Latest articles
by Eva Bartlett / January 31st, 2016
Facebook users were not instructed to do so, but may nonetheless wish to change their profile pictures in solidarity with the families and friends of victims of recent terrorist attacks.
A great many of the victims were aspiring university students, others were school teachers, children, infants, parents, and elderly. Their bodies were torn apart in the acts of violence, many unidentifiable.
Most of these innocent victims will go unnamed, their murders obfuscated, or largely unnoticed, in Western media.
Zein Abudllah, 8, injured by shrapnel to his face in the December 12 terrorist …
by Jan Oberg / January 31st, 2016
Once again Denmark appears in the international community and media for the wrong things, this time for a law package with three main, draconian anti-refugee laws. One legalises stealing – that’s what it is – valuables owned by refugees upon arrival if they exceed US$ 1450; the second cuts down on the already meagre daily benefit and the third extends the family reuinion period from 1 to 3 years.
188 MPs voted yes, 108 No and 37 abstained. The main argument is that Denmark wants to “signal” that asylum seekers should go elsewhere. Otherwise marketing-conscious politicians have overlooked that there are …
by Wolverine / January 31st, 2016
In her first public appearance as Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Kwakwaka’wakw, publicly spoke to the letter I sent on January 4th, 2016 to both her and the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau calling for a National Inquiry into the Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff 1995. She was asked three times by three women, to take action, to call this Inquiry and to address the ongoing genocide that is taking place on our Territories. Her response, as the Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada was disrespectful and dismissive. You all need a …
The Case of the Visegrad Group
by Pavel Novák / January 31st, 2016
During a three-month period in 2015, August until October, one could not open a newspaper, turn on a television or visit a news website without being subjected to reports on the mounting wave of refugees coming to the European Union from countries such as Syria, Iraq or Libya. The majority of reports in the media covered the responses of EU countries such as Germany or France. A number of reports debated the state of Greece and its handling of the refugee influx. A higher number of reports were devoted to the refugees’ struggles and treatment they encountered on the …
by Shepherd Bliss / January 31st, 2016
Sebastopol, California — Protests against Monsanto’s Roundup, with its poisonous, weed-killing glyphosate, have spread around the globe. An arm of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a probable cause of cancer in 2015. California’s Environmental Protection Agency (CA EPA) recently decided to label it as such.
Environmental groups and activists in Northern California, a region known for its wines, advocate a moratorium on this herbicide as health concerns mount. Roundup is the world’s most widely used pesticide.
Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, was the focus of a January 28 informational event. It was initiated by the Watertrough Childrens Alliance as a fundraiser …
by Jack Balkwill / January 31st, 2016
National Missile Defense is of a nature to retrigger a proliferation of weapons, notably nuclear missiles. Everything that goes in the direction of proliferation is a bad direction.
— Jacques Chirac, G8 Summit, Naha Japan, July 22, 2000
The “defense” industry is relishing the current boom in international conflicts, seeing massive profit in it. War and terrorism may not be welcome to the masses of the world, but those who control mass media and finance our elections delight in it so much that they actually scheme to make a more dangerous world.
One of their more devious plots to make the …
by Steve Breyman / January 31st, 2016
What is it about some radicals’ (including this one) problem with the inevitable, the predictable? Given our accurate worldview—the world is run for the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful—we ought not be perturbed when the rich and powerful do what’s in their perceived interest. Is it because the expected is so loathsome? Could it be we still harbor some jot of hope that right makes might?
The latest example of disgusting normal is the New York Times’ endorsement of Hillary Clinton—its fourth across the years (twice for US Senate, and for the Democratic nomination in 2008). What …
Coercive Engineered Migration: Zionism's War on Europe (Part 6 of an 11 Part Series)
by Gearóid Ó Colmáin / January 31st, 2016
Since the unification of German states by Bismark in 1871, the German question has been at the centre of European geopolitics. From the Treaty of Berlin in 1924 — which gave assurances to the USSR of Germany neutrality in the case of imperialist aggression against the Soviet state, to the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939, which sabotaged the Rome, Berlin, Tokyo axis, thereby threatening to ruin Anglo-American plans to use Germany to destroy the USSR — the basis of transatlantic strategy regarding Germany has been to prevent the European central power from becoming too close to Russia.
