by Todd Brendan Fahey
RealitySandwich.com
February 26, 2015

Originally commissioned by a now-defunct music magazine called Launched in year-2002, this piece has never seen proper daylight.  One week after submission to Launched, the magazine was bought out by Yahoo.com, whose Editor-in-Chief disliked progressive rock, and the momentum passed.  Happy The Man regrouped a year later for a brief spell, to play dates at NearFest and around the East Coast, but again died to little but fanatics’ appeal.  Four of the original five members of the core of Happy The Man would respond daily via e-mail to this fanatic, perhaps amused that “a journalist” was still interested in what had been magic two decades prior.  Forged has been an enduring friendship with guitarist Stan Whitaker and, especially, keyboardist/sax-man Frank Wyatt, whose collection of poems, Oblivion Sun, was published by this writer’s Far Gone Books in 2002; Mr. Wyatt was kind enough to respond via dedication of a track, titled “A Dream of Amsterdam,” on his first solo CD, A Certain Whisper. — Todd Brendan Fahey

They are spoken of in terms reserved for classical composers, of religious music. Peter Gabriel is said to shake visibly and come near to weeping when their name is brought up backstage. They have not released a new recording since 1983, and failed utterly, commercially, even in their heyday, circa 1977; yet a stroll through their Guest Book, year 2002, reads like a wet dream:

“It’s like stepping back in time,” writes one admirer; “I feel like I’ve discovered the Holy Grail,” says another. A reviewer for New Gibralter Progressive Rock Encyclopedia writes: “HTM produced some of the most stirring, complex, melodic, and MUSICAL works I have ever heard.”

I came to know of Happy The Man in 1982, while as a high school senior. An oddball–never given to New Wave or Top 40–I was addicted to progressive rock and so were all my friends: early Genesis, Yes and Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, and maestros as John McLaughlin and his Mahavishnu Orchestra, Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs, and French electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. Thinking-man’s music. Call it a “cast of mind”: Why some enjoy watching Gilligan’s Island and others prefer a Discovery Channel documentary on life in a coral reef. Who knows?

But on the day that I stopped into Tower Records, a lifetime ago, and read in the then-latest in-house Tower music magazine that Peter Gabriel considered something called “Happy The Man” his “favorite band,” I endeavored to know everything there was to know about this mysterious confederation...

by Todd Brendan Fahey
RealitySandwich.com
February 12, 2015

His nebbish visage seems to pop up everywhere–like a “Where’s Waldo?” life-feature.  I remember seeing him on CNN, whilst slugging off one last one in an airport lounge before a long plane ride to Asia in the previous century; a year later, Y2K, I would see that same earnest face in-person amidst a sea of notable folk at the DisinfoCon gathering, New York City.  The guy has been around forever, before the world had heard of PeeWee Herman, and yet he considers himself a late-bloomer–receiving his Ph.D at age 50.

Todd Brendan Fahey: You have “arrived” in Academia (congratulations!). Over the years you’ve taught adjunct at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and the New School University, and word is you’ve entertained offers from MIT and other Ivy League schools–but your first “real job” as a professor is at Queens College. What kind of “life hacks” are you able to perform on/with your students, now that you have a certain modicum of stability in your role as educator? (For example, I’d probably be focusing on interdisciplinary work involving the cultivation of mushrooms…”legal variety,” of course [and then show the students how to obtain also legal psylocibin spore prints, and then let their minds take off and with a requisite completed short story at the semester’s end]; or, for the more timid class member, how to take advantage of the new micro-distillery laws and freedoms, and with a generous historical readings of “the revenuers v. Appalachian hoots-and-hallows boys.”)

Douglas Rushkoff: I’m not at New School, nor NYU or MIT, because I didn’t want to be sitting in a seminar, staring at kids I’m putting into six figures of debt for a degree. Somehow, it seemed a little hypocritical to be doing teach-ins at Occupy about student debt but then going and creating more of it at an expensive private institution.

So I went to public school – CUNY/Queens. Not even the Graduate Center, but out in the provinces. The beauty of it is that it’s cheap – like Learning Annex prices – but super brilliant colleagues who all have the same approach to this stuff that I do: it’s not about creating some professorial reputation, but making a change in the world and our students’ lives. It’s also a hotbed for radicals and radical thought. It’s where Malcolm X spoke, and where the Mississippi three (the civil rights workers who got killed) came from.

That’s the main hack: stop worrying what people think, ditch brand names, stay out of debt (you can’t even get rid of this stuff by going bankrupt) and – like Timothy Leary said – find the others. That can be the trickiest part – finding your team. It’s like finding your table in the high school cafeteria...

by SARTRE
February 3, 2015

A half century ago the infamous and timeworn trope coming from the supporters of the Viet Nam War was all over the airwaves. “Love It or Leave It” was the standard retort from the gung-ho believers to the anti-war activists, who filled the streets with civil disobedience. An entire era of youth came under suspicion, from fathers of that “Greatest Generation” for questioning the purpose and wisdom of American leaders and the military policy that drafted dissenting objectors into coercive service.

