There are a lot of seemingly disparate things happening at various levels of scale in the world outside my window these days. But there is one color that describes them more than any other.
My world is browning. As deserts grow and forests shrink, as smog, soot and dust clouds fill the skies horizon to horizon, as average heat levels (represented by yellows, oranges and browns on maps where they are most intense) increase, you start to see that color everywhere, eating away at the greens and blues of our old picture of the planet. What is the color of drought, …
Last month, we reviewed the mind-boggling contrast between corporate media coverage of the January 2005 election in Iraq and the March 2014 referendum in Crimea.Whereas all media accepted the basic legitimacy of an Iraq election conducted under extremely violent US-UK military occupation, they all rejected the legitimacy of a Crimea referendum conducted “at [Russian] gunpoint”.
It was not difficult to guess how the same media would respond to the Afghan presidential election of April 5 under the guns of Britain and America’s occupying force.
The Daily Telegraph had welcomed ‘the first …
What would you do if the Canadian university you attended was planning to enter into a partnership with a university in another country whose persecution of your people meant you couldn’t speak out publicly – in Canada – for fear of reprisals against you and your family?
What if, further, the proposed partnership included course delivery for a degree in public safety management inside a country conducting a nearly 50-year-long occupation in contravention of international law? An occupation in which basic freedoms – of movement, speech, and self-determination – were denied your people, and in which security forces routinely imprisoned, shot, …
When a federal court trashed its “net neutrality” compromise policy in January, the Federal Communications Commission assured us that the Internet we knew and depended on was safe. Most activists didn’t believe federal officials and this past week the FCC demonstrated how realistic our cynicism was.
The Commission announced last week that among its proposals on the Internet, due for full discussion on May 15, was one which would give access providers the right to sign special deals with content producers for connections that are faster and cleaner than the connections most websites use. It’s precisely the nightmare that court …
Just weeks before Tax Day, April 15, Governor Deval Patrick, Obama’s “close friend,” signed into law a bond bill that dispenses $177 million in Massachusetts State Taxes to the Pentagon for construction and “upgrades” of U.S. military bases in the state. That’s right, not federal taxes but state taxes.
On April 15, the federal govt. collected about $1 trillion in personal income taxes. The Pentagon will get $600 billion this year that we know of, and along with the CIA, NSA, the costs of overseas wars as in Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, the bill for …
Beginning Monday, April 28, Southern California truck drivers at the Long Beach and San Pedro ports, will go on a limited 2-day “exhibition” strike to protest what they see as a gross misclassification. Truckers as far away as Savannah, Georgia, are expected to join in the protest.
Needless to say, trucking companies are doing everything in their power to maintain their strangle-hold on these drivers. Classifying them as “independent contractors” rather than “employees,” works wholly in their favor, as it not only gives them near dictatorial powers, but prohibits drivers from seeking union representation.
Conversely, classifying them as “employees” opens up a …
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / April 27th, 2014
President Obama returns from East Asia empty-handed after Japan rejects bilateral agreement — but if the TPP moves forward, will it be in the interest of most Americans?
Like a spear thrusting into the Gulf of Mexico’s gut, the Isle de Jean Charles is turbulent with ruinous daily oil and gas accidents, rising sea levels, and tropical storms. Homes on the Isle de Jean Charles perch on delicate wooden stilts thirteen feet high, their paint peeling in the sun. A solitary road snakes down the spine of the shrinking island. Stained American flags billow slowly in the Gulf breeze, affixed to porches where one can catch the nasal tones of plaid-clad men bantering in Cajun French.
[The] self-alienation [of humanity] has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.
– Walter Benjamin (( “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 1936.))
At the end of last year, the Humanist Workers for Revolutionary Socialism (HWRS) published a provocative position paper which presents their analysis of the climate crisis: “Alienation, Climate Change, and the Future of Humanity.” Aside from discussing the very real threat which anthropogenic climate disruption poses to humanity and terrestrial nature generally considered, the HWRS in this essay …
Only the other day, Benjamin Netanyahu earned a small note of immortality when he said the peace talks were ended by the new arrangements between the Palestine Authority and Hamas: Netanyahu’s announcement bundled a record number of lies into one mouthful of words. There, of course, never was anything properly called peace talks with Israel. There has been only a long series of closed-door personal, and security-scrambled telephonic, exchanges with America’s superbly ineffectual John Kerry, exchanges in which the Palestinians played virtually no role and in which Mr. Netanyahu had absolutely no interest. Netanyahu was always setting an impossible set …
The Obama regime, wallowing in hubris and arrogance, has recklessly escalated the Ukrainian crisis into a crisis with Russia. Whether intentionally or stupidly, Washington’s propagandistic lies are driving the crisis to war. Unwilling to listen to any more of Washington’s senseless threats, Moscow no longer accepts telephone calls from Obama and US top officials.
