Di seguito gli interventi pubblicati in questa sezione, in ordine cronologico.
 
 

The truth can hurt you, but it can also set you free!

In 2001 when 9/11 happened, the world was in shock and the people did not know how to react, much less suspect it had been orchestrated by the CIA. And when the Iraq war happened, everyone trusted President Bush enough to go into Iraq to get those WMDs that were never found. Yet the whole time, no one had been prepared for the huge psychological warfare operations the Bush Administration was putting in place. Yes, a lot of people called George Bush a fascist, but not much else could be heard. No one mentioned that his grandfather had helped fund Hitler (1), or that his father was still being regularly briefed about new CIA operations and old. And if there was it was marginalized and acclaimed as conspiracy theories, by even George Bush himself. Then, somehow the Patriot act came out from nowhere, as if it had been writ overnight, and in came the Department of Homeland Security (a modern version of Gestapo) as well as Guantanamo (which was even more curious seeing as how we hadn’t trusted the Cubans in over 50 years). And again the people bowed down and did not question.

Now in 2013, we finally have all the facts, and this is how it goes:

2003: Bush Administration monitors anarchist groups in the U.S (Reported by Michael Moore)

2004: Facebook is created with CIA money and U.S Military backing (2). Facebook was originally conceived as a sexist and elitist Harvard tool to rate who was “Hot or Not” .

2006: Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison worked on a CIA project with the code-name “Oracle” (over 3 billion devices use Java by Oracle) (3)

2007: Palantir (officially) starts creating online censorship software for the U.S Military (4), when reports dating back to 2004 state that the Department of Homeland Security had hired up to 50,000 agents to monitor the internet.

2009: FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration (5)

2011: Many complaints from anti-war activists and non-profits about censorship start to arise. (6) (7) (8)

2011: EFF.org get $15 million donation from Palantir. (9)

2012: Project Censored puts “US Military Manipulates the Social Media” at #2 (10) on their most censored list (Operation Earnest Voice mentioned), with More US Soldiers Committed Suicide Than Died in Combat as #1.

Now this might all seem pretty abstract to you, but let me put it into perspective now that you have the timeline. The U.S Military thanks to Operation Earnest Voice had the capability to censor Iraqi activists, as well as journalists all over the world working for big publications (with close affiliations to the CIA). Which means that the effects of these psychological operations caused something like this: “When the war ended with tens of thousands Iraqi dead and an electricity and sanitation supply deliberately “bombed into the stone age”, the west followed up with sanctions. It is now estimated by the UN that these sanctions, which have prevented repairs to sewage and water plants on the one hand and denied basic medicines on the other, have been responsible for the deaths of around one million people, many of them children. Other sources put this figure at 1.5 million.” (11)

There had been rumors that the Bush Administration had lied about the number of casualties, only counting those actively killed by U.S Soldiers, and not those who died from lack of basic necessities. And to think that meanwhile the U.S Military and CIA were developing software to be used in our homeland, by Homeland Security still to this day seems surreal. Not to mention that the CIA would rig elections for George Bush and Obama (who had worked for CIA front companies in the past, and whose mother was an advocate for the IMF’s devastating free-market capitalist policies, in countries like Chile under Pinochet).

As an internet activist and founder of an anarchist non-profit, I have been attacked, harassed, and censored by the U.S Military since 2009 (when my non-profit was still a blog gaining a large audience). Our members and volunteers have also encountered the same issues. One volunteer was even given death threats by an angry U.S soldier who lost composure while attacking us with fake personas. And a teenage member’s parents were questioned by the FBI for their son visiting our Facebook page. We also had a member who I have not heard of since, who set up an Occupy protest in front of Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto, and was censored on Facebook. Therefore only 12 people came to her event. At the event they were met immediately by Palo Alto police, who apparently were very violent and put our volunteer into a coma. All attempts since by our non-profit to expose this were “astroturfed” by Google and Facebook. Our website has since been under continuous DoS attacks ever since by government hackers. And our Paypal account was immediately shut down by Paypal. Last month Facebook shut down our page for over 6 out of 30 days, with no reason, and activated it again when too many people started asking questions about us (we have a very small but strong group of supporters and volunteers on Facebook, whom have been endlessly persecuted by “CIA Facebook”). We even set up a social network on our website which was compromised and hacked into. And many anti-war activists are reporting similar damages. Even lawyers are getting hard to find in order to demand retribution, since no lawyer likes going up against the United States Government.

