“The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.”
- Albert Camus

Lisa Grave presents this solid piece concerning how the federal government had spent millions spying on and infiltrating Occupiers and anti-war protesting peace activists. And it never stopped. Adds Alex Kane in his coverage of the story:

The revelations are confirmation that, as the Center for Media and Democracy noted in a press release,”the nation’s post-September 11, 2001 counter terrorism apparatus has been applied to politically engaged citizens exercising their Constitutionally-protected First Amendment rights.”

Steve Horn and Chris Geovanis provide a more recent example, of a botched year-long setup perpetrated by an undercover officer from the Chicago Police Department’s Intelligence Division (aka the Red Squad). Against volunteer street medics. But you don’t even have to be protesting unprovoked war to be assaulted by public servants. As this article details, even a woman seven months pregnant and protesting a home’s foreclosure can be tazered by the police. Or in yet another case as Alex Kane (again) reports in this article, U.S. Marshalls realize they raided the wrong home but elect to hold the completely innocent family at gunpoint anyhow. Why? In case they call the media?

Cindy Cohn and Trevor Timm report for the excellent EFF of how the “widespread calls for an investigation into prosecutorial misconduct” in the case of U.S. vs Aaron Swartz have officially fallen on the deaf ears of the legal system. Swartz was the young programmer who committed suicide earlier this year rather than face falsified charges under the abysmal Computer Fraud And Abuse Act. Swartz was repeatedly bullied and harassed by law officials. Even after his death his rights are denied. Eugene Robinson writes this masterful article on how the current presidential administration remains insistent on conflating journalism with espionage. So not only is governmental transparency an illusion, but anyone who advocates for it can expect to face imprisonment, or be hounded to death. Objecting to falsehoods of the government can lead to fun times indeed. This is no conspiracy, this is what’s happening right now in the real world. As Thom Hartman asks, has the government forgotten what Freedom of the Press even means, what it implies? Business seems to know, or at least big business seems to know what it costs. It cost the Koch brothers 23 million to buy PBS’s complacency, as reported by Brendan Fischer. Even “public broadcasting” has a pricetag.

And while we allow ourselves to be distracted by all of this monstrosity, the elected leaders continue to drive the economy home way way way after the prom was over, as reported in this terrific article from Salvatore Babones. States his story:

America’s debt ceiling brinksmanship has made us a global laughingstock. In no other developed country do political parties threaten to push the government into default if they don’t get their way. This kind of take-no-prisoners politics is more characteristic of third-world dictatorships than first-world democracies.

Good grief.

But now, another strong episode from the polymathic Abby Martin’s BREAKING THE SET.

Tags: news

“A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.”
- Albert Camus

Aaron Swartz, the young coder who was hounded by authorities into committing suicide, has left the world a vital tool, as reported by Lauren McCauley. When initially confronted with the law he had been facing some overly severe charges, when all he wanted was to make information free for everyone. When he died, he had apparently been hard at work with some friends on a new platform that would allow for anonymous sharing of datum. In light of the numerous crackdowns on whistle-blowers and journalists alike, this is a surprisingly timely construct, one that I hope finds much utilization. On behalf of the world, thank you, Aaron.

Robert Jensen provides a beautifully articulated observation into the nature of journalism itself, and of its place in this modern world. His usage of religious themes to convey the differences between commercial media and free press is as thorough as a doctoral thesis, and does much to sum up many of my own concerns and fears. He completely nails the state of the ongoing dilemma that is essentially, the unbearable weightlessness of the words surrounding us. Meanwhile, Alex Kane reports on the latest incident of governmental powers giving their opinion on the place of free press and free speech. But Mark Karlin seems to think that government spying is something that magically happened overnight. No sir, the in place surveillance state was a slow crawl in coming, and only for the next 15 minutes is it finally getting the national attention it has deserved for decades, thanks to flaccid journalists like you. Glenn Greenwald goes into greater detail of the overstepping of legal boundaries by the Department of Justice in his article here, which summarizes much of the drama to date. One fun bite is how evidently, anybody who tries to hold the government accountable to its own claims of transparency can look forward to a lengthy prison stay. Even more, if you promote an unflattering view of yonder Powers That Be then charges can be created out of thin air so you get an even lengthier prison stay. Tax dollars at work.

Elsewhere Justin Doolittle reports of a Republican congressman from Tennessee who is fighting to dismantle welfare programs. Yet this same representative of the people has himself received millions in farm subsidies, as did his own father and brother, over several years. It is hilarious how people with money refuse to think of their subsidies and tax breaks as welfare, especially as such initiatives cost taxpayers far more than actual welfare programs. Hilariously revolting. Like how Apple has avoided billions in taxes in multiple countries, as reported by Danny Yadron, Kate Linebaugh, Jessica E. Lessin, and Sam Schechner. Says the article:

The Senate panel’s new report focuses on Apple units in Cork, Ireland, where Apple has long based its operations for Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The units are beyond the reach of the Internal Revenue Service, which counts corporations as American if they are incorporated in the U.S.