Since unification, however, Germany’s …
by Linn Washington, Jr. / January 30th, 2016
LONDON, UK — Police and prosecutors scheme to secure convictions of persons who did not participate in any crime. Racial minorities disproportionately bear the brunt of this improper practice.
Sounds like too many cities across the United States.
However, this practice of racist law enforcement is also rampant in three of the largest cities in England, including the capital city of London, according to a report released recently by the Centre For Crime and Justice Studies of Manchester Metropolitan University.
“The key findings [indicate] the criminal justice system is more flawed than we might imagine,” states the conclusion of the report entitled “Dangerous …
Happy Black History Month
by Herb Dyer / January 30th, 2016
This is written for those who argue against reparations for slavery on the grounds that slavery happened oh so very – too – long ago to be a rational idea; for those who contend that no living black people were slaves; who argue that no living white people were slave owners; for people who insist, therefore, that the time to ask for slavery reparations has long since passed. And, anyway, why didn’t the ex-slaves themselves demand reparations/compensation?
Mary Frances Berry is a former chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and …
by Pedro Aibéo / January 30th, 2016
Today, 30 January 2016, Finnish people gathered in Helsinki’s City center, holding the motto “No racism in my name!” Mostly women were there. Why so? And why is the slogan misleading.
There has been a controversial movement over here, in Suomi, of the right wing extremist group “Soldiers of Odin” (a name of either poor polytheistic revivalism or of rich Hollywoodish influence). They are about 500 men patrolling the streets of Finland for its safety, so they say and so they look, with their gym intensive schooling.
Their most popular demand is to close down the borders to protect …
by David Swanson / January 30th, 2016
I asked Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein about her platform this week and came away believing it had a better chance of winning than Bernie Sanders’. I know that platforms don’t run, people do, and they do so within a two-party dominated system. But this already crazy presidential election could turn into a crazier five-way race. And, even if it doesn’t, or if it does but still nobody ever learns that Jill Stein exists, there is nonetheless much for us and for the other candidates to learn from her platform.
If you think free …
Far-right activists spying on Israeli human rights community received hidden funds from Netanyahu government
by Jonathan Cook / January 29th, 2016
Israeli government funds have been secretly transferred to far-right organisations leading a smear campaign against groups opposed to the occupation, a series of investigations show.
The right wing groups have received tens of millions of dollars in state funding, either directly from the government or via Israeli local authorities representing the settlements in the West Bank.
In three known cases, publicly funded far-right organisations launched spying operations on human rights groups.
Other state money has gone towards ad campaigns claiming to expose peace activists as “moles”, planted by foreign governments to damage Israel.
Human rights activists, the campaigns claim, are betraying their country by …
by Dana Gabriel / January 29th, 2016
A major priority for Canada’s new prime minister is to reset the relationships with both the U.S. and Mexico. There is a real opportunity for all three countries to recommit to building a North American community. This includes expanding political, security and economic cooperation, as well as greater coordination on issues such as energy and the environment. Further deepening Canada-Mexico ties is one of the keys to strengthening continental relations. The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which builds on the commitments of NAFTA could also help take North American trilateral integration to the next level.
