Mr. Ceballos presents an interesting study in this piece regarding the pestilence that has become the human race and its horrendous effects on our only home.
Please note the graph delineating the number of humans in time versus every other living thing on Earth.
Blame the onset of the widespread use of soap in the 17th Century and on.
Seriously, go without bathing with soap for a month and try to breed.
A Confederate battle flag is merely an outdated symbol of h8 and separatism which has oozed into the 21st Century. The current controversy is media-born DISTRACTION from what has persisted in the many pockets of pig-ignorance found within the South of our country since before the Civil War.
Those who generation-after-generation continue to promote and maintain h8, intolerance, BULLYING and divisiveness as the rule and local norm within these regions must become the focus, not some loathsome piece of cloth.
Removing mere symbols will not diminish well over 165 years of regionally indoctrinated h8 and stupidity. The real problem in our South walks on two feet, incites fear and violence, supports leadership who shields them, not flaps in the wind.
Numerous right-wing extremist incumbent elected officials and candidates at the national and State levels KNOWINGLY SOLICIT CAMPAIGN DONATIONS from those who can and do incite the weak of mind into appalling acts of terror. It’s a FACT.
Once exposed for their heinous extremist ties and the blatant pandering for these donations, the game shifts to vociferously pretending to return SOME campaign donations or rerouting a pittance of ill-gotten monies to victims’ families.
There is absolutely no way to determine the validity of ignoble claims made by these h8-preying right-wing extremists INFESTING government at every level.
Such claims are total BEE ESS as they are completely unverifiable and subject to the whims of those who would go after these h8-based donations in the first place.
The Bush Dynasty has paws into key areas of endeavor, notably high-level U.S. and State politics, nationally distributed educational material/text books, oil drilling and pipeline authority, toll roads and influence peddling at the highest levels of finance.
The dumb ones are thrust into the forefront, assuaged in the public eye by corporate media while the really smart ones work in the background out of view.
Overlooking such dynastic influence by voters has been the direct result of some of the most effective pettifoggery in our TWO BUSH, THREE WARS U.S. history.
Dr. Cole and with all due respect, as “politically correct” as removing the Confederate Battle Flag and what it clearly represents would be - now may be ill-timed, unless magnifying the number of misguided and hateful limited capacity gun owners spurred into despicable actions was not an actual threat.
Mississippi has the same flag within their State flag. Other States flags have fragments and symbols pointing to their Confederate histories, as well.
Concurrently, assorted Presidential candidates, declared and not, are getting lots of cheap unearned yardage from this corporate-controlled-media punted political football.
Unintended consequence is more of an issue than those who do not reside in the South can realize.
Peel away the racist meniscus and invariably one will find some wealthy bigot from Texas as a font of money pouring into the war chests of Cruz, Paul, Santorum, Romney and other former Presidential candidates such as Michele Bachmann.
Enter ‘Earl P Holt III’ of Longview, Texas, the president of the Missouri-based Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) whose stated positions on race h8 appears likely to have incited the Charleston assassin.
Vocally donating campaign funds received from Holt to the families of the nine completely innocent victims by these (and other) right-wing extremist candidates who originally accepted money of h8 is simply more media circus and not battle flag-waving from those who will NEVER become our President.
To quote ‘Earl P Holt III’ of Longview, Texas on how HIS taxes were being disbursed, “to every baby-daddy, baby-momma, welfare cheat, drug-dealer, Oprah-watcher, felon, alcoholic, drug-addict and deadbeat in America”.
Like so many others - NARY A CLUE!
Pig-ignorance breeds h8 and that is our real problem.
American “jihadi” currently infesting the extreme right wing of the Republican Party receive tacit support and approval from many of our elected officials.
Numerous incumbent elected officials and candidates at the national and State levels have been armpit deep in the “Cookie Jar of H8” for decades.
As an American “foreign correspondent” embedded anonymously within the wannabe breakaway Republic of Texas, it is never surprising to find the current and past Governor of Texas, our “instant” U.S. Senator Cruz and many others have KNOWINGLY SOLICITED DONATIONS from those who can and do incite the weak of mind into unspeakable acts of terror.
Texas Governor Abbott and Senator Cruz (and many others) knew full well and good who gave them money and for what they stand. Pandering and posturing at the “Cookie Jar of H8” is what garnered them their ill-gotten donations in the first place.
Once exposed for their extremist ties, rerouting SOME tainted donations from pure h8 to the innocent victims families is hollow and ignoble at best and a pathetic media circus klown act at the worst.
The gaggle of right-wing extremist Presidential candidates are currently focusing on the Confederate flag as a meaningful campaign issue. This is their media-driven diversion to distract from the actual need to address sensible firearms control and the pig ignorance which feeds racism/h8.
Any candidates addressing the actual issues directly would lose the votes of the vast majority of potential voters who EMBRACE RACISM and love their guns - their primary constituency.
So, their focus is on some irrelevant flag and that black guy in “their” White House who cannot run for President, again.
Former three-term Texas governor “Oops” Perry labeled the hateful assassinations in Charleston an “accident” and increasing measures for firearms controls as a “liberal knee-jerk.”
Texas recently enacted new “Open Carry” laws to allow firearms to be present in many more institutions, establishments and public locations within the state.
Texas has a gun abundant incident reaching national attention frequently prior to the enactment of these less restrictive firearms laws. it is simply a matter of time before deaths of innocent, unarmed persons becomes more common in Texas.
Given the rhetoric from these NRA donations pandering right-wing extremist candidates, it is time to seriously question their actual motivation to ramp up firearms advocacy, nationally.
More guns is not an answer and a genuine threat to every sane, law-abiding person in our country.
(As a side-note, about one in five emergency rooms in Texas will accept a patient with a gun shot wound.)
This diminished young man ... is emblematic of a much larger and pervasive malignancy regrowing within our country.
As usual, corporate-controlled media is doing everything from tacitly blaming Obama to ignoring any obvious motivation (including blaming his hair) for the cowardly actions of this horrifically misguided gun owner.
In the South, were firearms possession is virtually mandatory, bullying and hate-filled peer-group pressures have an exponentially greater effect than in other parts of our country.
Worthy of note - South Carolina is one of a handful of States with no laws forbidding “hate crimes” and the Confederate flag flies proudly on the state capitol grounds.
Rapidly executing confessed assassin Dylann Roof will not wash away or obscure what has been so vividly re-illuminated in South Carolina.
Global fossil-fuel influence directs much of the world since 1946 and prior - so powerful it could start and stop wars which last a decade or more for unbelievable profits.
But like the global transition from wood/coal steam to internal combustion using petroleum fuels - things are changing. Renewable energy can remove a measure of omnipotent influence currently enjoyed by fossil-fuel. A primary justification for renewable energy is that as a source of power it contaminates our planet exponentially less than fossil fuel combustion.
Historically, as influence from old powers decline, attempts to continue control become desperate and irrational, often criminal.
Attempts to deny the damaging effects of too many people using too much fossil fuel over the past century or so fits that description.
