Pope Francis rips capitalism and trickle-down economics to shreds in new policy statementBy Travis GettysTuesday, November 26, 2013 11:48 EST In case there was any doubt left, Pope Francis made it clear that he shares little in common with U.S. conservatives. The pontiff released his Evangelii Gadium, or Joy of the Gospel, attacking capitalism as a form of tyranny and calling on church and political leaders to address the needs of the poor.
Top-Secret Document Reveals NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit ‘Radicalizers’WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document.
Federal judge tosses lawsuit by 14 counties against mortgage registration firmA federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 14 Kentucky county attorneys against a mortgage registration firm. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wilhoit Jr. said Boyd County Attorney Phillip Hedrick and others lacked statutory standing to sue the Virginia-based Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, known as MERS.
Tomgram: Laura Gottesdiener, Wall Street’s Rental Empire | TomDispatchNote for TomDispatch Readers: Our next piece will be posted on Sunday evening, December 1st. Happy Thanksgiving! Tom] “One shitty deal.” “Shitty deal.” “Shitty.” The date was April 27, 2010, and Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) was pissed as he launched into a rant with those pungent quotes in it.
Pope Francis ‘is mafia target after campaigning against corruption’Pope Francis’s crusade against corruption has made him a target for Italy’s all-powerful mafia clans, a leading anti-mob prosecutor has warned. Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria’s shadowy ‘Ndrangheta mafia, said on Wednesday that Francis’s attempt to bring transparency to the Vatican was making the white collar mobsters who do business with corrupt prelates “nervous and agitated”.
ICANN leaders push for broad-based Internet governanceAn Internet governance model that includes businesses and civil-society groups in the decision-making process remains the best approach, despite a push from some countries for a more government-centric model, officials with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said.
Exclusive: Inside America’s Plan to Kill Online Privacy Rights EverywhereThe United States and its key intelligence allies are quietly working behind the scenes to kneecap a mounting movement in the United Nations to promote a universal human right to online privacy, according to diplomatic sources and an internal American government document obtained by The Cable.
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on OccupyIt was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police.
NSA collection of US phone records violates constitutional rights, ACLU says in courtReuters / Pawel Kopczynski The legality of the US government’s mass collection of domestic phone data was challenged Friday in a federal courtroom as being an overly broad interpretation of the Patriot Act that violates Americans’ constitutional rights, the ACLU argued.
Appeals court upholds stop-and-frisk ruling, ending Bloomberg’s final attempt at reversalA federal appeals court declined Friday to block the decision by a district court judge that the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy is unconstitutional, marking an end to outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s bid to reverse the ruling.
Corporatism Is Not Capitalism: 7 Things About The Monolithic Predator Corporations That Dominate Our Economy That Every American Should KnowRight now, there is a lot of talk about the evils of “capitalism”. But it is not really accurate to say that we live in a capitalist system. Rather, what we have in the United States today, and what most of the world is living under, is much more accurately described as “corporatism”.
The Neo-Imperialist Corporatist Order and the “Men Behind the Curtain”The Neo-Imperialist Corporatist Order and the “Men Behind the Curtain” Vincent Harlow once wisely observed, “Men’s minds indeed conceive new thoughts and plan new projects, but out of ancient thinking and under potent influence of long-established characteristics.” This has been reflected in reality for both the positive but also for the negative.
Texas drivers pulled over at random, told to turn over blood, saliva samplesAFP Photo / Frederic J. Brown Dozens of Texas drivers have been stopped at a police road block, where they were then directed into a parking lot and forced into surrendering blood, saliva and breath samples in a study that has upset civil liberties advocates.
Senators lend support to lawsuit against NSA collection of US phone recordsA group of Democratic senators filed a brief in federal court Tuesday in support of a lawsuit aiming to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. A friend-of-the-court brief was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Sens.
NSA broke its own rules in ‘virtually every’ record, declassified documents showA woman wearing oversized sunglasses lettered with the words “stop spying” listens to speakers during the Stop Watching Us Rally protesting surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency, on October 26, 2013.(AFP Photo / Allison Shelley)
Take Back the Land’s Catherine Lennon Seals Historic Foreclosure Fight VictoryIn a Precedent Setting Move, Bank of America Deeds House Back to Catherine Lennon Without a Mortgage Rochester, NY – In an unprecedented victory, Catherine Lennon, who gained local and national attention after moving back into her foreclosed home after being evicted, was according to public records, recently deeded back her house, without a mortgage.