilarious history.
Huck ain’t care. He got paid deep, and is a trend-setter in his own fashion. The phenomenon took root in 2012, and has quite simply exploded on the eve of the 2016 race….’
via William Rivers Pitt | How to Run for President for Fun and Profit: 2016 Edition.
from January 2008:
‘Kathy Kelly and Chicago based Voices for Creative Non Violence, along with Des Moines based Catholic Peace Ministrys staged a non violent Peace action at the campaign office of Presidential candidate Mike Huckerby. The peace activists are ask all candidates to agree to end the war in Iraq among other peaceful actions, if elected to the office of president. Some folks were arrest in the action.’
In one paragraph: Why the SNP won in the 2015 UK elections
‘…The swing to the SNP is political pragmatism at its best – the Scots electorate – a politically savvy bunch at the best of times – are simply ensuring they have the best representation at Westminster you can possibly have; a bloc that will fight to get what they were promised [by the Conservatives, Labour and LibDems] at the referendum…’
via The UK is now a failed state – Al Jazeera English.
The history of Hillary’s love of Bankers
Hillary Clinton is, of course, not her husband. But her access to his past banker alliances, amplified by the ones that she has formed herself, makes her more of a friend than an adversary to the banking industry. In her brief 2008 candidacy, all four of the New York-based Big Six banks ranked among her top 10 corporate donors. They have also contributed to the Clinton Foundation. She needs them to win, just as both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton did.
No matter what spin is used for campaigning purposes, the idea that a critical distance can be maintained between the White House and Wall Street is naïve given the multiple channels of money and favors that flow between the two. It is even more improbable, given the history of connections that Hillary Clinton has established through her associations with key bank leaders in the early 1990s, during her time as a senator from New York, and given their contributions to the Clinton foundation while she was secretary of state. At some level, the situation couldn’t be less complicated: her path aligns with that of the country’s most powerful bankers. If she becomes president, that will remain the case.
via ;The Clintons and Their Banker Friends, 1992-2016 – Truthdig.
Representative Parliamentary ‘Democracy is a religion that has failed the poor’
Giles Fraser writes about this week’s UK election:
‘…What difference did my vote make? Why indeed do people vote, and care so passionately about voting, particularly in constituencies in which voting one way or the other won’t make a blind bit of difference? And why do the poor vote when, by voting, they merely give legitimacy to a system that connives with their oppression and alienation? The anthropologist Mukulika Banerjee suggests a fascinating answer: elections are like religious rituals, often devoid of rational purpose or efficacy for the individual participant, but full of symbolic meaning. They are the nearest thing the secular has to the sacred, presenting a moment of empowerment.But is this empowerment illusory? Is, as Banerjee asks, “the ability to vote … a necessary safety valve which allows for the airing of popular disaffection, but which nevertheless ultimately restores the status quo. In such a reading, elections require the complicity of all participants in a deliberate mis-recognition of the emptiness of its procedures and the lack of any significant changes which this ritual brings about, but are a necessary charade to mollify a restless electorate.”…’
via Democracy is a religion that has failed the poor | Giles Fraser | Comment is free | The Guardian.
Chelsea Manning, Political Prisoner and American Citizen
…I believe that when the public lacks even the most fundamental access to what its governments and militaries are doing in their names, then they cease to be involved in the act of citizenship. There is a bright distinction between citizens, who have rights and privileges protected by the state, and subjects, who are under the complete control and authority of the state…
via We're citizens, not subjects. We have the right to criticize government without fear | Chelsea E Manning | Comment is free | The Guardian.
the next Abu Ghraib that is NOW
‘…Buried in a recent New York Times article about Iraq’s liberation of Tikrit from ISIS is this startling fact: The Iraqi militias battling ISIS took no prisoners of war. That was despite a fierce series of battles taking place in a dense urban area, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of casualties.To take zero prisoners during a major military operation probably means only one thing: Iranian-backed militias executed every single ISIS fighter they found under any and all circumstances. One spokesperson for the Badr brigade copped to as much. He said, “To be honest, everywhere we captured them we killed them because they were the enemy.”Another battalion commander said his troops caught three Afghan men, an Algerian man, and an Afghan woman, during the fight. And, as he noted, “After we were done with them, we killed them.”…’
via Defeating ISIS through atrocities is destined to fail: Why a war without mercy is bad for Iraq and Iran..
