It has come to my attention that some of the VIDEO digests don't show some of the videos in the mailings. These are accessible on the website. The Video-related content I send out will have a link to the website so you can view the videos, instead of seeing just a list:
http://www.dustcircle.com
Crushing spirits, injuring bodies, dulling minds
The drugging of children: A multi-billion dollar government operation
If You Are A Supporter Of LGBT Rights, This Will Make You Furious
10 Things You Didn’t Know About US Presidents
Israeli Army Evicts Palestinian Protest Village
"We Need The Truth" US an 'Orwellian State', Drones, GMOs, Holding Bush Accountable
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Michael Isikoff on DoJ Paper Justifying Targeted Drone Strikes on Americans
Kathy Kelly: War Goes on for People of Afghanistan
After returning from her most recent visit to Afghanistan, Kathy Kelly talks about the current situation and whether war is really winding down for Afghans.
No Place To Hide Americans Are Living in an Orwellian State
Garbage Homes
Love Letter to Monsanto
Howard Zinn's Life and Legacy
Obama Fighting To Keep Indefinite Detention Provision In the NDAA
Aaron Swartz and the DHS-MIT TrapWire-style surveillance system: untangling the wires
'US a Police State, Obama Consciously Allows Torture' – CIA Veteran John Kiriakou
UK ‘kill list’ super drone: specifications revealed (with built-in ‘prosecution of emerging targets’)
Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change: Get the Coal Energy Facts
Noam Chomsky: The Rightward Shift of US Politics
CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: Torture Was Official US policy
Obama Offers Hope on Immigration Reform, But Emphasis on Enforcement Portends More Criminalization
PRESIDENT OBAMA: THIS IS NO TIME “FOR A POLITICALLY SELF-INFLICTED WOUND TO OUR ECONOMY”
FBI Ignored Deadly Threat to Occupiers: US Intelligence Machine Instead Plotted with Bankers to Attack Protest Movement
New documents obtained from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security by the Partnership for Civil Justice and released this past week show that the FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies began a campaign of monitoring, spying and disrupting the Occupy Movement at least two months before the first occupation actions began in late September 2011.
little bit of economics can be a truly terrible thing, for the introductory classes in micro and macro-economics are the most dogmatic and myth-filled part of the neoliberal curriculum. Dogmas that have been falsified for 75 years (such as austerity) are taught as revealed truth. The poor indoctrinated student is then launched into the world "knowing" that austerity is the answer and that mass unemployment and prolonged recessions are small prices to be paid (by others) to achieve the holy grail of a balanced budget. Students are taught that national budgets are really just like household budgets.
Matt Damon laments U.S. politics: ‘We’re genuinely f*cked’ on long-term issues
Hollywood star Matt Damon recently told Playboy he has little hope that Washington can address long-term environmental issues like using hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas.
West unleashing terrorism against Syria: Mark Glenn
2012 Apocalypse, the Rapture and Other Millennial Delusions
I once had a noted New Age peace activist tell me that, because all spiritual practice has ripple effects outward, “my cat is a contemplative contributor to the universe.”
FBI Violated Constitution by Branding Occupy a Terrorist Threat
Power of Anti-Government Propaganda
Exclusive: By many standards, President Obama has done a remarkable job, steering the U.S. and the world away from a global depression and enacting reforms to benefit millions of Americans. But he has fought against a powerful dynamic of modern U.S. politics, a hatred of the federal government, says Robert Parry.
According to The New York Times, there is no siege of Gaza, no occupation of the West Bank, and never was there a Nakba (the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine). Three recent articles erase these key Israeli crimes from the historical record.
Don't most Americans believe and want strong law enforcement against corporate crime and fraud and abuses against consumers, taxpayers, the environment and workers? The first step is telling your member of Congress to toughen the weak laws and beef up the law enforcement budgets which will pay for themselves many, many times over in deterrence, damage prevention to innocent people, and fines.
t was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall - so mystifying at the time - was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves -was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
To this day, many people identify mid-2008 as the time they realized what type of politician Barack Obama actually is. Six months before, when seeking the Democratic nomination, then-Sen. Obamaunambiguously vowed that he would filibuster "any bill" that retroactively immunized the telecom industry for having participated in the illegal Bush NSA warrantless eavesdropping program.
s we begin what appears to be the final long, slooooowwww roll down the Gentle Fiscal Incline, it is becoming clear that, among our governing elites, and among the courtier press that serves their interests, it is taken as a given that some sort of austerity agenda, which will not materially affect any of their lives, is going to be dropped on the rest of us, probably for our own good, as that good is defined from some tony little bistro in Georgetown, or from the parlor at Ben and Sally's.
ongress approved a measure Friday that would renew expansive U.S. surveillance authority for five more years, rejecting objections from senators who are concerned the legislation does not adequately protect Americans' privacy.