The numbers are still not clear, but the U.S Military has definitely been censoring millions of anti-war voices and even “impeach Bush” voices since 2004(12). And we now know that Google was working with the U.S Military prior to the creation of Facebook. Nothing more than a great National Socialist PR campaign, with merchandising, lots of censorship and a global pro-capitalist police state set up. When we cannot forget that the United States since World War 2 has killed more people for the same corporations and banks who funded Nazis all over Europe, the business plan (Investigated by a Rockefeller) and continued through the CIA since 1947 (13). These are the same people who funded General Franco and went to his funeral (funeral attended by Rockefellers), as well as those who funded King Constantine and the Shah of Iran. Not to mention that these are also the same people who murdered and censored European anarchists and after world war 2, and even before world war 2 in the U.S.

After the French revolution, the working class demanded that anarchists be (left) and hierarchists be (right), this idea was obscured with communism and socialism which were hierarchist systems (systemically fascist), and would later murder anarchists and jail them in gulags, just like the fascists in Europe with concentration camps. In other words what can be called the perpetual and conscientious culling of the masses by the ruling class. “Taking out the weeds”. And as it so turns out, I recently discovered that the Swastika was chosen by the Nazis, because it represented the brutal caste system in India, which for thousands of years has ritualized the murdering of lower castes by upper castes as a divine right (14).

We are right in the middle of global class warfare being played out by the 1% who own over 60% of this planet’s wealth and assume none of the responsibilities. The 1% (about 10 million millionaires and billionaires) who pollute our planet, allow 16,000 children a day to die from starvation, and millions to die from toxic products in their environments, which were originally sold for quick profit. We are being run by a bunch of lunatics who have covered our planet with nuclear bombs and proxy wars, ordain that this perpetually hierarchist system is flawless, and that mass slavery and servitude are inevitable. But in reality, it goes against thousands of years of collective history. To try and go against 6 billion people today is absolute folly. And if they succeed, their empire will eventually fall to barbarism and feudalism just like every empire in the past. Then this planet will be remembered as nothing more than a shooting star, which crashed because the pilots thought they were too divine to share shifts and/or profits.

SOURCES: anarchadia.com

1.      http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar “George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.”

2.       http://youtu.be/UJqGbA2tLww

3.       http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/11oracle.htm

4.       http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks

5.       https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/10/new-foia-documents-reveal-dhs-social-media

6.       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4OLrta3OTg

7.       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnldBxyRlkU

8.       http://anoncentral.tumblr.com/post/21205475182/facebook-censorship-2-0

9.       http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/eff-palantir/

10.    http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/2-us-military-manipulates-the-social-media/

11.    http://anarchism.pageabode.com/andrewnflood/the-2001-bombings-of-iraq

12.    http://www.causes.com/causes/647954-stop-facebook-from-deactivating-accounts-and-censoring-what-we-can-and-can-not-view/invite

13.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

14.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYpvnMks1HE

One of America’s most respected military figures charged publicly that long-standing allegations about the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons may have been, in his words, “an Israeli false flag operation” calculated to stir up opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, long perceived by Israel as a threat to its geopolitical agenda.

And now that the United States seems poised to attack Syria on the basis of new claims about the use of such weapons, what former Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told Current TV on May 3 bears noting.

