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Good Morning!
Zinnia. August, 2012 by joanneleon
If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.
~Howard Zinn
News
We Arm the World! US Dominates Global Arms Sales
An “extraordinary increase” over the $21.4 billion in deals for 2010
U.S. arms exports tripled and reached a record $66.3 billion last year or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, the New York Times is reporting Sunday night.
The US military-industial complex sold 78 per cent of the world's arms in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with just $4.8 billion in weapon sales.
Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.
U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market
WASHINGTON — Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran’s regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress.
Tom Brokaw: "Let's face it, modern political conventions have become extravagant infomercials deliberately staged to seal them off from any intrusion not scrubbed and sanitized."
And the real story is outside the "perimeter" anyway where the huge, lavish corporate fetes are -- where the real action is. Everything else is kabuki theater, as so much of the official and televised goings on are kabuki theater. The real debate and persuasion happens off the cameras.
Do Party Conventions Matter Anymore?
This week marks the start of the Republican national convention, followed next week by the Democratic convention. They are elaborate, heavily scripted, expensive affairs — this year, Congress has set aside $100 million for security and $18 million to each party for balloons, signs and other party material — with little of the drama and excitement of years past.
Are political conventions still significant in the democratic process? Are they worth the cost?
In Apple v. Samsung Patent Case, Expect Nobody to Win
Another view is that an Apple victory might drive other companies to come up with truly inventive new designs, interfaces and functions. By this thinking, Apple might not actually want an outright victory; it would only spark stiffer competition. Indeed, the worst outcome of all for consumers might be an Apple victory that leads to a settlement with Samsung: We would be left with nothing but Apple-licensed clones on the market. And Apple itself would always be able to avoid antitrust liability by claiming it still faces energetic competition.
Whoever wins, the expensive, loony unreality of software patents will not go away quickly enough. Companies seem to be bent on inventing patents rather than patenting inventions. Every device is covered by hundreds of patent claims, and because a patent is primarily a license to litigate, armies of lawyers and experts tussle over dry technical terms in front of befuddled jurors worldwide.
Seventeen civilians killed in Afghanistan's Helmand
Seventeen civilians have been killed by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, reportedly for attending a party.
[ ... ]
Meanwhile, 10 Afghan army soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack in the same province.
In eastern Afghanistan, two US soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan National Army soldier.
The Best Laid Plans: How Quickly Will the US Leave Afghanistan?
You undoubtedly know the phrase: the best laid plans of mice and men. It couldn’t be more apt when it comes to the American project in Afghanistan. Washington’s plans have indeed been carefully drawn up. By the end of 2014, U.S. “combat troops” are to be withdrawn, but left behind on the giant bases the Pentagon has built will be thousands of U.S. trainers and advisers, as well as special operations forces to go after al-Qaeda remnants (and other “militants”), and undoubtedly the air power to back them all up.
[ ... ]
In other words, it being Afghanistan, we need a translator. The American “withdrawal” regularly mentioned in the media doesn’t really mean “withdrawal.” On paper at least, for years to come the U.S. will partially occupy a country that has a history of loathing foreigners who won’t leave (and making them pay for it).
[ ... ]
Plans are one thing, reality another. After all, when invading U.S. troops triumphantly arrived in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in April 2003, the White House and the Pentagon were already planning to stay forever and a day -- and they instantly began building permanent bases (though they preferred to speak of “permanent access” via “enduring camps”) as a token of their intent. Only a couple of years later, in a gesture that couldn’t have been more emphatic in planning terms, they constructed the largest (and possibly most expensive) embassy on the planet as a regional command center in Baghdad. Yet somehow, those perfectly laid plans went desperately awry and only a few years later, with American leaders still looking for ways to garrison the country into the distant future, Washington found itself out on its ear. But that’s reality for you, isn’t it?
Right now, evidence on the ground -- in the form of dead American bodies piling up -- indicates that even the Afghans closest to us don’t exactly second the Obama administration's plans for a 20-year occupation. In fact, news from the deep-sixed war in that forgotten land, often considered the longest conflict in American history, has suddenly burst onto the front pages of our newspapers and to the top of the TV news. And there’s just one reason for that: despite the copious plans of the planet’s last superpower, the poor, backward, illiterate, hapless, corrupt Afghans -- whose security forces, despite unending American financial support and mentoring, have never effectively “stood up” -- made it happen. They have been sending a stark message, written in blood, to Washington’s planners.
Will look good in the headlines and sound good in campaign speeches, but it sounds like the 202 bases were small FOB forward operating bases. 200x10 = 2000; 200x30=6000. This affects somewhere between 2000-6000 troops.
NATO: 202 AFGHAN BASES CLOSED, MORE TO COME
All 202 closed facilities were small, ranging from isolated checkpoints to bases of a dozen to 300 soldiers, said Lt. Col. David Olson, a NATO forces spokesman. Most of the closures have been along the country's main highways, spread across nearly every province, Olson said.
Another 282 bases of the same size have been handed over to the Afghan government, he said.
Blog Posts of Interest
Relying on Conflicting Reports from Afghanistan About The U.S. Drone Program by Jesselyn Radack
2600's hacker calendar for 2013: the surveillance edition on Boing Boing
The Worst Idea in the World: Securitizing Rental Revenue by David Dayen
Lack of Financial Fraud Prosecutions a Festering Wound for Country, Economy
A Message from the Coalition to March on the RNC
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
We are ready for some serious change. We are ready to take up the tools of a free and analytic press to peacefully undermine the stranglehold of the kleptocrats on our battered democracy. We are ready to expose and publicize their greed, lies and illegal machinations and hold their enablers in government and the media to account. Are you in?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
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