US Domestic Protesters As Terrorists

Would be really interesting to know who ordered the production of this new video game, where protesters against the financial oligarchy are terrorists. Here is the setting:

"Years of political and economic frustration have finally hit a boiling point. Though the United States military has long trained for terrorism abroad, its greatest fear is about to be realized. Domestic terrorists finally have a leader and a voice, and they're ready to strike back at the sources of their anger, to take back that which they believe was stolen from them - their country. The rules of modern warfare are about to be thrown out the window as America's own cities become the battlegrounds of the future."

Note how perfect this scenario fits to the spirit of the 2 previous postings Dubious Militarization of US Local Police and The NDAA-Puzzle.

English/German Trailer:

German Spiegel reports: Occupy Wall Street: Computerspiel macht Banken-Kritiker zu Terroristen

Déjà Vu: Saleh in the US to Drink the Waters

Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's dictator since 1978, will visit his US friends - officially to have medical treatment. Any associations? Ah, yes, on 22 October 1979, at the request of David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger, President Jimmy Carter invited the notorious Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, to the US for a treatment, after he had been chased out by the Iranian people. (He had been in power there since 1941, so it somehow looks like that being a long time proconsul for the US may really pay off, provided you play by the rules.)

Do you remember Noam Chomsky on the Ongoing Arab Spring?

Dubious Militarization of US Local Police

In addition to the NDAA puzzle, here's another dubious step taken into a problematic future for US citizens: the militarization of the police. "More than ever before, local police across the U.S. have transformed into small army-like forces using billions in grants from the federal government" the Center for Investigative Reporting says. Drones are already in use on US soil. Here's an elaborate DemocracyNow! report:

The NDAA-Puzzle

On December 15, the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 has been approved by the US Senate. Since then, there were discussions about the question whether the new law allows indefinite detention of US citizens by the military (on US soil).
E.g. Senate votes to allow indefinite detention of Americans, Senator Bob Casey says the NDAA will NOT be used against the American people. Needless to say, this issue is crucial, alarming and should be monitored.

But even law academics seem to have problems in analyzing the law in order to give the text a definite meaning.

"We've Got All Sorts of Dark Arts"

One of this year's finest contributions of real journalism: When reporters from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (a sister paper of The Independent) posed as agents for the government of Uzbekistan – a notorious dictatorship allegedly responsible for killings, human rights violations and child labour – they caught on camara what the guys of PR agency Bell Pottinger Group plc told about their dark arts, e.g.

• exploiting their contacts to highest governmental officials to get into dialogue with foreign politicians;
• manipulating Google results to "drown" out negative coverage;
• using members of parliament known to be critical of investigative programs to attack their reporting for minor errors ...

An interesting development of monitoring the British lobbying machine followed since then, including revelations on the PR firm manipulating Wikipedia entries, now under investigation by Wikipedia's own staff.

Not much coverage in German speaking media on that, except "PR-Agentur brüstet sich mit Manipulation von Wikipedia und Google".

Probably the easiest way of manipulation politics in European countries is via EU staff and law makers, as the example of Ernst Strasser, ex-Federal Minister for the Interior of both conservative Schüssel-governments in Austria - has spectacularly shown:

Ernst Strasser taped red-handed

Best of Strasser

Strasser/EU-Lobbyism Persiflage

Following the Dark Prince of Militarism

Washington Post: Notorious private security contractor firm formerly known as Blackwater, intermediately known as Xe Services LLC, now changed its name to Academi. (see also Wikipedia entry)
The net is following the Dark Prince.

Occupy Wall Street auf Österreichisch

Occupy Wall Street auf Österreichisch, das heißt: 1 Grantler beschwert sich. Derzeit oft und gern gesehen in der Alpenrepublik: die Rede des Wutbürgers & Kabarettisten Roland Düringer.

Hier das dazugehörige Interview: "Hamsterrad: Das System ist am Ende"

EU testet Schmerzgrenze der Bürger

Die niederländische EU-Kommissarin für die Digitale Agenda, Neelie Kroes - selbst mit einem einigermaßen zweifelhaften Ruf belastet - schlägt einen in Deutschland amtsbekannten Plagiator als Berater vor, der für einen sog. US-think tank im Solde steht: Karl-Theodor von Guttenberg vom Center for Strategic and International Studies.
--> Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Former German Minister of Defense, Joins CSIS as Distinguished Statesman

Das kann doch nicht wahr sein!

update: die "No Disconnect Strategy" der EU

Madman Gingrich on Palestinians: An Invented People of Terrorists

US-Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich: "I believe that the Jewish people have the right to have a state, [...] Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, who are historically part of the Arab community [...] And they had a chance to go many places."

Can anyone see any logic in this? 

