Here’s How the U.S. Government Treats Whistleblowers

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What is it about whistleblowers that the powers that be can’t stand?

When I blew the whistle on the CIA’s illegal torture program, I was derided in many quarters as a traitor. My detractors in the government attacked me for violating my secrecy agreement, even as they ignored the oath we’d all taken to protect and defend the Constitution.

All of this happened despite the fact that the torture I helped expose is illegal in the United States. Torture also violates a number of international laws and treaties to which our country is signatory — some of which the United States itself was the driving force in drafting.

I was charged with three counts of espionage, all of which were eventually dropped when I took a plea to a lesser count. I had to choose between spending up to 30 months in prison and rolling the dice to risk a 45-year sentence. With five kids, and three of them under the age of 10, I took the plea.

Tom Drake — the NSA whistleblower who went through the agency’s chain of command to report its illegal program to spy on American citizens — was thanked for his honesty and hard work by being charged with 10 felonies, including five counts of espionage. The government eventually dropped the charges, but not before Drake had suffered terrible financial, professional, and personal distress.

This is an ongoing theme, especially in government

– From the post: CIA Torture Program Whistleblower Speaks – “The Sad Fate of America’s Whistleblowers”

While we always knew the U.S. government’s line that Snowden had avenues for effective whistleblowing through official channels was a heaping pile of bullshit, it’s always good to prove the point.

The Guardian reports:

Edward Snowden has called for a complete overhaul of US whistleblower protections after a new source from deep inside the Pentagon came forward with a startling account of how the system became a “trap” for those seeking to expose wrongdoing.

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Here’s the Full List of Companies & Organizations That Paid Hillary Clinton From 2013-2015

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In its article titled, How Corporate America Bought Hillary Clinton for $21M, The New York Post details the companies and organizations that paid Hillary in speaking fees from 2013-2015.

The total comes to $21.7 million, which is a remarkable sum for one of the least charismatic and unimaginative orators the world has ever known.

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Obama Lifts Arms Embargo to the “Police State” of Vietnam

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So why would the State Department magically upgrade Malaysia? Well, because of a tiny provision in the fast track “Trade Promotion Authority” deal that Congress recently passed. It noted that fast track authority would not apply to trade deals involving countries that were categorized as “tier 3″ by the State Department. In other words, this should have given the US tremendous leverage to push Malaysia to really tackle the problem. Instead, because it appears that the administration is so focused on getting the TPP officially finished and ratified, it got the State Department to just magically upgrade Malaysia, and effectively spit on the graves of those murdered migrant workers.

– From the post: U.S. State Department Upgrades Serial Human Rights Abuser Malaysia to Include it in the TPP

Don’t let anyone tell you Barack Obama’s a lame duck. Our CEO of war was recently spotted in Southeast Asia spreading around some of that famous peace and democracy.

Vice News reports:

US President Barack Obama announced on Monday that Washington would fully lift an embargo on sales of lethal arms to Vietnam, despite human rights organizations describing it as “among the world’s most repressive regimes.”

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Video of the Day – Camille Paglia on the American University, Bureaucracy and the “Transgender Nightmare”

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I always try to make time for the words of Camille Paglia. Brace yourself for some brilliant observations in the following chat.

Enjoy.

If you’re craving some more Paglia, see:

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Shaun King of The Daily News – “Why I’m Leaving the Democratic Party”

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In a February post titled, It’s Not Just the GOP – The Democratic Party is Also Imploding, I noted the following: 

Yes, of course, Trump winning the GOP nomination marks the end of the party as we know it. After all, some neocons are already publicly and actively throwing their support behind Hillary. While this undoubtably represents a major turning point in U.S. political history, many pundits have yet to appreciate that the exact same thing is happening within the Democratic Party. It’s just not completely obvious yet.

While it might sound strange, a coronation of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary will mark the end of the party as we know it. There’s been a lot written about the “Sanders surge,” with much of it revolving around Hillary Clinton’s extreme personal weakness as a candidate. While this is indisputable, it’s also a convenient way for the status quo to exempt itself from fault and discount genuine grassroots anger. I’m of the view that Sanders’ support is more about people liking him than them disliking Hillary, particularly when it comes to registered Democrats. He’s not merely seen as the “least bad choice.” People really do like him.

