Man On Fire: 07/29/12

29 Jul 2012

Update: WikiLeaks, A Post Postscript - Potential financial blockade against the New York Times by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express?

Stacy Summary: WTF??? Paypal ‘investigating’ NY Times and whether to punish them for publishing Wikileaks? Visa & Mastercard to make it impossible to pay online for NY Times?

The backroom pressures by the Obama Administration’s State Department to expand its financial blockade targeting WikiLeaks to include news organizations that host information from their trove of pilfered documents goes too far.

UPDATE: Bill Keller just tweeted that the above (and Below) opinion piece is FAKE? If that is true, then presumably the paypal one is as well? Your thoughts on what is going on? Yes Men? Presumably it would have taken quite a bit of technical know-how to create a fake NY Times, which I believe the Yes Men have created in an analogue form in the past?

UPDATE 2: The strange thing is that, according to Greenwald, it was Bill Keller himself who retweeted a link to the hoax NY Times page. And only later did he issue a statement saying that it was not him. At the moment, you can still see this retweet of the hoax on his tweet stream.
UPDATE 3: I’m pretty sure it’s Yes Men succeeding once again in forcing a major corporation to deny responsibility for doing the responsible thing. But mark my word, this will one day be a true headline.
UPDATE 4: NY Times lead tech writer was also taken in by fake op-ed and tweeted that all should read this ‘important’ piece. Note, he’s now deleted it, but picture is below of his tweet encouraging all to read the Op-Ed.

Will Kurds Fight Kurds - Roy Gutman + Christians flee Al-CIA-da - Afshin Rattansi

Morris: The Kurds of Northern Iraq have the most Independence of all Kurds and they are closely aligned with Turkey, will they allow the newly found autonomy for Syrian Kurds to be become a springboard for Anti Turkish activities?

The Julian Assange Show: Cypherpunks Uncut (p.2)

You can't do much online or with your phone without someone, somewhere, knowing what you're doing. But there's one group on your side. They're called the Cypherpunks Movement, and they're on Julian Assange's show here on RT to talk about their plans to keep your private data, private. Source

Olympic destruction and resignation - Afshin Rattansi

Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke thinks gold maybe better than Libor rates after all. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joins al-Qaida in Syria. We also talk to Meredith Alexander, Policy Chief at Action Aid, about why she resigned as a London Olympics 2012 Commissioner over sponsorship of the London games. These and much more are all reviewed in this edition of Double Standards with Afshin Rattansi. Source

Bypassing Government Roadblocks to Your Personal Prosperity

By David Galland, Casey Research: Recently I helped out with some delivery chores. As I drove about, I discovered that one of the roads I would normally use was closed by roadblocks. It was, I imagine, due to road repair work. I had to reverse course and take a substantial detour.

I wondered why the road crew hadn't put up a sign indicating the road was closed back at the main intersection, but I shrugged and muttered something like "Typical government operation."

Driving back home, this idea of roadblocks took root in my mind. The thing is, only governmental entities can set up roadblocks – at least, legally.

Obviously, there are times when such roadblocks are entirely appropriate... for example, when a bridge is found to be dangerous.

In that case, putting up a roadblock to let drivers know that the road is a no-go makes perfect sense.

For example, a temporary warning sign to let people know that there is a road crew fixing potholes ahead makes sense and that sort of thing.

Otherwise, unless a road is damaged to the point where driving is either impossible or ill advised, there should be no roadblocks set up. Makes sense, right?

The decision to set up a roadblock should be taken only by people who are close to the problem, who understand the issues, and can deal with the problem on the road, fix it, and open it up again as quickly as possible.

Imagine then a world where government officials, as often as not operating hundreds or even thousands of miles away, are in control of the roadblock rules.

West Bank under fire "repeatedly stabbed by 'New York' settlers after just being shot by Israeli soldiers" - Remember Palestine

Nazi Death Gulag Frenzy: A number of NGOs including UNICEF and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as Palestinian Al Haq and the Israeli Yesh Din, issued yet another statement on the continued rise in settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The statement which states there has been an astounding 150% increase in settler violence since 2009 comes just a few days after a lethal attack on a Palestinian who was repeatedly stabbed by settlers after just being shot by Israeli soldiers.

Shahrzad - A Lady in Iran explains Iran's position + Iran culture and Kurds

From Women's Rights to Military Intervention.

TSA agent: “America is nothing, I don’t get paid from tax payers, I get paid by the federal government!” TSA Checkpoints Exposed: Journalist Tracked, Targeted and Harassed

Following my video back on July 5th "TSA Invades Chicago's Union Station", I went back to Chicago's Union Station on July 18th to meet with the Director of "Why in The World are they are Spraying Mike Murphy". Before I met with Mike; I walked around Union Station to see if TSA was still lurking around the Union Station Grounds. As I approached Metro's Union Station Restaurant I spotted a group of TSA agents about to eat lunch, so I decided to document them again at Chicago's Union Station.

Protesters Slam £24 Billion "militarized and corporate London Olympic games"

London has showcased the Best of British at the Olympics opening ceremony but it's the morning after the night before. And those who aren't so happy with the games are showcasing their reasons why. They wouldn't let them anywhere near the Olympic Stadium but hundreds of protestors have gathered down the road in mile end against what they call a militarized and corporate Olympic games. Source

Media Blackout: The Mexican Spring "Against 70 years of oppression" THE LARGEST PROTEST THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

THE LARGEST PROTEST THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN IS GOING ON NOW
LAME STREAM MEDIA HAS IT BLACKED OUT

'Addicted to WAR' The Pentagon Budget: Largest Ever and Growing

By Sara Flounders: On Oct. 28, President Barack Obama signed the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, the largest military budget in U.S. history.

It is not only the world's largest military budget but is larger than the military expenditures of the whole rest of the world combined. And it is growing nonstop. The 2010 military budget--which doesn't even cover many war-related expenditures--is listed as $680 billion. In 2009 it was $651 billion and in 2000 was $280 billion. It has more than doubled in 10 years.

What a contrast to the issue of health care!

The U.S. Congress has been debating a basic health care plan--which every other industrialized country in the world has in some form--for more than six months. There has been intense insurance company lobbying, right-wing threats, and dire warnings that a health care plan must not add one dime to the deficit.

Yet in the midst of this life-and-death debate on medical care for millions of working and poor people who have no health coverage, a gargantuan subsidy to the largest U.S. corporations for military contracts and weapons systems--a real deficit-breaker--is passed with barely any discussion and hardly a news article.

Physicians for a National Health Program estimates that a universal, comprehensive single-payer health plan would cost $350 billion a year, which would actually be the amount saved through the elimination of all the administrative costs in the current private health care system--a system that leaves out almost 50 million people.

Compare this to just the cost overruns each year in the military budget. Even President Obama on signing the Pentagon budget said, "The Government Accountability Office, the GAO, has looked into 96 major defense projects from the last year, and found cost overruns that totaled $296 billion."