Suppressed Details of Navy Yard Shooting

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Much information has already come out indicating the recent DC Navy Yard shooting follows a repeating pattern for such events including:

Other anomalies and discrepancies are noted at James Tracy’s “The Memory Hole” blog: http://memoryholeblog.com/2013/09/18/artifacts-from-the-dc-navy-yard-shooting/

A recent Washington Post article reported how shortly after Aaron Alexis started hearing voices and feeling vibrations sent through his hotel-room walls, :

On Aug. 23, he went to a VA hospital in Providence. Five days later, he went to another one in Washington, seeking a refill of the medication he had been prescribed in Rhode Island, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

In both cases, doctors sent Alexis home with the medication, identified by law enforcement officials as Trazodone, a generic antidepressant that is widely prescribed for insomnia.

What are some of the side-effects of Trazodone listed at Drugs.com ?:

  • Burning, crawling, itching, numbness, prickling, “pins and needles”, or tingling feelings
  • confusion about identity, place, and time
  • trouble with sleeping
  • continuing ringing or buzzing or other unexplained noise in the ears

More troubling is the drug’s psychiatric warning:

Psychiatric side effects have been reported and include mania, paranoia, hypomania (during and following therapy), increased libido, delirium, agitation, psychosis, hallucinations and self- destructive behavior.

Though it seems adverse reactions to Trazodone may have been one factor leading to the shooting, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of electronic harassment (which may create similar symptoms) nor explain the para-political aspects of the case. To take us further down the rabbit hole, there’s this interesting piece by Clyde Lewis: http://www.groundzeromedia.org/away-team-the-cosmic-suicide-trope/

The shooter’s purported Facebook page mentioned in the article:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-Alexis/488209661277662

Whether or not the profile was created by Aaron Alexis, it’s extremely odd. If it was created by someone other than Alexis, whether a handler or hoaxer, it reflects a pretty twisted mind not only for the cryptic poem, but because info on the site indicates it was created on April 15 in Boston, the day of the marathon bombing.

Post the Wrong Link, Get 105 Years in Jail

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What kind of link does the government think warrants such punishment? Documents revealing the secrets-sharing relationship between government and private security companies, apparently. That was what Barrett Brown linked to, and was the root cause of his 105 year sentence. Brown is an author and activist journalist best known for his “spokesperson” role for the hacker collective “Anonymous”. He was also a close friend and associate of fellow journalist Michael Hastings, who was working on a story with Brown shortly before his death in a suspicious car explosion. In his last published article, Hastings wrote:

Transparency supporters, whistleblowers, and investigative reporters, especially those writers who have aggressively pursued the connections between the corporate defense industry and federal and local authorities involved in domestic surveillance, have been viciously attacked by the Obama administration and its allies in the FBI and DOJ.

…Barrett Brown, another investigative journalist who has written for Vanity Fair, among others [sic] publications, exposed the connections between the private contracting firm HB Gary (a government contracting firm that, incidentally, proposed a plan to spy on and ruin the reputation of the Guardian’s [Glenn] Greenwald) and who is currently sitting in a Texas prison on trumped up FBI charges regarding his legitimate reportorial inquiry into the political collective known sometimes as Anonymous.

…Perhaps more information will soon be forthcoming.

Christian Stork of WhoWhatWhy wrote a great piece on the connections between Michael Hastings, Barrett Brown, and Edward Snowden here: http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/08/07/connections-between-michael-hastings-edward-snowden-and-barrett-brown-the-war-with-the-security-state/

In 2010, Brown formed his own online collective called Project PM to investigate documents uncovered by Anonymous, Wikileaks and others. Among the documents they analyzed were ones involving the security company Stratfor Global Intelligence revealing close relationships between them, several other security contractors and several agencies of the government (including the NSA).

A recent article by Alfredo Lopez of OpEdNews.com covers the important details about the case and why it matters for all of us who believe in freedom of speech and freedom of information. The following excerpts outline why Barrett Brown’s case may also be of concern for everyone who uses the internet:

To make this personal, do you use links? Or, a less absurd question, are you sure the links you post don’t include criminal information? Today, there are an estimated 4500 federal criminal statutes and that means that, at some point in your life, you’ve probably violated federal law without knowing it. The same is true of the people who posted the material you are linking to. As ridiculous as it may seem, based on the Brown prosecution, you could be charged with a crime without having any involvement in it by linking to material posted by people who have no idea they committed a crime.