Both Rumsfeld and Cheney have been powerful incremental insiders with every Republican administration since Nixon.
Rumsfeld is by far the greatest procurement officer in DoD history and has spent far more taxpayer money on behalf of the MIC than can ever be documented. Including fuels.
The Cheney NEPDG (National Energy Policy Development Group) spearheaded deregulation which curried that administration with huge favor in the global fossil fuel industry. But they wanted more and got it. Two decade-plus wars which consumed more fuels and lubricants than all previous mechanized wars combined at inflated prices.
George W. Bush (who is a few cards short of a full deck) was very easy to manipulate. Saddam had threatened his daddy. The two permanent Republican White House fixtures had been reliable for every GOP President since Nixon/Ford because the sitting President of the time kept them reined-in.
Not so with the Shrub. Until 2006. Too late.
Look for Rumsfeld to continue his public CYA with a Rove-inspired “reverse Blame Bush” and for Cheney to become even more defiant.
I mean ya gotta love this country! Where else can a bunch of old guys provide for the looting of our national wealth, engulf regions of the planet in destabilizing wars for a decade or more, kill and displace of innocent millions, totally piss-off a huge portion of the global population, pay back some old favors, ingratiate oneself with your betters and GET AWAY WITH IT!?
Why should corporate-controlled media report one word of the tsunami of dollars applied by special interests and the wealthy to these elections? Corporate-controlled media is a major recipient of this money.
Reporting facts or any truth at all is “biting-the-hand-that-feeds” to those who are attempting to buy an election.
This so-called Freedom Act restores NOTHING, reigns-in NOTHING only deals with egregious aspects of the Patriot Act and the AUMFs.
The past few Congress could have taken the logical, necessary steps to cease funding this completely unnecessary, utterly unsuccessful and wildly expensive exercise in mass paranoid delusion.
Historically, Congress in the late 20th and early 21st Century will be regarded as the most sold-out and unfit to serve in office since Reconstruction.
Drug enforcement is a multibillion dollar "Industry of Misfortune."
A partial list of those who benefit greatly from drug laws.-
• Owners and operators of private prisons.
• Marginal persons in law enforcement.
• Paid police informants.
• Dog breeders and trainers.
• Bail bondsmen.
• Lawyers who passed their bar exam on the sixth try.
• Rehab clinic owners and workers.
• Jailers in general.
• Far-right wing politicians and their extended families.
A Saudi Arabia forced into fighting it’s own wars without some dynastic U.S. President to go all “Desert Storm” to curry favor for the fossil fuel industry.
This is new actual U.S. foreign policy for the region. No more U.S. blood for oil.
Both the Texas and Oklahoma quakes are occurring in conjunction with significant continental aquifers which is a very dubious relationship. The fracking quake swarms in Oklahoma currently occurring have become stronger of late. Some reaching Magnitude 4+.
These NEW seismic events have become very common in regions that were previously (pre-2000) quake free.
Texas aging electrical power generation is primarily coal-fired and gives Texas the dubious distinction of having the most polluted air on a day-to-day average basis in the U.S.
Texas is also a major producer of natural gas which is obviously at a surplus because there are now plans in place for a significant natural gas pipeline into Mexico very shortly.
Nowhere does this address the real issue - What of the over a GENERATION of mass intercepts already collected?
• Will they become permanently archived? Post-archive utilization(s)? By whom?
• If erased, confirmed and managed by whom?
Whoever originally thought in toto recording was a good idea is a complete idiot generating a pending threat to individual citizens more odious than a squadron of jets flying into buildings.
The lack of wisdom and knowledge shown by this current fake-Republican Congress is stunning.
Our Founders provided a framework of government that clearly separated church and state for very good reasons. Otherwise, silver-haired old men will want to needlessly kill our children in pointless wars over talking snakes, books of ancient myth, magic and imagined preference.
The continuous blowing the importance of Israel far out of reality worked fine in the last century but Israel has slightly less population than Los Angeles County and talk of significant U.S. military action against Iran by pro-Israel radical religious extremists embedded in Congress who parade themselves as loyal Americans has become more than disquieting and in-fact downright dangerous.
Slant-drilling into major aquifers to perpetrate the robbery of multi-millions of gallons of underground water reserve to eek out some extra profit from played-out oil and gas fields in Oklahoma, South Central Kansas and North Texas is greedy, potentially disastrous for the long-term and utterly unregulated.
The current fake Republican bottom of the candidacy barrel has been scraped with Cruz. And corporate-controlled media loves these silly candidates giving them undue credibility.
Canadian-citizen Freshman U.S. Senator Cruz of Texas has consistently shown himself to be a purposefully malinfromed, naked opportunist who plays to emotion, h8 and faux-folksy religiosity.
Chased from the temple 2,000 years ago, they’re back!
Canadian-borne freshman U.S. Senator Cruz of Texas has held his very first ever elected position for almost four months and is already looking at the White House as a future.
Elected as if by magic in Texas, the real question to ask is why he was not reconsidered for his position as a clerk for any Supreme Court Justice?
Freshman Senator Cruz has shown himself to be an irrational, bellicose naked opportunist who plays to emotion, h8 and faux-folksy religiosity.
A poorly written letter signed by 49 faux-Republican extremists hating-on our twice-elected dark-skinned President is not treason so much as a full display of the blatant lack of qualifications to be our elected officials shown by the signees.
Deeply embarrassing our country is not treason. Cue banjo music.
The commonly used description of the KXL Pipeline as “oil” pipeline is a blatant misnomer and openly deceives those who are concerned about this obvious attempt by those behind the pipeline, their Congressional adherents and corporate-controlled media to gollywallop the U.S. public.
The proposed KXL pipeline is absolutely NOT a conventional crude oil pipeline. The KXL pipeline is intended to deliver tar sands diluted bitumen or “dilbit.” Both the IRS and the Texas Railroad Commission do not designate diluted bitumen aka dilbit to be a crude oil product as it contains such a low percentage of crude oil.
The primary refined end-product derived from diluted bitumen/dilbit is “pet coke” one of the most polluting sources of fuel available, polluting more than oil or coal by a wide margin. (Currently, pet coke cannot be used as a fuel within the U.S.)
Tar sands bitumen is 70 times thicker than conventional crude oil. It must be both heated and highly diluted with toxic solvents to flow through a large diameter pipeline. Larger because FAR more product must flow compared to convention sources of sellable hydrocarbons to be profitable.
Pipeline pressures for crude oil is less than 800 psi. The KXL diluted bitumen/dilbit blend requires very high pressures ranging from 1400 to 2160 psi while being heated to above 98 degrees F (mean temperature between pumps) in the process.
Tar sands dilbit is both abrasive and corrosive making pumps and heating measures to move dilbit along a large diameter pipeline less reliable and far more energy consuming. Transmission pipes made for crude oil are ill-suited for heated tar sands dilbit at two or three times the pressure of crude oil.