How Glenn Greenwald explains Baltimore to Brazil
Elias Isquith: You’re in Brazil; what has the unrest in Baltimore looked like from outside the U.S.?
Glenn Greenwald: I think that sometimes it’s hard for people who are Americans and living in the United States to appreciate the vast gap between how they’re taught to think about America and how the rest of the world perceives America. This has probably been one of the most eye-opening things for me from living outside the United States now for as long as I have, which is an appreciation of just how viscerally the rest of the world sees that discrepancy. Obviously there’s polling that shows that if you ask people around the world who the greatest threat to world peace is, overwhelmingly they’ll say the United States, which most Americans find bizarre, to the extent that they’re aware of it at all.
The perception that America has a radical problem with race and that it has become an extremely abusive penal state are very widespread in the rest of the world — or at least lots of parts of the rest of the world — and it’s also quite accurate. Just from my own experience, when I talk to people in Brazil about things like Ferguson or Baltimore, there’s not a surprise or bewilderment; it’s sort of a confirmation of the fact that America has a serious problem with racism and that police abuse and this abusive penal state seems to be getting worse.
via “It’s pure authoritarianism”: Glenn Greenwald exposes the link between Baltimore’s uprising and the NSA – Salon.com.
Noam Chomsky speaking to Chris Hedges about America today…
Noam Chomsky speaking to Chris Hedges about America today…
“I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Chomsky added. “I am old enough to remember the 1930s. My whole family was unemployed. There were far more desperate conditions than today. But it was hopeful. People had hope. The CIO was organizing. No one wants to say it anymore but the Communist Party was the spearhead for labor and civil rights organizing. Even things like giving my unemployed seamstress aunt a week in the country. It was a life. There is nothing like that now. The mood of the country is frightening. The level of anger, frustration and hatred of institutions is not organized in a constructive way. It is going off into self-destructive fantasies.”
“I listen to talk radio,” Chomsky said. “I don’t want to hear Rush Limbaugh. I want to hear the people calling in. They are like [suicide pilot] Joe Stack. What is happening to me? I have done all the right things. I am a God-fearing Christian. I work hard for my family. I have a gun. I believe in the values of the country and my life is collapsing.”
via Chris Hedges: Noam Chomsky Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’ – Chris Hedges – Truthdig.
America’s Middle East Imperial Meltdown
I think one of the biggest mistakes people make in analyzing US foreign policy is assuming they actually know what they are doing – they in the Pentagon, they in the CIA, they in the White House, and so on. If anything has been proved since September 11, 2001 is that they are fucking clueless. Usually ‘policy’ from Washington is just a new reaction to something that happened to another reaction in the Middle and Near East that went not according to plan.
Of course, the imperialists have their goals and plans, but this does not mean they really have a clue how to be successful.
/jd
from the Editors of Against the Current,April 23, 2015
‘…In short, the fading Obama presidency has been drawn–and has dragged the country–into quagmires from which it had promised to escape. The Obama legacy will include the militarization of the U.S. border and urban police forces (greatly assisted by Israeli expertise in these methods), institutionalized legitimacy of drone warfare and assassinations, massive security oversight of the population, and permanent states of war, much of them half-hidden, from Pakistan to North Africa. The presidency that was supposed to clean up the mess that George W. Bush made has mostly served to confirm what the left has known but is sometimes tempted to forget: there is hardly any situation so appalling, so destructive, so catastrophic in human and political terms that “our own” imperialist government can’t find a way to make it worse…’
via Middle East Imperial Meltdown | Solidarity.
