Did the UN Really Install a Global Police Force at the Local Level?

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Activist Post

Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program

October 5, 2015

By Amanda Warren

While people were in a daze of reverie following the lunar eclipse and the Pope’s U.S. visit, a very important yet overlooked announcement was made by the Department of Justice.

“Launch of Strong Cities Network to Strengthen Community Resilience Against Violent Extremism” rang the bell to usher in a global-local initiative to ferret out extremism at the local level – yes, in the United States. Symbolically, it could also signal a turning point when it comes to local authorities and their treatment of the residents at large. Indeed, it is a global enmeshment that most Americans are either a) in the total dark about, or b) going hysterical over, if they’ve heard about it.

Honestly, either of those reactions is understandable when you start digging into the announcements and its sponsors only to find the typical convoluted, global-psycho-babble that signals to the astute that they are about to lose their rights and be perceived as domestic terrorists. But can anyone really say for sure? Of course not. Not when the message is written in Newspeak gibberish.

What is the Strong Cities Network and why did some U.S. cities join up?

On the face of it, SCN is to strengthen the bond between cities in the U.S. and global cities in the fight against violent extremism, internationally and at the local level. It will funnel help to local authorities of those cities which hop on board.

 

Read More Here

The UN Releases Plan to Push for Worldwide Internet Censorship

 

 

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The United Nations has disgraced itself immeasurably over the past month or so.

In case you missed the following stories, I suggest catching up now:

The UN’s “Sustainable Development Agenda” is Basically a Giant Corporatist Fraud

Not a Joke – Saudi Arabia Chosen to Head UN Human Rights Panel

Fresh off the scene from those two epic embarrassments, the UN now wants to tell governments of the world how to censor the internet. I wish I was kidding.

From the Washington Post:

On Thursday, the organization’s Broadband Commission for Digital Development released a damning “world-wide wake-up call” on what it calls “cyber VAWG,” or violence against women and girls. The report concludes that online harassment is “a problem of pandemic proportion” — which, nbd, we’ve all heard before.

But the United Nations then goes on to propose radical, proactive policy changes for both governments and social networks, effectively projecting a whole new vision for how the Internet could work.

Under U.S. law — the law that, not coincidentally, governs most of the world’s largest online platforms — intermediaries such as Twitter and Facebook generally can’t be held responsible for what people do on them. But the United Nations proposes both that social networks proactively police every profile and post, and that government agencies only “license” those who agree to do so.

People are being harassed online, and the solution is to censor everything and license speech? Remarkable.

 

Read More Here

Sedgwick, Maine First to Enact Free Food Trade Immune to Federal Law, Say NO to Forced GMO Regulations

Natural Society

by Christina Sarich
February 2nd, 2014
Updated 02/02/2014 at 1:53 am

 

Sedgwick, Maine, the first town in the US to legalize any kind of food transaction as free and legal in order to keep the right to produce raw milk, organic produce, free-range eggs, and more, is revolutionizing the way America keeps its food rights – including saying no to GMOs. In other words, it is the first town to declare food sovereignty while opposing both state and federal laws.

The town has passed an ordinance that protects citizens’ rights to “produce, sell, purchase, and consume any food of their choosing.” The ordinance laughs in the face of FDA regulations and their hodge-podge way of giving food a rubber stamp of approval, especially GMO. Three additional towns in Maine are expected to pass similar ordinances as well.

The move is somewhat similar to a move one England town made, where the citizens transformed their entire town’s landscape into a giant food-producing garden. Both are great examples of moving toward food sovereignty.

It isn’t just a declaration on the whim of a few city council members. There is a warrant added: “It shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the state or federal government to interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance.” This means that federal interference is prohibited in our food supply – at least in Maine. If you can’t get Monsanto out of the government, take the government out of your food. It’s a brilliant way around the convoluted system now in place that almost gave Monsanto the right to be exempt from federal prosecution for its poison food and which tries to hoist (foist.. DR) it upon the whole Nation without consent.

 

Read More Here

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Spain ‘won’t have enough tanks’: Catalonia to vote on independence, defy Madrid

Published time: December 13, 2013 09:35
Edited time: December 13, 2013 13:48

 

Head of the Catalunyan regional government Artur Mas (C) stands during a press conference on December 12, 2013 in Barcelona announcing that political parties in Catalonia agreed to hold a referendum on independence for the northeastern Spanish region on November 9, 2014 (AFP Photo / STR)

 

The Catalan regional parliament has set November next year for a referendum on the Spanish province’s independence. The government in Madrid blandly said the vote won’t happen, but activists wonder how it might be stopped.