Now with the undying “War on Terror” as the trumped up cornerstone of government survival, the same old party line of jingoism rises again to smear any opposition of the all mighty war machine.

The following is written by a student, Alex Bertsch, not back in the 1960’s but in this year. 

“I can’t question the actions of the military without being anti-American. I can’t question events like the My Lai Massacre, in which U.S. Army soldiers killed between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in Vietnam, with virtually no punishment. I am barely allowed to question the Haditha Killings, in which U.S. Marines killed 24 civilians in 2006. Questioning these atrocities would be “un-American.”

As the public is being conditioned for the next round of conflicts, the mere idea of conducting an open and frank debate is too dangerous to allow. So when the hullabaloo over the Chris Kyle movie, “American Sniper” exploded, the NeoCons rushed in to prance out their ultranationalism for the NWO age. Just what kind of world has these super patriots of the internationalist imperium bestowed on humanity?

Start with a review of the violent history of our species and especially the involvements from our own country in its short existence.

In the lifetime of the eldest living Americans, the Major Military Operations Since World War II, gives a summary of the largest involvements.

For a more comprehensive analysis of American conflicts, “We’re at War!” — And We Have Been Since 1776: 214 Years of American War-Making, provides an exhausted list.

* Pick any year since 1776 and there is about a 91% chance that America was involved in some war during that calendar year.

* No U.S. president truly qualifies as a peacetime president.  Instead, all U.S. presidents can technically be considered “war presidents.”

* The U.S. has never gone a decade without war.

* The only time the U.S. went five years without war (1935-40) was during the isolationist period of the Great Depression.

If the goal is to build a global empire, all these campaigns fit a pattern of design and intention. But is this the true purpose of our founding as a nation?

When John Milton Hay Secretary of State coined the phrase, "A Splendid Little War" - Whose War Is It?, he must have known that expansion to form an intercontinental realm was put irrepressibly in motion.

“This NeoConservative philosophy is pure Internationalism in its most raw form. It is the antithesis of traditional American policy, and attempts to foster a new imperialism that is totally out of step and discredited by civilized societies. The portrait of the 'Ugly American' is one that needs to be relegated to the scrap heap of embarrassed memories.”

Regretfully, the entire last hundred years, billed as the American century, just continued an imperialism that kicked off with the Spanish American War. This foreign policy never made the world safe for some mythical “Democracy”, but actually set forth a domination culture of rhetoric and force that fostered the economic corporatist interests, protected by garrison outposts scattered around the world.

So what slight of hand or mental hypnoses keeps the gullible public from facing up to the indisputable facts that all these oversea adventures actually destroy our country’s real security?

Libertarian Jacob G. Hornberger makes a striking argument in THE TROOPS ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY that help answers this question. This viewpoint goes directly to de-constructing the silly blind faith that the pudden-head flag waivers keep following with every additional failed overseas venture.

“The mindset that is common to U.S. troops serving overseas is that they are all doing it for America, for us, for our rights and  freedoms, for our safety and security. They’ll all tell you that they are doing it because they love their country.

There’s one big problem with that mindset, however. The truth is that the troops, through what they’re doing over there, are indirectly destroying our country, our rights and freedoms, our safety and security, and our economic well-being.

Once again, the justification is to “keep us safe.” Safe from what? From the people over there who are angry over what the troops are doing over there. The more people the troops kill and maim, the angrier people get, the greater the threat of terrorist retaliation, the greater the need to keep us safe, and the greater the infringements on our freedom and well-being.

The troops have convinced themselves that they’re over there killing the people who would otherwise be coming over here to kill us. That’s ridiculous. If people wanted to come over here to kill us, they could easily circumvent the troops and come over here and kill us.”

With the open border approach in effect, the long forgotten Monroe Doctrine exempts the refugees from our hemisphere from colonizing our own land. Such acts of aggression go unpunished, while deploying foreign legions around the rest of the globe is defended as necessary.

Wake up America! Where is the common sense to ignore the pontifications of government authorities and trained seal newspeak propagandists?

Celebrating the gallantry of a Navy Seal psychopath assassin like Chris Kyle defies the most rudimentary sense of moral scrutiny, even if one wants to argue the “just war” theorem. However, if you candidly research the covert connections in the creation, funding and training of the mythical terrorism threats, the conclusion will adopt the undeniable linkage to Western government’s hidden hand behind the scenes.