During a foreign policy speech before he …
by John R. Hall / January 29th, 2016
Back in November of 2015, on the 36th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. Embassy and the Iran Hostage Crisis, a new mural was unveiled in Tehran. Titled “The Story of a Flag,” the larger than life mural rises above Valiasr Square, and is a constant reminder to a population of thoroughly thankless Iranians, of the country which claims quasi-legal ownership of the oil beneath Iranian soil. Of course, I’m referring to the U.S.A. The Exceptional Country which possesses God-given rights to all the oil reserves on earth, as well as whatever else it damn well fancies. The Exceptional Military is always poised …
We are the Miner’s Canary
by Klee Benally / January 29th, 2016
NOTE: The final event will be a panel discussion at Georgetown University, Friday, January 29 from 6 to 8 pm at the White Gravenor Building, Room 211. This event is free and open to the public. Georgetown University is located at 37th and O Sts NW Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC — On Thursday, January 28 at 12:30 PM, representatives of Indigenous organizations from the Southwest, Northern Great Plains, and supporters called for “no nukes” in a protest addressing radioactive pollution caused by 15,000 abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) posing a toxic threat in the US. The demonstration was held at the Environmental …
by Michelle Pinto / January 29th, 2016
The development of oil prices between 2014 and 2016 has seen a sharp decline from well over $100 in mid-2014 to under $30 in early 2016. While for most of us in the West, the impact of the dramatic dip in oil prices is limited to a pleasant reduction in the cost of filling up at the gas station, this article will examine the impact on countries whose entire economy depends on oil and gas as well as the consequences of this development for the citizens and residents of such countries.
While there are already developments that are occurring as …
by Ralph Nader / January 29th, 2016
Before announcing for President in the Democratic Primaries, Bernie Sanders told the people he would not run as an Independent and be like Nader—invoking the politically-bigoted words “being a spoiler.” Well, the spoiled corporate Democrats in Congress and their consultants are mounting a “stop Bernie campaign.” They believe he’ll “spoil” their election prospects.
Sorry Bernie, because anybody who challenges the positions of the corporatist, militaristic, Wall Street-funded Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton, in the House and Senate—is by their twisted definition, a “spoiler.” It doesn’t matter how many of Bernie’s positions are representative of what a majority of the American people …
Abolish or be abolished
by Jan Oberg / January 29th, 2016
The nuclear age is an age of terror
Nuclear weapons are the ultimate weapons of terror. You can’t use them without killing millions of innocent people. Targetting innocent people, people who are not part of a conflict, is a central defining characteristics of terrorism.
That’s why the world’s governments decades ago decided to work for general and complete disarmament – i.e. for nuclear abolition – in the spirit too of Alfred Nobel.
As a matter of fact, the first UN General Assembly resolution of January 24, 1946 established a Security Council tasked with achieving ‘the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and …
by Uri Avnery / January 29th, 2016
As is well-known, Israel is a “Jewish and democratic state”.
That is its official designation.
Well…
As for Jewish, it’s a new kind of Jewishness, a mutation.
For 2000 years or so, Jews were known to be wise, clever, peace-loving, humane, progressive, liberal, even socialist.
Today, when you hear these attributes, the State of Israel is not the first name that springs to mind. Far from it.
As for “democratic”, that was more or less true from the foundation of the state in 1948 until the Six-day War of 1967, when Israel unfortunately conquered the West Bank, the Gaza strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan. And, …
by Cassandra Dixon / January 28th, 2016
The worst worries of a child’s school day should be homework. Maybe a lost book, or an argument with a friend. No child’s walk to school should routinely involve armed soldiers and fear of sometimes being chased and assaulted by angry adults. But for the Palestinian children who live with their families in the small rural villages that make up the South Hebron Hills, this is how the school day begins. Illegal settlements and outposts isolate and separate their villages and soldiers are a constant in their lives.
Once, the trip from the tiny hamlet of Tuba to the school in …
by William T. Hathaway / January 28th, 2016
As the viciousness of capitalism engulfs ever more of us, our yearnings for change are approaching desperation. The system’s current leader, Barack Obama, has shown us that the only change we can believe in is what we ourselves create.
To do that, we need to know what is possible in our times and what isn’t. The bitter probability is that none of us will see a society in which we’d actually want to live. Even the youngest of us will most likely have to endure an increasingly unpleasant form of capitalism. Despite its recurring crises, this system is still too strong, …
by subMedia / January 27th, 2016
This week we examine the contradictory notion of “Anarcho-Capitalism” and dismantle this illogical concept by illustrating current examples of why free markets have nothing to do with freedom. On the music break, San Diego based MC Odessa Kane with “GPT”.
