White House

Long before Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden were being castigated for blowing the whistle on the government’s war crimes and the National Security Agency’s abuse of its surveillance powers, it was Lennon who was being singled out for daring to speak truth to power about the government’s warmongering, his phone calls monitored and data files collected on his activities and associations. For a little while, at least, Lennon became enemy number one in the eyes of the U.S. government.

“If the US is serious about ensuring that China does not dominate these waters, then the longer it waits, the riskier its freedom-of-navigation activities will become.”

To combat Islamic militants the White House says threaten national interests, the U.S. has spent nearly $100 billion to arm and train foreign militaries across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, an analysis by Vocativ shows. And nearly all of them are reeling from setbacks that threaten to undermine what’s become a core component of American foreign policy in these regions. As a former military commander and United States ambassador in Afghanistan recently noted, "our track record at building security forces over the past 15 years is miserable."

In what seems like a nervous populist move amid Bernie Sanders' gains, Hillary Clinton has flip-flopped rather stunningly to oppose President Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership. Despite supporting the bill at least 45 times, as CNN's Jake Tapper points out, Clinton told PBS' Judy Woodruff Wednesday in Iowa that, "As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it." It's also a departure from the Clinton legacy, as CNN notes, it was President Bill Clinton who, two decades ago, signed the first mega-regional pact: the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"This morning from the Oval Office, President Obama spoke by telephone with Doctors Without Borders International President Dr. Joanne Liu, to apologize and express his condolences for the MSF staff and patients who were killed and injured when a US military airstrike mistakenly struck an MSF field hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan over the weekend," Earnest said in the White House briefing.

"This is a real war on Sunnis, their countries and their identities. Join a jihad against the enemy of God and your enemy and Muslims will back you every way they can."

If circumstances of any incident appear not to add up, it’s pertinent to thoroughly examine the current narrative for signs the State is attempting to mold public opinion — because it is there you will find the truth that you’re not being told. In the case of MSF, a massive treaty cum trade deal involving U.S. interests in another part of the world from the tragedy in Kunduz can offer, perhaps, insight which might otherwise seem unrelated. As it turns out, MSF have been particularly vocal critics of the impending Trans-Pacific Partnership — and their criticism hasn’t gone unnoticed.

"The think tanks do not disclose the terms of the agreements they have reached with foreign governments. And they have not registered with the United States government as representatives of the donor countries, an omission that appears, in some cases, to be a violation of federal law, according to several legal specialists who examined the agreements at the request of The Times... As a result, policy makers who rely on think tanks are often unaware of the role of foreign governments in funding the research."

Unfortunately, we are used to politicians saying whatever they think they need to say to be elected president, and falling way short of their campaign promises on the job. Even scarier would be the notion of selling America to the craftiest bidder. The election may be more than a year away, but isn’t it time to dig beneath the carefully crafted persona that is Trump and unearth the person and the full spectrum of his business dealings? To see the real Donald Trump is to plunge into all the conflicts of interest he denies, the financial tricks he dispenses, the crucial details he obfuscates, and the flimflam he offers up day in, day out.

"A bunker-busting BETAB-500 air bomb dropped from a Sukhoi Su-34 bomber near Raqqa has eliminated the command post of one of the terror groups, together with an underground storage facility for explosives and munitions. Panic and desertion have begun. 600 fighters have left positions."

By way of excuse for what President Obama called "a tragic incident," (and The UN called a 'war crime') US officials have claimed that the Taliban were fighting from within the Kabul hospital (which was destroyed by a US air strike yesterday killing at least 19 including 3 children) using aid workers as "a human shield." However, this justification for the 'collateral damage' has been vehemently denied by Medecins Sans Frontier (MSF) who have issued a statement dismissing the US claims, "the gates of the hospital compound were closed all night so no one that is not staff, a patient or a caretaker was inside the hospital when the bombing happened..." but, the US strike has done one thing, as one local health official concluded, "this city is no longer for the living."

"The Americans were startled once again when tragic news break out about the deadly campus shooting in Oregon on Thursday. However, the United States is "the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months," just like President Barack Obama has painfully acknowledged. How come a country as powerful as the United States has been unable to stop this kind of brutal attacks against innocent civilians? The problem is deeply rooted in the country's political system, where bipartisan politics and interest groups exert huge influence, to the point that security of the American people have to give way to political correctness and corporate interests."

"They’re hopping mad in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. And Qatar because of their defeat and the victory of Russia and Syria and the unraveling of the fact that the U.S. and its allies are not serious about fighting Islamic State. Those who claim to be concerned about the Syrian people are the ones slaughtering the Syrian people through the terrorists."

"This earlier deadline raises the probability that the House will vote to raise the debt limit prior to the time Speaker Boehner steps down on October 30. If so, this would reduce the risk of a disruptive debate on the issue, because Speaker Boehner is more likely than his successor, in our view, to allow a "clean" debt limit increase without the debate over extraneous issues that have delayed enactment until shortly before the deadline in the past."

With the "above the law" Federal Reserve coming under increasing pressure to answer a Senate investigation's questions about the 2012 "leak", it appears the proximity of the probe to Janet Yellen, has forced The Fed to 'fess up and throw someone under the bus. Meet Seth Carpenter, a nominee for assistant Treasury secretary for financial markets...