Ken O’Keefe, a former US Marine discusses Washington's major role in either generating or aggravating most of the current crises across the world and allowing groups like the ISIL Takfiri terrorists to foster and grow in the video US can no longer deny its support for ISIL.

Much has been written about how the world has changed after 9-11. The three videos on 911 a saga of deceit and lies goes unanswered because the facts presented has no legitimate counter by the establishment warmongers.

Chicken hawks, like Senator Lindsay Graham that routinely spread their dribble on Faux News are reprehensible. When his patron oracle Senator John McCain spills his vile indignation, the pompous faithful of the permanent warfare society rally round his banner.

The Zero Hedge article asks important questions, 59% Of Americans Support Post-9/11 Torture – Propaganda, Cultural Sickness, Or Both? The way you answer directly reflects your attitude about the supposed “War on Terror”. Whatever it takes to keep the homeland safe never includes questioning the factual circumstances that reveal the false flag nature, used for the phony justification to build a domestic police state.

There is no place for the “Truth Movement” in the realm of the NeoCon right-thinking camp. One such Kool-Aid dispenser in the deadly disease of disinformation is Cliff Kincaid. His article, Lies of the 9/11 “Truth” Movement, published in Accuracy in Media is a classic in denial.

“The “inside job” theory of 9/11 is appealing to those holding a Marxist or anti-Semitic view that American foreign policy is secretly manipulated by “imperialist” or “Zionist” agents. On other occasions, the puppet-masters are “global elites” or members of secret clubs. These theories preclude serious thinking about why America is under attack and by whom. Facts and evidence don’t matter when a theory about sinister secret agents with no names makes more sense.”

Paleo-conservatives are the genuine voice of authentic conservatism. The Love It or Leave It crowds of paper mache sword waving jingoists, who purport to be patriots are committed internationalists in the advancement of an American Empire. Their bellicose and warmongering mindset is no formula for genuine patriotism.

More Liberty Now concludes and asks a question that few dare to confront.  

“Love it or leave it” admits that the government is a monopoly that claims ownership of us all. This ultimatum is not compatible with free market beliefs. It advocates settling for mediocrity and a monopoly. Worst of all, it’s a false choice since the very government we are urged to love will not allow anyone to leave its jurisdiction. That doesn’t fit within any definition of ‘patriotic’ I’m aware of. Does it fit yours?”

People are so dumb down about true national security since 911 and gleefully boast and demonstrate their pride in stupidity. Hypocrites who refuse to face reality about their government and foreign policy wickedness, while pretending to be champions of American principles are mentally ill betrayers.

Amerika is in a death spiral because denial is the new national anthem, sung to the tune of THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC, for an American nation that no longer exists.

- See more at: http://www.batr.org/stupid/020315.html#sthash.vtUb9JXL.dpuf

By Aaron Mamiit, Tech Times
January 24, 2015

Edward Snowden, the infamous former contractor for the National Security Agency who leaked thousands of pages of previously classified NSA intelligence documents, reportedly thinks that Apple's iPhone has "special software" that authorities can activate remotely to be able to gather information about the user.

"Edward never uses an iPhone; he's got a simple phone," said the lawyer of Snowden, Anatoly Kucherena, in an interview with the Russian media company RIA Novosti.

"The iPhone has special software that can activate itself without the owner having to press a button and gather information about him; that's why on security grounds he refused to have this phone," Kucherena added.

It is not clear if the "special software" being referred to in the interview is made up of standard diagnostic tools, or if the NSA whistleblower thinks intelligence agencies from the United States have found a way to compromise the mobile operating system developed by Apple.

Apple was among the first companies accused of participating in the PRISM data mining project of the NSA, following the release by Snowden of the agency's classified documents. The project reportedly involved extracting video, audio, pictures, documents, emails and connection logs from devices, allowing analysts to track the movement of the device's user and the communications that they are receiving or sending out.

At the time, the accusations were immediately denied by Apple, stating that the company is not involved in the supposed PRISM project and that it does not grant government agencies direct access to the company's servers...

China has deployed Dongfeng-21 medium-range ballistic missiles at Mt. Baekdu that target Japan, the official International Herald Leader reported on Sunday.

The newspaper claimed it "analyzed" China Central Television footage of a nuclear arms and missiles corps in training in northeastern China to arrive at the conclusion. But since it is an official publication, the news is more likely to be a government plant than an investigative scoop.

The DF-21 series were originally ground-to-ground ballistic missiles with a range of 1,700-2,100 km, but the latest version in the series is modified into anti-ship ballistic missiles with a range of 3,000 km, which can threaten the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet.

The original version can hit any target in Korea and Japan, including U.S. Forces Japan bases in Okinawa. It can carry a 200-500 kiloton nuclear warhead. It is 10.7 m long and can fly at a speed of Mach 10. Its accuracy has improved from a 300-400 m radius to 1/10 of that.