Dilbit sinks in water which makes it virtually impossible to clean up if a pipeline rupture occurs near water like the many streams and rivers the KXL pipeline will traverse if ever approved. There have already been two major dilbit pipeline breaks (far less diameter pipes than KXL) resulting in much downplayed environmental emergencies. The Enbridge 6B 30 inch pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Mich. in July 2010 dumping more than a million gallons of tar sands dilbit into the Kalamazoo River. And the 2013 Mayflower, Arkansas EXXON/Mobil Pegasus 20 inch dilbit pipeline rupture allowed 294,000 gallons in less than an hour to befoul the streets and homes of Mayflower making it all the way to Interstate 40.
The KXL pipeline is at least 36 inches in diameter.
A scan of corporate-controlled media today regarding Mr. Snowden reveals he remains a “traitor” and “crickets” on the CITIZENFOUR Oscar. But “Everything is Awesome.”
Spying on average Americans is big money for major corporations to profile for marketing endeavors and to empower dark government efforts to negate the Fourth Amendment.
President Ronald Reagan served in the U.S. Army during WWII contributing to the American propaganda efforts. He was stationed in Hollywood and never overseas as he once claimed. He was never in Europe during the conflict but claimed to have been one of those first into the Nazi death camps.
Watch some of Actor/President Reagan’s earliest films?
One can witness first-hand the effects of government paid-for benzedrine distributed during WWII (flooding the black-market for a decade thereafter) in lovely B&W.
Those behind the post-Eisenhower Republican Party learned the value of the “Diminished President” to serve their needs reaching a nadir with the Shrub.
A trend that continues today given the current crop of Republican Presidential hopefuls.
Mr. Williams distance between fact and falsehood was a few hundred feet.
Mr. O’Reilly had a distance of 1,200 miles between fact and falsehood.
The winner of the corporate-owned media newsman “Pinocchio Award” is FAUXnews bobblehead Bill O’Reilly by a nose of 1,199 miles, 5,279 feet and 10 inches.
Mr. Williams will be off the air for six months. Given the difference in distances involved with his falsehood, Mr. O’Reilly should be able to return sometime in 2714, give or take. (YMMV)
“Not your Founding Fathers’ America: Permanent War, Permanent Election Campaigns, Guns, Drones and Surveillance” is a very accurate and chilling proclamation Mr. Engelhardt.
Your excellent and well-written piece in support of your proclamation comes across as a declaration of utter defeat, however.
What you and many other well-meaning writers fail to point out is Our Founding Fathers would never stood for any of the current State of Our Country - NOT ONE BIT OF IT.
Whining and moaning in defeat with no recommendation on how to bring about the necessary corrective actions is merely the sound of one hand clapping which no one can hear and serves what useful purpose?
And before the “slicers and dicers” can pounce on your clearly stated observations perhaps a useful recommendation would be to point out this current state of our nation far transcends political leanings, religious affiliations, race, color, creed and financial status. It is uniquely an AMERICAN PROBLEM which can only be corrected by all Americans setting aside their differences and working together which incidentally is precisely how our great nation was formed.
It may be very useful to hear from hard drive (HDD) OEMS
• Seagate
• Maxtor
• Western Digital
• Fujitsu
• IBM and other HDD OEMs who produced the firmware for their products which may have been compromised?
Bear in mind multi-million gaming consoles also use HDD. Not to mention the dubious “Cloud” which currently employs hundreds of thousands (millions?) of HDD units on a day-to-day basis.
The average lifespan of an HDD is about three years (YMMV) and supposedly this “infection” is part of the overreaction to 9/11.
The Russian-based Kaspersky is alluding to an on-going effort which could ensnare hundreds of millions of HDD units during the past 14 years yet no one but one anti-virus company has publicized this?
We need to know a lot more about the claims made by Kaspersky before FUD takes a toll.
In the mean time, individuals and companies may consider switching out their spinning-rust units (HDD) for solid state drives (SSD)?
How can Freedom of the Press exist in any country where a major percentage of media is owned and operated by those with self-interests and an agenda contrary to the common good?
The State of Texas Railroad Commission does not consider the product to be transported through the proposed XL pipeline to be a petroleum product because it contains such a low percentage of crude oil.
It’s very sad to see U.S. politicians attempting to express their manhood by endangering and killing the well-meaning offspring of others for political gain.
Attacking Iran at the behest of a tiny little country with a population of less the 8 million people (pop. Los Angeles County 10 million+) will be the most incredible blunder since the psychotic over-reaction to 9/11 and the subsequent Invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Efforts to incite such a conflict is tantamount to treason.
Professor Cole and with all due respect - North Korea has tenuous connection with the internet, mainly via China. According to cia dot gov , North Korea receives international communications via one Intelsat satellite link and another from a Russian satellite. The latest fiber-optic and microwave connections are made through China, primarily and to a much lesser extent via Russia.
The U.S. has formally requested assistance from China in this matter.
This instance of apparent nationalistic techno vandalism against a multinational corporation most likely was transported via Chinese bandwidth who may be embarrassed by an unwitting part in the ”Sony Hack.” And China is the most capable to greatly diminish North Korea services as is the situation, currently.
Yes, the NSA is loathe-worthy, brazenly unconstitutional and increasingly funded by every Congress since The infamous Reagan Executive Order but the NSA is primarily interested in listening to AMERICAN CITIZENS. The fact the techno vandalism occurred without NSA scrutiny would indicate it came via assets not readily available to the NSA.
super390 - Bush Wars especially the Global War on Terror (GWOT) have components which have done more to facilitate your genuine concerns than any war since WWII.
• The accelerated shift in national wealth and power to the few at the expense of everyone else.
• The systematic removal of our Constitutional Rights especially our right-to-privacy under the guise of “national defense.” (GWOT functionally waged on the citizens of our once great country.)
A dynastic President of limited capacity being influenced by those inspired by pure evil has left a broad stain (protected by law) on our once great country which will take decades to cleanse, if ever.
• Establishing an outlaw multinational TORTURE network funded for years by the U.S. Congress.
• Starting two unnecessary and destructive foreign wars lasting well over a decade costing TRILLION$ STOLEN from the U.S. Treasury by a complicit Congress.
• Precipitating the pointless combined deaths and maiming of hundreds of thousands of completely innocent U.S. military and foreign nationals.
• Deregulation of planet killing emissions.
• Facilitating the acceleration of the transfer of our national wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer people.
A little over thirteen (13) years ago corporate-controlled media became fully complicit in rooting a criminal administration firmly in place in the minds of our citizens.
Now, every attempt will be made to obscure that fact.
Given the "The Noun/verb 9/11 Justification," a very corporate-controlled media, the lurching far-to-the-right Congress and Supreme Court those previous users of our White House who originated, authorized, directed, coordinated and hid TORTURE will most likely get away with it.
This was widespread, multinational, well-funded, systematic torture which could have only occurred with full sanctioning by the White House and certain members of Congress who funded these heinous actions over a long period of time.
The Noun/verb 9/11 Justification takes in vain all those who perished on that day. A lame excuse which spreads the stain on our history even further.
