Russia and Iran are hypocrites on the issue of intervention

     Syria's revolution is a very complicated one, so I'm going to just lay out the basics on it, so we don't waste a lot time before getting to the main idea of this post. There is a 3 way battle going in the country right now.
     1. Syria's dictatorship is putting down a revolution that has been waging since 2011. They are backed by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah.
     2. The moderate, secular rebels, under the umbrella group called the Free Syrian Army, (FSA), are fighting against the dictator and the extremist rebels, (next group down). They have very few backers, only the US for non-lethal aid and individual foreign volunteers.
     3. The extremist rebels are also fighting against the dictator and the moderate rebels. They are backed by Al-Qaida and many of the Gulf states, (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc).

     The main point of this post, in one sentence, is that Russia and Iran cry all the time that the West cannot intervene in Syria, yet they're intervening in it themselves. It's hypocrisy at it's best. It's an attempt to try and seem impartial and fair to the Syrian people, but really they're just doing it to better themselves in the political/military realm. Iran has at least 4,000 troops in there right now, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/17/syrian-activists-say-al-qaida-linked-militants-blow-up-shiite-mosque-in-hatla/ and Russia has sold at least 50% of the arms Syria has, including $1 billion in 2011 alone, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/29/us-syria-crisis-russia-arms-insight-idUSBRE97S0WW20130829.

     To be fair, Russia and Iran are operating as the same as virtually every other country does: They have 2 sets of rules: one that they say that everyone else has to follow, and one set for themselves. The thing is, the rule set for themselves is blank; they don't have to abide by any rules, even those they expect other countries to follow. It's how the US can say to other Al-Qaida "Don't kill civilians," and then turn around and bomb Iraqi civilians dead. It's how Pakistan can whine to the US about drone strikes killing its citizens, and then it turns around and kills Pakistani civilians in broad daylight.  
     But just because other countries do it doesn't make it right. In Russia's mind, other countries cannot intervene in Syria. Except Russia. It can, because it's special, and doesn't have to follow any rules. Iran believes the exact same for Iran, Hezbollah thinks the exact same thing for Hezbollah. So we have all these countries and organizations running around with weapons, thinking that they are so fucking special that they don't have to follow any rules. Is it any surprise as to why these leads to never ending war in the world?

      I'm not saying on whether the US, Russia, etc, should or should not intervene in Syria. That's not what this post is about. All I'm saying is that do not follow the "do as I say, not as I do" routine. Don't ask a country to do something that you won't do yourself.
     Ironically, a Russian statement on this bears some truth:

A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry this morning warned of "catastrophic consequences" for Syria and the region if the United States and its allies intervene.

 http://abcnews.go.com/International/russia-warns-catastrophic-consequences-us-meddles-syria/story?id=20081747

     He's right, there are catastrophic consequences for foreign intervention. Syria's civil war started off as a purely domestic war between the dictatorship and rebels. But now, it seems all the major countries in the world are picking a side and getting their hands dirty to sway the war one way or another to benefit themselves. The US and Israel are supporting the rebels because they want Assad gone. Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah are supporting Assad because they want Assad in power. Saudi Arabia and Qatar want the extremist rebels to win because they want a hard-line Islamic government in power. This has increased the number of soldiers and arms in the battlefield tenfold, which only dishes out more death, more destruction, more refugees, more seriously injured civilians, etc, etc. 

     It's like a fistfight at a soccer game: what started off as a fight between two players has turned out into a full field brawl, with both teams at it, plus the referees, players, police, etc.

     Suddenly, the war is not about what the Syrian people want anymore. It's all about what other countries want. And that's the tragedy of the whole thing. What started off as a legitimate revolution has now been hijacked by foreign and extremist elements.