Don't forget to go to dustcircle.com and VOTE for which book we'll be giving away in December. There's also a Donation button, if you're inclined to give toward this site. Also, have you written a book? We'd like to read and review it.
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FFRF sues IRS to enforce church electioneering ban
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is taking the Internal Revenue Service to court over its failure to enforce electioneering restrictions against churches and religious organizations, calling it a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and of FFRF’s equal protection rights. FFRF filed the lawsuit today in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. (View the lawsuit here.)
FBI's Abuse of the Surveillance State is the Real Scandal Needing Investigation
The Petraeus scandal is receiving intense media scrutiny obviously due to its salacious aspects, leaving one, as always, to fantasize about what a stellar press corps we would have if they devoted a tiny fraction of this energy to dissecting non-sex political scandals (this unintentionally amusing New York Times headline from this morning - "Concern Grows Over Top Military Officers' Ethics" - illustrates that point: with all the crimes committed by the US military over the last decade and long before, it's only adultery that causes "concern" over their "ethics"). Nonetheless, several of the emerging revelations are genuinely valuable, particularly those involving the conduct of the FBI and the reach of the US surveillance state.
Powers Designed for 'Terrorists' Entangle US Top Brass
As the New York Timesreports Tuesday morning that the Petraeus sex scandal has now spread and the Pentagon has initiated an investigation into top NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General John Allen, what is becoming increasingly clear—beyond all the seemingly bizarre twists of this unfolding drama and leaving aside the question about whether or not the private sexual lives of top officials are, in fact, worthy of the endless media blitz they receive—is that the FBI's ability to examine private email accounts during an investigation are having far-reaching, if not ironic, consequences.
Via Lance Roberts of Street Talk Live - This weekend I had my first opportunity to watch "Newsroom," an HBO series, and I was struck by the opening sequence of the show as Jeff Daniels, aka Will McAvoy, discusses why America WAS the greatest country in the world - but no longer is. Here are the stats as he breaks them down:
Poll: One-Third of Americans Would Accept Cavity Searches By TSA
In past columns, I have lamented how our government has not only stripped away core civil liberties from citizens, but that citizens have become increasing passive and accepting of the loss of such freedoms. A new poll conducted by Harris Interactive offers a particularly chilling measure of just how passive and accepting citizens have become to the new realities of our internal security system. The poll found almost one third of American adults would accept a “TSA body cavity search” in order to fly. Moreover a majority believes that it is reasonable to criminalize the act of disobeying any TSA agent.
ICC should increase efforts to bring war criminals to justice: HRW
Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged [press release] theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST backgrounder] on Monday to improve its impact and stimulate cooperation amongst the international community as the court enters its second decade. HRW not only emphasized the importance for ICC member countries to strengthen their efforts in making arrests of known suspects harbored within their borders, but also called upon the ICC to establish a stronger dialogue with the UN Security Council [official website] in order to facilitate arrests and prosecutions.
Four More Years Of The Same Surveys conducted outside the US shortly before polling day showed Obama was the preferred candidate in every country but two – Pakistan and Israel. But unlike Pakistan, where the two candidates were equally unpopular, he scored just 22 per cent in Israel against a commanding 57 per cent for Mitt Romney. http://www.countercurrents.org/cook141112.htm
Translating The Palestinian Declaration Of Independence This Palestinian Declaration of Independence explicitly accepted the UN General Assembly's Partition Resolution 181(II) of 1947, which called for the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former Mandate for Palestine, together with an international trusteeship for the City of Jerusalem. The significance of the PNC's acceptance of partition in the Palestinian Declaration of Independence itself cannot be overemphasized. http://www.countercurrents.org/boyle141112.htm
Government Surveillance Is On The Rise, Google Confirms Google Inc. said government requests to remove content from its search results and other services rose 71 percent in the first half of the year, according to a new report. http://www.countercurrents.org/cc141112B.htm
Although the story so far is of a personal failing, it's possible that the widening sex scandal surrounding retired Gen. David Petraeus will begin to affect the military's reputation as a whole.
New Whistleblower Protections Could Impact Food Safety Oversight
A new bill on its way to President Obama’s desk for approval aims to improve protections for whistleblowers working in the federal government, including those in food-related areas such as veterinarians, U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors and U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees.
