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Michael Collins
The Interview looked like it would become the best-known movie that was never seen. The core narrative involves two buffoonish United States media personalities heading to North Korea to interview supreme leader Kim Jong-il. Before they leave, the CIA recruits them to assassinate Kim. Lacking any underlying sense of moral and personal integrity, show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer, Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogan), accept the assignment. (Image: The Interview - Wikipedia)
The leader of North Korea, the real Kim Jong-il, took exception to a big screen portrayal of a plot on his life in June. In November, a major hack to Sony Pictures and Entertainment's computing systems was attributed to a mysterious cadre of hackers in North Korea. When major theater chains said they wouldn't carry the film, Sony had enough. The company cancelled release of the film.
The ensuing controversy publicized the film in ways Sony could only imagine. Then, President Obama weighed in endorsing the release of the film. The prospect of a huge payday plus official endorsement from the President contributed to Sony's revised decision. The company announced that The Interview would be available soon on cable or internet pay per view. In addition, Sony made the film available to a group of independent cinemas known as the Art House Convergence after the cinemas signed an open petition on Change.org.
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
“The hell of human suffering, evil and oppression is paved with good intentions. The men who have most injured and oppressed humanity, who have most deeply sinned against it, were according to their standards and their conscience good men; what was bad in them, what wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to truth and progress, was not at all in their intentions, in their purpose, in their personal character, but in their opinions.” - (Professor Robert Briffault. The Making of Humanity. London, 1918)
Leader across the globe use the Xmas and the New Year’s Eve as convenient opportunities to echo festive messages of peace and optimism as if they long the humanity. Despite the inherent wickedness of warmongers and institutions, the global community is tolerant and open to listening to the abstract and absurd alike. Analyzing critically and objectively, there is hardly any international leaders capable of articulating an effective and credible message of hope and change under the present global affairs. No matter where you look to the East and West, South and North, forces of darkness and evil go unchecked as if the mankind was just numbers and digits and nothing else in reality.
by Stephen Lendman
The Group of 77 (G-77 countries) at the UN was established on June 15, 1964. Its ranks now include 134 countries.
"(T)he original name was retained due to its historical significance," it said. It calls itself the UN's "largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries."
"(A)rticulating and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system, and promote South-South cooperation for development."
In early December, Congress passed "S. 2142: Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014."
Unanimously by voice vote. Not a single profile in courage opposed what demanded denunciation. On December 18, Obama signed S. 2142 into law.
Illegal legislation defying international law. Usurping power afforded solely to Security Council members.
The world's leading human rights abuser targeted one of its staunchest defenders. Guaranteeing fundamental rights for all its citizens.
by Stephen Lendman
The late historian Gabriel Kolko called the 20th century "the bloodiest in all history." US waged new millennium wars match their ferocity.
Genocidal by any standard. Killing millions. Willfully targeting civilians. Raging in multiple theaters.
On Christmas like every other day. Enriching war profiteers more than ever. Mass slaughter and destruction are good for business.
Benefitting bottom line priorities hugely. Millions of lost lives don't matter. A small price to pay. Calls for turning swords into ploughshares go unheeded.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Christ said: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the sons of God."
What would he tell Obama today? A war criminal multiple times over. Waging wars at home and abroad. It bears repeating. On Christmas like every other day.
Obsessed with war. Responsible for horrific human misery. Targeting all countries not in lockstep with Washington rules.
Eric Zuesse
Decisive evidence as to how the July 17th shooting-down of the MH17 Malaysian airliner occurred is being hidden by the four-nation team that’s doing the official ‘investigation’ into the plane-downing incident.
This decisive evidence is the coroner’s report on the corpse of the airliner’s pilot. If the pilot was killed by bullets, then the standard ‘explanation’ of the downing (that the plane was downed by a ground-fired missile) isn’t just false, it’s an outright hoax. So: where’s the pilot’s autopsy?
