Panetta Signals Green Light for Attack on Iran (video)
More Imperialist Moves Against Syria; Wall Street Faction Seeks Closure of Hormuz to Stave Off Dollar Collapse
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph. D.
PressTV
December 29, 2011
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(hat tip: Land Destroyer Report)
Why We Must Stop SOPA
End of the American Dream
December 29, 2011
Right now, there are two pieces of legislation in Congress that would change the Internet forever if they are enacted.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would give the federal government the ability to potentially shut down millions of websites.
SOPA (the version being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives) is the more dangerous of the two. It would essentially be the equivalent of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the Internet.
It would give government officials unlimited power to very rapidly shut down any website that is found to “engage in, enable or facilitate” copyright infringement. That language is very broad and very vague.
Many fear that it will be used to shut down any websites that even inadvertently link to “infringing material”. Can you imagine a world where there is no more Facebook, Twitter or YouTube?
Sites like those would be forced to hire thousands of Internet censors to make sure that no “infringing material” is posted, and many prominent websites may simply decide that allowing users to post content is no longer profitable and is just not worth the hassle.
Are you starting to get the picture? That is why we must stop SOPA. If SOPA is enacted, it could be the death of the free Internet.
But this is exactly the kind of bill that the establishment media has been waiting for. It would give them back control. SOPA is being heavily promoted by big media corporations.
If they are able to shut down free speech on the Internet, then suddenly everyone would be forced to rely on them for news and entertainment once again.
That is why SOPA and PIPA must be stopped. A recent editorial in the New York Times described how these new laws would work….
The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial. The House version goes further, allowing private companies to sue service providers for even briefly and unknowingly hosting content that infringes on copyright — a sharp change from current law, which protects the service providers from civil liability if they remove the problematic content immediately upon notification. The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar.
Everyone would be deathly scared of allowing anything to be posted on their websites in such an environment. Free speech on the Internet would be a thing of the past.
An article on lifehacker.com explained how easy it would be to bring a claim against a website under SOPA….
If it’s possible to post pirated content on the site, or information that could further online piracy, a claim can be brought against it. This can be something as minor as you posting a copyrighted image to your Facebook page, or piracy-friendly information in the comments of a post such as this one. The vague, sweeping language in this bill is what makes it so troubling.
Fortunately, some of the biggest names on the Internet are rallying to defeat SOPA. For example, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says that he believes that SOPA will actually “criminalize” links….
“By criminalizing links, what these bills do is they force you to take content off the Internet”
Another huge name, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is alarmed that SOPA would give the U.S. government the power to censor search results without even having to go through a court trial….
“Imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from none other but the United States. Two bills currently making their way through congress — SOPA and PIPA — give the U.S. government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial)”
In the United States, we used to believe that the government should not take our property away without a fair trial.
But now SOPA would allow the U.S. government to hit Internet websites with a “death penalty” without even having to go to court.
If SOPA becomes law, the Internet will change dramatically.
If there were no websites where people could post thoughts and ideas, what would the world look like?
Over recent months we have seen how sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook can literally change the face of the globe. The following comes from the same New York Times article referenced above….
YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have played an important role in political movements from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park. At present, social networking services are protected by a “safe harbor” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which grants Web sites immunity from prosecution as long as they act in good faith to take down infringing content as soon as rights-holders point it out to them. The House bill would destroy that immunity, putting the onus on YouTube to vet videos in advance or risk legal action. It would put Twitter in a similar position to that of its Chinese cousin, Weibo, which reportedly employs around 1,000 people to monitor and censor user content and keep the company in good standing with authorities.
Do we really want Chinese-style Internet censorship in America?
Thankfully, the Internet community is fighting back against SOPA really hard.
Initially, GoDaddy.com was publicly supporting SOPA, but a boycott organized on Reddit has hit them really hard. In fact, GoDaddy lost more than 70,000 domains just last week.
