Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/149614/now_there%27s_even_a_%27progressive%27_plan_to_gut_social_security/

The folks trying to slash Social Security face enormous political opposition and have no good argument for their case. They're going to have to lie, cheat, steal to do it. The insiders in Washington really really want to cut Social Security, and they are prepared to say or do anything to do it. Among the latest lines is that they want to make Social Security more "progressive." This sort of rhetoric appeared in a report from the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) in a plan that proposes substantial cuts in benefits.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/health-authorities-want-depression-causing-drugs-added-to-water-supply/

Health authorities are pushing for drugs to be added to public water supplies that cause depression and memory loss, as a new study shows that the dangers of statins have been deliberately underplayed by drug companies, in a chilling throwback to how the population in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World were mass medicated with Soma to keep them docile and easy to control.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/01/201111971544820372.html

If the US is serious about peace, it should follow the current trend and recognise Palestinian statehood in 2011. The Obama administration should follow suit with the Latin American trend and recognise a Palestinian state in 2011, in order to get the peace process moving forward. If the Palestinians go ahead with their plans to declare a state later this year, the US should recognise it. There really is no good reason not to. After all, ever since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson, presidents from both parties have expressed support for the return of the occupied territories in exchange for peace. No nation, other than Israel itself, recognises any of that land - including Arab East Jerusalem - as part of Israel. And the UN, which issued Israel its birth certificate in 1947, appears ready to do the same for the State of Palestine this summer.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011120225544335933.html

Commando who took part in botched raid that killed sleeping Palestinian man dismissed from service. The 67-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead while asleep in his bed during the botched raid. Video - http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/israeli-troops-kill-innocent-man-in-his-sleep.html

Link: http://dont-tread-on.me/beware-of-the-patriot-pied-piper

“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”~ Daniel Webster. The National Tea Party will fail because they have NO idea what they are up against. We have seen this movement mobilize, march and protest the political status quo. Their impact has been felt far and wide. Unfortunately, all of this will fail in the end because the same Elite that control both of the Republicans and Democrats have already begun to infiltrate, corrupt and destroy the National Tea Party.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/article/157900/glenn-beck-targets-frances-fox-piven

On the afternoon of January 6, Frances Fox Piven, a distinguished professor, legendary activist, writer and longtime contributor to this magazine, received an e-mail from an unknown correspondent. There was no text, just a subject line that read: DIE YOU CUNT. It was not the first piece of hateful e-mail Piven had gotten, nor would it be the last. One writer told her to "go back to Canada you dumb bitch"; another ended with this wish: "may cancer find you soon."

Link: http://www.henrymakow.com/aloysius_james_fozdyke.html

America is an increasingly dark place and this will continue apace. "Change that you can believe in!" A little more change and Americans will be able to buy a coffee. Europe and Asia will follow almost in lockstep. We're coming up to the tenth anniversary. So much has been achieved in a decade. The sheeple appreciate that it's better to live on their knees than to die on their feet. Remember the old 'Duck and Cover' films? Today it's more like peasants under glass. The only problem with treating sheeple like slugs is that your shoes get dirty.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20486

One of the many marvelous things about Reality Sandwich is that it takes quite seriously the significance of dreams and other forms of visionary experience. Indeed, visionary experience is at the very heart of this community. The most talked about “dream” of our age is that millennia old dream that gave rise to the Long Count of the Maya Calendar, which culminates in the end date of December 21, 2012. We do not know and cannot even begin to speculate about the identity of the individual who may have first had the waking vision that hinted at some as yet undetermined future revolution in human history. . .

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/20-7

When I try to figure out why we are still in Afghanistan, though every ounce of logic says we ought to get out, an unexpected conversation I had last year haunts me. Doing neighborhood political canvassing, I knocked on the door of a cheerful man who was just about to tune in to his favorite radio show: Rush Limbaugh. He was kind enough to let me stay and we talked.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/20-10

When President Obama took office, he vowed to repair the damage done to America’s moral standing on the global stage. You may have hoped that human rights would become an organizing principle of our foreign policy. That the U.S. would finally try to engage pariah states like Iran and North Korea, or that Obama’s presidency would elevate the voices of grassroots movements in economic and environmental policy discussions. In 2011, you’ve probably either lowered your expectations or discarded your hopes.

Link: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/12-economic-collapse-scenarios-that-we-could-potentially-see-in-2011

What could cause an economic collapse in 2011? Well, unfortunately there are quite a few "nightmare scenarios" that could plunge the entire globe into another massive financial crisis. The United States, Japan and most of the nations in Europe are absolutely drowning in debt. The Federal Reserve continues to play reckless games with the U.S. dollar. The price of oil is skyrocketing and the global price of food just hit a new record high. Food riots are already breaking out all over the world. Meanwhile, the rampant fraud and corruption going on in world financial markets is starting to be exposed and the whole house of cards could come crashing down at any time. Most Americans have no idea that a horrific economic collapse could happen at literally any time. There is no way that all of this debt and all of this financial corruption is sustainable. At some point we are going to reach a moment of "total system failure".

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348899/Jon-Burge-Policeman-tortured-suspects-confessions-facing-30-years-jail.html

Victims of injustice suffocated and electrocuted into admitting crimes of armed robbery and murder. A decorated Chicago police lieutenant who apparently put plastic bags over suspects heads and stuck guns in their mouths to extract confessions should face 30 years in jail, prosecutors have said. Dozens of alleged victims have claimed Jon Burge, 63, and his officers tortured them into confessions to serious crimes including robbery and murder.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/nearly-90-percent-of-germans-do-not-believe-official-911-fairy-tale/

According to a survey conducted by TNS Emnid, one of the largest polling institutes in Germany, nearly 90 percent of Germans do not believe the U.S. government explanation of what happened on September 11, 2001.

Link: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/tiny-amounts-of-oil-corexit-cocktail-are-poisonous

Washington's blog is again weighing in to raise awareness among what appears a sleeping public about the crime against humanity and planet unfolding, the Gulf of Mexico operation. The well circulated"blog" has re-emphazied the mega human rights violation: that the Corexit-Crude oil deadly cocktail, mixed and applied by the petrochemical-military-industrial-complex in the Gulf Region, adheres to even smallest sea life where the food chain begins, after which -- on the American dinner table and in the family it ends.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/an-american-suicide-terrorist67001

The shooter of Congresswoman Giffords acted as a domestic suicide terrorist on the political "battleground" of American politics. His YouTube postings and "goodbye" phone messages are ominously reminiscent of the traditional farewell videos of Islamist martyrs. The deadly combination of suicide terrorists' mental instability, their political and religious indoctrination and readily available bomb materials and firearms explode in violence almost every day somewhere in the Middle East