The latest anti-ship version can hit the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet near Guam, the U.S. strategic bridgehead in the Asia-Pacific region as well as any target in the East Seas.  It is very difficult to intercept because it is so fast and can change path in the final stage of flight.

China also reportedly deployed DF-21 missiles on the coast of Shandong Province in preparation for clashes with Japan over the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Shandong is close to the East China Sea but vulnerable to an attack by the Japanese air force.

China is believed to have some 50 to 100 missiles in the DF-21 series.

Prof. Cho Yang-hyun of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy said, "If China has deployed DF-21 missiles at Mt. Baekdu, it's a warning to the military alliance among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo."

Politico.com
1/6/15 5:35 PM EST

John Boehner is getting revenge.

After he secured his third term as speaker Tuesday afternoon, losing 25 votes on the House floor to some relative-unknown members of the Republican Conference, Boehner moved swiftly to boot two of the insurgents from the influential Rules Committee. That could be just the start of payback for the speaker’s betrayers, who might see subcommittee chairmanships and other perks fall away in the coming months.

Boehner’s allies have thirsted for this kind of action from the speaker, saying he’s let people walk all over him for too long and is too nice to people who are eager to stab him in the back. The removal of Florida Reps. Daniel Webster and Rich Nugent from Rules was meant as a clear demonstration that what Boehner and other party leaders accepted during the last Congress is no longer acceptable, not with the House’s biggest GOP majority in decades.

The reason for dethroning the two Florida Republicans was simple: Webster ran against Boehner for speaker, distributing fliers outlining his candidacy and talking about how he would better adhere to the House rules than the Ohio Republican. Nugent supported his fellow Floridian in the quixotic endeavor, which garnered the support of 12 lawmakers. Webster didn’t even give Boehner a heads-up that he was running, although leadership was aware early Tuesday morning that it could happen...

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Inquisitr.com
January 2, 2015

If you thought slavery has been wiped out, you would be sorely mistaken. The barbaric act of exploiting and abusing people still takes place in South Korea.

Described as a “living hell,” the chain of rural islands off South Korea’s rugged southwest coast have shallow sea-fed fields where slaves are forced to work 18 hour shifts without pay. Slaves are made to mine salt that collects after sea water evaporates from the fields.

What’s even more horrendous is that the slavery involves mostly disabled men and women who are too feeble or simply incapable of planning and executing their escape from these islands.

Appallingly, slavery has been so ubiquitous here that regional judges have shown leniency toward several of the perpetrators of the heinous crime. In suspending the prison sentences of two farmers, a court noted that “such criminal activities were tolerated as common practice by a large number of salt farms nearby.”

Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have surfaced, each time generating national shame and outrage. Based on the accounts of escapees, officials searched more than 38,000 salt, fish and agricultural farms and disabled facilities, but found no more than 100 workers who had received no — or only scant — pay. Moreover, only about 100 people had been reported missing by their families. Surprisingly, though 50 island farm owners and regional job brokers were indicted, no local police or officials have ever faced punishment, and according to the national police, no one involved with slavery will ever see a day in court or face incarceration...

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1722306/slavery-still-thrives-on-south-korean-islands-organized-exploitation-of-disabled-shockingly-common/#KBk7FOxA0pUZ3QH5.99

Yahoo Finance
By Nicole Goodkind
December 30, 2014

Google’s (GOOGL) email service, Gmail, is currently unavailable in China. The outage is widely believed to be a result of the Chinese government attempting to curb the company’s growing presence.

Reports of Gmail not working in China began on Friday and data from Google’s real-time traffic report shows a steep drop that coincides. Google spokesman Taj Meadows has said “there’s nothing wrong on our end,” and China’s State Internet Information Office has yet to respond.

“Gmail has never been openly permitted in China but there’s been this workaround. People in China have been able to use these third-party providers to access Gmail while in the country,” explains Yahoo Finance senior columnist Michael Santoli.

Chinese Gmail users would access the site through protocols like IMAP and SMTP but found that they no longer worked on Friday. “All of a sudden Gmail traffic goes to zero so presumably everyone who looks at these things says that China obviously put up a new wall that’s actually working.” Call it the great firewall.

This wouldn’t be the first case of an unexplained internet blockage by the Chinese government—YouTube, Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR) and The New York Times are just some of the websites that have experienced bans of their own.

The Gmail ban, however, is hurting companies in China that rely on the mail service. “A lot of companies that do business in China that are multinationals do use the Gmail platform and so it’s obviously another headache and hurdle to doing business in China,” says Santoli...

Published December 24, 2014
FoxNews.com

• 

• SONY WILL RELEASE the film 'The Interview' on YouTube and other streaming services in an about-face following the studio's widely criticized move to cancel the movie after receiving threats from hackers who crippled the company's infrastructure and published private info of employees...

