Stephen Lendman

For decades, America's freedoms have eroded, notably post-9/11 with:

● a president declaring unconstitutional unitary executive powers to rule unilaterally;
● his successor embracing the doctrine;
● checks and balances and separation of powers virtually ended;
● passage of the USA Patriot Act;
● Homeland Security Act;
● other repressive laws;
● annual renewals of coup d'etat continuity of government (COG) authority to rule unconstitutionally, including by martial law;
● repressive national and homeland security presidential directives (NSPDs & HSPDs);
● unconstitutional executive and other unilateral presidential directives;
● the recent FCC ruling compromising Net Neutrality; and
● the proposed Shield Act - S. 4004: Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination Act.

Called a "bill to amend section 798 of title 18, United States Code, to provide penalties for disclosure of classified information related to certain intelligence activities and for other purposes."

Introduced on December 2, it was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, not passed, but likely to resurface in the 112th Congress.

HR 6506 is the House version, introduced on December 8, referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. It also didn't pass, but again very likely will resurface.

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Francis Shor
SOTT.net

"We believe in second chances and second opportunities," declared the senior vice president for marketing from the Cleveland Cavaliers. This pronouncement accompanied the offer of an announcing job to Ted Williams, the homeless man whose "golden" voice and impoverished visage went viral on a YouTube video. Beyond his elevation by the media to visible and viable economic status, Williams became a clear example of the selective compassion of both corporate America and its consuming public.

More than 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us that "true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." What is this edifice that generates the millions of homeless that populate our cities? Why has poverty now grown to an unprecedented modern level of almost 50 million, exceeding even the statistics and reality of what Dr. King observed in the 1960's?

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