Why should some rich man’s son of limited capacity and an aging evil legend-in-his-own-mind go unpunished for blatant and heinous crimes against our once great country?
Wars in history served to shift power and wealth amongst the winners and losers of the conflict itself.
This is not the case when the United States “goes to war” during recent decades. When the U.S. makes war in some distant resource-rich land the actual losers are the people of our once great country. Recent wars have cost ALL OF US our personal freedoms including right-to-privacy and enabled the funneling of power and wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer people at a much accelerating rate.
A former President and Supreme Allied Commander in WWII warned us this could happen.
Dr. Cole - thank you for pointing out the role of gatekeepers and the use of the “Lie of Omission” by the corporate-controlled media. It is the most powerful and odious tool employed.
FAUXNews is opinion packaged as visually appealing entertainment disguised as “news.”
And because it is free from most cable networks, FAUXNews ends up spewing in lower and fixed-income areas. (Especially prominent in waiting rooms.)
FAUXNews reinforces the significantly diminished educational levels in the U.S. and openly promotes bully-incited and enforced hatred, feeding peer group pressures where formal educations are seen as a form of weakness or reason for suspicion.
The Dallas Ebola outbreak is NOT a political issue.
It is the direct result of a highly prosperous corporate-owned and operated hospital not following the mandated procedures/guidelines and doing so repeatedly.
The arrogant new super wealthy who watched the fossil fuel industry STEAL our natural riches out from under the people of our country want to duplicate that act of blatant greed and world endangering behavior.
Texas GOP U.S Congressperson Gohmert is no where near as stupid and irresponsible as corporate-owned and controlled Dallas health providers who allowed Ebola-exposed individual(s) to circulate freely for days in a large apartment complex, local schools, in the homeless community and amongst front-line healthcare providers before contacting the appropriate Federal government agencies to take action.
And subsequently those very same corporate-owned and controlled Dallas health providers changed their stories about what actually happened and their blatant MISTAKES!
Currently under indictment third-term Texas Governor Perry has now formed a Ebola fact-finding commission to find the gentleman-of-color in our White House to be responsible.
Since the creation of Israel, the U.S. has been the primary source of support for a country with the total population equal to two adjoining counties in Southern California.
The amazing amount of U.S. taxpayers dollars and military support lavished on this tiny little country is the direct result of the outdated need to justify active involvement in a much larger petroleum rich region which is NOT OUR PROPERTY.
Phasing-out a more-risk-than-reward antiquated foreign policy must be done with caution and intelligence.
Exploiting loopholes in U.S. laws made and maintained by CONGRESS is the work of effective lawyers, not ineffective law enforcement.
Apparently, living within a failed democracy, now an oligarchy, where simple undereducated citizens vote "R" out of hateful reflex has factually escaped those who feel a broad well-entrenched classist conspiracy is the evil-doing of identifiable individuals.
The longer humanity waits to curb anthropogenic-induced climate change the more drastic, autocratic and disquieting the necessary and required changes will be.
Mr. Hannity has accurately reached the average level of IQ for FAUXNews viewers with the "patriarch" of Duck Dynasty as a contributor.
Tele-charlatan Robertson suffers from an aging disability and makes real Christians look unhinged every time some desperate-for-ratings media personality trots him out to babble.
NSA listening has been around for well over a decade and agreed, it is deplorable and over-zealous. Compared to PRIVATE SECTOR data point collecting, distributing and archiving of virtually every action any of us make on a daily basis, the NSA listening is only part of the actual threat to our privacy and liberty.
(For one important example and as a graphic representation find “Lightbeam,” a Firefox Add-on and see exactly where just your browser activity is going and to whom. !!!!)
Personal data points collected from internet activity, bank card utilization, fuel purchases, cell phone activity, any internet enabled device (media players, home thermostats, refrigerators, etc.) are continuously collected, diligently recorded, analyzed and archived all for sale to the highest bidder.
The Surveillance Society must end and the information gleaned destroyed.
Perhaps Members of Congress and their families should be made very aware they are not excluded from rampant data point collection by the private sector?
Mr. Ceballos presents an interesting study in this piece regarding the pestilence that has become the human race and its horrendous effects on our only home.
Please note the graph delineating the number of humans in time versus every other living thing on Earth.
Blame the onset of the widespread use of soap in the 17th Century and on.
Seriously, go without bathing with soap for a month and try to breed.
¡Nada!
A Confederate battle flag is merely an outdated symbol of h8 and separatism which has oozed into the 21st Century. The current controversy is media-born DISTRACTION from what has persisted in the many pockets of pig-ignorance found within the South of our country since before the Civil War.
Those who generation-after-generation continue to promote and maintain h8, intolerance, BULLYING and divisiveness as the rule and local norm within these regions must become the focus, not some loathsome piece of cloth.
Removing mere symbols will not diminish well over 165 years of regionally indoctrinated h8 and stupidity. The real problem in our South walks on two feet, incites fear and violence, supports leadership who shields them, not flaps in the wind.
Numerous right-wing extremist incumbent elected officials and candidates at the national and State levels KNOWINGLY SOLICIT CAMPAIGN DONATIONS from those who can and do incite the weak of mind into appalling acts of terror. It’s a FACT.
Once exposed for their heinous extremist ties and the blatant pandering for these donations, the game shifts to vociferously pretending to return SOME campaign donations or rerouting a pittance of ill-gotten monies to victims’ families.
There is absolutely no way to determine the validity of ignoble claims made by these h8-preying right-wing extremists INFESTING government at every level.
Such claims are total BEE ESS as they are completely unverifiable and subject to the whims of those who would go after these h8-based donations in the first place.
The Bush Dynasty has paws into key areas of endeavor, notably high-level U.S. and State politics, nationally distributed educational material/text books, oil drilling and pipeline authority, toll roads and influence peddling at the highest levels of finance.
The dumb ones are thrust into the forefront, assuaged in the public eye by corporate media while the really smart ones work in the background out of view.
Overlooking such dynastic influence by voters has been the direct result of some of the most effective pettifoggery in our TWO BUSH, THREE WARS U.S. history.
Dr. Cole and with all due respect, as “politically correct” as removing the Confederate Battle Flag and what it clearly represents would be - now may be ill-timed, unless magnifying the number of misguided and hateful limited capacity gun owners spurred into despicable actions was not an actual threat.
Mississippi has the same flag within their State flag. Other States flags have fragments and symbols pointing to their Confederate histories, as well.
Concurrently, assorted Presidential candidates, declared and not, are getting lots of cheap unearned yardage from this corporate-controlled-media punted political football.
Unintended consequence is more of an issue than those who do not reside in the South can realize.
The flag can wait and is currently a distraction.
Peel away the racist meniscus and invariably one will find some wealthy bigot from Texas as a font of money pouring into the war chests of Cruz, Paul, Santorum, Romney and other former Presidential candidates such as Michele Bachmann.
Enter ‘Earl P Holt III’ of Longview, Texas, the president of the Missouri-based Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) whose stated positions on race h8 appears likely to have incited the Charleston assassin.