And later on:  "these people are terrorists. They teach terrorism in their schools. They have textbooks that say, if there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left? We pay for those textbooks through our aid money. It's fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, enough lying about the Middle East."

Keine Anhaltspunkte für Terror von rechts in Deutschland!

Who's Behind the Crushing of the Occupy Wall Street Movement?

Naomi Wolf in the Land of the Brave and the Free: The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

Fisk on Torturers

Why do torturers really like to film their misdeeds?

"And we must forget, of course, that other American pictures from Abu Ghraib, which Obama the Good has decided we must not see, show the rape of Iraqi women and boys."

"Help Solve an Open Murder Case"

It's certainly a good idea to ask the public for help if specialists (in this case cryptologists) can't get on with a solution to a problem.

On June 30, 1999, Ricky McCormick was found dead. He had been murdered and dumped in a field in Missouri. The only clues regarding this incident were two encrypted notes found with the victim. The FBI is asking the public for help (click here).

Also in science it is not unusual to ask for help: see Foldit - Solve Puzzles for Science. Only in the realm of politics it is still kind of "against the rules" to ask the public for help ...

1963: Dönitz spricht vor Schülern

Hitlers Nachfolger, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz, verherrlichte die deutsche Wehrmacht vor Schülern eines Gymnasiums nahe Hamburg: "Wie konnte es sein, dass ein in Nürnberg zu zehn Jahren Haft verurteilter Kriegsverbrecher Schülern ungefiltert seine Sicht der Dinge präsentieren durfte? Wussten die Schüler, dass sie die rechte Hand Hitlers vor sich sitzen hatten, der nach dessen Selbstmord die Regierungsgeschäfte des "Dritten Reichs" übernommen hatte? Waren sie ausreichend auf die Fragestunde vorbereitet worden?"
Basierend auf dem preisgekrönten Beitrag "Die Dönitz-Affäre - Der Großadmiral und die kleine Stadt" für den Geschichtswettbewerb des Bundespräsidenten "Aufsehen, Empörung, Ärgernis: Skandale" 2010/2011 von Schülern des Otto-Hahn-Gymnasiums Geesthacht

Fox News: Poor Trickery on the Poor

Before you read this, you should watch the video in order to find out how you would have reacted to the Fox News trickery with numbers.

15% of the American population living below the poverty line;
16% of the entire federal budget being spent on the poor;
9% of Americans have some kind of substance dependence, most of them cannot earn a living.
------------------------
Implicitly suggested conclusion: The American state spends overwhelmingly much on the poor, most of which are addicts and therefor unable to work for their own living.

These "facts" leave more questions open than Mr. O'Reilly dreams of: 1) What is it exactly which is spent on the poor (and not to the wealthy)? 2) Which substances are meant, medicinal substances, coffee, nicotine, alcohol, illegal drugs? How many upper class people are addicts? 3) How much does addiction contribute to low income and how many people had low income BEFORE they've got lost in some kind of addiction?

This is what Fox honestly calls "journalism" but what is in fact nothing more than the inventing and nursing of prejudices.

The Party is Over for Wall Street Protesters

"New York City police began removing the Occupy Wall Street protesters about 1 a.m. Tuesday, saying any demonstrators who did not leave would be arrested."

Still in the eighties of the last century you could find lots of beggars in Manhattan, if you remember; then they were gone, they were banned. Salesmen and shop owners had been complaining about these subjects disturbing their businesses. It's not essentially different to banning now the protesters from Zuccotti Park, because the current financial and economic system just does not need these subjects, they're just annoying ... all those "leftists eating sushi and smoking nargilas" as they were called in Israel, if you can't get a job, why don't you move to Mumbai as suggested by British Rail minister Theresa Villiers? Of yourse, they may go on protesting and guitar playing in the beautiful woods of Oregon ...

Hillbillies on the Atomic Football

Now already three of the US Republican candidates for presidency announced to "be called by" the almighty Christian being. Read this to find out why it is important to declare oneself a moonshiner for effectively raising the odds to gain US presidency (and therefore control over the nuclear briefcase): Republican Candidates Ears Ring with the 'Call' to Run

watch also: Bill Maher - 'Who Needs Government When You Have Jesus' [11-07-2011]
"Seriously, if God really did call all three to run for president, ..."

and read: "God ’08: Whose, and How Much, Will Voters Accept?"

Surprising Silence on "Netanyahu the Liar"?

Not much mentioning in Israeli news of Sarkozy calling Netanyahu a liar. Could be sticking to ethical guidelines of journalism, could be something else? In a Jewish Week blog though, there were mentioned additional skeptics towards the current prime minister: Angela Merkel recently and much earlier Bill Clinton as recalled by top US Mideast negotiator Dennis Ross:

Ross described a meeting in Washington with Netanyahu shortly after he became prime minister the first time in 1996. "In the meeting with President Clinton, Netanyahu was nearly insufferable, lecturing and telling us how to deal with the Arabs." Ross recounts that afterwards a frustrated President Clinton remarked, "He thinks he is the superpower and we are here to do whatever he requires."  Ross added, "No one on our side disagreed with that assessment." 

