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BANGKOK, Thailand -- Security officials sifted through the grizzly
remains of victims and wreckage in the streets on August 18, but said
they did not know who detonated a powerful pipe bomb in the heart of
Bangkok crowded with shoppers, tourists and rush-hour commuters.

The blast killed at least 19 people -- including foreigners -- and
injured 123 others but no one immediately claimed responsibility.

Officials began inspecting CCTV evidence of the explosion which set
off a billowing fire when nearby motorcycles ignited.

They will also be scrutinizing personal videos recorded by screaming
pedestrians who fled in all directions and later posted their escapes
online.

Rescuers removed the corpses they had covered with white sheets where
they lay in the intersection, though some said they could retrieve
only body parts around the Hindu shrine and sidewalk.

The military's powerful Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) was
reportedly pursuing three possible motives, including opponents

Three years after Ecuador’s government granted political asylum to Julian Assange in its small ground-floor London embassy, the founder of WikiLeaks is still there -- beyond the reach of the government whose vice president, Joe Biden, has labeled him “a digital terrorist." The Obama administration wants Assange in a U.S. prison, so that the only mouse he might ever see would be scurrying across the floor of a solitary-confinement cell.


Above and beyond Assange’s personal freedom, what’s at stake includes the impunity of the United States and its allies to relegate transparency to a mythical concept, with democracy more rhetoric than reality. From the Vietnam War era to today -- from aerial bombing and torture to ecological disasters and financial scams moving billions of dollars into private pockets -- the high-up secrecy hiding key realities from the public has done vast damage. No wonder economic and political elites despise WikiLeaks for its disclosures.

 

The two reactors at Diablo Canyon are the last ones still operating in California. And the grassroots pressure to shut them down is escalating.

Together grassroots activists have shut three California reactors at San Onofre, between Los Angeles and San Diego and one each at Rancho Seco, near Sacramento and at Humboldt, perched on an earthquake zone in the north.

Proposed construction at Bodega Bay and near Bakersfield has also been stopped.

But the two at the aptly named Diablo still run, much to the terror of the millions downwind.

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   The Ohio Secretary of State, Jon Husted, declared that the citizens of Medina, Fulton, and Athens Counties may not vote on their own county charter initiatives, despite meeting requirements to place those initiatives on the November ballot.
   In a statement released yesterday, Mr. Husted – elected by the citizens of Ohio – made clear that his interests lie with the oil and gas industry, rather than We the People. Despite the people’s constitutional right to alter or reform their own government, Mr. Husted claims “unfettered authority and being empowered by the Ohio Revised Code” to deny the people their constitutional right.
   This summer, Medina, Fulton, and Athens County residents secured the necessary signatures to place county charter initiatives on the November ballot. Each of these counties faces fracking wastewater injection wells, LNG pipelines, and other infrastructure projects that threaten to pollute clean air and pure water, regardless of community wishes.

   Last month in Colorado, Iraqi veteran Steve Otero, with his toddler twin boys by his side, told a crowd at a Colorado Board of Health meeting, “Without cannabis, I’d be dead.” Otero said he had a noose (literally) around his neck when a civilian friend suggested he take a couple puffs off a joint to ease his troubled mind, and lo and behold, it worked. Yet even after the testimony of Otero, the Colorado Board of Health denied approving medical marijuana for PTSD due to a lack of hard information on the benefits of such treatment.
   Clearly, Colorado is conflicted, because a veteran can purchase marijuana for recreational use, but if the VA tests his or her urine and it’s positive for THC, they can lose their VA benefits. This is a perfect example of a few bureaucrats sticking to their ideology while also having their heads too far up you-know-where to realize what’s good for combat veterans when the only combat these health officials have experienced is a snow ball fight.

 

Strange how  intellectual discussion concerning the so-called “Arab Spring” has almost entirely shifted in recent years - from one concerning freedom, justice, democracy and rights in general, into a political wrangle between various antagonist camps.

The people, who revolted across various Arab countries are now marginalized in this discussion, and are only used as fodders – killers and victims – in a war seemingly without end.

But how did it all go so wrong?

There was once a time when things were so simple, so easy to understand and explain: People, who were long oppressed, revolted against their oppressors (Arab regimes) and benefactors (western powers).

Unable to effect change using peaceful channels - for Arab civil societies either did not exist or were tightly controlled - Arab masses took to the streets, each nation with a unique struggle of its own yet united around a set of basic demands. 

 

merican psychologists have voted overwhelmingly against helping their government torture people. In an even more radical step, the psychologists voted to obey international law, even in instances where US law tolerates war crimes or crimes against humanity. 

That would be really good news if there weren’t a huge exception: the psychologists also voted that it would be all right for them to take part in “constitutional” interrogations by federal, state, and local law enforcement in the US. Given the ragged history of US law enforcement, this is a loophole that could at any moment become another noose.

Corporate Media Crap Coverage of Sanders Is Norm


There are now articles about the predictable fluff BS horserace personality lifestyle crap coverage by the corporate media of the Bernie Sanders for president campaign (and articlesabout the predictable non-coverage of the Jill Stein for president campaign).

I wish it would all go away, as I think having no election would be preferable to holding such a broken one, and I'd limit even an open, free, credible, functioning, publicly-funded, fairly reported election to something under 6 months in duration.

Nobel Peace Laureates Endorse Violence

Robert J. Burrowes

In a recent letter to US President Barack Obama twelve Nobel Peace laureates declared their support for the long history of US elite violence against Native Americans and enslaved Africans, as well as the US imperial violence around the world that has butchered tens of millions of people over the past 200 years. See 'US: An End to Torture: Twelve Nobel Peace Prize laureates write to President Barack Obama asking the US to close the dark chapter on torture once and for all. Obama responds'. http://thecommunity.com/no-to-torture/

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