All of this pressure forced GoDaddy to renounce its support for SOPA. However, they are not actively opposing the bill at this point.
Congress is in recess right now, so action on SOPA and PIPA is stalled for now. But the battle is far from over.
And the stakes are incredibly high. One blogger recently put it this way….
“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist”
Yes, the free Internet that we all love and enjoy today is under assault.
If we do not stand up now, we may lose it forever.
Every single day, control of the Internet gets tighter and tighter. For example, did you know that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now watching everything that is said on Facebook and Twitter?
The following comes from a recent Daily Mail article….
The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for ‘sensitive’ words – and tracking people who use them.
Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS’s ‘watch’ list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group.
But it is one thing for them to watch the Internet.
It is another thing for them to shut down free speech on the Internet entirely.
Please do what you can to save the open and free Internet.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is helping to organize users of the Internet to protest this draconian legislation. The following is from a statement that the EFF recently put out….
As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet’s domain name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to redirect or dump users’ attempts to reach certain websites’ URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the reliability and universality of the DNS evaporates.
It gets worse: Under SOPA’s provisions, service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities. While PROTECT-IP targeted sites “dedicated to infringing activities,” SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would be enough). And it creates new powers to shut down folks who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of the world sees (not just the “U.S. authorized version”).
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has created a page that makes it very easy to send a letter about SOPA to your representatives in Congress. You can find it right here.
There is also a website called “Stop American Censorship” that has even more ways to let the federal government know that you do not want SOPA to pass. You can find that site right here.
We must stop SOPA. The Internet has made it possible for average people all over the world to communicate with one another on a grand scale, and this is a direct threat to the establishment and the big media corporations that they control.
They are going to try again and again to take back control over the flow of information. We must not allow them to succeed.
Please share this article with as many people as you can, and please do what you can to help defeat SOPA.
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(hat tip: The Intel Hub)
New Report: “Recording Everything” Details How Governments Can Shape the Dynamics of Dissent
"Recording Everything"
by Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
December 29, 2011
For years, those individuals who have tried to warn others of the creeping surveillance state were met with denials and catcalls of “conspiracy theory,” as well as the famous claims that it was not physically possible to monitor everyone.
This new report, however, shatters the delusional rationalities of the uninformed into a million pieces.
Within the next few years an important threshold will be crossed: For the first time ever, it will become technologically and financially feasible for authoritarian governments to record nearly everything that is said or done within their borders – every phone conversation, electronic message, social media interaction, the movements of nearly every person and vehicle, and video from every street corner. Governments with a history of using all of the tools at their disposal to track and monitor their citizens will undoubtedly make full use of this capability once it becomes available.
Is the fabric of industrialized society starting to unravel? Highly complex civilizations are more vulnerable to collapse
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Natural News
December 29, 2011
(NaturalNews) This is one of the most important trends you’ll see in 2012 and beyond: Global supply lines are breaking down. The just-in-time system of deliveries on tap is deteriorating. Have you noticed how often the products or parts you need are backordered or delayed? That’s what I’m talking about.
Try to order 3TB hard drives for data storage. You’ll discover they’re all back-ordered. When you order items from Amazon.com that are shipped by third party companies, they’re often delayed due to sourcing problems. Even our own NaturalNews Store has suffered from sourcing challenges, where customer demand is much higher than the available supply, and the suppliers sometimes can’t get us products in a timely manner.
This issue is especially notable across the firearms industry, where record firearm sales have pushed gun manufacturers way beyond their normal capacities. Not only was Black Friday the top day for gun sales in the history of the USA, but I spoke with the owner of a local Austin gun shop just a couple of days ago, and he told me that on the Thursday and Friday before Christmas his shop was completely slammed with customers, and many of the products they wanted were simply out of stock or unavailable.