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 23, 2014 10:38 KST

Cho Hyun-min

The younger sister of disgraced Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah sent an e-mail to employees of the carrier on Monday urging them to share the blame for the "nut rage" scandal.

The message from Cho Hyun-min, who is the airline's head of marketing, appears to suggest that other staff should also be held accountable for the incident that has made the carrier a laughing stock around the world.

Cho Hyun-ah faces charges of violating aviation regulations after she bawled out a flight attendant for serving her nuts incorrectly and then ordered the purser off the plane, forcing the pilot to return to the gate and delaying the flight.

According to Korean Air, Cho Hyun-min sent the e-mail titled "apology" to around 50 other staff in the marketing division last week and said the scandal is "not the result of one person" but "mistakes committed by all employees."

The e-mail went viral on the Internet and dealt a further blow to the airline's already heavily damaged reputation. One Korean Air staffer said, "The owners still don’t seem to understand what's at the heart of the problem."

A Korean Air spokesman said the message had been "misunderstood."

BBC.com
22 December 2014 Last updated at 21:30

Singer Joe Cocker, best known for his cover of The Beatles' With A Little Help From My Friends, has died aged 70.

The Sheffield-born singer had a career lasting more than 40 years, with hits including You Are So Beautiful and Up Where We Belong.

His agent Barrie Marshall said Cocker, who died after battling lung cancer, was "simply unique".

Sir Paul McCartney said he was a lovely guy who "brought so much to the world".

Cocker's friend Rick Wakeman, keyboard player for the rock band Yes, called his rendition of With a Little Help From My Friends "sensational" and said: "He had a voice that was just unique."

Wakeman told BBC Radio 2: "The great thing is with someone like Joe is what they leave behind, and that will be with us for years and years."...

The Korea Times
December 13, 2014

Yellow card / Courtesy of Korean AirLine FlightCrewUnion

The Korean Air union has recently posted a picture of a yellow card on their online community, revealing that the company has been giving out warnings to those who do not bow to executives. Accumulated yellow cards affect an employee's performance assessment, according to the union.

A union member with the ID "macadamia," posted "A sign of ‘Nutrage' posted in 2013" on the website Korean AirLine FlightCrewUnion, Saturday. The card specifies how disrespectfully a person bowed to seniors including their name, date, and place.

The periodical published by the flight crew union first disclosed the story in their 96th edition last year. The story, however, went viral after the company's heiress Heather Cho, stood at the center of criticism for the "nut rage" happening.

Cho ordered a flight back to the gate at New York's JFK International Airport last week, because a flight attendant gave her a packet of macadamia nuts instead of serving them on a plate.

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 11, 2014 12:16 KST

The daughter of the Korean Air boss, who exposed the carrier to global ridicule with an attack of "nut rage," resigned her vice presidency on Wednesday.

Cho Hyun-ah

On Tuesday, Cho Hyun-ah quit her duties as head of in-flight service and hotel operations, but remained a vice president and board member, sparking suspicions that Korean Air was simply giving her time off until the scandal blew over.

An airline spokesman said she will remain a board member until the carrier's annual shareholder's meeting in February.

Cho reportedly told Korean Air executives she wants to "take responsibility" for the incident and no longer be a burden for the company.

Her resignation followed a storm of criticism and global media reports of the incident at JFK airport in New York, where Cho bawled out a flight attendant for serving her nuts incorrectly and then had the purser removed from the plane for failing to find the relevant regulation quickly enough.

It is unclear whether Cho will also step down as head of three other Korean Air affiliates, including a chain of hotels.

Meanwhile, the civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy filed a complaint against Cho at a Seoul district prosecutors' office on Wednesday, accusing her of violating aviation regulations. A civic group spokesman said, "According to internal accounts, Cho shouted and hurled insults at the flight attendant."

A Korean Air spokesman, however, claimed Cho "raised her voice" but did not insult the flight attendant. Korean Air also denied rumors that the purser in question has been suspended from work. "He has gone on sick leave, and allegations that he was initially denied sick leave are not true."

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation plans to question Cho this week. A ministry official said, "We've wrapped up interviews with around a dozen employees, including the purser, and asked JFK airport for transcripts of the conversation between the pilot and flight control when the aircraft returned to the boarding gate" to drop off the purser.

The ministry has also asked Korean Air for the contact numbers of passengers who were aboard the flight during Cho's hissy fit.

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 09, 2014 09:54 KST

Korean-American novelist Suki Kim on Sunday described North Korea as "the most horrific place in the world" after teaching English at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology in 2011.

Kim (43) told CNN North Korean students there "were all completely sons of elite... They, first of all, didn't know anything about the rest of the world. If any of them did, they were fearful to admit that… Some of the students really thought people spoke Korean in the rest of the world."

