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Mons Simplicitatis

COUP D'ETAT - N. A DECISIVE ACTION IN POLITICS, ESPECIALLY ONE RESULTING IN A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT ILLEGALLY OR BY FORCE

Poignant essay in The Huffington Post by the Executive Director of the MIT Center for International Studies, on how the internal security apparatus's domestic spying constitutes a coup d'etat.
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BOUNDLESS INFORMANT, PRISM, AND LACK OF CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS, KINDA SORTA HALFWAY A BIG DEAL

So it’s really in our faces now, there are some within our government who wish to turn America into a sort of Airstrip One surveillance state, but with fully-stocked Wal-Mart shelves. At this point, why even pretend otherwise? Implied in 1984: Telescreens are super fucking fun, and highly effective at population control, so long as you’re the 1% who’s behind them, as opposed to being in front of them.  Read More 
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"HERE IS A FOX NEWS REPORTER WHO DOESN'T BELONG IN JAIL"

Fire up the war drums. Jana Winter, a reporter for Fox News' website, may be caged for not revealing a source. Obviously, responsible (even halfway responsible) free speech is one of those things you have to fight for regardless of the source. Or as John Cook writes for Gawker, "Not as many people care about this as much as they ought to, which is one of the consequences of working for a nakedly partisan shitshow masquerading as a news outlet." Read More 
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THE JEROME MALLETT CASE

Here’s a bit of public navel-gazing for you, kids. Once upon a time, when I was a reporter, I covered a story on a state trooper murdered by an arrestee, then how that killer sat on death row for well over a decade.  Read More 
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ON SEDITION, OCCUPY WALL STREET, AND THE KRYPTEIA

You guys ever hear of the Kryptes? It is good that an appreciation of Spartan culture has kinda resurfaced in contemporary America, no doubt due to that Zack Snyder movie 300 based on Frank Miller’s comic. “This is Sparta”, kick to chest and all that. There is much of Spartan culture to be admired, not the least of which is they produced some of the finest infantry the world has ever seen. I imagine one has to go pretty high up on the SF foodchain for a contemporary equivalent to the Spartan hoplite, SAS or Delta.  Read More 
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PHYSICIAN HEAL THYSELF

[Here’s one from the vaults, dating back to 2007, so the names are somewhat dated, plus some minor edits. The backstory is that year all Illinois state employees were required to take an online ethics test. This still occurs, though I have no idea what the specific format of the exam currently is.] Read More 
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ELIZABETH WARREN 2016

This is why Senator Elizabeth Warren needs to be our next president. Watch the whole thing. Just do it.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class lecture, UC Berkeley
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