Something is happening across the planet with all this: Supply lines are getting thin and starting to crack. You’ve probably noticed it when you’re trying to buy car parts or appliance parts. Even many service companies are thinly staffed these days. How long does it take now to get a repair man for your furnace? Or a plumber? Remember when it used to be same-day or next-day service? Now it’s often 2-3 days (or even more) before somebody can fix the problem, and even then, they often need parts that have to be ordered.
The complexity of modern society is starting to rupture
All this is a worrisome sign to anyone who understands even a little bit about the complexities of modern society. Even to build something as simple as a water bottle, a manufacturer must be able to depend on a very long and highly complex chain of suppliers who individually specialize in metals, plastics or o-ring manufacturing. Then there’s the logo printing which requires yet another supply chain of ink specialists and printing equipment. While a stainless steel water bottle may seem simple, it’s actually the culmination of thousands of years of specialized knowledge, processes and equipment.
Even manufacturing a pencil is a modern miracle. Try it yourself sometime and you’ll discover just how complex a pencil really is. You need sources of metals, rubber, graphite, paint, wood, and all the specialized manufacturing equipment and expertise that goes with it.
Why does this matter? Understand this hugely important point:
The more complex a society becomes, the more the loss of efficiency in just one small area of service or manufacturing ripples across the entire economy, magnifying its negative impact.
You can’t build a car, for example, without the microchips manufactured in China. Sure, you can put together the entire car — minus the microchips — but all you have is a 3,000-pound piece of junk sitting on the assembly line. Without the microchips, the car is useless, and increasingly those microchips all come from China or Japan. This is even true across the military, where red alerts have been issued recently about the strategic vulnerability of military gear that relies on microchips from China. (http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=321477)
Suppose the microchips you need happen to show up, but then you then have a problem with rubber from Sri Lanka. Most Americans have absolutely no clue how much rubber they need to survive in modern society. The average vehicle contains over 500 pounds of rubber parts, all of which are 100% dependant on international rubber producers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natura…).
Without rubber, in fact, modern society grinds to a halt. It’s one of the most important strategic natural resources in the world, yet barely anyone thinks about it. Without rubber, you would have no transportation (not even bicycles). No trains, no trucks, no cars and no airplanes. A loss of rubber would also hit medical supplies and agricultural equipment in a huge way. Goodbye mechanized farming…
So even a tiny disruption in this crucial global resource could be devastating to the global economy. Rest assured, folks, that if you could read all the secret military documents at the Pentagon, and you could find a report on the world’s “most important strategic resources,” right underneath OIL, you would find RUBBER. (And no, the synthetic stuff isn’t a viable replacement…)
The collapse ripple
The point is that a highly complex society has many points of failure that individually impact the entire web of complexity. Lose rubber and you’ve lost your entire transportation sector. Lose oil and much the same happens. Lose your source of microchips and you have to revert back to pre-1980’s technology. Lose your manufacturing base — which has already happened in America — and you have no capability to start building the stuff you need in your own country anymore.
In World War II, America turned its car factories into tank factories and cranked out Armored Personnel Carriers, B-17 bombers, tracked vehicles and Jeep transport vehicles. Today, America’s automobile manufacturing has been gutted to the core. All the machine shops have been offshored to Asia. A new generation of Americans has grown up with little or no knowledge of how to actually build anything other than Legos. The entire culture of innovative machining and metals fabrication has been all but lost (not to mention textiles).
What’s behind these supply line failures? Criminal banks
There’s a reason why supply lines are getting dangerously thin in America: Easy credit is disappearing. The failure of the global banking system is causing a trickle-down effect of decreased capital across the business sector. This, in turn, causes businesses to decrease their inventories and wait for orders to come in before manufacturing anything. So instead of excess supply sitting around, waiting to be delivered, more and more companies are operating on a “you order first, and then we’ll make it” basis.
Capital is hard to come by for honest businesses, you see. Sure, if you’re a criminal bankster like Jon Corzine, scamming the taxpayers out of billions (or trillions!) of dollars, you get free bailout money from the corrupt criminal enablers known as “members of Congress.” But if you’re an honest, hardworking American trying to run an honest business supplying real goods to business customers, you get royally screwed with high taxes, heavy banking fees, and a routine denial of operating credit. So you scratch by, doing the best you can with what you’ve got, even as the government is eroding the value of the Federal Reserve notes (dollars) you’ve worked so hard to earn.