We wrap things up with the bleak economic outlook for the coming year and our very clever solution to fix this capitalist clusterfuck.
This week we stole footage from The Meaning of Life, Monty Python, The Big Short, Margin Call, and Titanic, to name a few.
Below is a playlist of the music we dropped.
XOC – Super Mario Theme
Pharcyde – …
by Jonathan Cook / January 27th, 2016
Israel, it seems, has found a new weapon against Palestinian attacks – the humble cucumber seed.
Soldiers have been handing out seeds at checkpoints with advice to Palestinians – a nation of farmers until their lands were swallowed up by Jewish settlements – to stop their recent knife attacks on Israelis and invest in a peaceful future.
Palestinians were not fooled. The seeds, the packets revealed, were produced by the very settlements that corralled them into their urban enclaves.
Israel’s image-laundering is directed at western nations that have propped up the occupation – economically and diplomatically – for decades. As ever, Israel hopes to …
Coercive Engineered Migration: Zionism's War on Europe (Part 5 of an 11 Part Series)
by Gearóid Ó Colmáin / January 27th, 2016
Prometheism was a political project initiated by Polish dictator Josef Pilsudski in the early 20th century. The project aimed to promote separatist and nationalist movements in the non-Russian peoples of the Russian Empire. The breakup of the Russian Federation is a key strategic ambition of NATO. In this sense, the encirclement and destabilization of Russia could be described as neo-prometheism.
In a talk for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in February 4th, 2015 entitled ‘Europe: Destined for Conflict?’, George Friedman of Stratfor argued that US geopolitics in Europe is based on the objective of keeping Russia divided from the European …
by James Hoover / January 27th, 2016
CBS’s 60 Minutes often provides important information about vulnerable and suffering Americans. Last Sunday, the program centered on billionaires sharing their wealth with the needy and forgotten people in some states deprived of health care, though the 60 Minutes segment doesn’t use the word deprived.
Where 60 Minutes fails in the health care segment involves not informing the audience about the real circumstances leading to the exclusion of health care services we all have a right to enjoy.
The 60 Minutes segment focuses on two registered nurses who drive the Health Wagon through six counties in the Appalachian area, providing free health …
by Kim Petersen / January 27th, 2016
Japan aspires to a prominent position on the world stage in accordance with it eminent economic power. But is economic clout by itself sufficient to gain its desired standing?
Japan, composed of the four main islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, is the world’s third largest economy. Japan’s territory, however, is far more encompassing. From the tail end of Kyushu …
Bernie and Beyond
by Ellen Brown / January 27th, 2016
The world is undergoing a populist revival. From the revolt against austerity led by the Syriza Party in Greece and the Podemos Party in Spain, to Jeremy Corbyn’s surprise victory as Labour leader in the UK, to Donald Trump’s ascendancy in the Republican polls, to Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton – contenders with their fingers on the popular pulse are surging ahead of their establishment rivals.
Today’s populist revolt mimics an earlier one that reached its peak in the US in the 1890s. Then it was all about challenging Wall Street, reclaiming the government’s power to create money, …
by Stuart Littlewood / January 26th, 2016
At its Annual General Meeting last weekend the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) threw out a proposal to seek Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations.
Chairman Hugh Lanning is reported to have kicked off proceedings on a positive note saying: “Let us recommit to Palestine to make sure that we make a difference in the coming year.”
But the mask slipped when a motion was put for the PSC’s Executive Committee to “request the Government of the United Kingdom, enforced by a petition and lobbying, to submit a motion to the Security Council recommending that the General Assembly expel Israel from the UN …
by Visualizing Palestine / January 26th, 2016
It was reported in the past week that Palestinian Authority (PA) paramilitary police have acted in coordination with Israeli authorities to arrest around 100 Palestinians since October. This won’t come as a surprise to seasoned Palestinian commentators, many of whom have long criticised “coordination” as a means of securing Israel’s occupation at the expense of Palestinian human rights.
The PA is the West Bank’s largest employer, and around one third of its annual budget is allocated to ‘security and public order’ – more than health and education combined. All new recruits are …