But Irish tax law only considers companies residents of the small European country if they are managed and controlled there, and Apple manages them from the U.S.

The result: Apple pays little or no taxes to either country on much of its revenue earned outside the U.S., according to the report.

One of the units, Apple Operations International, hasn’t filed a corporate tax return anywhere in the past five years, the Senate panel found. The unit is the main holding company for Apple’s business outside of the Americas.

“Despite reporting net income of $30 billion over the four-year period 2009 to 2012, Apple Operations International paid no corporate income taxes to any national government during that period,” the report found.

Yeah, there goes the job creators, saving the world by saving the economy. Have fun with your ipad, kids. Extra curious is the closing line of the article:

“Apple welcomes an objective examination of the U.S. corporate tax system, which has not kept pace with the advent of the digital age and the rapidly changing global economy,” the company said in testimony released Monday.

Which is ultimately the same line used by Kim Dotcom, as well as the Pirate Bay trio, to defend their own actions against the possessive greed of American corporations. Fancy that. Ace self-promoter Greg Palast actually has a sharp look here into the rather American-like economic disparity gong on right now in Greece. I confess to a natural repulsion toward overweight persons, but when they are wealthy members of the political elite I want to have them reenact scenes from American History X with me.

Due entirely to Christian ethics (or the lack thereof) a teenage girl has been illegaly expelled from school and is now facing felony charges. Her crime? Having a girlfriend. I hope her parents not only win out in court, but also counter-sue the other parents and the school board for the obvious hate crimes. Too bad laws don’t really work.

But in more ironic news, lightning strikes twice as Starbucks proves to be so overpriced, so generally awful, that customers are lining up to shoot each other out of their collective misery. Or maybe I just interpreted that story from Martha Rosenberg wrong. Ah well.

One of the two coolest comic news happening now is this surprising article from Comics Alliance, which only too recently had begun the dismantling process as ordered by its owners at AOL. It it a long after the fact wink good-bye to the fans, or is it something more? If the site does live on, I hope they have found better masters for themselves. Ideally, themselves.

The other coolest of news stories is Friend of the LP Scott “el Diablo” Marcano launching his very first kickstarter. Scott has been a filmmaker, novelist, and producer of several graphic novels already, but this is indeed his first forray into crowd-funding, and we wish him the very best. Rio Sangre, illustrated by Juan Romera, looks to be a horror-western, and it looks to be a fun ride.

And by two I mean three, as a hearty congratulations to Bryan Coyle, who we interviewed last year, for his nomination for Most Promising Newcomer in the 2013 Russ Manning Awards. Babble, the fantastic (and scary!) OGN from Com.X he created with author and partner in crime Lee Robson is very much worth a read.

Tags: news

“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”
- Albert Camus

The drones are filling the skies, as reported by Tom Barry, making the progression from assassins on foreign grounds to domestic agents in border control, drug enforcement and even regional law enforcement activities. As the drones hold a proud history of hundreds of known incidental casualties of women and children in other countries already, is this really what we want? The only possible benefit I can think of is at least a drone could not sexually harass a suspect. But with the increased military presence in the streets, the idea that citizens will fall victim to immoral injustices is already happening, as in the case reported by Matthew Vaz involving an elderly nun facing sentencing for wholly made-up criminal charges. It is not paranoia that in this day and age, if you protest or boycott the industrial complex you will be punished to the fullest extent of the law no matter who you are or how logical your arguments.

In that respect, Ray McGovern reports on how plain the excuse provided by the younger of the Boston bombing suspects Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is when compared to his accusations and the rolling thunder rising against him and his chances for a fair trial. Says Tsarnaev’s message:

“The [Boston] bombings were in retribution for the U.S. crimes in places like Iraq and Afghanistan [and] that the victims of the Boston bombing were collateral damage, in the same way innocent victims have been collateral damage in U.S. wars around the world.  Summing up, that when you attack one Muslim you attack all Muslims.”

If the United States military did not exist to advance the agendas of American corporate powers this would never have happened. We can play revolted over the Boston deaths, but the truth is that American soldiers have murdered hundreds of thousands more innocents around the world. This does not excuse the Boston suspects (who have yet to be found guilty in a court of law), but it does point out that what was done was an act exponentially smaller than what our own government is indeed guilty of daily.

But rationality has no place in this modern world we walk. I mentioned before of how the Christian church likes to inform their followers of how badly they are being persecuted around the world. The truth of the matter is polar opposite, as seen in this article from Adam Lee. Those Christians just love throwing the first stone, contrary to everything they purport to believe. But then, the CDC is stating that now one in five children in America suffers from some mental disorder or another. Considering the world that’s being readied for them I am surprised that number is so small. Although I do think many of those diagnoses are drastically over-used, particularly bipolarity and ADHD. Kids are kids, so please stop getting them addicted to legal drugs.

Did Wal-mart pay over 24 million in bribes to build on top of a sacred Mayan ruins? It would not at all be the first time. That company’s practices are inherently ugly.

And more news coverage courtesy of Abby Martin’s BREAKING THE SET.

Tags: news