A longtime military intimate of Gen. Colin Powell, and later his chief of staff when Powell was secretary of state under “W” Bush, Wilkerson said his intelligence sources dismissed claims at that time that Assad’s military had used chemical weapons against terrorist forces.

Having loomed over Assad for months, that charge has been reinvigorated and the media revels in the possibility the U.S. will now attack Syria.

However,The Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 27 that Germany’s Focus magazine—citing a former Israeli intelligence official—said Israel was the primary source for current charges about Syria’s alleged use of chemical warfare.

Noting “U.S. intelligence sources long have relied on Israel to help provide intelligence about Syria” the Times didn’t mention it was also Israel that previously supplied the Bush administration much of the false data about supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which provided the pretext for the invasion of that Arab republic.

The media carefully suppresses the fact that — as demanded by the Israeli lobby in Washington — U.S. tax dollars (underwriting Israeli covert expertise) instigated the rebellion against Assad that led to the civil war that U.S. blood and treasure are now expected to resolve in a manner satisfactory to Israel.

Although the media suggests the Pentagon is eager for war on Syria, the fact is that—just as before the Iraq war when multiple military leaders were warning of the dangers of such a venture—top brass are likewise urging restraint vis-à-vis Syria. Even Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey recently told Congress that U.S. intervention in Syria would not be in America’s interests.

Yet, despite widespread public opposition to war, many Republicans and Democrats alike— bankrolled by pro-Israel campaign contributors— are clamoring for action.

Author: Michael Collins Piper - Source: americanfreepress.net

Hungary is making history of the first order.

Not since the 1930s in Germany has a major European country dared to escape from the clutches of the Rothschild-controlled international banking cartels. This is stupendous news that should encourage nationalist patriots worldwide to increase the fight for freedom from financial tyranny.

Already in 2011, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban promised to serve justice on his socialist predecessors, who sold the nation's people into unending debt slavery under the lash of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the terrorist state of Israel. Those earlier administrations were riddled with Israelis in high places, to the fury of the masses, who finally elected Orban's Fidesz party in response.

According to a report on the German-language website "National Journal", Orban has now moved to unseat the usurers from their throne. The popular, nationalistic prime minister told the IMF that Hungary neither wants nor needs further "assistance" from that proxy of the Rothschild-owned Federal Reserve Bank. No longer will Hungarians be forced to pay usurious interest to private, unaccountable central bankers.

Instead, the Hungarian government has assumed sovereignty over its own currency and now issues money debt free, as it is needed. The results have been nothing short of remarkable. The nation's economy, formerly staggering under deep indebtedness, has recovered rapidly and by means not seen since National Socialist Germany.

The Hungarian Economic Ministry announced that it has, thanks to a "disciplined budget policy", repaid on August 12, 2013, the remaining €2.2B owed to the IMF — well before the March 2014 due date. Orban declared: "Hungary enjoys the trust of investors", by which is not meant the IMF, the Fed or any other tentacle of the Rothschild financial empire. Rather, he was referring to investors who produce something in Hungary for Hungarians and cause true economic growth. This is not the "paper prosperity" of plutocratic pirates, but the sort of production that actually employs people and improves their lives.

With Hungary now free from the shackles of servitude to debt slavers, it is no wonder that the president of the Hungarian central bank, operated by the government for the public welfare and not private enrichment, has demanded that the IMF close its offices in that ancient European land. In addition, the state attorney general, echoing Iceland's efforts, has brought charges against the last three previous prime ministers because of the criminal amount of debt into which they plunged the nation.

The only step remaining, which would completely destroy the power of the banksters in Hungary, is for that country to implement a barter system for foreign exchange, as existed in Germany under the National Socialists and exists today in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, or BRICS, international economic coalition. And if the United States would follow the lead of Hungary, Americans could be freed from the usurers' tyranny and likewise hope for a return to peaceful prosperity.