Catalonia’s four pro-independence parties, which hold a majority in the regional parliament, announced Thursday that the rich industrial Spanish province will hold a referendum on whether to gain greater autonomy or even total independence from the country’s central government.

The vote’s preliminary date is November 9, Catalan regional government head Artur Mas said. The people will be asked two questions: “Do you want Catalonia to be a state?” and “Do you want that state to be independent?”

The former question was added for those Catalans who seek to change Spain into a federation, with Catalonia forming part of it. According to a Metroscopia poll in newspaper El Pais last month, 46 percent of Catalans favor separatism versus 42 percent who wish to remain within Spain. The support for greater autonomy, however, is very strong.

Just minutes after the announcement Spanish Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon rejected the idea, saying it would be unconstitutional.

“The vote will not be held,” he said.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy spoke out later in the day, saying his government will not allow the Catalan referendum to happen.

 

Read More Here

 

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Catalonia sets date for independence referendum, but Madrid vows to block it

Catalan parties agree wording of proposed November 2014 referendum but Spanish government says it will not allow vote

• Reuters
• theguardian.com, Thursday 12 December 2013 10.22 EST

Artur Mas announceas that political parties in Catalonia have agreed to hold a referendum on independence next November. Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Separatist parties in Spain‘s north-eastern Catalonia region on Thursday agreed the wording of an independence referendum proposed for November 2014 but the Spanish government immediately said the vote was illegal and would not happen.

The Catalan regional government head, Artur Mas, said the vote would ask two questions: “Do you want Catalonia to be a state?” and: “Do you want that state to be independent?”

Spain’s justice minister, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, immediately said the vote could not take place because the constitution would not allow it.

 

Read More Here

 

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Twitter keeps suspending account critical of Obamacare

The Daily Caller

1:23 AM 11/04/2013

Charles C. Johnson

Twitter has repeatedly suspended an account critical of the Affordable Care Act.

The account, @mycancellation, was just getting started when Twitter suspended it—twice—before reinstating the account late Saturday night.

The purpose of @mycancellation or mycancellation.com was to allow some of the millions of Americans who are losing their health insurance to post pictures of themselves with their cancellation letters. “Help us show Washington the faces who lost what they liked,” the account asked. “ObamaCare canceled your health insurance. Now, send us your letter,” the tagline for the website advertised.

Wendy “Obamacare” Davis

TheRealWendy.com

More bad news about Obamacare. More bad news for Wendy Davis.

My Cancellation @MyCancellation

Real ppl are losing insurance they were told they could keep. Send your picture & letter: letters@mycancellation.com

10:08 AM – 3 Nov 2013

The Twitter account quickly gained steam and had over 1,000 followers before Twitter suspended it.

Late Saturday night Heather Higgins, CEO and president of the Independent Women’s Voice, announced on Facebook that the account was suspended again.

“We were suspended yesterday late afternoon without a notice email,” Victoria Coley, who along with Eric Kohn is running the account, told The Daily Caller.

Kohn managed to get the account reinstated. “Tonight shortly before 11:30pm ET the handle was canceled again,” Coley told TheDC. “We are looking into the issue now to see whether Twitter can give us a reason.”

Read More Here

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White House staffer fired for notorious anti-administration Twitter account

 

Published time: October 23, 2013 05:35

 

AFP Photo / Saeed Khan

A senior US National Security Council staffer has been fired for using an anonymous Twitter account to send hundreds of messages criticizing the Obama administration from inside the White House.

Jofi Joseph, a director in the nuclear non-proliferation team inside the NSC, was let go a week ago after administration officials spent months investigating who was tweeting from @natsecwonk. The account opened in February 2011 and lasted until last week, sending thousands of tweets critical of Obama’s policies, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and various high level officials in the interim.

Two sources in the administration confirmed to The Daily Beast that Joseph, 40, was behind the account. The staffer was a member of the NSC team that sat across the negotiating table from Iran in Istanbul earlier this year.

“Is it just me, or with the Jews celebrating Rosh Hashanah tonight, is Twitter much quieter?” he once wrote.

“What’s so disturbing about the Hillary dancing photo is the high-def resolution of Ben Rhodes’ balding pate. And Jake Sullivan behind him,” another read, referencing US President Obama’s deputy national security advisor and speechwriter as well as Vice President Joe Biden’s national security advisor.

 

Read More Here

 

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NSC aide admits Twitter attack on White House

By GLENN THRUSH |

10/22/13 9:25 PM EDT

A senior National Security Council staffer who was a key member of the White House team negotiating on Iran’s nuclear weapons program told POLITICO he deeply regrets tweeting hundreds of anti-administration messages under the pseudonym @natsecwonk.

Jofi Joseph, 40, was fired from his job on the NSC nuclear non-proliferation team a week ago after a months-long probe into a barrage of tweets that included caustic criticisms of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top NSC officials, especially Ben Rhodes – whom he accused of dodging questions about Benghazi.

“It has been a privilege to serve in this Administration and I deeply regret violating the trust and confidence placed in me,” Joseph told POLITICO in an email.

“What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments.  I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted.”

(Also on POLITICO: White House official fired for tweets)

Obama spokesman Eric Schultz confirmed that Joseph  had left the White House – and that he no longer had his top security clearances.

In the course of their investigations, officials also told Joseph they suspected he was responsible for a second anonymous Twitter account “@dchobbyist” which included racier tweets about sexual encounters, escort services – and the inner workings of the State Department.

“Wow, you look amazingly sexy in this photo!” the @dchobbyist wrote in an Oct. 5^th post.

“That was him,” a person briefed on the probe told POLITICO.

Joseph didn’t respond to a request for comment on the second account.

Joseph, who was part of the White House team that opened up preliminary negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program in Istanbul earlier this year, lived a double life, working with NSC officials and State Department higher-ups on the most sensitive issues while secretly tweet-bombing them with comments like: “’Has shitty staff.’ #ObamaInThreeWords.”

For months, White House and State department officials searched for @NatSecWonk, a hunt that intensified after he repeatedly expressed doubts about the official administration accounts about the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi.

After a probe that included an investigation into Joseph’s travel and shopping patterns – parsed from over 2,000 tweets – lawyers from the White House counsel’s office confronted Joseph and ordered him to leave the executive complex, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Joseph had been scheduled to rotate out of White House duty to a senior job in the Pentagon, an administration official told POLITICO.

The revelation that Joseph was @natsecwonk came as a shock because Joseph was a familiar figure in the foreign policy world – as is his wife Carolyn Leddy, a highly-regarded staffer on the Republican side of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to Daily Beast reporter Josh Rogin.

 

Read More Here

 

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Bolivian President Evo Morales will file a lawsuit against the US government for crimes against humanity.

Bolivian president to sue US govt for crimes against humanity

Published time: September 20, 2013 04:50
Edited time: September 20, 2013 06:27

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales.(AFP Photo / Filippo Monteforte)

 

He has decried the US for its intimidation tactics and fear-mongering after the Venezuelan presidential jet was blocked from entering US airspace.

“I would like to announce that we are preparing a lawsuit against Barack Obama to condemn him for crimes against humanity,” said President Morales at a press conference in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. He branded the US president as a “criminal” who violates international law.

In solidarity with Venezuela, Bolivia will begin preparing a lawsuit against the US head of state to be taken to the international court. Furthermore, Morales has called an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to discuss what has been condemned by Venezuela as “an act of intimidation by North American imperialism.”

The Bolivian president has suggested that the members of CELAC withdraw their ambassadors from the US to send a message to the Obama Administration. As an additional measure he will call on the member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas to boycott the next meeting of the UN. Members of the Alliance include Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Saint Lucia.

“The US cannot be allowed to continue with its policy of intimidation and blockading presidential flights,” stressed Morales.

The Venezuelan government announced on Thursday that President Nicolas Maduro’s plane had been denied entry into Puerto Rican (US) airspace.

Read More Here

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A New Jersey federal district court judge granted motions for a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of a dangerous state law that would put online service providers at risk creating liability based on “indirect” publication of content by speech platforms.

Image Source  :  techfreep.com

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August 9, 2013

Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction to Protect Free Speech after EFF Challenge

Court Blocks Enforcement of Dangerous New Jersey Law

Newark, NJ – A New Jersey federal district court judge granted motions for a preliminary injunction today, blocking the enforcement of a dangerous state law that would put online service providers at risk by, among other things, creating liability based on “indirect” publication of content by speech platforms.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued for the injunction in court on behalf of the Internet Archive, as the statute conflicts directly with federal law and threatens service providers who enable third party speech online.