Vocally donating campaign funds received from Holt to the families of the nine completely innocent victims by these (and other) right-wing extremist candidates who originally accepted money of h8 is simply more media circus and not battle flag-waving from those who will NEVER become our President.
To quote ‘Earl P Holt III’ of Longview, Texas on how HIS taxes were being disbursed, “to every baby-daddy, baby-momma, welfare cheat, drug-dealer, Oprah-watcher, felon, alcoholic, drug-addict and deadbeat in America”.
Like so many others - NARY A CLUE!
Pig-ignorance breeds h8 and that is our real problem.
American “jihadi” currently infesting the extreme right wing of the Republican Party receive tacit support and approval from many of our elected officials.
Numerous incumbent elected officials and candidates at the national and State levels have been armpit deep in the “Cookie Jar of H8” for decades.
As an American “foreign correspondent” embedded anonymously within the wannabe breakaway Republic of Texas, it is never surprising to find the current and past Governor of Texas, our “instant” U.S. Senator Cruz and many others have KNOWINGLY SOLICITED DONATIONS from those who can and do incite the weak of mind into unspeakable acts of terror.
Texas Governor Abbott and Senator Cruz (and many others) knew full well and good who gave them money and for what they stand. Pandering and posturing at the “Cookie Jar of H8” is what garnered them their ill-gotten donations in the first place.
Once exposed for their extremist ties, rerouting SOME tainted donations from pure h8 to the innocent victims families is hollow and ignoble at best and a pathetic media circus klown act at the worst.
Here is the real “American Jihadi” at work.
The gaggle of right-wing extremist Presidential candidates are currently focusing on the Confederate flag as a meaningful campaign issue. This is their media-driven diversion to distract from the actual need to address sensible firearms control and the pig ignorance which feeds racism/h8.
Any candidates addressing the actual issues directly would lose the votes of the vast majority of potential voters who EMBRACE RACISM and love their guns - their primary constituency.
So, their focus is on some irrelevant flag and that black guy in “their” White House who cannot run for President, again.
No FAUXNews viewers votes will be lost that way.
Former three-term Texas governor “Oops” Perry labeled the hateful assassinations in Charleston an “accident” and increasing measures for firearms controls as a “liberal knee-jerk.”
Texas recently enacted new “Open Carry” laws to allow firearms to be present in many more institutions, establishments and public locations within the state.
Texas has a gun abundant incident reaching national attention frequently prior to the enactment of these less restrictive firearms laws. it is simply a matter of time before deaths of innocent, unarmed persons becomes more common in Texas.
Given the rhetoric from these NRA donations pandering right-wing extremist candidates, it is time to seriously question their actual motivation to ramp up firearms advocacy, nationally.
More guns is not an answer and a genuine threat to every sane, law-abiding person in our country.
(As a side-note, about one in five emergency rooms in Texas will accept a patient with a gun shot wound.)
This diminished young man ... is emblematic of a much larger and pervasive malignancy regrowing within our country.
As usual, corporate-controlled media is doing everything from tacitly blaming Obama to ignoring any obvious motivation (including blaming his hair) for the cowardly actions of this horrifically misguided gun owner.
In the South, were firearms possession is virtually mandatory, bullying and hate-filled peer-group pressures have an exponentially greater effect than in other parts of our country.
Worthy of note - South Carolina is one of a handful of States with no laws forbidding “hate crimes” and the Confederate flag flies proudly on the state capitol grounds.
Rapidly executing confessed assassin Dylann Roof will not wash away or obscure what has been so vividly re-illuminated in South Carolina.
An evil half-wit advised by those of hidden agenda made the decision to attack and occupy Iraq.
No amount of assistance and intervention can possibly bring remedy to this abysmal U.S. blunder.
It is well past the time to let the chips fall where they may.
Please, back away from the waiting room TV, very slowly.
H8, pig-ignorance and the NRA - the perfect storm.
They found the driver for the GOP klown kar.
Global fossil-fuel influence directs much of the world since 1946 and prior - so powerful it could start and stop wars which last a decade or more for unbelievable profits.
But like the global transition from wood/coal steam to internal combustion using petroleum fuels - things are changing. Renewable energy can remove a measure of omnipotent influence currently enjoyed by fossil-fuel. A primary justification for renewable energy is that as a source of power it contaminates our planet exponentially less than fossil fuel combustion.
Historically, as influence from old powers decline, attempts to continue control become desperate and irrational, often criminal.
Attempts to deny the damaging effects of too many people using too much fossil fuel over the past century or so fits that description.
Two Bush, THREE WARS!
More more Bush in OUR White House.
Power changing hands. Live on corporate-controlled media.
Make some popcorn and watch. Average citizens are irrelevant and merely viewers..
Both Rumsfeld and Cheney have been powerful incremental insiders with every Republican administration since Nixon.
Rumsfeld is by far the greatest procurement officer in DoD history and has spent far more taxpayer money on behalf of the MIC than can ever be documented. Including fuels.
The Cheney NEPDG (National Energy Policy Development Group) spearheaded deregulation which curried that administration with huge favor in the global fossil fuel industry. But they wanted more and got it. Two decade-plus wars which consumed more fuels and lubricants than all previous mechanized wars combined at inflated prices.
George W. Bush (who is a few cards short of a full deck) was very easy to manipulate. Saddam had threatened his daddy. The two permanent Republican White House fixtures had been reliable for every GOP President since Nixon/Ford because the sitting President of the time kept them reined-in.
Not so with the Shrub. Until 2006. Too late.
Look for Rumsfeld to continue his public CYA with a Rove-inspired “reverse Blame Bush” and for Cheney to become even more defiant.
I mean ya gotta love this country! Where else can a bunch of old guys provide for the looting of our national wealth, engulf regions of the planet in destabilizing wars for a decade or more, kill and displace of innocent millions, totally piss-off a huge portion of the global population, pay back some old favors, ingratiate oneself with your betters and GET AWAY WITH IT!?
How about the "unchecked" private sector information gathering tantamount to full surveillance?
Nothing governs or monitors what is being collected and archived.
Why should corporate-controlled media report one word of the tsunami of dollars applied by special interests and the wealthy to these elections? Corporate-controlled media is a major recipient of this money.
Reporting facts or any truth at all is “biting-the-hand-that-feeds” to those who are attempting to buy an election.
The MIC seems to able to spend TRILLION$ protecting us from a bunch of guys in dusty Toyota pick-up trucks half the planet away.
How much will it cost in blood and treasure if this country is confronted by an actual military threat?
This so-called Freedom Act restores NOTHING, reigns-in NOTHING only deals with egregious aspects of the Patriot Act and the AUMFs.
The past few Congress could have taken the logical, necessary steps to cease funding this completely unnecessary, utterly unsuccessful and wildly expensive exercise in mass paranoid delusion.
Historically, Congress in the late 20th and early 21st Century will be regarded as the most sold-out and unfit to serve in office since Reconstruction.
Unfortunately, for all of us - History is now.
What of the over a decade of communications already recorded and archived?