Author: Ronald L. Ray is a freelance author residing in the free state of Kansas. He is a descendant of several patriots of the American War for Independence. - Source: americanfreepress.net

Inflammation is a common factor in the progression of each of these disorders. But previous studies suggest that marijuana can help control inflammation by acting on specific pathways present in immune cells.

In the latest study, Dr. Yuri Persidsky of Temple University and his team studied the role of these pathways, CB2 receptors, using human cell cultures. Published this month in the American Journal of Pathology, they concluded that activating CB2 receptors could reduce brain tissue damage by preventing immune cells from crossing from the blood stream into the brain.

These results indicate that selective CB2 activation in leukocytes decreases key steps in monocyte-BBB (blood-brain barrier) engagement, thus suppressing inflammatory leukocyte responses and preventing neuroinflammation.

Shilpa Buch, Ph.D, a professor at the Nebraska Medical Center’s Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, noted the importance of the new findings in an accompanying commentary.

None of the previous studies have addressed anti-inflammatory effects of CB2 activation in monocytes in such a comprehensive fashion.

According to Dr. Buch, the migration of immune cells called monocytes plays a critical role in a wide variety of inflammatory diseases.

The development and maintenance of chronic inflammation appear to be underlying causes of numerous human diseases such as atherosclerosis, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, chronic hepatitis, bone disorders, and neurodegeneration (including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and chronic infections of the central nervous system like HIV-1). In all of these diseases, tissue infiltration by monocytes differentiating into macrophages plays a critical role.

Some studies suggest that stimulating CB1 pathways – which are found mostly in the brain and are responsible for the marijuana high – may also have anti-inflammatory potential.

But as Dr. Buch notes, treatments “devoid of the psychoactive effects of CB1 activation” are preferred by doctors.

And while a CB2-specific treatment has yet to be tested in humans, she adds that previous studies have already shown promising results in animal models of atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, liver and kidney injury and arthritis.

The study was published ahead of print and received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Intramural Research Program of the NIH-NIAAA

Source: LeafScience.com

It is just incredible how crappy Facebook is in general. The comment tool box is especially shitty.

Really?! YES! And you know it. There is no point in hiding your feelings; just say it: 'Send em (Fakebook) to Hell!'.


Have you ever tried Facebook's so called "developers" section where you can "create" apps (applications)? Have you ever got mad because there are no solutions, valid indications or answers and all you get is frustration because you lost your precious time on their products?

I've got to tell you the truth, folks! It's all a lie, just a big fu**cking lie: there are no apps, no functionality, no convenience on having the Facebook comment box on your website or blog, it's only just another way to get your phone number and/or credit card data.

That's right! What kind of fascist authentification way is to ask a Facebook user for the debit card details to activate his account?! This should be illegal! But it's just another way for Facebook to get your personal informations and pass them to their parteners...

Don't believe that? Read then: 2004: Facebook is created with CIA money and U.S Military backing. Facebook was originally conceived as a sexist and elitist Harvard tool to rate who was “Hot or Not” or this: Tired of helping CIA? Quit Facebook, Venezuela minister urges .

Have you ever noticed that you are being bullied by Facebook, your comments are being censured from your contacts' walls or worse? That's what we're talking about!

But let's get back to your problem (not our problem anymore because TurismoAssociati decided to pass on Disqus comments application): the FascistFacebook Comments box that should let people comment on content on your site using their Facebook profile and show this activity to their friends in news feed. It SHOULD also contain built-in moderation tools and special social relevance ranking. CRAP! No such a thing, and we begun looking at this Social Plugin long time ago...

You all started HERE and after their security check inserted the codes in the body and head of your website pages.

But then you realized you were being mislead: Facebook comments on your website or blog basicly worked except the fact that when someone comments on one article that same comment shows up on every article on the website. Obviously, you don't want that.

So why is it so difficult to find a solution to that? Googling you always find the generic instructions but you never find the real solution that works for any website (not just WordPress, but dBlog too or any other).