The crisis in Ukraine originated with Washington’s overthrow of the elected democratic government and its replacement with Washington’s hand-chosen stooges. The stooges proceeded to act in word and deed against the populations in the former Russian territories that Soviet Communist Party leaders had attached to Ukraine. The …
I’ve written before on the subject of ‘false flag’ events (( “Friend or Foe“)); (( “Strange Things happen at Sea“)) – events which get their name from the early days of piracy on the high seas and naval warfare (often the same thing), when a ship could be attacked by another ship which had been able to get close enough to its victim by flying flags which lied about the real nature of the attacking ship. However, the subject is not confined to quirky historical anomalies, events which happened in the distant past but could not possibly …
As the Boston marathon gets underway, there is the unavoidable recall of the horrific bombing last year. It also leads to the inevitable question of why this country is plagued with violence.
Violence has been so much in the news lately that President Obama’s leading hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune ran an investigation on shootings in Chicago over a 36-hour period commencing on a Friday evening. The recorded incidents averaged a shocking one every hour. Over 36 people were shot leaving four dead and 33 wounded, some seriously.
The Illinois legislature has recently passed a concealed-carry law granting private individuals …
New FCC Rules Strike Down Net Neutrality, Opening Fast Lanes for Fees
by Democracy Now! / April 25th, 2014
Federal regulators have unveiled new rules that would effectively abandon net neutrality, the concept of a free and open Internet. The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission would allow Internet providers like Verizon or Comcast to charge media companies like Netflix or Amazon extra fees in order to receive preferential treatment, such as faster speeds for their content. If the new rules are voted on next month, the FCC will begin accepting public comments and issue final regulations by the end of summer. “What we’re really seeing here is the transformation of the Internet where the 1 percent get the …
If, perchance, you have the opportunity to read the long list of health benefits from eating an apple a day, then for sure you’ll have an apple on your table every morning. It is a remarkable fruit that helps with almost every organ, crack, and crevice throughout the human body by curbing cancer, Parkinsonism, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, gallstones, hemorrhoids, liver problems, cataracts, and it even helps whiten teeth (sounds like the polar opposite of fast-talk warnings on TV ads for medicine). Why eat anything else?
In the same vein, Apple, Inc., the global powerhouse, is following in the footsteps of its namesake …
Fighting a culture of racism, sexism, ageism, and other -ism's
by Paul Haeder / April 25th, 2014
Note: adjunct faculty and full-time historian, Harvey Whitney, short interview below story!
I’m telling you, this place is the most racist place I’ve ever been to. September 10, it was Latinos and Blacks. And then September 11 came, and it’s Muslims. It’s a list. I top the list.” — Vera, college student, in the film, If These Halls Could Talk.
“The belief is if one knows and accepts oneself one can do better – self-esteem and self-worth. Especially in an academic setting where there may been a history, family or negative educational experiences.” — David Browneagle, teacher, mentor, drummer, Spokane Tribe.
In recent years, a new kind of economy based on the age-old practice of sharing is flourishing across North America and Europe, and is now rapidly spreading in popularity throughout the Middle East and other world regions. Human beings may have shared since time immemorial, but information technology and peer-to-peer networks have given rise to an innovative trend in modern societies – the sharing economy, which enables people to ‘share’ various goods and services with their peers in everything from cars and bikes to food, office space, spare rooms, even time and expertise. Countless articles and reports have now …
Part 9 (but, by all means, see other 8 informative parts)
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / April 24th, 2014
TRNN’s Paul Jay interviews Edgardo Lander, a professor of social sciences at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and member of CLACSO and the Hemispheric Council of the Social Forum of the Americas, Chavez’s attempt to establish a participatory democracy that changed the structure of power and decision making.
The New York Times responded yesterday to the exposure of its fabricated report alleging that Russian Special Forces are stirring up protests in east Ukraine against the pro-Western regime in Kiev.
An article Tuesday, titled “Scrutiny over Photos Said to Tie Russia Units to Ukraine,” is a clumsy attempt at damage control. Buried in the paper’s inside pages, the article begins: “A collection of photographs that Ukraine says shows the presence of Russian forces in the eastern part of the country, and which the United States has cited as evidence of Russian involvement, has come under scrutiny.” The Times also …
Take Action Today: Immediate mobilization required to save open Internet
by Kevin Zeese / April 24th, 2014
In what the New York Timesdescribes as “a net neutrality turnaround” the Obama administration’s new FCC chairman is proposing rules that will create an Internet for the wealthy. The new plan to create a pay to play Internet came to light Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal.