The Sanders appeal is twofold. He is seen as unusually honest and consistent for someone who’s held elected office for much of his life, plus he advocates a refreshingly anti-establishment view on core issues that matter to an increasing number of Americans. These include militarism, Wall Street bailouts, a two-tiered justice system, the prohibitive cost of college education, healthcare insecurity and a “rigged economy.” While Hillary is being forced to pay lip service to these issues, everybody knows she doesn’t mean a word of it. She means it less than Obama meant it in 2008, and Obama really didn’t mean it.

Hillary is the embodiment of a sick and detested status quo. She stands for nothing, is nothing, and a vote for her all but guarantees both murder abroad and oligarchy at home. I think a large number of Bernie Sanders supporters understand this and won’t be going off silently into that quiet voting booth to commit ethical self-sacrifice despite the terrifying prospects of a Trump presidency. I think they’ll stay home, but they won’t sit there passively. They’ll be seething inside, and many will renounce the Democratic party forever. Many rank and file Republicans already came to such a conclusion years ago, which is precisely why the nomination was wide open for a man like Trump to capture. Democrats will do the same, and before you know it, political pundits will be tripping over each other to write about the death of the Democratic Party.

Fast forward three months, and the evidence of this reality is starting to flood in. As I’ve maintained for what seems like forever, a very significant percentage of Bernie Sanders supporters will not go quietly into that corrupt, neocon Hillary Clinton night. People have seen enough. They’ve had enough.

The latest proof come to us via New York Daily News columnist Shaun King. What he writes isn’t particularly earth-shattering or novel, but it carries weight for me due to Mr. King’s political history. As he shares with readers in his latest post, Here’s Why I’m Leaving the Democratic Party After This Presidential Election and You Should Too:

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Texas Judge Orders DOJ Attorneys to Take Ethics Classes

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This is simply priceless.

The Hill reports:

A federal judge in Texas on Thursday tore into Justice Department lawyers who argued the immigration case involving the Obama administration, ordering them to take ethics classes.

In a blistering court order, U.S. District Court Just Andrew S. Hanen said he was “disappointed” about having to address the subject of lawyer behavior, calling it “at best, a distraction.”

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Donald Trump’s True Colors Emerge as He Snuggles up to Wall Street

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Earlier this week, in the post Donald Trump Will Meet War Criminal Henry Kissinger, I pointed out the following:

Since clinching the Republican nomination, Trump’s true colors have started to emerge. He named a former Goldman Sachs partner to run his fundraising efforts, he named petty authoritarian, gangster wannabe Chris Christie to run his transition team, and he chose “everyone’s a terrorist” Rudy Giuliani as his planned head of the domestic gestapo, the Department of Homeland Security. He’s also been endorsed by Orc King Sheldon Adelson, who said he was prepared to spend $100 millionto get him elected. Now he’s off to kiss the blood-soaked hands of Henry Kissinger.

Apparently, that was just the beginning. Now he’s out publicly pandering to Wall Street in ways even Hillary Clinton wouldn’t dare do.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

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Introducing “The Breaking Dawn” by Paul Rosenberg

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I often regretted, back in the dark times, that I failed to write the true story of my youth; if I had, it might have saved lives…either that or gotten me killed. Because, as I’ll explain, I was almost certainly the luckiest man ever born. And that kind of luck — when exposed — either drew people to learn from it or drove them to crucify it.

Whatever your first image for the “luckiest man” might be — health, money, talent, friends — I probably matched it, save that I was never drop-dead handsome. And that was lucky too. I had friends who were that good looking, and it wasn’t a blessing to them. Some people envied them, many hated them, the wrong ones pursued them, and if they weren’t careful their looks would take over their lives. You can hide being smart when people start to hate you for it, but you can’t very well hide your face. 

The part of my luck that mattered most, however, was being blessed with clarity. Now, since that concept might be new to you, I’ll ask you to try this: Imagine going back in time to the day you were born, just as you are right now. Imagine living through those years a second time, knowing in advance when all the wars and scandals would start and knowing how they’d end up. How much easier might that be?

