Pussy Riot trial: Punk band's members claim they are freer than those carrying out their prosecution

Three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot said Vladimir Putin's Russia was the one on trial as they delivered closing arguments on Wednesday in a case seen as a key test of the powerful president's desire to crackdown on dissent.

"This is a trial of the whole government system of Russia, which so likes to show its harshness toward the individual, its indifference to his honour and dignity," Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, one of the trio on trial said in an impassioned statement. "If this political system throws itself against three girls … it shows this political system is afraid of truth."

The judge set 17 August as the day she would deliver a verdict against the women, charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred following an anti-Putin performance in a Moscow cathedral.

The Guardian

Death Penalty

George Carlin

US Gun (lobby) Safety

Hooray, assault weapons! Shoot-em-up Charlie is back, this time working with the NRA to get their message out about the Aurora theater shooting in this gun (lobby) safety video. Learn all about the perfect solution to the tragic problem of mass shootings in the USA.

Texas executes 'mentally impaired' inmate

US Supreme Court rejected arguments that Marvin Wilson was too mentally challenged to qualify for death penalty.

A Texas man convicted of killing a police informant has been executed after the US Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty. Marvin Wilson, 54, was pronounced dead late on Tuesday, 14 minutes after his lethal injection began at the state prison in Huntsville. He was convicted of fatally shooting a police drug informant nearly 20 years ago in Beaumont.

Wilson's attorneys had argued that he should have been ineligible for capital punishment because of his low IQ. They cited the US Supreme Court ruling that banned capital punishment for the mentally impaired. In their appeal to the high court, his attorneys pointed to a psychological test conducted in 2004 that pegged Wilson's IQ at 61, below the generally accepted minimum competency standard of 70.

Al Jazeera - Huffington Post

Kill The Poor

Mitchell and Webb

Sikh temple massacre because ‘atheists hate God’

Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday reviewed the case of a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that left at least seven dead and came to the conclusion that places of worship were being attacked because “people who are atheists, they hate God.”

Robertson opened Monday’s 700 Club broadcast with the news that there had been a mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek.

“What is it?” the TV preacher wondered. “Is it satanic? Is it some spiritual thing, people who are atheists, they hate God, they hate the expression of God? And they are angry with the world, angry with themselves, angry with society and they take it out on innocent people who are worshiping God.”

“And whether it’s a Sikh temple or a Baptist church or a Catholic church or a Muslim mosque, whatever it is, I just abhor this kind of violence, and it’s the the kind of thing that we should do something about,” he added. “But what do you do? Well, you talk about the love of God and hope it has some impact.”

The Raw Story

Femme de la Rue sexism on the streets of Brussels

Multiple shooters at Sikh Temple

Yet another 'lone gunman' incident is contradicted by several witnesses that claim there were 'multiple' shooters.
One witness, relaying information from his father in the hospital, told CNN that, "It was a very coordinated thing. It wasn't haphazard."
And another witness said the shooting was committed by "four white males, who were dressed darkly, dressed in all black clothing, came in and opened fire on our congregation."
Now, I understand that in situations like this there is confusion and chaos, and sometimes reports by witnesses can be unreliable, however, how many times can these 'lone gunman' incidents be contradicted by witnesses claiming that there were multiple shooters and considered coincidence?

More on Brasscheck TV

Navalny Finds Bug in His Office

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he found an eavesdropping device behind a wall panel in the office of his Anti-Corruption Fund. Navalny alerted the police upon finding the bug, which is featured in two photos that he posted on Twitter. The photos show a wooden panel pulled away from the wall near the floor, exposing a bundle of wires that lead to a rectangular-shaped piece of black plastic, presumably the listening device.

Officers arrived at Navalny's downtown Moscow office at 26 Nikolo-Yamskaya Ulitsa around 2 p.m. and "conducted checks" of the area, a police representative told Interfax. Navalny, arguably the most prominent figure in the opposition movement, was charged last week with costing the state budget $500,000 by organizing the theft of timber goods from a state company in 2009. He has called the charge "absurd" and likened it to stealing an "entire forest." If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.

The Moscow Times

The Cat Piano on Vimeo

A short film by The People's Republic of Animation. Narrated by Nick Cave

Racist Sikh murderer was in US Army

Wade Michael Page, the man suspected of killing six people at a Sikh temple in suburban Wisconsin, was a member of a racist skinhead band, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Soon after Page was identified as the suspect Monday morning, the SPLC reported that he founded the band End Apathy, which the organization described as a "racist white power" trio.

According to police, Page enlisted in the U.S. Army in April 1992 and was serving in the psychological operations unit out of Fort Bragg, N.C. He was discharged in October 1998, though the specific circumstances of his discharge are not immediately clear. Page does not mention his military career in the Label 56 interview, but he does refer to his life since leaving the Army.

Huffington Post

The Plan To Collapse Iran's Central Bank

Almost a billion go hungry worldwide

An unparalleled number of severe food shortages has added 43 million to the number of people going hungry worldwide this year. And millions of children are now at risk of acute malnutrition, charities are warning. One week ahead of David Cameron's "hunger summit", they say that unless action is taken urgently, many more could fall victim.