     What can we ordinary Americans do about this? Unfortunately, not much, as usual. But at least, when this war is over, we can be on the right side of history. We can say "I supported the moderate, secular rebels, and I did not support the dictatorship or the radical rebels." We can talk talk talk. Post on facebook, twitter, tumblr, write a letter to the editor for a newspaper, etc. Explain that not all of the rebels are extremists, that the Syrian people have a fundamental right to basic human rights, and the right to fight anyone who takes them away from them, that using violence is acceptable if you use it to defend yourself or someone else who is under attack. Challenge the racists, the bigots, explain that Islam is not the cause of this conflict, that this conflict is purely political and this type of conflict has occurred plenty of times in non-Islamic countries.
     That's all we can do for now.    

  

France's colonist imperialism continues

     In case you guys didn't know, which is very possible considering how mum the US media is on this, France invaded another African country in the last couple of days, (They already invaded Mali earlier this year, wait, you didn't hear about that either?!). The latest victim of the French aspire to return to their colonial glory days is the Central African Republic, (CAR).
     Now, the CAR has a whole host problems without the French involved; it's not like France is the only cause of their problems. But certainly France's invasion has done nothing but benefit the 1% of French society. A quick summary of what's happening: The CAR is in a civil war right now, (as it is more often than not), and the battles lines are not exactly clear. We got a new government run by Michel Djotodia, the leader of the Seleka rebel group that came to power last year in a rebellion. They overthrew the government of Francois Bozize, who had come to power in 2003 by force, (hence was not legitimate).
     So we have this new Seleka government battling remnants of Bozize's fighters and supporters, in addition to people who are sick of the Seleka's many and horrible human rights abuses in their short 1 year rule. This was bad enough before the French invaded this year. But they did, fighting against the Seleka government.
     Here's the main point of this post, one that will show that France is not fighting to "help the poor African people or for humanitarian/selfless reasons." On December 9th it was reported that the French soldiers are going door to door in the capital Bangui, seizing all weapons and leaving the residents defenseless: 

 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ilKuiauSYXwMH7rs8eYqbHHTpFwg?docId=dd8da109-c3d7-41ed-b32c-3cb8d5a420bb

     You don't have to go any further to see why any sensible, ordinary, hard-working, law-abiding citizen of the CAR would fight against the French. They're seizing weapons that people, regardless of race or religion, are entitled to have to defend themselves and their family. This fascist crackdown leaves them without any weapons to defend themselves from any thugs or gangs that are taking advantage of the chaos due to the civil war. They've even taken machetes.

     The French are just making enemies at this point. I mean, how would you react if Chinese or Russian troops were walking down your street in your neighborhood, knocking down your doors, and demanding all of your guns and melee weapons? That's right, you'd say "Hell no and fuck no" and start fighting back against these foreign occupiers who are trying to deny you your rights. That's what our ancestors did against the British, that's what the French underground resistance did against the Nazis, and that's what the Vietnamese did against the French and the Americans.

     This isn't France's first meddling in the CAR. The CAR was France's former colony, in which the European country did the standard crimes that all colonial powers did back then: Abuse the country for cheap labor, deny them basic human rights, and stealing their natural resources for profit back home, while the citizens of CAR see none of that profit.
     France also supported the authoritarian dictator Francois Bozize when he was in power, and is currently backing his supporters in this civil war. That's right, all of the suffering that Bozize inflicted on his people, the French helped him do that, why? For a friendly government that they could manipulate and control. Since France was Bozize's lifeline, they could make him do whatever they wanted him to, since without them, he would surely fall rather quickly.

 What can we ordinary Americans do about this? You know I usually try to end a post with practical advice. Unfortunately, there is very little Americans can do about this; this is between France and the CAR. But we can use our voice. Just like I'm doing now, all I'm doing is typing on a keyboard. Use whatever social media you normally use: Facebook, Twitter, blog, Tumblr, etc, whatever, it doesn't matter. Write in defense of the citizens of CAR, since they hardly have the means to have their voices and opinions travel around the world in a nanosecond like you and I do. Explain to people how they have the right to defend themselves, that they have the right to violently overthrow a dictator like Bozize, who oppressed and repressed them for years. Explain that just like not all Christians are bloodthirsty killers like some of the extreme Christian vigilante groups in the CAR, that not all Muslims are bloodthirsty killers like some of the radical Seleka. There are good and bad in every race and religion. Preach equality, unlike some radical Americans, who support the French and support disarming all CAR Muslims so they will be defenseless. 

