Ben Swann interviews President Obama (NDAA, Kill List, Syria, Afghanistan) "This war will be over 2014... around tea time!"

Ben Swann of Fox19 interviews President Barack Obama on NDAA, indefinite detention, the "presidential kill list" (assassination of American citizens without charges or due process), Syria and the war in Afghanistan. Source

8 ways to improve society when you opt out of voting and campaigning

By J.G Vibes: When a problem occurs, or when something is wrong, we have traditionally been conditioned to find someone who is “in charge”, a final arbiter of decision making who will have all of the answers and know all of the right things to say and do.  Typically, those who have found themselves “in charge” are no more qualified or knowledgeable than those who are not, yet nonetheless these false prophets continue to swindle generation after generation of people.  The worst thing about this whole situation is that these so called “authorities” maintain a monopoly on problem solving, meaning they are really the only ones who are allowed to solve problems.  Thus over time people begin to believe that those in authority are the only ones who are actually capable of solving problems, when in reality, as i mentioned earlier they are no more qualified than anyone else.
If we apply this understanding to the realm of government, it is not difficult to see that the current system of electoral politics is not an effective or moral way for people to actually create meaningful change in their communities and the planet as a whole.  Year after year, administration after administration the faces change, but the oppression continues to escalate.  Even if your vote is actually counted, which it probably isn’t, it still wont matter who wins in the end anyway, because they are all going to carry out the exact same policies with just slightly rhetoric behind them.  It should be obvious by now that this system is not only inherently corrupt, but is also failing miserably and currently in the process of collapse.
So what do we do?  How do we solve these problems?  Do we look to authority? Do we put someone in charge?  Of course not!  How has that been working out for us all along?  Not so well, right? Yet when I suggest that everyone needs give up on voting and take matters into their own hands in their own personal lives, people always seem to get the impression that I am suggesting they “do nothing”.  In reality the complete opposite is true, I am suggesting that they actually get out and do something to make an impact on the problems that bother them instead of just pushing a button in an election booth, throwing the problem on some politicians lap and thinking that something is actually going to get done.  If anything that political approach that I just described is the lazy and utopian way of going about things, but actually working on solutions yourself, that right there is truly meaningful action.  There are a ton of ways that you can contribute to helping the global situation without politics, in fact you will do much better than the politicians at actually achieving the goal.  Below is just a few ways that I have recently seen people solving problems in their community by themselves, without the government.
(1) -Opt out in every way possible

Illegal camerawork at The Groucho Club: was it a missing link in the Hackgate saga? - The Slog

On the trail of Groucho members, Newscorpers, and Shadow Ministers

The story so far: we know that the Groucho Club run by JHJ Lewis indulged in unregulated surveillance. We know that a website using the same domain and name as The Groucho was an active paedophile linking forum for at least a year. We know that Mr Lewis has donated a probable six-figure sum over time to the new Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. We know that Lewis gave Hunt £4000 to visit New York, where he hob-knobbed with the Murdoch media elite. We know that ten days later, James Murdoch met David Cameron and confirmed that the Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper would support the Conservative Party in the forthcoming election. And we know that Lewis was in charge of a major Tory paper on UK Tourism, one in which the Prime Minister took a keen personal interest. Today, in Episode Three of the Hunt-Groucho Saga, The Slog discusses what the chances are of these being significant, or simply coincidental, connections.

The Death Of IPOs, And Why It Matters To You

Submitted by Tyler Durden: The chart below by way of Grant Thornton shows something rather disturbing: in recent months, the number of IPOs that are trading "at or above their issue price 30 days after IPO pricing" has been collapsing in virtually a straight line since the early 1990s, and in 2012 was just shy of all time lows (which have been recorded during periods of great market crashes, not when the S&P is about to hit its yearly highs). As such the lack of success of such prominent recent names as FaceBook, Zynga, Groupon and many others, is not simply a function of valuation and investor sentiment, but related to the ongoing deteriorating in the underlying market structure for a variety of reasons, many of which have been written about here in the past.

Some more visual confirmation of how the US IPO market is on its last breath:

Putin: Assange case exposes UK double standards (Exclusive Interview)