Everywhere across the economy, honest businesses are getting hammered while the big money goes out to military contractors, weapons manufacturers, anti-terrorism security companies and others who have the right buddies in the right hallways in Washington. An economy that used to be based on manufacturing productivity and abundance is now based on false terrorism driving what is essentially a war economy.
That war economy, by the way, is just a few short years away from total default. It’s the oldest story in history: Empire invades foreign nations, empire conquers foreign nations, then the empire goes broke trying to pay for its ever-expanding military to control those foreign nations. Empire collapses into the dark corners of history and becomes a lesson for the next generation which will usually make the same mistake anyway, because humans have a short memory and don’t really understand what history means.
Do not fool yourself into thinking America isn’t headed down this path right now. With the coming banking failures, the currency devaluation and the ever-expanding costs of running a false war (complete with home-grown false flag terror attacks to keep everybody scared into blind obedience), America’s economy is headed for its own inevitable catastrophe, at which point you can fully expect supply line disruptions to be frequent and large-scale.
If you truly understand complex societies, you will prepare now
For a while after the collapse, it will be impossible to buy many items, including many food staples and possibly even fuel. Those who do not prepare for supply line disruptions will probably be weeded out of the human gene pool, earning their own place in history as examples of a failed genetic experiment that was ultimately incapable of adapting to a rapidly-changing environment.
In nature, when the climate rapidly changes, the only animals that survive are those with adaptive skills, mobility and backup resources (squirrels store food for a reason). In human society, when the mechanized production climate of readily-available foods, goods and services suddenly disappears — even for a short while — you will observe a sudden and shocking shift in the human gene pool towards those who have the foresight to plan and prepare rather than those who live day by day, partying, consuming, copulating and laughing it up.
As usual, I urge NaturalNews to be adaptive and be prepared. When the day comes that you actually need this wisdom, it will be too late to try to prepare. This is a test of survival that must be won in advance.
Why does the U.S. government stockpile food, medical supplies and weapons?
Remember: The U.S. government stockpiles massive quantities of food, weapons, ammunition, communications equipment and medical supplies. These are held in huge underground storage facilities (caves) carved out of pure granite. Watch the video to see for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T24L…
By the way, I have firsthand knowledge of these caves. Being from Kansas City, I used to drive by these caves quite frequently, witnessing 18-wheeler rigs pulling in and out of these cave entrances, right off the highway. This has been going on for decades. They have underground cities for the storage of supplies. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s an admitted historical fact.
Ever wonder why the government bothers to do this? For what purpose does the government feel it needs to be prepared with years of supplies while, at the same time, telling the American citizens they only need enough supplies to last a few days?
That’s not a flippant question. If you answer it honestly, you will be ahead of 99% of the rest of the population which now faces a precarious future in a highly complex society that’s already starting to tear apart at the seams.
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Who do our leaders really worship God or Satan? National Defence Authorization Act allows US Military to legally engage in bestiality and sodomy
By David Noble writer for End the Lie
January 1, 2012
It has been widely reported in the alternative media that the NDAA ( National Defense Authorization Act) allows the authorities to hold you in detention indefinitely without charge. What has not been noticed by most is the fact that this Act also allows US Military personnel to legally engage in both sodomy and bestiality. The U.S. Senate voted to approve a defence authorization bill which included a provision that not only repealed the military ban on sodomy, but also repealed the ban on having sex with animals — or bestiality.
I find it hard to imagine why any decent person would want something like this passed when it goes against the teachings of the very Bible which most Americans follow. The only answer that I can come up with is that those that voted to pass this Act are not only traitors to their country but also lack morals and values.