Here it is the code to replace the URL to comment on:

Simple replace the comments div with this javascript code (taken from this stackoverflow link)...
<script>document.write("<div class='fb-comments' data-href='" + window.loca tion.href + "' data-num-posts='2' data-width='470'></div>");</script>
This "worked", but then you realised you had two other problems...

Hell, yeah! The admin/moderation comment tool does not work properly (or at all) and the comments made for the same article on Facebook will not appear on your website, like you smart developer thought (and should be, but Facebook is developed by morons, just think of its bastard father, Mark Zuckerberg).

So why use it or why lose your time with any Facebook social plug-ins applications boxes fascist tools and any other of their weird stuff, when there are not so many webmasters that use them?! Get smart! Leave Facebook alone. Fuck them!

Asked yourself why the indications on how to do anything there are so hairy and hard to understand? Because are written by non english speakers in globish, not english and you don't understand if the Facebook foreign developers are talking about 'comment or content' on their video.

So our advice is: forget the Facebook comments plug in for your website alone, it will just be a breach to your privacy and blog and phone contact and credit card details and who knows what else and try to use any other transparent free product. It works better and saves you a lot of time and stress.

Good luck!

Author: Ford Turani for TurismoAssociati.it

The problem with chemicals in marijuana like THC and CBD is the fact that they are highly insoluble in water. So far, this has mostly restricted patients to smoking or eating the plant, which makes it difficult to target tumor cells without affecting other parts of the body as well.

However, using tiny particles of polycaprolactone (a biodegradable polymer) to encapsulate THC, researchers say they've developed a novel delivery system for THC that can be used to fight cancer.

Writing in the Journal of Drug Targeting, the Spanish group explained how the microparticles make THC easier to work with.

"Delta9-THC is an oily viscous resin that is very sticky at ambient conditions making it difficult to handle and to accurately weight small amounts and prepare suspensions for injection."

Interestingly, the microparticles were actually better at inhibiting cancer growth in cell cultures compared with THC by itself. The outer layer of the microparticle allows THC to slowly diffuse through, resulting in a sustained release that lasted for at least 2 weeks in the study.

While more research is required, the group believes this delivery system could "reduce dosing frequency and enhance patient compliance" and even be used together with other cancer treatments.

"In the future, these systems might be used in combination with other anticancer drugs or conventional therapies in order to increase therapeutic efficacy."

Alternative delivery systems for marijuana-based treatments seem to be a popular focus of studies. Besides pills like Marinol and oral sprays like Sativex that have already been approved by certain countries, researchers have experimented with inhalers, skin patches and even rectal suppositories.

On the other hand, encapsulating THC in microparticles happens to be a first in this promising field of cancer research.

The study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and Complutense University

Source: TruthOnPot.com

The ethicist outlined his opinion on the hotly debated issue – which was recently addressed by New Jersey’s governor – in a column for NBC.

The N.J. bill, which allows prescriptions of edible medical marijuana for kids, is the absolutely right thing to do.

Dr. Caplan, who heads the Division of Bioethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, acknowledges that many kids “are getting relief” from medical marijuana and says that marijuana should be evaluated according to the same criteria as other treatment options.

Taking the active ingredient of marijuana and giving it to a child is no different from giving the child any other potent and risky pill that is helpful… the bottom-line issue is: does it work, can it be monitored under medical supervision and is it made in a way that guarantees a uniform dose and quality?

But the controversy stemming from marijuana is rarely about whether it works or not. Scientists, policymakers and patients have all testified to the fact that marijuana is indeed an effective medicine.

Rather, some seem hesitant about giving children the same drug that many teens and adults smoke to get high.

As Caplan explains, marijuana doesn’t need to be smoked to work.

Before you get an image in your head of some little kid sitting on a corner smoking a joint, keep in mind the medicine is basically syrup containing the active ingredient[s] found in marijuana.

It doesn’t need to get you high either, since numerous chemicals in marijuana (besides THC) have been found to possess medical properties.

And although many in the medical community, including the American Academy of Pediatricians, argue that clinical trials have yet to be conducted – suggesting that there isn’t enough proof of its safety – Caplan asserts that “despite the possible risks, it ought to be available for doctors to prescribe to children.”

Many still sneer at the idea of ‘pot for tots.’ They are wrong. Carefully regulated it ought to be available to children for whom nothing else seems to work.

Source: TruthOnPot.com and NBC

The study, published online in the British Journal of Pharmacology, shows that chemicals in marijuana have the potential to stop harmful DNA activity that underlies diseases like skin cancer and allergies.

“Our findings may lead to the development of preventive medicines, for example aimed at controlling allergic reactions, or to the design of new and more effective treatments for skin cancer.”

Certain genetic factors are believed to play a role in the uncontrollable growth of skin cells – a key characteristic of many disorders.

But a class of chemicals produced by marijuana called cannabinoids appears to have an unique ability of switching them off.

“Plant-derived cannabinoids that are absent of psychoactive effects may be useful candidates for these applications.”

In the study, researchers recorded the effects of three cannabinoids – cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabidivarin (CBV) – on human skin cell lines.

CBD was found to be the most effective at targeting unwanted DNA activity, followed by CBG.

While THC has also been suggested as an effective therapy for skin allergies, research is beginning to focus on compounds in marijuana that can’t get you high – which may be more appealing to patients.

The authors also conclude that the potential to switch off gene activity may “extend well-beyond skin disorders” to diseases like multiple sclerosis and other forms of cancer.

The study was published ahead of print and received funding from GW Pharmaceuticals

Source: TruthOnPot.com

In 2008, Professor Giovanni Appendino and Professor Simon Gibbons showed that marijuana chemicals could be just as effective against drug-resistant MRSA strains as powerful prescription antibiotics.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an alarming report that warned of "potentially catastrophic consequences" from the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

For the first time, the U.S. public health agency detailed the damage done by the widespread use of antibiotics. According to the 114-page report, each year more than two million Americans are infected with bacteria resistant to modern day treatments and at least 23,000 die as a result.

The problem is - while antibiotics are effective against weaker strains of bacteria - they create an environment for genetic mutant "superbugs" to survive and flourish.

Unfortunately, that means the single biggest factor in the rise of drug resistant bacteria is the use of antibiotics themselves.

CDC Director Tom Frieden sent a clear warning to the public on the overprescribing and overuse of antibiotics during last news conference.

"Antibiotic resistance is rising for many different pathogens that are threats to health. If we don't act now, our medicine cabinet will be empty and we won't have the antibiotics we need to save lives."

But what are the alternatives?

As it turns out, researchers like Professor Simon Gibbons, who heads the Department of Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry at the University College London School of Pharmacy, have been investigating the natural antibiotic effects of a variety of plants.

And one of the most promising of these plants happens to be cannabis.

In 2008, Prof. Gibbons and Prof. Giovanni Appendino of Italy's Piemonte Orientale University published a study that demonstrated the ability of various chemicals extracted from marijuana (called cannabinoids) to fight methicillin-resistant staph bacteria - one of the most serious and life-threatening sources of bacterial infections in the U.S.

When the scientists tested chemicals from marijuana on six different strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) - including strains that are known to be resistant to traditional MRSA treatments - they found that they were just as effective at killing the bacteria as commonly prescribed antibiotics.

In fact, cannabinoids were even as effective as vancomycin - a powerful drug that is only used when other antibiotics fail.

Prof. Gibbons explained the remarkable findings of his 2008 study in an interview with MIT's Technology Review.

"The cannabinoids even showed exceptional activity against the MRSA strain that makes extra amounts of the proteins that give the bugs resistance against many antibiotics... Everything points towards these compounds having been evolved by the plants as antimicrobial defenses that specifically target bacterial cells."

Prof. Appendino added that the most promising cannabinoids in their study - cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabigerol (CBG) - also happen to be non-psychoactive.

"What this means is, we could use fiber hemp plants that have no use as recreational drugs to cheaply and easily produce potent antibiotics."

While the findings are still considered early stage - antibiotic cannabis extracts have yet to be tested on animals (let alone humans) - similar research dates back to the 1950's, when cannabis was studied as a treatment for diseases like tuberculosis.

However, little was known about marijuana's active chemicals at the time, which may have prevented research from advancing.

With our current understanding of cannabinoids, Prof. Appendino believes there is much promise for cannabis derivatives with bacteria-fighting abilities to be used in hospital settings - where most MRSA infections are acquired.

"The most practical application of cannabinoids would be as topical agents to treat ulcers and wounds in a hospital environment, decreasing the burden of antibiotics."

According to the CDC's latest report, there were about 80,500 MRSA infections in U.S. hospitals in 2011.

Source: TruthOnPot.com and CDC and MIT Technology Review

Every new revelation about the global reach of the National Security Agency underscores that the extremism of the surveillance state has reached gargantuan proportions. The Washington Post just reported that the NSA “is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world.” Documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden have forced top officials in Washington to admit the indefensible while defending it. One of the main obstacles to further expansion of their Orwellian empire is real journalism.

Real journalism is “subversive” of deception that can’t stand the light of day. This is a huge problem for the Obama administration and the many surveillance-state flunkies of both parties in Congress. What they want is fake journalism, deferring to government storylines and respectful of authority even when it is illegitimate.

In motion now, on both sides of the Atlantic, are top-down efforts to quash real journalism when and how it matters most. In the two English-speaking countries that have done the most preaching to the world about “Western values” like freedom of the press, the governments led by President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron are overseeing assaults on real journalism.

They’re striving to further normalize fake journalism—largely confined to stenographic services for corporate power, war industries and surveillance agencies. A parallel goal is to harass, intimidate and destroy real journalism. The quest is to maximize the uninformed consent of the governed.

In direct contrast, those willing to fight for truly independent journalism—including whistleblowers, political activists and journalists themselves—are struggling to provide our world with vital light, fueled by comprehension that real journalism must be willing to challenge entrenched power.

From incessant war and arming the world, to climate change and coddling fossil fuel industries, to anti-democratic governance and enabling vast NSA surveillance, the U.S. power structure -- with epicenters along Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue -- continues to dominate. That power structure is a clear, present and horrendous threat to human survival, the natural world of this planet and the possibilities for authentic democracy.

Against such dire, highly institutionalized assaults on the present and the future, we desperately need a wide range of nonviolent, principled and unrelenting insurgencies. In that context, government efforts to crush real journalism can be understood as methodical counterinsurgency.

Smashing Guardian hard drives and hauling the newspaper’s editor in front of an inquisitional parliamentary committee are aspects of the British government’s counterinsurgency program against real journalism. In the United States, the counterinsurgency includes numerous prosecutions of whistleblowers and wide-ranging surveillance of journalists’ workaday communications. These assaults aren’t episodic. They’ve become routine.

Journalism is at a momentous crossroads. The alternative to unrelenting independence is sheepism, and that’s not journalism; it’s a professionalized baseline of bowing to government and corporate pressure even before it has been overtly exerted.

For journalists, and for the rest of us, silence is not neutrality; it ends up as acceptance of autocratic rule, a present festooned with pretty-sounding names like “anti-terrorism” and “national security.”

As the most powerful institutions run amuck, their main functionaries are “leaders” who keep leading us farther and farther away from a world we could possibly be proud of leaving for the next generations. Pushing back against the ominous momentum will require fighting for real journalism. No one can plausibly say that reversing course will be easy or probable—only imperative.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Source: commondreams.org - Author: Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” and "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State".