For example, here’s the link to the Stratfor files. While it indicates that these linked documents have now been cleansed of credit card information, I can’t be sure of that. Nor do I know that other information the government considers illegal (or may in the future) isn’t in there. I haven’t read all the documents. But based on what prosecutors are saying, if these files do contain information they eventually consider illegal, I could be charged with spreading it.

On the one hand, they attack privacy, which makes the Internet useful for us. Now they’re attacking links, the protocol that makes the Internet…well, the Internet. That’s something we can’t afford to lose

For those who might want to do something about this, there’s a website of people trying to organize a campaign in his support.

Read the entire article here: http://www.opednews.com/articles/When-Posting-a-Website-Lin-by-Alfredo-Lopez-Information_Internet_Internet_Internet-130918-548.html

At Traces of Reality Radio, host Guillermo Jimenez recently interviewed Christian Stork, author of the WhoWhatWhy article about the connections between Hastings, Brown and Snowden. They discuss Brown’s work and how he became a target of the FBI, how Project PM exposed HB Gary and Romas/COIN, the State Department and their use of “persona management software” and social media “sock puppets,” among other topics:

Show link: http://tracesofreality.com/2013/09/17/tor-radio-09172013-christian-stork-on-barrett-brown-project-pm-and-the-hidden-world-of-intelligence-contractors/

A Green Beacon of Hope

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Aesliip shares some of his adventures at the first Seattle Cannabis Cup at the Weedist. The event is organized by High Times magazine and is sort of a trade show for cannabis growers and medical dispensaries as well as a competition awarding a prestigious prize for growers. The Cup is traditionally held in Amsterdam, but since the passing of legislation in Colorado and Washington that legalizes recreational cannabis use, it is now being brought to the U.S. Here’s a sampling of what Aesliip observed:

The various booths had every kind of marijuana in every form you could think of. It was like a candy store; and there were tons of free samples. As I mentioned before, you could get dab samples at almost every booth, but there were also bong samples, tincture samples, and edible samples. I wanted to sample everything but I was also trying to not fall asleep on the sidewalk.

Cannabis Cup Seattle - WeedistI sampled a fair bit, though, especially when 4:20 came around. The California Finest booth was tossing out free individually wrapped joints, brownies, and random apparel into the crowd.

I caught one of the joints with my index finger and thumb which was awesome because one, I was stoked that I caught one and two, that’s how you hold a joint. I promptly opened it and lit up, as did many others who had caught the flying joints. Within a few minutes there had to be like 10 or more joints being passed around the small crowd, which I thought was hilarious.

Read the full story here: http://www.weedist.com/2013/09/adventures-seattle-cannabis-cup-2013/

I never would have thought such an event would be possible on U.S. soil. It shows just how relatively quickly public perception can change, how decades of propaganda are no match for genuine education and experience, and how in some cases even the feds are powerless to stop social/cultural movements. Mass cannabis legalization has the potential to help heal the nation physically, psychologically, economically and spiritually, as long as it isn’t co-opted, monopolized, chemically processed, genetically modified, etc.

Guy Evans and Cuban wrestler and rapper Konnan talk about the drug war at the Smells Like Human Spirit podcast. It’s an interesting conversation that connects the issue to Mexican gang wars, the corrupt political system and the prison-industrial complex before going on related tangents such as the military-industrial complex, foreign wars, the Occupy movement and the surveillance state.