We should not really be surprised at this as many of them attend Bohemian Grove to take part in a bizarre pagan ritual called the Cremation of Care. This is practiced by its members, all men and would not look out of place in a horror movie. Dressing up in robes while worshiping an idol of a giant owl , they carry out what we can only hope is a mock sacrifice of a human effigy. Members of this bizarre cult include former Presidents Bush Sr. and Jr., Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter along with the likes of Colin Powell, and Henry Kissinger.
Imagine if you looked out of your window and saw your neighbours performing such a ritual. Would you still look at them in the same light? Most likely you would be looking to move or at least keep your children away from them. While I do believe in the freedom of choice I also believe that the government is there to represent the will of the people. Are they really doing this when they are openly opposing the divine creator? Considering that 9 out of 10 Americans believe in God I feel that the majority would find this ceremony offensive if they knew that many of their elected representatives were taking part.
It seems that even President Obama has a problem with even the mentioning of the creator. In a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on September 15, 2010 Obama recites part of the Declaration of Independence, and leaves out “by their Creator.” He recited “endowed with certain inalienable rights….” The Declaration of Independence gives credit to God as the Creator who has “endowed” all men with “certain inalienable rights.
He also did not mention God during a short Thanksgiving address on November 24th 2011 which prompted Fox News columnist Todd Starnes to complain that the president’s “remarks were void of any religious references although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God.”
President Obama was voted in after making promises of change which he has mostly broken. He promised to bring the troops home but instead of doing that he has increased the wars. He promised a transparent government but instead the American people have been treated like suspected terrorists while government activities are more secretive than ever.
We have seen this nation revert to torture to get information from suspects which not so long ago would have been something we criticized tyrants of being guilty of.George Bush Jr. directly authorized the Use Of waterboarding while Dick Cheney among others , have openly supported and admitted using the interrogation tactic.
I find it hard to believe that so many have bought into these fake wars that our government has lead us into. How can so many claim to follow the scriptures and then support these wars and the use of torture. Can you really imagine Jesus telling us the only path to true peace is through the dropping of bombs and the use of torture?
Related posts:
- PETA bugged over bestiality in the military
- Israeli leaders urge Western nations to present Iran with a credible military threat
- Panetta defends Obama’s unconstitutional unilateral use of American military force in the name of “national interests”
- The Cult of Obama Continues to Worship the Tyrant
- House Republicans Trying to Push National ID System Yet Again
Short URL: http://EndtheLie.com/?p=33324
The End of America as We Know It: Obama Signs NDAA Indefinite Detention Bill
- Dees Illustration
The Intel Hub
December 31, 2011
On the eve of 2012, President Obama has, with the stroke of a pen, ended America as we know it.
With the National Defense Authorization Act now signed into law, American citizens can and possibly will be indefinitely detained by the military if they have been “accused” of any terrorist related activity.
In a press release published today, the ACLU further outlined their opposition to this unconstitutional law and highlighted the fact that Obama will now be known as the president who signed indefinite detention of Americans, far from any battlefield, into law.
“President Obama’s action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director.
“The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield. The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.”
******
“We are incredibly disappointed that President Obama signed this new law even though his administration had already claimed overly broad detention authority in court,” said Romero. “Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back the constitutional excesses of George Bush in the war on terror was extinguished today.
Although the president and the corporate controlled media have tried to pretend that he only signed the bill because Congress took out the indefinite detention provision, the fact remains that this bill DOES give the government the ability to detain any American they claim to be a terrorist without so much as a trial.
Obama’s claim that he had reservations about certain provisions also rings hollow considering the fact that the White House actually asked for the indefinite detention provision to be added to the bill in the first place!
As we all celebrate the new year we must reflect back on 2011 and realize that it is absolutely imperative that we speak out and expose these police state measures like never before.
If we do not, this country will continue on its path towards destruction and before the end of 2012 we could find ourselves in a full scale police state that has completely outlawed the alternative media and free, outside the box thinking.
PN 