February 2012
5 tags
Mortgage 'settlement' gives no incentive for banks... →
The country’s banks agreed to change their behavior as part of the robo-mortgage settlement announced earlier this week. The announcement, however, leaves open a central question: Does the settlement include new, pre-defined penalties for banks that fail to uphold their new promises? Since a change in bank behavior is a vital piece of the settlement, the absence of an answer is highly...
“President Eisenhower, in an internal discussion, observed to his staff, and I’m...”
– Noam Chomsky, Interview on CBC (via guerrillanetwork)
Anonymous just took down the CIA's website →
mohandasgandhi:
I really don’t see what the point of these attacks are. Is it merely to spite government officials? Well, that’s great. You made them angry. But what did you do? What did you do to establish a conversation so that your grievances will be addressed and potential solutions for such are put up for negotiation?
These attacks just seem childish. When Anonymous brought down Libya’s...
Anonymous just took down the CIA's website →
3 tags
“We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human...”
– Former US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bowman, in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”.
(via timmytime)
YES YES YES THIS THIS THIS
(via whatsajuthika)
I want this emblazoned on my forehead for all of the American entitlement people out there.
(via baxtavius)
5 tags
Foreclosure fraud by banks being settled with your... →
Forty-nine states, every one but Oklahoma, as well as federal regulators will participate in a foreclosure fraud settlement that will release the five biggest banks (Wells Fargo, Citi, Ally/GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America) and their mortgage servicing units from liability for robo-signing and other forms of servicer abuse, in exchange for $25 billion in funding for legal aid,...
communismkills:
roxygen:
Google, don’t sponsor white supremacy conferences
jonathan-cunningham:
Google is sponsoring a conference this week that features white supremacists, anti-gay activists, and one group classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “White Nationalist hate group.”
One panel at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC is called “The...
“The dictatorship that followed consigned thousands of Argentineans into military...”
– Breaking the silence: the Catholic Church in Argentina and the ‘dirty war’ | openDemocracy
I know today many Americans are rightfully very angry because of the Catholic Church’s meddling into politics. Some of us have seen this first hand elsewhere. At the link above, one of the many examples of...
5 tags
STOCK Act Passes House as Bachus Insider Trading... →
eddyizm:
The House passed a watered-down version of the STOCK Act, the bill that would ban insider trading among members of Congress. Democrats supported it in order to get the bill to a conference committee, as it has already passed the Senate. So the final vote was 417-2.
The two major changes to the bill made by Eric Cantor drop key provisions added by the Senate:
CREW strongly supported...
5 tags
Google, don't sponsor white supremacy conferences →
Google is sponsoring a conference this week that features white supremacists, anti-gay activists, and one group classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “White Nationalist hate group.”
One panel at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC is called “The Failure of Multiculturalism,” and it features the founder of a website...
“As journalism and the habit of reading decline, it seems entirely possible that...”
– Timothy Noah, New Republic. What the Heck is the ‘Political Intelligence’ Industry.
The News: The US House of Representatives killed a provision in an insider trading bill that would have required people involved in ‘political intelligence’ to register in the same way that traditional lobbyists...
“I think we can all recognize that the “it’s a joke excuse” is the most...”
– Loose Talk: You can take your “just joking” and shove it. (via fox-power)
4 tags
Juan Cole on why we shouldn't arm Syrians →
Once you flood a country with small and medium arms, it destabilizes it for decades.
Ronald Reagan spread weapons all around northern Pakistan, and in my view began the destabilization of that country, which now has an endemic problem with armed tribes, militias and gangs. I saw the same thing happen in Lebanon shortly before, during the civil war that threw that country into long term...
“One of the reasons I’ve written so much about the complete reversal of...”
– I love Glenn Greenwald
green-street:
jonathan-cunningham:
whynotshesaid:
You want to know how I can tell that today is going to blow?
I started it by crying in the shower.
What triggered that, you ask? A story in the New Yorker and an essay on the Rumpus, both of which were essentially about the casual cruelty of complete strangers.
But really it’s just that the reserves of energy I have for coping with the...
whynotshesaid:
You want to know how I can tell that today is going to blow?
I started it by crying in the shower.
What triggered that, you ask? A story in the New Yorker and an essay on the Rumpus, both of which were essentially about the casual cruelty of complete strangers.
But really it’s just that the reserves of energy I have for coping with the world have been completely eroded, and so...
3 tags
A series of CIA memos describes how Israeli Mossad... →
mehreenkasana:
“It’s amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with,” the intelligence officer said. “Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn’t give a damn what we thought.”