“The Constitution does not permit states to pass overbroad and vague statutes that threaten protected speech. The New Jersey statute created that threat and the court was right to block it,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. “Similarly, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act prohibits the state from threatening to throw online providers in jail for what their users do and the statute violated that rule as well. We are grateful that the court recognized the importance of these bedrock principles to online libraries and other platforms that make the Internet the vital and robust tool it is today.”

The New Jersey law at issue is an almost carbon-copy of a Washington state law successfully blocked by EFF and the Internet Archive last year. While aimed at combatting online ads for underage sex workers, it instead imposes stiff criminal penalties on ISPs, Internet cafes, and libraries that “indirectly” cause the publication or display of content that might contain even an “implicit” offer of a commercial sex act if the content includes an image of a minor. The penalties – up to 20 years in prison and steep fines – would put enormous pressure on service providers to block access to broad swaths of otherwise protected material in order to avoid the vague threat of prosecution.

“Within the past month, we’ve seen a coalition of state attorneys general ask Congress to gut CDA 230 to make way for harmful laws like New Jersey’s,” said Zimmerman. “This misguided proposal puts speech platforms at risk, which in turn threatens online speech itself. Law enforcement can and must pursue criminals vigorously, but attacking the platforms where people exercise their right to free speech is the wrong strategy.”

Backpage.com separately filed suit against this law, represented by the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, who also joined today’s argument.

For more on this case:
https://www.eff.org/cases/internet-archive-v-hoffman

Contact:

Matt Zimmerman
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
mattz@eff.org

Related Cases

Internet Archive v. Hoffman

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Will Morsi also Take the Muslim Brotherhood Down?

Veterans Today

by Jim W. Dean

  Will Egypt revolution be stolen again?

 

   … by Jim W. Dean, VT Editor    …with Press TV

–  First published on July 8th, 2013  –

The blood responsibility will be on whose hands?

I have watched with growing fear the aftermath of the Egyptian Army and people’s revolt against Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood as it scrambles to place interim leaders who can present a united front to the Egyptian people and avoid descending into civil war.

Much of the Egypt analysis coming in so far is biased by whatever side the writers happen to be supporting and of little value to us as we have been aware of the ideological disputes.

What we need to be looking at now is who internally in Egypt is responsible for what has happened, where certainly one of the options is both sides, and then have certain foreign players played a key role or distant one.

There is the usual ‘the US is running the whole show’ side. This of course is somewhat validated by the annual support to the Egyptian military.

But we must not forget that this was the military, despite America’s standing with Mubarak until almost the end, that went over to the people when they saw he was toast. By siding with the people they saved their own domestic respect, credibility, and privileges.

Michel Chossudovsky poses that the US is manipulating both sides and uses a military.com quote to support the claim:

“US Defense Secretary Hagel and US Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey were walking a fine line expressing concern while attempting to avoid the impression that the US was manipulating events behind the scene.”

Dempsey is known for his steady hand

But an obvious omission here by Chossudovsky is that the US military does not make policy, and peer to peer communications in all situations of turbulence are quite normal.

To cast them undoubtedly as evidence of control and manipulation is a stretch. The Army obviously made the call as it was their behinds on the line if Tahrir Two turns into a debacle.

Kevin Barrett also feels that the Morsi overthrow was a US covert coup, detailing a long history of the tactic being used. Constant involvement in other countries affairs always exposes you to blame for anything that happens there that no one likes.

You end up with ‘anti-American’ feelings (or more of them) which could have been avoided simply by keeping a distance. Our Founding Fathers warned us about this but America has lost its way in this regard.

Edward Peck, former US ambassador to Iraq, and with top sources in Washington. weighed in on the opposite side. “I think that the government of the United States is a little bit confused about what to do… I think anyone who believes that the U.S. or any other country can direct the events in Egypt is badly mistaken.”

I will now jump in here with the caveat that I have no crystal ball but will try to add some dispassionate analysis and some new input from other sources. Foreign Minister Hague recently said, that Britain planned to work with the interim government “as a practical matter” as many British citizens and businesses are in Egypt and international life must go on during these political turmoils.

Camp David Accords – Far away…and long ago…but still with us today

The same goes for the US. We obviously were working with the Morsi government and it should come as no surprise that holding fast to the Camp David Accords would be a top priority. It would be naive to think otherwise.

American support for Israel is not going to disappear overnight based on what happens in another country, but only after a long hard fight back here at home where we clean out of the Lobby infiltrators, subversives and their fellow travelers.