Drug enforcement is a multibillion dollar "Industry of Misfortune."
A partial list of those who benefit greatly from drug laws.-
• Owners and operators of private prisons.
• Marginal persons in law enforcement.
• Paid police informants.
• Dog breeders and trainers.
• Bail bondsmen.
• Lawyers who passed their bar exam on the sixth try.
• Rehab clinic owners and workers.
• Jailers in general.
• Far-right wing politicians and their extended families.
A big step to restore our country is to RESCIND the Patriot Act AND the AUMFs of 2001 and 2002.
ALSO, ban the wanton moment-by-moment personal information gathering by private enterprise, which is far more intrusive than our government.
Now, what of the astounding amount of information already gleaned by government and private enterprise for well over a decade?
What could possibly go wrong?
Yet another dippy later generation dynastic decline.
Two Bush, THREE wars.
No more Bush in our White House.
A Saudi Arabia forced into fighting it’s own wars without some dynastic U.S. President to go all “Desert Storm” to curry favor for the fossil fuel industry.
This is new actual U.S. foreign policy for the region. No more U.S. blood for oil.
Hope it remains that way.
Both the Texas and Oklahoma quakes are occurring in conjunction with significant continental aquifers which is a very dubious relationship. The fracking quake swarms in Oklahoma currently occurring have become stronger of late. Some reaching Magnitude 4+.
These NEW seismic events have become very common in regions that were previously (pre-2000) quake free.
Texas aging electrical power generation is primarily coal-fired and gives Texas the dubious distinction of having the most polluted air on a day-to-day average basis in the U.S.
Texas is also a major producer of natural gas which is obviously at a surplus because there are now plans in place for a significant natural gas pipeline into Mexico very shortly.
• Numerous aging poisonous coal-fired generator plants.
• Far less poisonous natural gas in surplus.
Bidness as usual in Republican Texas.
Now, about those fracking quakes becoming strong enough to cause surface damage in North Texas.
"King Salman snubs Obama’s Gulf Summit" - a clear sign of progress and very good news.
Nowhere does this address the real issue - What of the over a GENERATION of mass intercepts already collected?
• Will they become permanently archived? Post-archive utilization(s)? By whom?
• If erased, confirmed and managed by whom?
Whoever originally thought in toto recording was a good idea is a complete idiot generating a pending threat to individual citizens more odious than a squadron of jets flying into buildings.
One word - b@†$hi†
The lack of wisdom and knowledge shown by this current fake-Republican Congress is stunning.
Our Founders provided a framework of government that clearly separated church and state for very good reasons. Otherwise, silver-haired old men will want to needlessly kill our children in pointless wars over talking snakes, books of ancient myth, magic and imagined preference.
The continuous blowing the importance of Israel far out of reality worked fine in the last century but Israel has slightly less population than Los Angeles County and talk of significant U.S. military action against Iran by pro-Israel radical religious extremists embedded in Congress who parade themselves as loyal Americans has become more than disquieting and in-fact downright dangerous.
Slant-drilling into major aquifers to perpetrate the robbery of multi-millions of gallons of underground water reserve to eek out some extra profit from played-out oil and gas fields in Oklahoma, South Central Kansas and North Texas is greedy, potentially disastrous for the long-term and utterly unregulated.
The current fake Republican bottom of the candidacy barrel has been scraped with Cruz. And corporate-controlled media loves these silly candidates giving them undue credibility.
Canadian-citizen Freshman U.S. Senator Cruz of Texas has consistently shown himself to be a purposefully malinfromed, naked opportunist who plays to emotion, h8 and faux-folksy religiosity.
Chased from the temple 2,000 years ago, they’re back!
Canadian-borne freshman U.S. Senator Cruz of Texas has held his very first ever elected position for almost four months and is already looking at the White House as a future.
Elected as if by magic in Texas, the real question to ask is why he was not reconsidered for his position as a clerk for any Supreme Court Justice?
Freshman Senator Cruz has shown himself to be an irrational, bellicose naked opportunist who plays to emotion, h8 and faux-folksy religiosity.
Perfect for Texas but bad for our country.
A poorly written letter signed by 49 faux-Republican extremists hating-on our twice-elected dark-skinned President is not treason so much as a full display of the blatant lack of qualifications to be our elected officials shown by the signees.
Deeply embarrassing our country is not treason. Cue banjo music.
The commonly used description of the KXL Pipeline as “oil” pipeline is a blatant misnomer and openly deceives those who are concerned about this obvious attempt by those behind the pipeline, their Congressional adherents and corporate-controlled media to gollywallop the U.S. public.
The proposed KXL pipeline is absolutely NOT a conventional crude oil pipeline. The KXL pipeline is intended to deliver tar sands diluted bitumen or “dilbit.” Both the IRS and the Texas Railroad Commission do not designate diluted bitumen aka dilbit to be a crude oil product as it contains such a low percentage of crude oil.
The primary refined end-product derived from diluted bitumen/dilbit is “pet coke” one of the most polluting sources of fuel available, polluting more than oil or coal by a wide margin. (Currently, pet coke cannot be used as a fuel within the U.S.)
Tar sands bitumen is 70 times thicker than conventional crude oil. It must be both heated and highly diluted with toxic solvents to flow through a large diameter pipeline. Larger because FAR more product must flow compared to convention sources of sellable hydrocarbons to be profitable.
Pipeline pressures for crude oil is less than 800 psi. The KXL diluted bitumen/dilbit blend requires very high pressures ranging from 1400 to 2160 psi while being heated to above 98 degrees F (mean temperature between pumps) in the process.
Tar sands dilbit is both abrasive and corrosive making pumps and heating measures to move dilbit along a large diameter pipeline less reliable and far more energy consuming. Transmission pipes made for crude oil are ill-suited for heated tar sands dilbit at two or three times the pressure of crude oil.
Dilbit sinks in water which makes it virtually impossible to clean up if a pipeline rupture occurs near water like the many streams and rivers the KXL pipeline will traverse if ever approved. There have already been two major dilbit pipeline breaks (far less diameter pipes than KXL) resulting in much downplayed environmental emergencies. The Enbridge 6B 30 inch pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Mich. in July 2010 dumping more than a million gallons of tar sands dilbit into the Kalamazoo River. And the 2013 Mayflower, Arkansas EXXON/Mobil Pegasus 20 inch dilbit pipeline rupture allowed 294,000 gallons in less than an hour to befoul the streets and homes of Mayflower making it all the way to Interstate 40.
The KXL pipeline is at least 36 inches in diameter.
A scan of corporate-controlled media today regarding Mr. Snowden reveals he remains a “traitor” and “crickets” on the CITIZENFOUR Oscar. But “Everything is Awesome.”
Spying on average Americans is big money for major corporations to profile for marketing endeavors and to empower dark government efforts to negate the Fourth Amendment.
How to catch a falsehood spouting FAUXNews bobblehead -
Sit in a bush and make sounds like a waiting room in the South or a senior citizen facility.
Rudy who?