For the first time in recent history, humanitarian organisations have had to respond to three serious food crises – in West Africa, Yemen and East Africa – in the past 12 months, according to Oxfam. Almost a billion people are now hungry – one in seven of the global population – and the number of acutely malnourished children has risen for the first time this decade.

The Independent

China slams US over South China Sea criticism

China has summoned a US diplomat to protest his government's criticism of a new military garrison in the South China Sea.

Zhang Kunsheng, the Chinese assistant foreign minister, summoned Robert S Wang, the deputy chief of the US embassy in Beijing, on Saturday to express displeasure with earlier US comments. The US State Department said on Friday that China's formal establishment of Sansha City, a garrison on a remote island about 350km from the country's southern-most province, was risking an escalation in regional tensions.

The garrison, created two weeks ago, is intended to administer hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of water where China wants to strengthen its control over potentially oil-rich islands that are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and other Asian countries. The Philippines, a US treaty ally, has described the move as unacceptable, while Vietnam has termed it a violation of international law.

In Beijing, Zhang told Wang: "The [US State Department's] statement showed total disregard of facts, confounded right and wrong, and sent a seriously wrong message. It is not conducive to efforts by the parties concerned to uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea and the Asia-Pacific region at large."

Al Jazeera English

Rich Bitch

Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for "The Answer") is a South African rap-rave group whose style draws from the Zef counter-culture movement. Its lead vocalists are Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er. DJ Hi-Tek is commonly referenced as a third member of the group, although the band blends reality with fantastical elements for artistic effect and they do not acknowledge whether DJ Hi-Tek is a real person or a character played by a variety of musicians and actors.

Die Antwoord

Bible Review

More fun on Amazon - God of the week

The Military Olympics

London Mayor Boris Johnson gets to grips with the Olympic rowing, struggling to distinguish between the half way and the finish line.

FBI Agents Raid US Homes in Search of “Anarchist Literature”

When FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided multiple activist homes in the Northwest last week, they were in search of “anti-government or anarchist literature.”

The raids were part of a multi-state operation that targeted activists in Portland, Olympia, and Seattle. At least three people were served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury on August 2nd in Seattle.

In addition to anarchist literature, the warrants also authorize agents to seize flags, flag-making material, cell phones, hard drives, address books, and black clothing.
The listing of black clothing and flags, along with comments made by police, indicates that the FBI may ostensibly be investigating “black bloc” tactics used during May Day protests in Seattle, which destroyed corporate property.

If that is true, how are books and literature evidence of criminal activity?

To answer that, we need to look at the increasing harassment, surveillance, and prosecution of anarchists and political activists associated with the Occupy Movement.

fromthetrenchesworldreport.com - theanarchistlibrary.org

Dhaka bans NGOs from helping Rohingya

Bangladesh has ordered three international charities to stop providing aid to Rohingya refugees crossing the border from Myanmar where they have fled persecution and violence.

Local administrator Joynul Bari said on Thursday that France's Doctors without Borders (MSF), Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Britain's Muslim Aid UK have been told to suspend their services in the Cox's Bazaar district bordering Myanmar.

"The charities have been providing aid to tens of thousands of undocumented Rohingya refugees illegally. We asked them to stop all their projects in Cox's Bazaar following directive from the NGO Affairs Bureau," Bari told the AFP news agency. Bari said the charities "were encouraging an influx of Rohingya refugees" from across the border in Myanmar's Rakhine state in the wake of recent sectarian violence that left at least 80 people killed.

Al Jazeera

Chinese Olympics training or child cruelty?

You be the judge. All for the glory of the motherland with gold medals. The rigid chinese sports system has produced successes in this Olympics but at what costs? How many hurted or killed for these chinese gold medals?

Obama authorized covert support for Syrian rebels

President Barack Obama has signed a covert directive authorizing U.S. support for Syrian rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces, U.S. officials told CNN on Wednesday. The secret order, referred to as an intelligence "finding," allows for clandestine support by the CIA and other agencies. It was unclear when the president signed the authorization for Syria, but the sources said it was within the past several months.

CNN.com

Today is World Middle Finger Day

The official anthem for the global day to celebrate the freedom to object: The World Middle Finger Day.

WorldMiddleFingerDay on Facebook

Olympic Banksy

Banksy’s satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti are done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

Wikipedia - banksy.co.uk

Inside Britain's Israel Lobby

Germany admits NATO favouring Al Qaeda in Syria

German intelligence estimates that "around 90" terror attacks that "can be attributed to organizations that are close to al-Qaeda or jihadist groups" were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July, as reported by the German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This was revealed by the German government in a response to a parliamentary question.
In response to the same question, the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla. But it noted that the content of these reports was to remain classified "by reason of national interest", Like many other Western governments, Germany expelled Syria's ambassador in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, holding the Syrian government responsible for the violence.
Meanwhile, at least three major German newspapers - Die Welt, the FAZ, and the mass-market tabloid Bild - have published reports attributing responsibility for the massacre to anti-government rebel forces or treating this as the most probable scenario.

Asia Times