“I have heard the argument that transparency would undermine the Trade Representative’s policy to complete the trade agreement because public opposition would be significant,” Warren explained. “In other words, if people knew what was going on, they would stop it. This argument is exactly backwards. If transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States.”  Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 

What is she talking about?

Some links:

 

Posted: 2014/05/21 by Punkonomics (@dearbalak) in Links/Articles/Video
Tags: , ,

watch online

“So many people in America think this does not affect them. They’ve been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists. … I think that’s wrong. … Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs,” former CIA Assistant General Counsel Suzanne Spaulding tells FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith in Spying on the Home Front(more »)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/view/

 

I keep mentioning that despite the moronic insanity of most right-wing aka libertarian rhetoric there are out there some “good” right-wingers that deserve close attention.

Nassim Taleb is one of this select small group. Oh yeah, I know very well that there are plenty of liberal and left-wing idiots too so don’t bother telling me.

We know that The US, and especially Republicans including President Reagan and Donald Rumsfeld among others, helped the racist South African Apartheid regime and tried to stop the global movement to dismantle it. But Here are some more ugly facts. At the very least this should make Americans think about their role in defending “freedom” and “liberty” then and, more importantly, NOW.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/25/exclusive_nsa_fbi_dia_sued_over

Oh HELLO!?!

In a previous post and video/audio podcast, we discussed mostly Venezuela and only marginally touched upon the coup/revolution in Ukraine. Here are some collected links:

BONUS: Here’s a propaganda clip by the Ukrainian Right Sector, a significant part and even leaders of the protests that led to toppling the elected government this week*

* if you are familiar with Jewish history you may recognize some of the names of the Right Sector’s inspirational leaders as “legendary” anti-Semites with a distinguished record of Jew-killing from the late middle-ages to the Holocaust. mhmm.