War Porn at the Presidential level
President Ronald Reagan served in the U.S. Army during WWII contributing to the American propaganda efforts. He was stationed in Hollywood and never overseas as he once claimed. He was never in Europe during the conflict but claimed to have been one of those first into the Nazi death camps.
Watch some of Actor/President Reagan’s earliest films?
One can witness first-hand the effects of government paid-for benzedrine distributed during WWII (flooding the black-market for a decade thereafter) in lovely B&W.
Those behind the post-Eisenhower Republican Party learned the value of the “Diminished President” to serve their needs reaching a nadir with the Shrub.
A trend that continues today given the current crop of Republican Presidential hopefuls.
Two Bush - THREE WARS!
No more Bush in our White House.
Corporate-owned media newsman “Pinocchio Award”
Mr. Williams distance between fact and falsehood was a few hundred feet.
Mr. O’Reilly had a distance of 1,200 miles between fact and falsehood.
The winner of the corporate-owned media newsman “Pinocchio Award” is FAUXnews bobblehead Bill O’Reilly by a nose of 1,199 miles, 5,279 feet and 10 inches.
Mr. Williams will be off the air for six months. Given the difference in distances involved with his falsehood, Mr. O’Reilly should be able to return sometime in 2714, give or take. (YMMV)
“Not your Founding Fathers’ America: Permanent War, Permanent Election Campaigns, Guns, Drones and Surveillance” is a very accurate and chilling proclamation Mr. Engelhardt.
Your excellent and well-written piece in support of your proclamation comes across as a declaration of utter defeat, however.
What you and many other well-meaning writers fail to point out is Our Founding Fathers would never stood for any of the current State of Our Country - NOT ONE BIT OF IT.
Whining and moaning in defeat with no recommendation on how to bring about the necessary corrective actions is merely the sound of one hand clapping which no one can hear and serves what useful purpose?
And before the “slicers and dicers” can pounce on your clearly stated observations perhaps a useful recommendation would be to point out this current state of our nation far transcends political leanings, religious affiliations, race, color, creed and financial status. It is uniquely an AMERICAN PROBLEM which can only be corrected by all Americans setting aside their differences and working together which incidentally is precisely how our great nation was formed.
It may be very useful to hear from hard drive (HDD) OEMS
• Seagate
• Maxtor
• Western Digital
• Fujitsu
• IBM and other HDD OEMs who produced the firmware for their products which may have been compromised?
Bear in mind multi-million gaming consoles also use HDD. Not to mention the dubious “Cloud” which currently employs hundreds of thousands (millions?) of HDD units on a day-to-day basis.
The average lifespan of an HDD is about three years (YMMV) and supposedly this “infection” is part of the overreaction to 9/11.
The Russian-based Kaspersky is alluding to an on-going effort which could ensnare hundreds of millions of HDD units during the past 14 years yet no one but one anti-virus company has publicized this?
We need to know a lot more about the claims made by Kaspersky before FUD takes a toll.
In the mean time, individuals and companies may consider switching out their spinning-rust units (HDD) for solid state drives (SSD)?
Just to keep our paranoia at the proper level.
Does FAUXNews recruit their "contributors" from street corner rant-and-rave sign waving out-patients?
You think coal and oil are bad for Planet Earth?
If the KXL pipeline comes into operation the primary output will be petroleum coke or "petcoke," MEGATONS of it.
Petcoke emits significantly more CO2 than oil or coal. The U.S. is declining permits to use petcoke as a fuel within our country.
The Oxbow Corporation is a major dealer in petcoke, selling 11 million tons annually. Oxbow Corporation is owned by William I. Koch.
Governor Walker actually makes currently under indictment ex-Governor Perry seem intelligent.
The perfect f aux-Republican candidate(s) for President.
Hate-filled, diminished capacity people with guns.
More common than not.
How can Freedom of the Press exist in any country where a major percentage of media is owned and operated by those with self-interests and an agenda contrary to the common good?
The State of Texas Railroad Commission does not consider the product to be transported through the proposed XL pipeline to be a petroleum product because it contains such a low percentage of crude oil.
It’s very sad to see U.S. politicians attempting to express their manhood by endangering and killing the well-meaning offspring of others for political gain.
Obviously, the Koch Bros. can provide some awesome not-of-this-world experiences to those who wish to participate.
An aging disease can be a terrible thing.
Attacking Iran at the behest of a tiny little country with a population of less the 8 million people (pop. Los Angeles County 10 million+) will be the most incredible blunder since the psychotic over-reaction to 9/11 and the subsequent Invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Efforts to incite such a conflict is tantamount to treason.
Which is why the extreme right will go for it.
FAUXNews is h8mongering propaganda packaged as entertainment presented as “news.”
Number 1 in waiting rooms all over the South.
And it’s FREE!
And they want MORE!!
Professor Cole and with all due respect - North Korea has tenuous connection with the internet, mainly via China. According to cia dot gov , North Korea receives international communications via one Intelsat satellite link and another from a Russian satellite. The latest fiber-optic and microwave connections are made through China, primarily and to a much lesser extent via Russia.
The U.S. has formally requested assistance from China in this matter.
This instance of apparent nationalistic techno vandalism against a multinational corporation most likely was transported via Chinese bandwidth who may be embarrassed by an unwitting part in the ”Sony Hack.” And China is the most capable to greatly diminish North Korea services as is the situation, currently.
Yes, the NSA is loathe-worthy, brazenly unconstitutional and increasingly funded by every Congress since The infamous Reagan Executive Order but the NSA is primarily interested in listening to AMERICAN CITIZENS. The fact the techno vandalism occurred without NSA scrutiny would indicate it came via assets not readily available to the NSA.
This speculation is much more likely??
super390 - Bush Wars especially the Global War on Terror (GWOT) have components which have done more to facilitate your genuine concerns than any war since WWII.
• The accelerated shift in national wealth and power to the few at the expense of everyone else.
• The systematic removal of our Constitutional Rights especially our right-to-privacy under the guise of “national defense.” (GWOT functionally waged on the citizens of our once great country.)
How did ordinary citizens become an enemy?
TWO BUSH - THREE WARS
No more Bush in our White House.
Mark - Lineage is not a dynasty.
Are you attempting to actually defend this specific Bush dynasty?
Seriously?
TWO BUSH - THREE WARS!
No more dynasties in our White House.
A dynastic President of limited capacity being influenced by those inspired by pure evil has left a broad stain (protected by law) on our once great country which will take decades to cleanse, if ever.
• Establishing an outlaw multinational TORTURE network funded for years by the U.S. Congress.
• Starting two unnecessary and destructive foreign wars lasting well over a decade costing TRILLION$ STOLEN from the U.S. Treasury by a complicit Congress.
• Precipitating the pointless combined deaths and maiming of hundreds of thousands of completely innocent U.S. military and foreign nationals.
• Deregulation of planet killing emissions.
• Facilitating the acceleration of the transfer of our national wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer people.
This is BEYOND TREASON!
A little over thirteen (13) years ago corporate-controlled media became fully complicit in rooting a criminal administration firmly in place in the minds of our citizens.