     So there you have it, an imperial power sticking it's nose in a civil war that is quickly becoming a sectarian war. Things are going to suck there for a while. A European country who has no business being there isn't helping at all. Did France learn anything from Vietnam? MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS AND STOP STEALING THINGS FROM OTHER PEOPLE!! 

And everyone's...okay with this?

Every week, the world learns more and more about how the NSA is being the world's #1 douchebag when it comes to respecting our privacy and actually doing anything to protect us or better this country. This week's revelation is that they collect and log 5 billion cell phone calls everyday. 

 http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/how-the-nsa-is-tracking-people-right-now/634/

Not only that, but they use these logs to track your every movements. They can even track your relationship with others, since they have the ability to run tracking data to identify which cellphone users' paths cross, even when you're not even using it. When you move from cell phone tower range to another cell phone tower range, the NSA keeps track of these movement. When confronted about this by the Washington Post, the NSA replied in the most fucked up, retarded piece of shit reply I've ever seen in my entire life.

"NSA says it doesn't collect intentionally US location information in bulk."

Hey, NSA asshole dipshit. You log 5 billion cell phone calls every damn day. What, by accident? Do you expect anyone in the entire planet to believe that pathetic excuse?

The NSA just doesn't do this to terrorist suspects, no, it does it to millions of Americans, who have done nothing wrong. This is its normal, run of the mill practice, it's default surveillance. It's pissing companies off so much, that even big business proponents like Google and Microsoft are getting pissed off, and introducing new methods to try and hide data from the NSA. Because every time the NSA spies on an American, it has to get through a company's data in order to do so, such as Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, etc. And companies do not like that at all, not any less than Americans, but companies have more power to do something about it when they're pissed off. The American people have the potential to be more powerful, but that would require mobilization off their fat couches and doing something about it, which doesn't look like it's gonna happen anytime soon.

But, a small section of the population is getting really pissed off. Activists in Utah want to cut off the water supply to a NSA database center:

 http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/04/nsa-opponents-want-to-cut-off-utah-facility-from-water-supply/

The NSA has called their database "FASCIA." Isn't it hilarious and ironic that word is very similar to the word "fascist?" Or maybe that's the reason they named it that in the first place, to publicly gloat how much fascism they're getting away with in broad daylight.

Oh wait, it gets better. The NSA also has infected ten of thousands of computers with viruses and malware to get the information they want.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/74845/the-nsa-probably-has-installed-a-virus-on-your-computer-and-everyone-else-s

This is massive destruction of the 4th amendment. The NSA is at war with the American people. They must hate us a hell of a lot to be able to do all the shit they do to us on a daily basis and be okay with it all. They believe they have the right, the privilege, to know anything and everything in the world, laws and logic be damned. They will do whatever it takes to get the information they want. They will pass any law to protect their own actions, so that if anyone complains, they can sneer "Oh it's legal!"

What can we ordinary citizens do about it? Not much unfortunately, but the things we can do, we should do very adamantly. Resist resist resist. Write to your congressmen, write letters to the editor to your newspapers, follow activist groups that are fighting on this issue, go to a protest, or write about in your blog, twitter, whatever. Heck, the NSA is probably reading this blog right now. I know I write provocative anti-government, anti-fascist, anti-neo con shit. I know exactly what I'm doing. Provocative, in your face shit gets people thinking. I ain't scared of the NSA, and nor should anyone else, including you. They're bullies, they're trying to intimidate us into submission. They're trying to scare us into not speaking up, to stay silent. They want complacent, docile, drone citizens. Don't let them win!!

To the NSA prick who's reading this: FUCK YOU ALL!!