Military
The CIA has its own investment capital firm called “In-Q-Tel,” and it’s been funding innovative tech firms for years. This is both good news and bad. One the one hand, it allows the CIA to invest in technologies they deem useful for the intelligence community; however, some of these technologies are a little creepy when it comes to personal space and privacy.
This is unknown technology and we are not privy to testing that is done for them. Is there a government agency(ies) that tests these things, or not. Even if there is, and judging by how all of the reasons whistleblowers have shown us that we should meet the government’s representations with precaution, if not actual skepticism, can we trust that we can trust the results of such testing. Remember also that there is a so-called Black Budget in the government. Is it possible this technology falls under that and, if so, what assurance do we have that this will not be used for ill purpose.
The U.S. Senate voted 61-36 to kill an amendment proposed by Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) which would repeal the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2014, Foreign Minister de Brum was the driving force behind something extraordinary. The Marshall Islands, which had gained independence in 1986, filed a lawsuit, both in in the International Court of Justice and U.S. federal court, against the nine nations that possess nuclear weapons, demanding that they start living up to the terms of Article VI of the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
On the same day millions of Americans were thrilled to witness — and equally distracted by — a total solar eclipse, Donald Trump decided it was time to announce a “dramatically different” foreign policy plan for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Just how “different” is Trump’s new plan? In reality, the ‘new’ plan is simply more of the same failed policy of the past, one Trump promised to put an end to numerous times over the years prior to moving into the White House.
We have seen the mainstream media characterize various stories about riots and Black-White police interactions in a very polarizing fashion. Because of these stories, it seems that many people believe that 1/2 of the country are virulent racists and the other half are not. Is it a surprise then that we would see more of the same media manipulation in this latest riot in Charlottesville, Virginia. What can we learn about this story, and how can we move forward to racial healing instead of race war?
After Donald Trump made an alarming comment about meeting North Korea’s with “fire and fury like the world has never seen” should they make any more “threats” to the U.S., some are wondering whether the U.S. president might be too quick to jump into a nuclear confrontation. Russell Brand provides his analysis.
Do you think it’s dangerous for President Trump to have the power to use nuclear weapons? Read this.
To disarm fake news, if the public is to have any hope at all, it can only come from a commitment to verifying and sourcing all of the information they receive. The psychological warriors can only have their way with a public who refuses to question their sources of information and demand proof for the claims that are being made by their supposedly neutral sources of news.
One of the founding principles of Veterans For Peace is a call to end to the arms race leading to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons. Let this be the generation that will finally ban nuclear weapons. It’s not just about peace and justice; it’s about the survival of all life on earth.
The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee passed a repeal of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which has been used justify ongoing military actions in regions around the world spanning the George W. Bush, Obama, and now Trump administrations.
Speaking at the high-profile Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, president of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi made comments directly to Mr. Trump and Saudi King Salman, which in effect call out Saudi Arabia and the United States for supporting international terrorism and contributing to its proliferation. A fact that is extremely relevant under the completion of another massive arms deal between the two nations.
Americans, according to this poll, very strongly, by a 47% to 39% margin, demand “Increase funding for defense and homeland security.”
Data show that the average nonviolent campaign takes about three years to run its course. In Syria, the nonviolent resistance had less than a year before a combination of brutal regime violence, and a turn to armed insurgency by opposition elements, resulted in a massive escalation of violence and a spike in civilian deaths. There was simply not enough time to build trust between opposition groups, learn from mistakes, build a resilient organizational base, and peel key groups — like Sunni business elite — away from the regime.
If the mainstream media have an ounce of credibility, they will begin questioning the government narrative on Syria instead of immediately reporting it as fact. We cannot be led into another war based on government propaganda and the abandonment of skepticism.