Now, every attempt will be made to obscure that fact.
Adding China “air-power” to the anti-Daesh actions would be a major expansion of the conflict for natural resources of the region.
Since the inception of the Patriot Act and the AUMFs of 2001 and 2002 “wingnut logic” became the Law of the Land.
Given the "The Noun/verb 9/11 Justification," a very corporate-controlled media, the lurching far-to-the-right Congress and Supreme Court those previous users of our White House who originated, authorized, directed, coordinated and hid TORTURE will most likely get away with it.
This was widespread, multinational, well-funded, systematic torture which could have only occurred with full sanctioning by the White House and certain members of Congress who funded these heinous actions over a long period of time.
The Noun/verb 9/11 Justification takes in vain all those who perished on that day. A lame excuse which spreads the stain on our history even further.
And to bring all those responsible to trial and punishment. Preventing these crimes against our country from happening, again.
There, finished a good comment.
No need to thank.
Why should some rich man’s son of limited capacity and an aging evil legend-in-his-own-mind go unpunished for blatant and heinous crimes against our once great country?
Hate, divisiveness and bullying are ascending in our once great country.
Where does it actually originate? And how is it replenished and carried?
Who benefits?
Wars in history served to shift power and wealth amongst the winners and losers of the conflict itself.
This is not the case when the United States “goes to war” during recent decades. When the U.S. makes war in some distant resource-rich land the actual losers are the people of our once great country. Recent wars have cost ALL OF US our personal freedoms including right-to-privacy and enabled the funneling of power and wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer people at a much accelerating rate.
A former President and Supreme Allied Commander in WWII warned us this could happen.
• Population 7,821,850 Israel
• Population 10,017,068 Los Angeles County
Israel and U.S. justification for theocratic nukes like LA needing the bomb to defend against Mexico's poor.
Glenn who??
Why are we terraforming our planet to be hostile to the existing forms of life?
Including humans.
We gave up our freedom when our government and insidious powers behind the scenes purposefully over-reacted to 9/11.
Rescinding the Patriot Act, the AUMFs and defunding the DHS would be a start.
Title of this should be "Corporate-controlled Media vs. Reagan . . . . . "
Attempts to distort history in media on this specific topic is not a canard left/right issue. It is a profit/loss issue.
A powerful influence which drives good people to vote against the best interests of themselves and their families.
What today are termed "Native Americans" were at least 20,000 years ahead of any claiming to have discovered the Americas.
There is no Freedom of the Press in our once great country.
Period.
Congress is government. Those who financially supported and in-turn control those “elected” don’t want government in any form.
Which is why Congre$$ does NOTHING.
Dr. Cole - thank you for pointing out the role of gatekeepers and the use of the “Lie of Omission” by the corporate-controlled media. It is the most powerful and odious tool employed.
The PATRIOT Act, the AUMFs of 2001 and 2002 must be rescinded and funding for the completely redundant DHS must be drastically reduced.
Priorities have changed.
FAUXNews is opinion packaged as visually appealing entertainment disguised as “news.”
And because it is free from most cable networks, FAUXNews ends up spewing in lower and fixed-income areas. (Especially prominent in waiting rooms.)
FAUXNews reinforces the significantly diminished educational levels in the U.S. and openly promotes bully-incited and enforced hatred, feeding peer group pressures where formal educations are seen as a form of weakness or reason for suspicion.
FAUXNews knows their audience well.
Why is it FAUXNews reports on ISIS “operations” more quickly than any other corporate-controlled media spigot?
The Dallas Ebola outbreak is NOT a political issue.
It is the direct result of a highly prosperous corporate-owned and operated hospital not following the mandated procedures/guidelines and doing so repeatedly.
The arrogant new super wealthy who watched the fossil fuel industry STEAL our natural riches out from under the people of our country want to duplicate that act of blatant greed and world endangering behavior.
They now want to steal the light from the sun.
Opinion and political rhetoric do not alter facts.
Merely obscures.
Texas GOP U.S Congressperson Gohmert is no where near as stupid and irresponsible as corporate-owned and controlled Dallas health providers who allowed Ebola-exposed individual(s) to circulate freely for days in a large apartment complex, local schools, in the homeless community and amongst front-line healthcare providers before contacting the appropriate Federal government agencies to take action.
And subsequently those very same corporate-owned and controlled Dallas health providers changed their stories about what actually happened and their blatant MISTAKES!
Currently under indictment third-term Texas Governor Perry has now formed a Ebola fact-finding commission to find the gentleman-of-color in our White House to be responsible.
Why give this insane person air or press?
Since the creation of Israel, the U.S. has been the primary source of support for a country with the total population equal to two adjoining counties in Southern California.
The amazing amount of U.S. taxpayers dollars and military support lavished on this tiny little country is the direct result of the outdated need to justify active involvement in a much larger petroleum rich region which is NOT OUR PROPERTY.
Phasing-out a more-risk-than-reward antiquated foreign policy must be done with caution and intelligence.
Historically, something the U.S. sorely lacks.
Exploiting loopholes in U.S. laws made and maintained by CONGRESS is the work of effective lawyers, not ineffective law enforcement.
Apparently, living within a failed democracy, now an oligarchy, where simple undereducated citizens vote "R" out of hateful reflex has factually escaped those who feel a broad well-entrenched classist conspiracy is the evil-doing of identifiable individuals.
Which U.S. laws were broken?
Please, be very specific.
The longer humanity waits to curb anthropogenic-induced climate change the more drastic, autocratic and disquieting the necessary and required changes will be.
So much wealth is being funneled to the "Super Rich" Ferrari has to boost production to keep up.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-11/ferrari-to-boost-production-to-keep-pace-with-super-rich.html
Mr. Hannity has accurately reached the average level of IQ for FAUXNews viewers with the "patriarch" of Duck Dynasty as a contributor.
Tele-charlatan Robertson suffers from an aging disability and makes real Christians look unhinged every time some desperate-for-ratings media personality trots him out to babble.
He did?
NSA listening has been around for well over a decade and agreed, it is deplorable and over-zealous. Compared to PRIVATE SECTOR data point collecting, distributing and archiving of virtually every action any of us make on a daily basis, the NSA listening is only part of the actual threat to our privacy and liberty.
(For one important example and as a graphic representation find “Lightbeam,” a Firefox Add-on and see exactly where just your browser activity is going and to whom. !!!!)
Personal data points collected from internet activity, bank card utilization, fuel purchases, cell phone activity, any internet enabled device (media players, home thermostats, refrigerators, etc.) are continuously collected, diligently recorded, analyzed and archived all for sale to the highest bidder.
The Surveillance Society must end and the information gleaned destroyed.
Perhaps Members of Congress and their families should be made very aware they are not excluded from rampant data point collection by the private sector?
Complaining about corporate-controlled media and the Bush/Obama surveillance society is very “old-hat” Professor Cole.
Before anything can be fixed and progress reinstated the above-cited national travesties must be corrected.
Otherwise, valuable time is wasted.