Recounting her experience, she has recently published a book, "Without You, There Is No Us," based on a song with the same title hailing former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

"Absolute belief in the great leader, where, you know, this generation -- three generations of these men who, these hugely narcissistic men basically wiped everything out of their culture except themselves."

"They didn't know the existence of the Internet in 2011. And this was a Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Their major was computer, a lot of them... The utter, utter lack of information was astounding," she added. "The phone calls are tapped or, you know, it's a small country. You can't travel within the country without a permission."

"I don't know how they're going to rise up. They can't even get to the next town without a permission. They don't have the Internet. They have no way of going there, transportation system. There's just nothing that connects people."

by Neil Munro
White House Correspondent
The Daily Caller
12/05/2014

President Barack Obama’s immigration deputies released 30,862 foreign criminals into the United States’ cities and neighborhoods, according to a federal document.

The document also showed that Obama repatriated less than 1 percent of the 12 million illegals living in the United States during the 12 months up to October 2014.

Officials also repatriated only 8,805 of the roughly 180,000 unskilled Central American migrants who flooded across the border since 2011, according to the “Fiscal Year 2014 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation Report.”

“Immigration enforcement has been destroyed by this President,” Sen. Jeff Sessions said in a Dec. 5 statement.

Americans “must understand the situation can be remedied: if the public elects officeholders who will demand enforcement—at the worksite, the welfare office, and all ports of entry—the lawlessness can swiftly be ended,” he said.

During fiscal 2014, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement repatriated 315,943 people...

Published December 05, 2014
Fox News Latino

President Barack Obama’s deportation rate has reached a record once again, but in the other direction.

Fewer immigrants were deported in the last year than ever during the Obama administration, according to the Los Angeles Times, which obtained a draft report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The newspaper noted that the drop – deportations were down by 14 percent – occurred despite a rise in the number of people who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

In raw numbers, that means ICE removed 315,943 people in the last fiscal year, which runs Oct. 1, 2013 through Sept. 30, 2014.

The rise in border crossings was very likely caused by a surge of unaccompanied minors arriving illegally from Central America in that period, the newspaper said.

That may have had an impact on the lower rate of deportations as well, since many immigration and border workers had their hands full trying to keep up with processing the thousands of children, and taking care of them.

At the same time, however, the Obama administration – which long has been under fire by advocates of more lenient immigration policies for its record number of deportations, more than 2 million – made a concerted effort to shift its enforcement focus to criminals and repeat border crossers...

Who Really Killed John F. Kennedy? – New Research into the JFK Assassination reports on the most important new research investigating the JFK assassination.  After publishing in 2013 his first bestselling book Who Really Killed Kennedy: 50 Years Later - Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. believes investigations into the JFK Assassination are close to establishing irrefutable evidence documenting the JFK assassination a government-organized coup d’état, not the act of a lone-gun assassin.

By summarizing the most current cutting-edge research on the JFK assassination, Who Really Killed John F. Kennedy? – New Research Into the JFK Assassination sets the stage for 2017, twenty-five years after the passage of the JFK Records Act, when the National Archives is scheduled to release the final, yet classified government documents on the JFK assassination. This will hopefully include over 1,000 documents the CIA still withholds from the public on national security grounds.

Dr. Corsi fully expects the final true history of the JFK assassination will expose to the American pubic the history of CIA lies and disinformation that have distorted U.S. history since World War II, in favor of a series of international conflicts and wars favored by the military-industrial complex that JFK lost his life trying to prevent.

by SARTRE
November 3, 2014

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests" - Gore Vidal

Today the media prognosticators will do their charts, cite their polls and make their assessments on the results from the 2014 midterm elections. How exciting. Another cycle of “Great Expectations” posed for even bigger disappointments. A Congress firmly in the hands of the GOP ready to wage war against a Democrat progressive collectivist may seem promising for the heartland. However, there are very few indications that a monumental battle for a return to a constitutional republic will be the objective of Republican leadership. Fire Reid with a McConnell replacement simply means that deal making might return to the Capital, but forget about a most needed Presidential Appomattox surrender. There is no Court House in America that will allow the treason of Obama to be brought to justice.

Ah, the federalists can relax; their system of bipartisan corruption will remain intact. If there is any doubt what the establishment wants, just examine the graphic chart from the quid essential mouth piece of the NWO, the Economist.  Their optimistic vs. pessimistic assessment reveals their Free Trade, Climate Warming, Pro Corporate Immigration agenda.

America has been beaten down for the last quarter century with few brief periods of marginal relief. The historic 2010 Tea Party inspired election provided a GOP majority in the House. After the 2014 count, the kindred of conservative populists became less powerful, since the next Speaker of the House will be able to push legislation friendly to the interests of large donors, who buy the best candidates that will play ball.