---------------

update 2011-11-14
first mention in Haaretz: Why should anyone believe Netanyahu?

"During the course of a condolence visit to one of the Jewish settlements at the end of the 1990s, Netanyahu bragged that he had succeeded in deceiving the Clinton administration during his first term as prime minister, in order to destroy the Oslo Accords. Believing the microphones and cameras had been turned off, Netanyahu related how he had extorted from the Clinton administration, in exchange for the Hebron agreement, a promise that Israel would be the sole entity entitled to define what the "military sites" are that will remain under its control. With a sly smile spread across his face, Bibi added: "I said that as far as I am concerned the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military site," and explained: "Why is this important? Because from that moment I stopped the Oslo Accords.""

Whom Can You Have Toying With WMD?

So what's the exact difference between Ayatollahs, Pakistani, Indians, Israelis and Americans playing with nuclear WMD? Some of them have already used them against civilians? Some of them secretly possess them without permisssion? Some of them want to obtain them, too?

 Netanyahu: "You Can't Have Ayatollahs Toying With Atom Bombs"

Btw "Netanyahu", here's yesterday's distich, world-famous today:

English:
Sarkozy:  "I can't stand him. He's a liar."
Obama: "You are sick of him, but I have to work with him every day."


Deutsch
Sarkozy: "Ich kann ihn nicht mehr sehen, er ist ein Lügner"
Obama: "Du bist ihn leid, aber ich habe jeden Tag mit ihm zu tun!"

Original:
NÉTANYAHOU "MENTEUR" : LA CONVERSATION SECRÈTE OBAMA-SARKOZY

Rücktritt Berlusconis hing in der Luft

Nachdem der tschechische Außenminister Karl Schwarzenberg die monetäre Krise der südeuropäischen Staaten,  mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Italiens unter Berlusconi folgendermaßen kommentiert hatte: 

"Leider hat Berlusconi die Zeit durchgevögelt, statt sie für Reformen zu nutzen"

war klar, daß die Zeit Berlusconis abgelaufen war. Kein Diplomat würde sich so äußern, wenn er nicht sicher wäre, daß ihm keine Konsequenzen mehr drohen.  Gestern trat der Cavaliere dann zurück.

Israel und die Begin Doktrin

ARD Tagesschau über offene Spekulationen hinsichtlich eines bevorstehenden militärischen Anschlags Israels auf den Iran.

http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/ondemand100_id-video1008088.html

In diesem Video Beitrag wird die "Begin Doktrin" erklärt: Mit offenen Karten - Bombenangriffe auf den Iran?

Who is James Arthur "Art" Pope?

"State for Sale"

A conservative multimillionaire has taken control in North Carolina, one of 2012’s top battlegrounds.

http://www.artpopeexposed.com/

German: Ein Mann "kauft" einen US-Bundesstaat

Gene Sharp & Otpor

Krude Verschwörungsstheorie, infantile Reinterpretation der Geschichte der Revolutionen, einschließliche des Arabischen Frühlings? In diesem Video wird behauptet, die USA hätten so gut wie alle gewaltfreien Widerstände und Revolutionen der letzten Zeit finanziell und moralisch gesteuert - mit Hilfe der Theorie des gewaltfreien Widerstands von Gene Sharp und Gruppen wie der serbischen Otpor. Seltsam, wenn man daran denkt, daß Mubarak einer der besten Gefolgsleute der USA waren ... warum hätten sie irgendeinen Grund haben sollen, ihn zu entfernen?

Das Buch von Sharp gibt es online:
From Dictatorship to Democracy - A Conceptual Framework for Liberation

Was soll der Wirtschaftsnobelpreis?

Inwiefern sind die Wirtschaftswissenschaften wissenschaftlich? Woran orientierte sich das Vergabekomitee bisher? Mode? Religion?

Heute zweifeln nur noch wenige Ökonomen daran, dass Wirtschaftsakteure oft irrational handeln. Die jüngsten Entwicklungen an den Märkten sind Beispiele für Herdenverhalten und Panikentscheidungen. "Wenn man jeden einzelnen Markt daran misst, ob er den Idealanforderungen aus dem Lehrbuch entspricht, wird man zu dem Ergebnis kommen, dass dies für keinen einzigen Markt zutrifft", sagte Dosi. Die Verteidiger der Marktrationalität sagen häufig, dass Abweichungen von der Rationalität eher die Ausnahme sind - das sei nicht haltbar.