The world has watched the continuing political/religious struggle inside Egypt for a variety of reasons as Tahrir One was an historic event. The Muslim Brotherhood came in on the tail end of that. The young people had initiated and carried the revolution on their own shoulders through the most difficult and dangerous period, with the Army finally joining in to tip the tide.

So the MB had no problem with the people and the army teaming up to remove a democratically elected government when it paved the way for their possibly realizing their dream of running Egypt as an Islamic state.

The current showdown began in earnest with the second year anniversary of the 2011 revolution in late January. Morsi had already burned bridges with the opposition with his decree that none of his presidential edicts could be reversed by the courts, which earned him the nickname the “New Pharaoh.”

Is the Brotherhood trying to resurrect the politically dead?

The opposition became more outspoken and called for removal of the ‘dictatorship’ and trials of its top figures, which we might still see.

Tensions flared with the famous Salafi cleric Mahmoud Shaaban being arrested for inciting violence against NSF leaders when he said on February 2nd that for their [NSF] wanting to get rid of the Morsi government that “it was clear that their sentence in God’s law was death.” That was waving a red flag in front of the army.

 

Read More  Here

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‘Restore the Fourth’: Reddit, Mozilla, thousands of people set for July 4 NSA spying protest

Published time: July 03, 2013 14:43

Thousands of websites will launch a July 4 online protest against the NSA surveillance programs. Reddit, WordPress, and Mozilla will take part in the ‘Restore the Fourth’ campaign online, while live protests take place in cities across the US.

‘Restore the Fourth’ is aimed at restoring the fundamentals of the Fourth Amendment – the part of the Bill of Rights which protects citizens against unlawful searches and seizures. Participants will display an online banner which reads, “This 4th of July, we stand by the 4th Amendment and against the U.S. government’s surveillance of internet users.”

The campaign, which was spawned on Reddit, has the support of several privacy and press freedom advocacy organizations, including Mozilla, Free Press, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and ColorOfChange.org.

The rally was largely organized by Fight for the Future – another non-profit agency which fights against internet censorship. The organization’s co-founder, Tiffiniy Cheng, said in a statement that “the NSA programs that have been exposed are blatantly unconstitutional, and have a detrimental effect on free speech and freedom of press worldwide.” The rally is expected to be Fight for the Future’s largest online mobilization since its actions against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

But the protest doesn’t stop online. Organizers are planning live protests in dozens of US cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, and Atlanta. Doug MacArthur, a member of Restore the Fourth’s national board and moderator on Reddit’s r/news, expects between 10,000 and 20,000 people to take part in the protests in the nation’s larger cities.

MacArthur stressed the need for the protest, largely because mainstream media is failing to adequately cover the NSA leaks and what that means for everyday citizens.

Read More Here

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Uncelebrating the Fourth

 

by Harry Browne, Originally written July 2003

 

Unfortunately, July 4th has become a day of deceit.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared its independence from Great Britain. Thirteen years later, after a difficult war to secure that independence, the new country was open for business.

It was truly unique – the first nation in all of history in which the individual was considered more important than the government, and the government was tied down by a written Constitution.

It was the one nation where you could live your life secure in the knowledge that no one would ask for your papers, where you weren’t identified by a number, and where the government wouldn’t extort a percentage of your income as the price of holding a job.

And so each year July 4th has been a commemoration of the freest country in history.

False Celebration

But the America that’s celebrated no longer exists.

The holiday oratory deceitfully describes America as though it were the unique land of liberty that once was. Politicians thank the Almighty for conferring the blessings of liberty on a country that no longer enjoys those blessings. The original freedom and security have disappeared, even though the oratory lingers on.

What made America unique is now gone, and we are much the same as Germany, France, England, or Spain, with:

• confiscatory taxes,
• a Constitution and Bill of Rights that are symbolic only – merely documents used to justify governmental actions that are in fact prohibited by those documents,
• business regulated by the state in the most minute detail,
• no limits on what Congress or the President might decide to do.

Yes, there are some freedoms left, but nothing like the America that was and nothing that you can’t find in a few dozen other countries.

The Empire

Gone, too, is the sense of peace and security that once reigned throughout the land. America, bound by two huge oceans and two friendly neighbors – was subject to none of the never-ending wars and destruction that plagued Europe and Asia.

Now, however, everyone’s business is America’s business. Our Presidents consider themselves the rulers of the world – deciding who may govern any country on earth and sending Americans to die enforcing those decisions.

Read More Here

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