President Putin gives his first post-inauguration interview, speaking in depth with RT’s Kevin Owen ahead of the APEC summit in Vladivostok.
­Touching upon a range of issues, he discusses topics from the Pussy Riot trial to the Julian Assange case, from the upcoming US elections to the situation in Syria.
RT: What I want to talk about first of all is the ongoing at the moment APEC summit. You'll be going there very shortly – in Vladivostok because it's the first time that Russia has held it, a prestigious event. But it always begs the question – what's actually achieved at these events, events like that, like the G8, G20?
Now, though APEC is primarily an economic vessel, there's a lot of politics involved as well. And of course a lot of the key players including you, including America, a lot of key players disagree on some very key issues. I'm thinking about Syria, I'm thinking about missile defense, I'm thinking about Iran. Is there a danger that the politics may stifle, get in the way of the big economic deals that the very same key players are hoping to sign at this summit or at least talk about signing?
President Putin: That is true. But in fact – and you’ve just said it yourself – APEC was originally conceived as a forum for discussing economic issues. And as this year’s host country, we also intend to focus on economic and socio-economic challenges.
APEC was originally established with the overall objective of liberalizing the global economy. And we intend to make this a key issue on the agenda in Vladivostok.
When I invited our counterparts, five years ago, to meet for this forum particularly in the Russian Federation, my rationale was to acknowledge the importance of this area for Russia, given that two-thirds of Russia’s territory are located in Asia, and yet the bulk of our foreign trade – more than 50 percent – is with Europe, whereas Asia only accounts for 24 percent. Meanwhile, Asia is developing rapidly and intensively. You and I know it, and everybody knows it. Therefore, we are planning to focus primarily on economic challenges, transport, global food security and the task of liberalizing the global economy. It’s a well-known fact that the past year has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people affected by starvation, which has grown by 200 million. This means that 1 billion people worldwide are currently suffering from food shortages or famine. I believe this is the kind of issue that will be the focus of attention, along with a number of other challenges that are highly sensitive and significant for millions of people.
As far as Syria and other hot spots are concerned – issues that are currently in the limelight – we will certainly address them in our deliberations at the forum, in bilateral discussions or otherwise. They won’t be overlooked.

Reclaim power: Independent founder's bid to rescue politics from party elites ++

A campaign to revolutionise British politics in time for the next general election has been launched by The Independent's founding editor, Andreas Whittam Smith.
The ambitious project, called Democracy2015, is the first in Britain to explicitly encourage people successful in other walks of life to enter the political stage. To mark its beginning, Mr Whittam Smith today publishes a critique of the day-to-day operation of British democracy, highlighting nationwide disillusionment with the institutions and practices of Westminster.

The incompetence of government and betrayal of voter trust by career politicians has chipped away at the public's faith in politics, Mr Whittam Smith writes, undermining the authority of Parliament and alienating the people who really matter.
"A political class has gradually emerged in the last 25 years whose only interest is in winning elections and gaining power," he said. "They are dominated by party politics and are fundamentally incompetent.
"Even the politicians who form the Cabinet have absolutely no notion of how to manage the country; Cameron comes from public relations, the Chancellor from Tory research, the Foreign Secretary's background is full-time politics, and the Home Secretary was a full-time politician."
Operating under the banner "People Politics, Not Party Politics", the campaign will seek to reverse public apathy by offering the chance for members of the public to engage with current affairs beyond general elections.
Andreas Whittam Smith: Our democracy is desperately sick. This is your chance to help save it

Mike Maloney in Horrible Car Crash with Tesla, The Colonization of Mars and The Economic Crash?

By Mike Maloney:

A Sunday Drive In My Tesla.

Part 1.  The Car Crash

Part 2.  The Economic Crash

Part 3.  The Cars

Part 4.  Freedom and the Pursuit of Excellence

 

Part 1. The Car Crash

On Sunday evening, August 26^th, I was in one of the most spectacular car accidents I have ever seen. I was driving my Tesla Roadster at 25-30 MPH on a tree-lined canyon road in the Santa Monica Mountains, about to round a slow blind corner.  When suddenly, out from behind the trees came a speeding car skidding out of control.  The corner was posted at 25 MPH…. the oncoming car was traveling at 50 or 60 MPH.  It crossed the centerline of the road fully into my lane and was heading straight at me.  

I veered toward the shoulder of the road and WHAM!  The car hit me head on, pushing my car backwards 20 or 30 feet, and sheering the entire driver’s side of my car clean off.  

Misandry in the military: U.S. drone war in Yemen continues to heat up with 29 alleged militants killed in 8 days

By Madison Ruppert: The joint drone program in Yemen being conducted by both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) continues to increase in intensity with a shocking 29 alleged militants slaughtered in the last 8 days alone.
To make matters even worse, the number of dead so far this year alone is nearing the 200 mark, according to the Long War Journal, with the 29 individuals killed in a mere four strikes.
Part of the covert drone war in Yemen being waged by the U.S. includes the practice of so-called “signature strikes.” This practice involves the CIA bombing people who supposedly display the “signature” of terrorist activity. In other words, if they think you look like a terrorist from a drone overhead, they just might fire a missile in your direction without even knowing who you are.
While the Long War Journal statistics claim that there have only been 35 civilian deaths in 2012, I find this number somewhat dubious since as The New York Times recently reported, the United States “counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants.”
Therefore, so long as you are male and not a child and unfortunate enough to happen to be in a strike zone, you can be considered a combatant and thus excluded from the civilian casualty report. This practice obviously results in a number of civilian casualties which does not reflect the reality of the situation.