Under the plan wealthy corporations will be able to purchase faster service, while those that cannot do so will have slower service. Rather than an open Internet for all the US will be moving to a class-based Internet. Of course, this will mean that when Netflix …
Sixteen of the world’s largest banks have been caught colluding to rig global interest rates. Why are we doing business with a corrupt global banking cartel?
United States Attorney General Eric Holder has declared that the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks are too big to prosecute. But an outraged California jury might have different ideas. As noted in the California legal newspaper The Daily Journal:
California juries are not bashful – they have been known to render massive punitive damages awards that dwarf the award of compensatory (actual) damages.For example, in one securities fraud case jurors awarded $5.7 million in …
To understand how thoughtless the US latest ‘peace process’ drive has been, one only needs to consider some of the characters involved in this political theater. One particular character who stands out as a testament to the inherently futile exercise is Martin Indyk.
Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, was selected by Secretary of State John Kerry for the role of Special Envoy for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Under normal circumstances, Kerry’s selection may appear somewhat rational. Former ambassadors oftentimes possess the needed expertise to navigate challenging political landscapes in countries where they previously served. But these …
Here is one perspective on what the future has in store for us:
We have already returned to the levels of income inequality of the 1920s, and the concentration of wealth is heading toward the ratios of the 1890s. The social relations of the future, writes Piketty could resemble Jane Austen’s world, in which a tiny group of the wealthy employed vast armies of poorly paid servants.
In early March of 2014, following Russia’s invasion of Crimea in Ukraine, the New York Times editorial board declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “stepped far outside the bounds of civilized behavior,” suggesting that Russia should be isolated politically and economically in the face of “continued aggression.”
John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, lashed out at Russia’s “incredible act of aggression,” stating that: “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on [a] completely trumped up pre-text.” Indeed, invading foreign nations on “trumped up pre-texts” is something only the …
We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected round the world.
—President Barack Obama, State of the Union address, January 24, 2012
As Easter was celebrated in the US and UK with, for believers, the message of hope, Fallujah, the region and much of the country is again under siege, not this time by US mass murderers, but by the US proxy government’s militias armed with US delivered weapons.
In 2003, a month into the invasion, Easter Day fell on the same day as this year, April 20, as Iraqis of all denominations …
Presentation at the National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship” on March 7, 2014 at the National Press Club.
Alison Weir is the author of Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the United States Was Used to Create Israel, on the history of US-Israel relations (see review). The New York Times reported of her presentation: “When the speech ended, Ms. Weir was met with thunderous applause, and across the room there was a widespread sense of satisfaction that someone was saying what needed to be said.” Former US Senator Tom Campbell stated: “Ms. Weir presents …
They can incarcerate my body but never my mind.
— Rubin “Hurricane” Carter
For a man who spent nearly four decades of his seventy-six years under the restrictive eye of the US correctional system, few have ever touched as many lives as Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. The world-class boxer turned wrongfully accused prisoner, turned advocate for the rights of the unjustly incarcerated, has succumbed to cancer, but his memory and work will endure as long as there are people outside and inside the prisons of the world fighting for justice.
It is difficult to think of more than a handful of prisoners in history …
For the last month we’ve been occupying the Pacifica National Office, barricaded in, 24/7, taking turns standing watch, resisting the rogue board. We’re KPFA listeners and programmers, United for Community Radio members, with help from our allies at other Pacifica stations. Here’s how this came about:
On the night of March 13th the Executive Director of the Pacifica Radio Network was suddenly fired by the Pacifica National Board. No reason was given for the dismissal; the item had not even been on the agenda. The motion was simply introduced in a closed session and quickly passed by the SaveKPFA faction and …
The grotesque absurdity of relentless economic “development”: after two centuries, the planet reels under the onslaught of previously inconceivable catastrophes—most disastrously, global warming and deadly, perennial nuclear wastes. Yet, restlessly insatiable, the profit-addicted Juggernaut remains in perpetual-motion—devouring entire ecosystems as it plunders resources and carves out new markets. Indeed, such unremitting economic activity, as John Stuart Mill warned 150 years ago, could end up destroying the entire world.
Karl Marx emphasized the inevitable volatility of business (boom-slump) cycles: the over-extension of business credit invariably leads to overproduction, periodic recessions, and rising unemployment —wherein millions of people predictably lose their “jobs.” Yet …
The increasing detail at which human brains can be scanned is bringing the possibility of mind-reading appliances closer and closer. Such appliances, when complete, will be non-invasive and capable of responding to our thoughts as easily as they respond to keys on a keyboard. Indeed, as emphasized in the Lifeboat Foundation’s 2013 publication, The Human Race to the Future, there may soon be appliances that are operated by thought alone, and such technology may even replace our keyboards.
It is not premature to be concerned about possible negative outcomes from this, however positive the improvement in people’s lifestyles would be. …
