In an FCC ruling last week, they completely decimated the idea of internet freedom or net neutrality. They basically said that the corporations that can pay more can get faster internet service – this opens the floodgates for corporate rule online.
Winslow Wheeler: Buck McKeon Sells Out the Troops and the A-10 — C/HASC Rolls Big Bucks Against Little People
04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Military
Supporters of the A-10 “Warthog” close air support aircraft in Washington and US combat Soldiers and Marines who have seen, and are seeing, combat in Afghanistan were stunned Monday to read about a decision of the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Buck McKeon (R-CA). He is joining with the Air Force and wants to retire all of these extraordinarily effective combat aircraft, sending them all to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force base, starting as soon as next year.
Ever since Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) Mark Welsh decided to get rid of all of 300-plus A-10s in the active and reserve Air Force and the Air National Guard, the media and congressional hearings have been stuffed with information from combat veterans, pilots and defense specialists about how spectacularly the A-10 has been performing in Afghanistan and all other recent US wars in Libya, Iraq and Kosovo–going as far back as Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
McKeon's A-10 sell-out comes in the form of a ruse. His draft legislation, to be moved Wednesday (May 7) at the mark-up of the House Armed Services Committee of its FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), creates a distinction without a difference with CSAF Welsh's retirement plan. McKeon's own description of his handiwork says he “would limit funds . to retire A-10 aircraft unless each such retired aircraft is maintained in type-1000 storage [which]. means storage of a retired aircraft in a near-flyaway condition that allows for the aircraft to be recalled into use by the Regular or Reserve Components of the Department of the Air Force.” Falling for the ruse either foolishly or knowingly, some media describe the language as “something of a compromise” or emphasize the “near fly-away” condition of the A-10 fleet after it is sent to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan. However, a simple check of what “type-1000 storage” means reveals that the aircraft will be made un-flyable and sealed in two layers of latex, which can be removed and the aircraft made operable only after considerable effort.
Jim Dean: US Has Lost Propaganda War Against Iran
IO Deeds of War
[ Editor's Note: … dedicated to Lindsey Graham and the 6-month Anniversary of his prediction. Why would anyone make a dire prediction like that unless he was following a written script?
The dividing lines between corporate and alternative media are widening as the former is losing its grip on the only mouth piece that most people get their information from.
While alternative media openly filets the manipulation partnership they have with ruling elites to keep their “pretend-a-democracy” going, corporate media's only response, so far, has been the ‘conspiracy theorist' smear.
Dr. Ismail Salami is an internationally-published author, university professor, Shakespearean scholar, Quranologist, political commentator and lexicographer. He writes extensively on US and Middle East issues and his writings have been translated into more than thirty languages. Salami holds a PhD in Shakespearean studies.
Alternative media has a firmly established beachhead on the corporate media continent. We have air cover, and secure supply lines. The final outcome is written, and is only a matter of time… Jim W. Dean ]
First published on December 12, 2013, on Press TV
The world’s public opinion is coming to realize that the Western narrative that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons is but a “thumping big lie,” says a prominent analyst.
“…Global awakening is on the horizon. Manipulation of public opinion has run its course. Distorting the realities on the ground is a threadbare ploy,” Iranian author and academic Dr. Ismail Salami wrote in a column on Press TV on Wednesday.
“It is now generally acknowledged that the West’s narrative on Iran’s intention to produce nuclear weapons is but a thumping big lie and a fairy tale forcefully woven into the warps and wefts of public opinion,” Dr. Salami wrote.
Continue reading “Jim Dean: US Has Lost Propaganda War Against Iran”
Mini-Me: US Army DCGS-A Failures — and Palantir Keeps Trying to Over-Sell Its Shallow Pit
Commerce, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military
Huh?
Internal Army Report’s Damning Conclusion on a System Meant to Protect Our Troops
Editor’s Note: This is the third part in an investigative series by TheBlaze into how top Army officials failed to provide necessary technology to troops on the battlefield, choosing to promote their own flawed software instead. Read part one and part two here.
In January, members of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team trained to track enemy combatants and bombs were inputing data into a $4 billion software system developed by the Army.
ADVANCE EXTRACT: A total of 60 companies were involved in the Army’s DCGS-A program. The four largest were defense weapons developers, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamic, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. “They have no play in the global commercial IT market, no standing at all,” said an IT specialist who works with both the government and private sector and is familiar with Defense programs. The specialist spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. “The cost to the taxpayer is extraordinary for products that already exist.”
The software was intended to give military analysts the life-saving tools they needed to be one step ahead of the enemy.
Instead, it shut down, losing all of the valuable data the unit members had uploaded, according to an after-action report obtained exclusively by TheBlaze.
Stephen E. Arnold: YouTube (7:54) Search History — Snakes, Snake Oil, and Occasional Lasting Pimples (Tools) of Excellence
IO Impotency, IO Technologies, IO ToolsWith a special focus on Fulcrum, TerraText, and Verity.
Jean Lievens: A Publisher Tries to Privatize Marx & Engels — Public Backlash
Commerce, Idiocy
It's madness to ‘privatise' Marx – thanks to Piketty he's back in vogue
Austerity and the financial crisis mean economics is in the news, so why is a publisher taking Marx and Engels offline?
The global economic and financial crisis has led to a renewal of interest in Karl Marx. Only a few weeks ago the New York Times ran a forum with leading economists with the theme “Was Marx right?“. Thomas Piketty's recent book, Capital in the 21st Century, conducts an implicit dialogue with Marx over how to understand capitalism and confront its contradictions. So it is very sad that at this moment the publisher Lawrence & Wishart is forcing the Marxists Internet Archive (MIA) to take down those parts of Marx's and Friedrich Engels' Collected Works that it had hosted on its website with the authorisation of the publisher. It is particularly unfortunate that it insisted this happen by the eve of May Day, when international working-class solidarity is celebrated worldwide.
John Maguire: Mark Dansie on Breakthrough or Free Energy
05 Energy
Interview with Revolution-Green's Mark Dansie. Mark is recognized as a world-renowned evaluator of energy technologies and is currently helping develop several new energy concepts himself. Over the last seven years, Mark has traveled the world evaluating many new and free technology claims. He specializes in magnetic motor and HHO gas evaluations, but has reviewed many other technologies as well. He has been featured as a speaker at several energy conferences, and his catch cry is “show me the data” as he is a believer in scientific methodology when evaluating claims.