Obama administration: cellphone location data is not ‘constitutionally protected’

By Madison Ruppert: In a federal court Tuesday the Obama administration claimed that Americans have absolutely no “reasonable expectation of privacy” concerning cellphone location data, thus enabling law enforcement to acquire detailed records of a user’s movements without even obtaining probable cause warrant.
This is just one of the many cases of the Obama administration fighting to hold on to unconstitutional powers such as warrantless wiretapping, the power to indefinitely detain Americans without charge or trial, and even their supposed right to refuse to explain why they believe they have the authority to assassinate Americans.
In court the administration cited a 1976 Supreme Court decision in the case United States v. Miller  which essentially stated that documents like banking records are actually “third-party records,” thus removing any right to privacy.
The move was made in the course of the re-trial of an alleged drug dealer whose conviction was overturned in January by the Supreme Court. At the time, the Supreme Court ruled that the GPS tracking device employed by the government was, in fact, an illegal search.
The Supreme Court decision was relatively major seeing as it led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to turn off a whopping 3,000 GPS-tracking devices in the field.
After the vehicle tracking data – spanning nearly a month of travel – was thrown out, the government was forced to argue that they legally obtained the cellphone location records of the defendant, Antoine Jones. Unsurprisingly, they obtained the data without a warrant.
“A customer’s Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records that were never in the possession of the customer,” stated the Obama administration in a court filing dated September 4, 2012, provided by Wired’s Threat Level.
“When a cell phone user transmits a signal to a cell tower for his call to be connected, he thereby assumes the risk that the cell phone provider will create its own internal record of which of the company’s towers handles the call,” the administration continued in the document. “Thus, it makes no difference if some users have never thought about how their cell phones work; a cell phone user can have no expectation of privacy in cell-site information.”

Iran nuclear threat non-existent: UK MP

A Labour British lawmaker has described the so-called Iranian nuclear threat as “non-existent” in response to growing media speculation and ballyhoo over the issue.

Addressing the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) questions, Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West, lauded the 179 British troops who were killed as a result of the US-led military adventurism in Iraq in pursuit of non-existent nukes. “If the nuclear state of Israel attacks Iran in pursuit of non-existent long-range Iranian missiles carrying non-existent Iranian bombs, can we have a guarantee that the House would discuss its position before any British lives were put in jeopardy?” he asked.

In response to Flynn’s question on Iran, Foreign Secretary William Hague stressed that if British troops were committed to military action there should be a parliamentary vote.

Speaking in FCO questions on the Iranian nuclear energy program, the prominent Zionist regime critic and Labour MP, Sir Gerald Kaufman, asked Hague to “make it clear to Israel and everybody else that we are totally opposed to military action against Iran.”

Faber - The Most Dangerous Trend Facing The World Today

Marc Faber: “They will continue to do it (print money), and this will lead to a misallocation of capital as we had in the past, and to further bubbles here and there.  They can sterilize it (bond buying) to some point, but I think, in general, what usually happens is these measures are not fully sterilized.

... I believe central bankers are in this world to print money.  They are, intellectually, completely dishonest or incompetent, and that’s all they know.  They never worked a day in their lives.  They are all kind of grown in the academia.... Click here for link to KWN interview.

The British case for Mitt Romney - MEP Daniel Hannan

In 1660, some of the men who had ordered the execution of Charles I were themselves put to death, their corpses mutilated and strung up in public. A Royalist mob gathered at Tyburn, yelling angrily at the cadavers: ‘Enthusiasts! Enthusiasts!’
The British have never been especially keen on enthusiasm, either in its modern sense, or in the older meaning of ‘seized by religious fervour’. Americans – ideological descendants, in many ways, of those regicides – differ from us perhaps more in this than in any other regard.
When I took my seat in the Tampa convention hall with a group of MEPs, our Republican friends said: ‘You might be on camera, so try to behave like Americans: no eye-rolling’.
What followed could not have happened in any other country. One after another, friends and colleagues of Mitt Romney lined up to tell us about the many acts of kindness which he had performed unremarked. Parents choked back their tears as they recalled the time he had spent with their dying children. Former employees spoke of his humility, his industriousness, his quiet charity. In a stroke of genius, one of his sons told us that, as boys, he and his brothers had always had to go to their mother for pocket money, their father being tightfisted – which, given America’s present circumstances, strikes me as the best possible recommendation.
We overseas politicians, whether from Europe or the Anglosphere, all agreed that such things couldn’t happen at our own party conferences. Testimonials would dismissed as mawkish, sugary, downright embarrassing. But here’s the thing: the mood they generate is infectious. The optimistic air of the new world, even in muggy Florida, gets to work on the visitor. You find yourself carried along by the sheer artlessness of the schmaltz. I might have imagined it, but I think I saw Sayeeda Warsi singing along to America the Beautiful with everyone else.
Indeed, the one person who seemed slightly uneasy about the public lauding of Mitt Romney was Mitt Romney.