Tag Archives: Crisis Begets Opportunity

Who funds Syrian rebel advocate O’Bagy and her ‘Task Force’? You do

Posted on by

“The Syrian Emergency Task Force, the pro-rebel lobbying outfit that employs widely quoted intervention advocate Elizabeth O’Bagy as its political director, receives funding from the U.S. Department of State and related government contractors. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller earlier last week, O’Bagy explained how she got paid. O’Bagy has been roundly condemned for working for a pro-Syrian lobbying group at the same time she was casting the Syrian rebels in a positive light. She works as an analyst at the neoconservative think tank, the Institute for the Study of War.”

http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/09/who-funds-syrian-rebel-advocate-obagy-and-the-syrian-emergency-task-force-you-do/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

6 Ways the U.S. Drug War Intrudes On Your Life, Whether Or Not You Use

Posted on by

“Many Americans who do not use illegal ‘drugs’ assume exemption from drug war policies. But regardless of how much marijuana you do or don’t smoke, the U.S. war on drugs affects nearly everyone. While some prohibition tactics are more obvious than others, the drug war has slyly pushed its way into many corners of American life. Be it at the post office, in the workspace, or behind the counter at Walgreens, the war on drugs has established a nagging presence in the everyday lives of Americans, even those who do not get high illegally.  Whether or not you are aware that the drug war is behind these creeping invasions, our drug policy has unequivocally curtailed basic civil rights.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/6-ways-us-drug-war-intrudes-your-life-whether-or-not-you-use-illegal-substances?paging=off

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

How has this not led to outright revolution yet?

Posted on by

“These days, you could put ‘safety and security’ in front of just about anything and get people to readily comply.  After all, who is against ‘safety and security’? Only criminal terrorists, apparently.  This is now the easiest way for governments to exact their agendas… whether it’s invading new countries, monitoring all Internet activity worldwide, or bailing out the big banks at taxpayer expense.  Apparently the citizenry has become so scared that we collectively lay down and let governments walk all over us.  This NSA debacle, which is only getting worse and worse, shows beyond all doubt how brazen and unabashed their tactics will be.  And not a single utterance of remorse or reform.”

http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/how-has-this-not-led-to-outright-revolution-yet-12679/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

The feds pay for 60 percent of Tor’s development. Can users trust it?

Posted on by

“The NSA’s sustained attempt to get around encryption calls into question many of the technologies people have come to rely on to avoid surveillance. One indispensable tool is Tor, the anonymizing service that takes a user’s Internet traffic and spits it out from some other place on the Web so that its origin is obscured.  So far there’s no hard evidence that the government has compromised the anonymity of Tor traffic. But some on a Tor-related e-mail list recently pointed out that a substantial chunk of the Tor Project’s 2012 operating budget came from the Department of Defense, which houses the NSA.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/06/the-feds-pays-for-60-percent-of-tors-development-can-users-trust-it/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Maybe This Is Why We Now Have a Serial-Bubble Economy

Posted on by

“If there is any one strikingly obvious feature of the U.S. economy in the past 15 years, it’s the serial asset bubbles, one after another. Take a look at this chart.  Why did our economy become dependent on asset bubbles for ‘growth’? One way to find an answer is to ask: cui bono, to whose benefit? Correspondent Jeff W. has the answer: the financial sector and the central government.”

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2013/09/maybe-this-is-why-we-now-have-serial.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

United Nations draws up emergency plan for Syria strike

Posted on by

“UN agencies have drawn up emergency plans for a military strike on Syria but are determined to keep delivering aid in the stricken country, a top UN official said Friday. More than 4.25 million people have fled their homes in Syria and two million are registered as refugees in countries around Syria, according to UN figures.  The UN said this week that it would have to cut aid to more than a quarter of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon because of funding shortages.  The world body has launched its biggest ever annual appeal, $4.4 billion, for Syria. Less than half has been raised so far.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/06/united-nations-draws-up-emergency-plan-for-syria-strike/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

G20 countries to automatically share tax records to crack down on cheats

Posted on by

“Tax records will be shared around the world by 2015 as part of a G20 pledge to crack down on individual tax cheats and global corporations with complicated arrangements aimed at paying as little tax as possible.  As business increasingly moves online and international, cash-strapped governments approved an aggressive timeline to adopt the automatic exchange of tax information among the G20. The deal was solidified after China, the last holdout, agreed to the plan just days before the summit in St. Petersburg. ‘We are committed to automatic exchange of information as the new global standard,’ states the G20 final communiqué.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/g20-countries-to-share-tax-records-to-crack-down-on-cheats/article14158136/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

ObamaCare Was Sold To American Voters On Deceptive Terms

Posted on by

goodman_john_100x1332

“In 2008, Barack Obama made it sound as though his health reform was only designed to help people who couldn’t afford health insurance afford it. Everyone else was going to be left alone. (‘If you like the health plan you have you can keep it.’) Then, on the eve of passage of the legislation, the focus changed to those few people (very few, it turns out) who are denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.  But it very recently, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and others have been in print explaining that ObamaCare won’t work unless the government controls the premiums paid by everybody in the entire country!  As far as the general public is concerned, this is a brand new idea.”

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=4705

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Urgency: A Tactic of The State

Posted on by

EPJ13

“Jam it through. Worry about the consequences later.  This behavior goes way back.  I’d like to quote Patrick Henry who was trying to talk some sense to the Virginia delegates who were voting to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Henry was desperately urging them not to give in. Listen to his words and compare it to what we’re seeing with the rush to war with Syria.”

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/09/urgency-tactic-of-state.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

FTC Begins Sanctions Against Insecure Internet-Connected Device Companies

Posted on by

“The FTC is steadily hacking the law to make itself the country’s de facto privacy regulator. In this case, it’s using its right to punish a company for being ‘unfair’ to consumers. But its power is limited: it can’t fine TRENDnet; it can only require it to notify customers, establish ‘a comprehensive security program’ — that includes pen testing its products — and agree to 20 years of privacy audits (just like Facebook and Google). If TRENDnet messes up again after this, the FTC can then fine it up to $16,000 per violation (a power it used to fine Google $22.5 million).  There may well be more FTC orders to come.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/09/04/camera-company-that-let-hackers-spy-on-naked-customers-ordered-by-ftc-to-get-its-security-act-together/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet