The Turkish government’s sordid and unavailing commitment to increase the violence in neighboring Syria’s Civil War has apparently coincided with the government’s growing authoritarianism and disregard for its citizens, with PM Erdogan hoping to end the freedom of expression enjoyed by Turks via the internet.
A leaked audio tape appearing on YouTube contained a discussion by high-ranking Turkish officials about moving Turkish tanks on to Syrian territory, shortly after launching missiles at their own country and blaming the Syrian regime as the required pretext. Although the officials later claimed the recording was manipulated, the morbid choice of subjects …
The Zero Waste Solution: Untrashing the Planet One Community at a Time by Paul Connett (Chelsea Green 2013) is about 100% waste recovery and reuse, the new gold standard in recycling. Connett’s new book summarizes the state of play of the zero waste movement in local communities around the world. His detailed descriptions of existing programs and technologies provide powerful ammunition for local activists trying to pressure city and town governments to be more environmentally responsible.
According to Connett, we have had the technological capability to recycle 80-90% …
As things stand, the banks are the permanent government of the country, whichever party is in power.
– Lord Skidelsky, House of Lords, UK Parliament, 31 March 2011)
On March 20, 2014, European Union officials reached an historic agreement to create a single agency to handle failing banks. Media attention has focused on the agreement involving the single resolution mechanism (SRM), a uniform system for closing failed banks. But the real story for taxpayers and depositors is the heightened threat to their pocketbooks of a deal that now authorizes both bailouts and “bail-ins” – the confiscation of depositor funds. The deal …
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / March 29th, 2014
Toby Jones, a historian of the modern Middle East, says the Saudis see the Arab awakening as an existential threat while the US sees it as something to be manipulated.
Vera Scroggins of Susquehanna County, Pa., will now be allowed to go to her hospital, supermarket, drug store, several restaurants, and the place where she goes for rehabilitation therapy. She can also go to the county’s recycling center, which is on 12.5 acres of land the county had leased to Cabot Gas & Oil Corp., one of the largest drillers in the country.
Common Pleas Court Judge Kenneth W. Seamans, Friday, revised a preliminary injunction he issued in October against the anti-fracking activist. That injunction had required the 63-year-old grandmother and retired nurse’s aide to stay at least 150 feet from …
Under the leadership of New York City’s progressive new mayor Bill de Blasio a settlement has been reached between a discrimination suited filed by the Vulcan Society (representing minority firefighters) and the city over the use of racially based civil service tests that favored white applicants.
In a case dating back to 2007 which found the city guilty of racism in testing, by a Federal Court, and still being appealed by the city, due to former mayor Bloomberg’s refusal to accept the ruling, an acceptance of the court’s findings by mayor de Blasio brings an end to this shameful episode of …
It is now apparent that the “Maiden protests” in Kiev were in actuality a Washington organized coup against the elected democratic government. The purpose of the coup is to put NATO military bases on Ukraine’s border with Russia and to impose an IMF austerity program that serves as cover for Western financial interests to loot the country. The sincere idealistic protesters who took to the streets without being paid were the gullible dupes of the plot to destroy their country.
Politically Ukraine is an untenable aggregation of Ukrainian and Russian territory, because traditional Russian territories were stuck into the borders of …
by Robert Hunziker and Jack Hunziker / March 29th, 2014
The “warming of the Arctic” could become one of the greatest catastrophes in human history, even exceeding the notoriety of Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan. Likely, it will impact more people than the combined effect of those brutal leaders. In fact, global warming may eventually be categorized as the greatest threat of all time, even greater than the Black Death’s 75-to-200 million dead, circa 1350.
The integrity of Arctic sea ice is essential to prevent the risks of (1) methane outbreak and/or (2) fierce, damaging weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Regrettably, the Arctic “sea ice area” registered a seasonal record …
Subhankar Banerjee, in his recent “On Climate Impasse: Appetite and Substitutes,” asserts that Progress is “a paradox. Progress is as real as an apple, and it can also hold contradictions.” Why? Because, Banerjee explains, Progress increases “the quality of life for some, while [it] degrades or destroys the same for others.” It is also the case, he adds, that in some cases Progress “simultaneously improves and degrades the quality of life for the same individual.”
The “Progress” referred to here by Banerjee here is the technological development—combined with, and motivated by, to a degree, greed— which has produced our consumer …
This week sees yet another make or break conference for the interminable Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks, writes network member Conor Cradden. This time it’s in Bali, and on the agenda (yet again) is breaking the deadlock about multilateral trade regulation (for a quick guide to what’s going on see this piece on the Guardian website).
But, frankly, who really gives a damn? And, more to the point, is export-led development really the only way to a bright future for poorer countries, or is it mostly just a convenient way for a very small number of people in …
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / March 28th, 2014
Though President Obama attempts to justify Iraq’s invasion, Iraqi civilians and Iraq war veterans share their stories on the lasting environmental, social, and health effects of the U.S. occupation still being felt today.
A thought constantly in my mind, and which was reinforced by the Arab League’s 25th Summit in Kuwait, is that with Arab leaders and governments as “enemies” the Zionist state of Israel does not need friends.
The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945. Its six founding member states were Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949) Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Today the Arab League has 22 members (though Syria’s membership has been suspended since November 2011).
Question: In terms of significant, positive contributions to regional and international affairs, what has the Arab League got to show for …
The fundamental failure of Dean Starkman’s The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism—and of mainstream journalism more generally—is hidden in plain sight in the title’s metaphor. Starkman explains why journalists often aren’t alert watchdogs, but he can’t see why limiting the profession to the role of a barking dog is, quite literally, a dead-end.
To explain that rather harsh judgment, allow me to mix metaphors: The best the journalistic watchdog can do these days is bark at people rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, and meanwhile the train has left the …
I have been an outspoken advocate for a Medicare for all health system. During the health reform process, I did all that I could to push for single payer, including being arrested three times for civil disobedience. I was one of fifty doctors who filed a brief in the Supreme Court which expressed opposition to forcing people to buy private health insurance, a defective product. It pains me to see that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) siphons billions of public dollars to create more bureaucracy and transfers hundreds of billions of public dollars directly to the private insurance industry …
Does Obama realize that he is leading the US and its puppet states to war with Russia and China, or is Obama being manipulated into this disaster by his neoconservative speech writers and government officials? World War 1 (and World War 2) was the result of the ambitions and mistakes of a very small number of people. Only one head of state was actually involved–the President of France.
In The Genesis of the World War, Harry Elmer Barnes shows that World War 1 was the product of 4 or 5 people. Three stand out: Raymond Poincaré, President of France, Sergei Sazonov, …
“What do you know about Winsted’s firemen?” my mother asked me one day when I was eleven years old. “They jump into fire trucks and go put out fires fast,” I replied. “Well, you should also know,” she added, “that they’re volunteers and they risk their lives for the townspeople.”
Recently, I had the opportunity to update and expand my knowledge of the Winsted, CT Fire Department (WFD) and the Winchester Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) that work the higher elevations of this picturesque Connecticut town nestled in the Litchfield Hills. I met with several volunteer firefighters, as they are now called, …
Every imperial power needs a storyline that successfully perverts the historical record
by Jason Hirthler / March 28th, 2014
How curious that those who live by the adage “might makes right” are often so unwilling to say so. In fact, they go to great lengths to say the opposite—that they are abiding by international norms of civility and decency. The Crimean situation provides another stellar example; U.S. power never tires of furnishing the history books with ever fresher case studies in unwarranted aggression. Despite the uncovered and too predictable role of U.S. cash and employs, we find former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issuing proclamations on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s astonishing criminality in accepting Crimea back into Russia or, …
New Zealand has decided to change its flag. This was only briefly mentioned in the media here. But it is a significant example for us.
The old flag is based on the British one, the Union Jack, which signifies the union of England, Scotland and Ireland. The three different crosses are integrated in an intricate design.
But what does this flag mean for today’s New Zealanders? Very little. Sure, they are close to the United Kingdom and to the Anglo-Saxon civilization, but they are a new nation, a separate nation, with a separate history, geopolitical orientation and national character.
Oso is a small rural community along the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River. It’s in the State of Washington, where I live. As of Wednesday morning, the death toll in the tragic mudslide in Oso has reached 24, and is expected to rise, with another 176 people still missing, although some may have been double–counted. It’s being called “one of the deadliest [mudslides] in recent U.S. history.” The near–record rainfall this month has been attributed as the likely cause of the mudslide. Although Washington residents are used to rain, this recent deluge seems like an …
There’s nothing worse than ignorant and opinionated.
You know the type: Most mainstream newspapers have at least one; they dominate radio talk shows and certain TV “news” networks.
Loud supporters of the existing economic system who deny inequality is a problem or even claim it doesn’t exist.
Business leaders/columnists/celebrities/media hacks and the “think tanks” they come from who also deny climate change is a problem or even claim it doesn’t exist.
Apostles of greed who claim to be “conservative”, defend chemical-laden, genetics-manipulating industrial food production, ignore all the ways corporations poison our environment, ridicule anyone who points out there must be some limit to …
The burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet, melting glaciers and polar ice caps, raising sea levels, causing more destructive hurricanes, floods, and droughts, and increasing ocean acidity. Leading climate experts hold that a third of existing petroleum reserves will add enough carbon dioxide to push the planet past the tipping point of irreversible climate change.