Video » Noam Chomsky explains why America is always on top
Noam Chomsky discusses American White Supremacy, US imperialism and why North America and Europe are always on the top of a map, and not at the bottom…. [2 mins]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGHpWST7l9I
Who was the woman that threw confetti at Mario Draghi?
So it seems that the confetti terrorist that attacked the European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi is a one-woman splinter group of Femen.
At last!, Femen does something worthwhile!
‘…She had no need for violence at Wednesday’s ECB protest.“I got in like anybody else – there’s this airport control thing, but I didn’t carry any weapons except for confetti in my bag” [….] “The confetti attack was not a Femen protest – I’m sorry ladies. I consider myself a freelance-activist”, she wrote, accompanied by the hashtag #exfemen, indicating she’s no longer part of the group….’
via Who is the woman that threw confetti on Draghi?.
Cuba not a Terrorist State anymore, but Venezuela is a now a threat?
It seems that in Obama’s last moments as a ‘lame duck’ president he is doing things which should have been done decades ago.
But, is it wrong to also criticise him for NOTdoing these things during his first 6 years as president??
‘…And after a careful review of Cuba’s record, which was informed by the intelligence community as well as insurance – excuse me – assurances provided by the Cuban Government, the Secretary of State concluded that Cuba met the conditions for rescinding its designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and forwarded that recommendation – the Secretary of State forwarded that recommendation to the President last week and recommended he submit to Congress the statutorily required report and certification. Today, this afternoon, the President submitted to Congress that required report and certification indicating the Administration’s intent to rescind Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism….’
via Background Briefing on the Report Required To Rescind Cuba's State Sponsor of Terrorism Status.
But, Obama reassured the Military-Industrial Complex and endless war establishment by declaring Venezuela a national security threat to the United States of America. #wtf
‘…US President Barack Obama has issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat, and placed sanctions on seven officials….’
via Al Jazeera English
video from Venezuela’s TeleSur english language TV channel
Europe » The Big Mac, The Royale with Cheese and, today, the Grand Big Mac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS_ROi0iiZw
USA Is ‘World Leader’ in Child Poverty
‘..America’s wealth grew by 60 percent in the past six years, by over $30 trillion. In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children has also grown by 60 percent.
Financier and CEO Peter Schiff said, "People don’t go hungry in a capitalist economy." The 16 million kids on food stamps know what it’s like to go hungry. Perhaps, some in Congress would say, those children should be working…’
Nearly half of all food stamp recipients are children, and they averaged about $5 a day for their meals before the 2014 farm bill cut $8.6 billion (over the next ten years) from the food stamp program.
In 2007 about 12 of every 100 kids were on food stamps. Today it’s 20 of every 100. For Every 2 Homeless Children in 2006, There Are Now 3
via The Numbers Are Staggering: U.S. Is 'World Leader' in Child Poverty | Alternet.
Mario Draghi Attacked by Protester at ECB Press Conference
‘April 15 — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was attacked by a protester yelling “end the ECB dictatorship” during a press conference today. The event resumed a few minutes later.’
UPDATE: Who was the woman that threw confetti at Mario Draghi?
http://redjade.noblogs.org/20150416/990
Ten times the amount of US Gov’t informants since J. Edgar’s day
‘…Torres isn’t an all-American guy. He’s an FBI informant, one of more than 15,000 domestic spies who make up the largest surveillance network ever created in the United States. During J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO operations, the bureau had just 1,500 informants. The drug war brought that number up to about 6,000. After 9/11, the bureau recruited so many new informants — many of them crooks and convicts, desperate for money or leniency on previous crimes — that the government had to develop software to help agents track their spies….’
via The FBI Informant Who Mounted a Sting Operation Against the FBI – The Intercept.