There is no denying that there is a covert, bloody, and ongoing campaign aimed at stopping Iran’s nuclear program, though no evidence has emerged connecting recent acts of...
convertedinvader:
jonathan-cunningham:
cyberterrorist:
fucking white people, calm down.
saying white in a jokingly negative manner is not the same as when that white guy screamed at me to leave the country, then called me a wet back bitch.
CRACKER =/= ANY OTHER RACIAL SLUR
sit DOWN, you whiny assholes.
I don’t understand how anyone can get confused about this. I don’t think anyone’s...
cyberterrorist:
fucking white people, calm down.
saying white in a jokingly negative manner is not the same as when that white guy screamed at me to leave the country, then called me a wet back bitch.
CRACKER =/= ANY OTHER RACIAL SLUR
sit DOWN, you whiny assholes.
I don’t understand how anyone can get confused about this. I don’t think anyone’s ever screamed...
1 tag
Just an FYI for erryone
mediumtrip:
> Things you shouldn’t compare to the Holocaust: things that aren’t the Holocaust.
> Things you shouldn’t compare to rape: things that aren’t rape.
> Things you shouldn’t compare to slavery: things that aren’t slavery.
> Things you shouldn’t compare to homophobia or transphobia: things that aren’t homophobia or transphobia.
It’s that simple.
2 tags
Alan Turing denied posthumous pardon for being gay →
Recently, over 23,000 people signed an online petition to ask the UK government to pardon Alan Turing for homosexuality, considered the crime of “gross indecency” by the Labouchere Amendment of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. Yesterday, the motion was dismissed by the House of Lords. Considering that Turing performed stellar and unique service to the British government during World War II,...
Anonymous asked: Tumblrs you recommend?
3 tags
Anonymous releases personal information of Oakland... →
6 tags
Public funding cuts put the lie to 'health and... →
Under the guise of concerns about “public health and safety,” mayor after mayor ordered police to tear down encampments—a curious justification after the years of cuts to public hospitals, heating subsidies and homeless shelters that have actually endangered “public health and safety” for millions of Americans.
The total number of arrests of Occupy activists now...
7 tags
UK government may be creating a nerve gas to use... →
Leading neuroscientists believe that the UK Government may be about to sanction the development of nerve agents for British police that would be banned in warfare under an international treaty on chemical weapons.
A high-level group of experts has asked the Government to clarify its position on whether it intends to develop “incapacitating chemical agents” for a range of domestic...
Obama begins accepting Super PAC donations →
The White House’s position on Citizens United and the big money Super PACs it created has been the same from the start: they hate it. But in a new turn, the Obama campaign has decided it needs to start raising cash for Democratic groups in order to compete in the 2012 race.
“With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules in this election whereby the Republican nominee is the...
3 tags
Wisconsin GOP promises not to listen to voters,... →
Madison - legislative leaders secretly developed new election maps last year to strengthen their majority, Republican lawmakers were told to ignore public comments and instead focus on what was said in private strategy sessions, according to a GOP memo that became public Monday.
Other newly released documents also show almost all Republican lawmakers signed legal agreements promising not to...
3 tags
5 tags
“During the past 30 years, a growing share of the global economic pie has been...”
– Why economic inequality leads to collapse (via abaldwin360)
“African American women’s internal life experiences are part of the American...”
– Melissa Harris-Perry (via tobia)
19 Things That School Children Are Being Arrested...
lost-and-searching-in-america:
19 Things That School Children Are Being Arrested For In America
#1 At one public school down in Texas, a 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was recently arrested for spraying herself with perfume.
#2 A 13-year-old student at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class.
#3 Another student down in Albuquerque was...
Letter from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, in...
rachelfershleiser:
producermatthew:
Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to
rate chicks on their relative hotness.
Haha, I’m so glad I wasn’t the only person to have this thought.
Susan G. Komen on Planned Parenthood in 2011
cognitivedissonance:
From their March 2011 statement on Planned Parenthood, also found in a message to a questioner roughly 18 months ago:
Early screening through mammograms and education is critical to end the suffering from this disease: 98 percent of women treated for early stage breast cancer, before it spreads, are alive five years later. The widespread use of mammography and heightened...
birdmechanical asked: I don't understand the idea that a third party president "would change everything". It's likely not true. In most 3 party systems, they form coalitions anyway. We would still have just as much polarization within conservative & liberal branches. To me, even small differences in presidents, Repub or Demo, makes huge differences in human lives. For example, free (Obama) vs...
CIA Agent charged with espionage after revealing... →
fuckdemolition:
jonathan-cunningham:
Human rights and open government advocates on Tuesday harshly criticized the Obama administration over the criminal charges brought against an ex-CIA officer for allegedly leaking to reporters the names of two agency operatives involved in the brutal interrogation of terrorism detainees.
John Kiriakou, 47, the CIA’s former director of counterterrorism...