– From the Introduction to The Breaking Dawn

With the opening paragraphs above, a reader is quickly initiated into the frighteningly realistic, yet playfully imaginative world of The Breaking Dawn by Paul Rosenberg. It’s quite easy to fall into the trap of boring cliches and relentless doom porn when attempting to peer into the recesses of the best and worst aspects of human nature. Paul, fortunately, avoids doing both. From the moment I turned the first page, I thirsted for more, and found myself emotionally involved with the main characters far faster than I anticipated. The struggles faced by the characters in the book ultimately represent the struggle human beings have always faced, and likely always will.

On one side of the fence we find a path of convenience, comfort, material success and status, while on the other lies conflict, frustration, passion, an almost irrational dedication to ethics, and enormous risk. That’s not to say these pursuits don’t often overlap, of course they do. What it is to say is that at those times of true existential conflict, when the outcome of entire civilizations hang in the balance, the human being is often forced to choose between what is right and what is convenient.

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Donald Trump Will Meet War Criminal Henry Kissinger Tomorrow

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He’s a thug, and a crook, and a liar, and a pseudo-intellectual and a murderer. Ok? Those things are factually verifiable.

Kissinger deserves vigorous prosecution for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture.

A good liar must have a good memory: Kissinger is a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.

– Quotes by Christopher Hitchens

Now that things have gotten serious, it’s time for Donald Trump to kiss the ring.

Since clinching the Republican nomination, Trump’s true colors have started to emerge. He named a former Goldman Sachs partner to run his fundraising efforts, he named petty authoritarian, gangster wannabe Chris Christie to run his transition team, and he chose “everyone’s a terrorist” Rudy Giuliani as his planned head of the domestic gestapo, the Department of Homeland Security. He’s also been endorsed by Orc King Sheldon Adelson, who said he was prepared to spend $100 million to get him elected. Now he’s off to kiss the blood-soaked hands of Henry Kissinger.

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Middle Class Destitution – A Devastating Tale From America’s Heartland

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He had made the drive enough times to already suspect what he might find. Stride Rite had left Huntington for Mexico at the tail end of the recession; Breyers Ice Cream had closed its doors after 100 years. In the weeks after each factory closing in his part of Indiana, Lewandowski had listened to politicians make promises about jobs — high-tech jobs, right-to-work jobs, clean-energy jobs — but instead Indiana had lost 60,000 middle-class jobs in the past decade and replaced them with a surge of low-paying work in health care, hospitality and fast food. Wages of male high school graduates had dropped 19 percent in the past two decades, and the wealth divide between the middle class and the upper class had quadrupled.

“These jobs aren’t the solution so much as they’re part of the problem,” Lewandowski said, and now the result of so much churn was becoming evident all across Indiana and lately in Huntington, too. Fast-food consumption was beginning to tick up. Poverty was up. Foreclosures were up. Meth usage up. Heroin up. Death rate up. In Dan Quayle’s Middle America, one of the biggest news stories of the year had been the case of a mother who had let her three-week-old child suck heroin off her finger.

“Despair is our business, and business is booming,” Lewandowski said…

“This is how it feels to be sold out by your country.”

“It’s pure greed.”

“They wanted to add another 6 feet to their yachts.”

“We’re becoming like a third-world country. We’re going to have nothing left but fast food.”

“Fast food and hedge funds. That’s where we’re going.”

– From the Washington Post article: From Belief to Outrage: The Decline of the Middle Class Reaches the Next American Town

I write a lot about the middle class. It’s been one of the core themes here at Liberty Blitzkrieg since inception, yet my posts tend to be filled with statistics and sarcasm, and often lack the crucial element of heart. In order to truly connect with the public and shift their sentiments from apathy to action, it’s imperative to create a deep emotional connection. I admittedly have not done a great job in this regard. Fortunately for all of us, Eli Saslow of the Washington Post has done just that.

I read a lot of articles, and I can’t remember anything that hit me as hard as what he published this past weekend. It tells the tale of the spirit-crushing decimation of the American middle class through the lens of eternal optimist, Chris Setser. Chris is a man who always went above and beyond in order to provide a good life for himself and his family. Working the graveyard shift at an Indiana United Technologies plant so that he could be home when his kids came home from school, Mr. Setser lived his entire life living by the mantra: “Things have a way of working in the end.” Until they didn’t.

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