This investigation is important because stringent economic sanctions against Russia were instituted immediately after the downing; these sanctions were based upon never-substantiated charges from the Ukrainian Government, and from its sponsor the U.S. Government, alleging that the plane had been downed by rebels who were supported by Russia. (The “Buk” missile launcher charged by Ukraine as the cause was actually manned by Ukraine’s soldiers.)
Commentary by Eric Zuess
Hungary has decided to align itself with Russia against the United States.
The Western Alliance is starting to fray, over the insistence by Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress to go to war against Russia.
This is called a ‘new cold war,’ but it’s actually already a >hot war
America’s plan to locate nuclear missiles there aimed against Russia has made stunning progress this year. The formerly neutral nation of Ukraine has now become officially anti-Russian. Because of the Obama coup, Ukraine is suffering a civil war between the Ukrainian regime that Obama’s CIA and mercenaries installed in Kiev on 22 February 2014, versus the people in Ukraine’s far eastern districts, where the Ukrainian President whom Obama was overthrowing had >received around 90% of all the votes that had been cast there,eliminate the residents there.
by Stephen Lendman
Washington is the grinch that stole Christmas. Bah Humbug defines its agenda.
America's criminal class is bipartisan. Responsible for growing human misery.
Unprecedented in modern times. Privileged Americans never had it better. Ordinary ones face lump of coal harshness. Hard times keep getting harder.
Reflected in institutionalized inequality. Growing poverty. High unemployment. Multiples higher than phony Labor Department numbers. An epidemic of underemployment persists.
Jobs paying poverty or sub-poverty wages. With few or no benefits.
Households need two or three to get by.
by Stephen Lendman
They never forget. Or forgive. Even for what happened over half a century ago. When Cuba got back what they stole.
When Castro ousted Fulgencio Batista's despotic rule, he nationalized foreign corporate assets. Originally valued at around $1.8 billion.
At 6% simple interest, now worth around $7 billion. From sugar processing plants, other factories, mines, oil refineries, power plants, hotels, 75% of Cuba's arable land, cattle ranches, other assets.
US companies have 5,913 outstanding claims. Including from ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola, Freeport-McMoRan, Colgate-Palmolive, Procter and Gamble, Goodyear, Firestone, General Motors, Owens-Illinois, Avon Products, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and many others.
by Stephen Lendman
No joy to the world in Palestine. No peace and good will. No most wonderful time of the year.
Not this year. Or previous ones for decades. Or future ones without top-to-bottom fundamental change. What's nowhere in sight.
Militarized occupation harshness continues. Gaza remains besieged. Collective punishment is official Israeli policy. So is state terror.
Israel denies millions of Palestinians fundamental rights everyone deserves. Ruthlessness defines its agenda.
Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners languish in its gulag. Guilty of wanting to live free. Separated from loved ones.
On December 23, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) decorated a Manger Square Christmas tree with leftover Israeli terror remnants.
Including tear gas canisters. Stun grenades. Missile fragments. Photos of martyred or injured children along with them. Delivering a clear message.
by Stephen Lendman
US-dominated NATO's post-Cold War transformation into a global police force threatens humanity's survival. America calls the shots.
Involving NATO in wars on three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa. After Soviet Russia's dissolution, the Alliance expanded exponentially.
From 16 to 28 members. Twenty-two Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) ones. Seven Mediterranean Dialogue countries. Four Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) states.
Comprising nearly one-third of world nations. Planning much more expansion. Intending new members and partners.
On all continents. Virtually everywhere. For a US-controlled global military alliance. A dagger at humanity's heart.
According to Stop NATO founder/editor Rick Rozoff:
"Post-Cold War NATO has repeatedly and without disguise identified its purview and its area of operations to be international in scope, and over the past 22 years its efforts to achieve that objective have steadily accelerated to the point where the military alliance is well poised to supplant the United Nations as the main, indeed the exclusive, arbiter of conflicts not only between but within nations throughout the world."
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