Show link: http://www.smellslikehumanspirit.com/2013/09/konnanmlw.html

Pro-War “Expert” Gets Busted for Lying

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All war mongers depend on lies and deception to rally public support. A classic example is the false testimony which helped trigger the first Iraq War. Elizabeth O’Bagy is another such shill who has been quoted by John Kerry and John McCain to support the case for war. Though the lie she got called out on was about academic credentials, not any of the lies to start another war, her background reveals some of the behind-the-scenes players influencing U.S. government policy. Among the findings uncovered by Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire:

  • Before getting fired, O’Bagy was a “senior research analyst” at Washington’s heavily pro-Israeli and neoconservative think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
  • The ISW was founded by Kimberly Kagan, a devout neocon, whose fellow experts elevate U.S. military intervention, and provide policy research back-up for U.S. State Department, CIA, AIPAC and large national security defense contractors. The ISW’s board of directors is led by William Kristol. This type of organisation is a nexus which brings together, among other things, support for the Syrian opposition, anti-Castro in Cuba, and pro-Israeli activities.
  • O’Bagy is also policy director at an even more questionable Washington DC outfit – a pro-rebel, money-raising and policy promoting nonprofit organisation known as the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF). Exactly how much money SETF has collected to date (or where it has been spent) is unknown, but following the O’Bagy incident, O’Bagy and the group’s Communications Director Cassie Chesley – have both been pulled down from the SETF website. According to the SETF, Syrian opposition agents have been coordinating with operatives in Washington through “field work” since November 2012, including building parallel government structures inside rebel-held areas in Syria.
  • O’Bagy was a key defender of alleged CIA American al Qaeda fighter recently detained by the FBI for working with al Qaeda in Syria, by working to shift opinion over his jihadist affiliations.
  • One of O’Bagy’s mentors is none other than Michael Weiss, Research Director at the British-based Henry Jackson Society, a key Israeli and neoconservative foreign policy think-tank.

Read the full article here: http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/09/14/kerry-and-mccains-fake-phd-syria-expert-obagy-is-neocon-and-israeli-linked-operative/

Though O’Bagy’s voice may be absent from the public discourse (at least for now), there are undoubtedly plenty of others like her who are well compensated by powerful think-tanks and special interest groups. Some might also be a part of government programs such as Operation Mockingbird.

The Right Happiness is Felt on a Genetic Level

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Happiness

A new study from UCLA and the University of North Carolina suggests that not all happiness is equal, and different types of happiness have different effects on the expression of inflammatory genes and antibody/antiviral genes. Participants of the study with high levels of hedonic happiness (the type of happiness that comes from consummatory self-gratification)  had high levels of inflammatory gene expression and low levels of antibody/antiviral gene expression. Participants with high levels of eudomonic happiness (the kind you get from working towards a noble goal and searching for meaning in life) had low levels of inflammatory gene expression and high levels of antibody/antiviral gene expression.

According to Steven Cole, UCLA professor of medicine and co-author of the study:

What this study tells us is that doing good and feeling good have very different effects on the human genome, even though they generate similar levels of positive emotion. Apparently, the human genome is much more sensitive to different ways of achieving happiness than are conscious minds.

Lead author Professor Barbara L. Fredrickson of UNC suggests that:

We can make ourselves happy through simple pleasures, but those ‘empty calories’ don’t help us broaden our awareness or build our capacity in ways that benefit us physically. At the cellular level, our bodies appear to respond better to a different kind of well-being, one based on a sense of connectedness and purpose.

…Most people are happy in both ways,” she said. And the secret to long-term good health may depend on keeping the two in balance.

Sources:

http://www.pnas.org/content/110/33/13684

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/02/3079003/unc-researcher-not-all-happiness.html

Our Genes Respond Positively to The Right Kind of Happiness

No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic. – A.J.P. Taylor

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With so much attention on arguments for and against a potential World War 3, it’s almost easy to forget about economic problems though the issues overlap. To remind us (if we did need reminding), a number of great articles have come out recently.

Two headlines at OpEd News explain how economic pressures play a part in mass opposition against the war and reasons why even without another war, America is headed towards a greater financial crisis.

Though corporate media tells us we’re in an economic recovery, the truth is it’s a recovery for the rich, a recession for the rest.

A new UC Berkeley report documents the growing gulf between the rich and poor in the U.S. since 2009, while on a global scale a new “superclass” has emerged who are 94% male, white, and connected to financial corporations, governments, and the military, as reported in this expose on the Financial Core of the Transnational Capitalist Class.

On related notes, ever wonder how much money missile strikes cost and how many CEOs were prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis? The answers will tell you something about the priorities of the U.S. government.

Greg Palast article about the “End-Game” memo: http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/