John Boehner is their man and taking tea with genuine Republican conservatives is less likely. RINO’s and NeoCons have reserved seats at the table, and populists are reduced to a segregated minority. Mitch McConnell loves to broker deals. Oh, the money interests will rally to the insider arrangement that the Economist so plainly wish will be an era of cooperation.

All hail the return of the filibuster, or so goes the hope of a deliberate and statesmanship Senate. However, the Harry Reid nuclear option may not be as easy as a simple vote to put the genie back in the bottle.

No doubt those principled Republicans will disassemble key components of Obamacare, right? Well, you will see just how much power resides in the insurance companies and how little influence the depressed middle class excretes.

In the essay, The mid-term elections - What they’re all about, that same Economist expounds.

“The mid-terms will decide which party controls the Senate, as well as picking every member of the House of Representatives, 36 state governors (see article) and 45 statehouses. They also offer an opportunity for some political phrenology: a chance to infer something about the country’s mood. Several issues have threatened to dominate only to fade a little: Obamacare, a surge of child migrants into Texas, scandals at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the racially-charged riots in Ferguson, Missouri, the beheadings of Americans by jihadists and lately the first cases of Ebola on American soil have all played this role.”

How trite and ignorant of the mechanics of what motivates the electorate. The notion that people vote on the basis of the Ferguson federally approved Eric Holder distraction is an insult to every person who really is concerned about civil liberties. The hubbub over alleged or real beheadings is hardly an issue that powers the selection of a voting lever. Of course in the era of computer counted ballots, chad cards, early mail voting and illegal voting – the notion of selecting a candidate that will ensure that you will keep your head may be just too much to expect.

Nuisance and periphery distractions are the mother’s milk of an ideology, a party or a candidate that is desperate and behind. The Democrats will lose today because of the most basic reason for anyone who votes their own self-interest. Namely, the Obama controlled administration has failed to deliver a brighter future. So much for government of hope . . .

Before the undecided express glee with a Republican Congress, consider the prospects of actual action.  Priebus Rallies Base: GOP Will Stop Obama’s 'Un-American' Amnesty” If We Win Senate boast as reported by Breitbart. So how did he answer at a town hall meeting when    one woman even asked Priebus why the “sergeant at arms hasn’t arrested Obama” for our “wide open borders.”

Priebus handled it with ease.

“I understand there’s a little bit of hyperbole, but I understand your point, which is the president’s role in the Constitution is to enforce the law,” he said. “So the president wants to take Article II and ignore that part to enforce the law. He wants to be Article I, which is the legislature, and write all the laws. And then he’s appointing all of his judges to take care of Article III.”

Coping with a slight of hand is the art of political protection. Never answer the true issue. Why won’t the Republican Party impeach Obama over his treason? Must be that nasty Ferguson psyop factor!

Since the rule of law has been ignored for so long, the invented practice of circumventing plain legal language with the paragon of fiat administrative decrees has become an accepted practice. The politicization of the judiciary and the extortion of honest judges leave a pattern of rule by press release. 

Should people be upbeat (not in the same sense of the Economist optimism)? Just what are the market prospects of a GOP victory? According to Kevin Mahn published by Forbes, Midterm Elections Bode Bullishly For U.S. Stocks provides a narrow and arcane viewpoint.

“The first research study I reviewed in this regard was conducted by S&P Capital IQ. The study (summarized in the chart below) concluded that the stock market – which was defined in this study by the S&P 500 index – has gained 15.3% on average in the six months following a mid-term election in the 3rd year of a given term of a presidency, which is this case this year with President Obama – recognizing, of course, that this is the second term of Obama’s presidency. The study also showed that the frequency of advance (“FoA”) for this occurrence was 94% of the overall time period of October 31, 1944 – September 29, 2014 for this research study. Midterm elections are currently scheduled for November 4, 2014, so this would roughly translate to the period of November 2014 – April 2014.”

OK the Federal Reserve has ended QE so that must bode well for equities??? That goes contrary to all the forecasts that conclude that cheap liquid money drives up stock prices, so what is Wall Street saying about a GOP controlled Congress? Financial elites love making money in any economic environment. So working with eager Republicans to expand transnational trade agreements may be the lasting result in the next Congress.

Of course none of these treaties improve the economic plight of ordinary citizens.

The perennial lefty Katrina vanden Heuvel warns of The catastrophes that a GOP-controlled Congress would bring. She is correct on the “free trade” pacts and that Obama will coordinate with the corporatist tools from either party to further their economic stranglehold.