Bonzo Goes To Washington (we begin bombing in 5 minutes)
re: this song…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Minutes_(Bonzo_Goes_to_Washington_song)
https://youtu.be/h3CUHnUsk8M?t=10s
Hillary vs Bernie, or what a socialist looks like and what a corporate ***** [employee] looks like
Killer Robots = Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)
Yes, we have reached the evolutionary level of humanity’s history where civilization will be measured by how we control our killer robots. And again, the role of Mini-Me is played by the UK for the USA — imagine the outrage if Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama openly opposed this proposal? And, there should be a special war crime tribunal for the Pentagon freaks who come up with newspeak acronyms like this!…
‘…The UK is opposing an international ban on so-called “killer robots” at a United Nations conference that is this week examining future developments of what are officially termed Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (Laws).
[….] The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an alliance of human rights groups and concerned scientists, is calling for an international prohibition on fully autonomous weapons.
Last week Human Rights Watch released a report urging the creation of a new protocol specifically aimed at outlawing Laws….’
via UK opposes international ban on developing 'killer robots' | Politics | The Guardian.
Think of it as $153 billion a year in government subsidies to American Corporations
‘The majority of American families on public assistance or Medicaid are headed by at least one full-time worker, according to a report released Monday by U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education.
Researchers who analyzed annual state and federal spending on public assistance programs — including food stamps, Medicaid, Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — found that more than 56 percent of that funding goes to working families.
In other words, employers, such fast-food restaurants, are paying their employees so little that they must rely on government assistance to make ends meet. In total, these employees seek an estimated $153 billion in public assistance each year, according to the report (PDF)….’
via Most Public Assistance Goes to Working Families | Al Jazeera America.
152 Innocent Americans marked for death by the state – NYTimes.com
a New York Times Editorial…
‘However much Americans may disagree about the morality of capital punishment, no one wants to see an innocent person executed.
And yet, far too often, people end up on death row after being convicted of horrific crimes they did not commit. The lucky ones are exonerated while they are still alive — a macabre club that has grown to include 152 members since 1973….’
via 152 Innocents, Marked for Death – NYTimes.com.
The world of threats to the US is an illusion, by Stephen Kinzer
Stephen Kinzer writes:
‘…When Americans look out at the world, we see a swarm of threats. China seems resurgent and ambitious. Russia is aggressive. Iran menaces our allies. Middle East nations we once relied on are collapsing in flames. Latin American leaders sound steadily more anti-Yankee. Terror groups capture territory and commit horrific atrocities. We fight Ebola with one hand while fending off Central American children with the other.
In fact, this world of threats is an illusion. The United States has no potent enemies. We are not only safe, but safer than any big power has been in all of modern history.
Geography is our greatest protector. Wide oceans separate us from potential aggressors. Our vast homeland is rich and productive. No other power on earth is blessed with this security.
[….] I recently asked a United States Navy officer what threats he believed the United States might confront in the future. To my astonishment, he answered, “Venezuela.” The South American country is in political crisis and careening toward bankruptcy. Its combat navy counts six frigates and two submarines, none of them seaworthy. Yet last month President Obama designated Venezuela an “extraordinary threat to US national security.” The search for enemies can lead to odd places….’
via The world of threats to the US is an illusion – Opinion – The Boston Globe.
When Julian Assange tried to call Hillary Clinton
‘I decided it was necessary to bring forward our publication schedule by four months and contact the State Department to get it on record that we had given them advance warning. The situation would then be harder to spin into another legal or political assault. Unable to raise Louis Susman, then US ambassador to the UK, we tried the front door. WikiLeaks investigations editor Sarah Harrison called the State Department front desk and informed the operator that “Julian Assange” wanted to have a conversation with Hillary Clinton. Predictably, this statement was initially greeted with bureaucratic disbelief. We soon found ourselves in a reenactment of that scene in Dr. Strangelove, where Peter Sellers cold-calls the White House to warn of an impending nuclear war and is immediately put on hold. As in the film, we climbed the hierarchy, speaking to incrementally more superior officials until we reached Clinton’s senior legal advisor. He told us he would call us back. We hung up, and waited….’
via Julian Assange – Google Is Not What It Seems.