Faced with this nearly unanimous scientific consensus, corporations, governments, electoral parties, and the media promote the development of additional fossil fuels from tar sands and by fracking. The failure to act to stop a looming catastrophe is justified by the claim that climate change is …
Prior to the March 16 referendum, the BBC website reported:
Crimeans will vote on whether they want their autonomous republic to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.
The title of the news report indicated the focus: “‘Is Crimea’s referendum legal?”
The answer: “Ukraine and the West have dismissed the referendum as illegal and one that will be held at gunpoint, but Russia supports it.”
Legality was not an issue in BBC coverage of the January 2005 election held in Iraq under US-UK occupation. This was accepted on the main BBC evening news as “the first democratic election in fifty years”. ((David Willis, …
Some sights are so strange that you can’t stop to look: that corpse with rigor mortis on the roadside; the monkey butcher’s stand; the mummy-wrapped form balanced crosswise on that slow bicycle’s cargo rack. You just blink and proceed. We all have doubtful memories like that.
This was one of those disorienting sights. The hurtling juggernaut of the deep state pulled over for a brief inspection. The drivers emerged and showed their manifests. The human livestock they were carrying made agonized sounds inside. Shiny chrome hood ornament Barack Obama glinted inertly in the background like the bowlegged dog on a …
The Perpetuation of Myths, Misrepresentation and Falsehoods about the English Badger Cull
by Lesley Docksey / March 27th, 2014
The British Government seems as determined as ever to pursue its policy of killing badgers to prevent TB in cattle. This despite the “complete failure” of the pilot culls to reach their targets, the leaked information from the as yet unpublished report from the Independent Expert Panel and the slow but steady fall of the incidence of TB in English cattle due, not to dead badgers, but to tighter testing and cattle movement regulations.
But an increasing number of MPs, from all political parties, are demanding an end to the culls. The pro-cull lobby counter this with patronising statements …
The first lesson, and it’s a very old one, is that violent protest does work, and also sinister tricks such as having your own snipers shoot at police and fellow protesters. Without this ramping up of mayhem and bloodshed, the Ukrainian government would not have been discredited, destabilized and finally overthrown.
The shock troops for this violence, the masked thugs at the frontline, didn’t come out of nowhere. Primarily made up of young men from the Right Sector, they had been preparing for a long time for this confrontation with the government. For years, they had been honing their skills at …
Five years after the ethnic civil war in Sri Lanka was won by the Sinhalese government, with massive killings of Tamil civilians in the last few months, the UN Human Rights Council authorized the High Commissioner of the HRC to investigate if human rights abuse occurred.
On a vote of 23 for, 12 against and with 12 abstentions, the HRC voted to promote reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka by having its High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, and her successor soon-to-be:
To undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties …
After two fair and lengthy hearings, the eight elected members of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, in a 4-4 tie vote on March 5, refused to confirm attorney Joseph Berman to be a Superior Court judge. It was a defeat for Governor Deval Patrick, who had nominated Mr. Berman. But the Council took its responsibilities seriously and rendered a well-considered judgment.
Councilors voiced many concerns about the nominee. Foremost was a lack of truthfulness.
Berman, under oath, was asked three times whether he had requested anyone to lobby the Council to advance his nomination. Each time, he replied no.
America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy.
— Former US President Jimmy Carter
I doubt that the Ukraine crisis precipitated by Washington’s overthrow of the democratic government is over. Washington has won the propaganda war everywhere outside of Russia and Ukraine itself. Within Ukraine people are aware that the coup has made them worse off. The Crimea has already separated from the US puppet government in Kiev and rejoined Russia. Other parts of Russian Ukraine could follow.
In Kiev itself where the unelected, imposed-by-Washington dictatorial government resides, extreme right-wing Ukrainian nationalists, whose roots go back to fighting for National Socialist …
I’ll flip the classroom on this post, putting down my response to another middling post from that middling thing called, Inside Higher Education, this on-line blog advertising sheet, DC-based (first problem) and one that is just a hotbed of behind-the-times (second knock against it) and failing to really know the on-the-ground (third, knock) reality of school, community, real faculty and, well, the non-dominant white male/female perspectives (4th knock), the ones bred and enabled on that east coast (another knock) where we have seen a galaxy of pain put upon us, the 80 percent, by elites and their not-so-elite little Eichmanns …
The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then.
— Henry Kissinger, Washington Post, March 6, 2014
Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard (1998)
Russia has taught the United States a stern and embarrassing …