“But a Republican takeover of the Senate is not a threat just because of what Republicans will do. Progressives should also worry about the many areas of potential agreement between the president and a Republican-controlled Senate. It is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), for example, not Republicans, who is denying the president fast-track authority to force corporate trade deals through Congress. Without Reid in the way, “free-trade” pacts like Trans-Pacific Partnership — which labor leaders have called “NAFTA on steroids” — are likely to become the law of the land. Likewise, President Obama and Republicans could agree to pursue lower corporate tax rates — as opposed to infrastructure investments and job creation — as their primary economic-development initiative. And let’s not forget that Obama has repeatedly floated cuts to Social Security as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Republican leaders. Although we believe that the president has many progressive instincts, he has shown an inclination to seek consensus rather than to fight. If Republicans control both chambers of Congress, any consensus will err to the right.”

Where is the representation for the American constituency of struggling citizens? The last Radical Reactionary essay, 2014 Election Business as Usual explains why savvy observers should not expect the moon. Now that the early voting results have Republicans 10% ahead, start preparing for another Grand Old Party letdown.

All the Obama scandals taint the reputations of incumbent Democrats. The motivation for voting for a Republican candidate is often out of frustration. Intense positive approval is rare among rational and sane voters. Usually the vested interest government minions rally to the Democrat state/capitalism bandwagon. Let’s hope the rank and file see through all the fear and identity politics and vote to retire the failed progressive agenda. However, the duty of every voter is to keep the fire to the feet of any elected representative from both parties.

- See more at: http://batr.org/reactionary/110414.html#sthash.XWQMxf0q.dpuf

BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- All foreigners visiting North Korea will be put under quarantine for 21 days as a precaution against the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, according to China's commerce ministry on Saturday.

In a brief statement, the Chinese commerce ministry said North Korea has recently notified all diplomatic missions and international agencies in the country that it will quarantine all foreigners entering the North.

Citing North Korea's state emergency anti-epidemic committee, the statement said, "Entry of all foreigners from abroad will be under 21-day quarantine at designated sites and to receive medical observation to prevent the Ebola virus from entering into the country."

The Chinese ministry advised Chinese business travelers to pay "close attention" to North Korea's quarantine measure, according to the statement.

Last week, China-based tour agencies specializing in trips to North Korea said Pyongyang has banned foreign tourists from entering the communist country to prevent an outbreak of Ebola.

In 2003, North Korea closed its borders because of the spread of the SARS virus.

Since the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, nearly 5,000 people have died from the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

kdh@yna.co.kr

Ten officials of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party have been executed for charges including watching foreign soap operas, South Korea’s intelligence agency revealed Wednesday, bringing the total of senior members killed this year to 50.

The National Intelligence Service says the officials were executed by firing squad for watching South Korean soap operas, engaging in bribes, or womanizing, The Telegraph reports.

The officials killed reportedly are close to Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, who was arrested in December and executed for committing crimes against the state.

Details of the killings were provided in an intelligence report delivered to South Korea’s parliament Tuesday.

The elimination of the officials suggests Kim Jong Un is getting rid of potential sources of opposition to his rule, according to The Telegraph.

Defectors from North Korea told the newspaper that pirated versions of South Korean and Chinese television shows are widely distributed in the country’s black market.

Click for more from The Telegraph.

Countries bordering those in West Africa impacted by the Ebola outbreak have been successful in stopping the spread of the virus by blocking flights, including Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, and yet the Obama administration has refused to do likewise despite innumerable public figures calling on the White House to take action.

Numerous airlines have also restricted flights to Ebola-affected countries and yet the United States remains wide open to potential Ebola patients not only via airports but also via the country’s porous southern border, where hundreds of illegal aliens from Ebola-hit countries have poured across in recent months.

By refusing to block flights or tighten border security, the Obama administration is aiding and abetting the spread of Ebola and engaging in dereliction of duty by refusing to adopt the default position under such circumstances.

That’s why we’re launching a national campaign for all non-essential workers in the United States to strike from Monday through Wednesday next week.

We are calling on everyone to get behind the strike by tweeting under the hashtag #stopebolastrike and by personally participating in the general strike from Monday to Wednesday. We also invite other media outlets and media personalities to support the strike.

If the Obama administration fails to respond to the strike by Wednesday, it will be prolonged until the federal government is forced to take proper action to fight Ebola.

The CDC has proven itself to be dangerously inept and woefully unprepared to deal with a wider Ebola outbreak in the United States after two nurses who should have been properly protected contracted the virus from patient zero – Thomas Eric Duncan.

The CDC also gave express permission for Ebola victim Amber Vinson to travel on a commercial airliner after she had frequent contact with Duncan during his treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, potentially exposing 132 passengers who also flew on the Frontier Airlines plane.

The federal government is committing criminal neglect by failing to implement the very measures that have proven successful in other countries in stopping the spread of the Ebola outbreak.

http://www.infowars.com/stopebolastrike-national-strike-to-force-obama-to-stop-west-african-flights/