On 16 May, Libya’s rogue general Khalifa Haftar staged several bloody attacks against other Libyan militias in the name of eradicating terrorism by leading a paramilitary force evasively named the Libyan National Army. His well-equipped brigades were rapidly joined by officers from national army bases in the eastern parts of the country.
Units from the air force also joined in, along with tribal gunmen and other militias, particularly the strong and notorious Zintan militia. The well-coordinated attacks, named Operation Karama, or Dignity, resulted in heavy casualties.
When Karama is Not Dignity
Then, with unprecedented audacity, on Thursday he struck the parliament, sending Libyan …
Oregon voters in two counties voted against GMOs, against Monsanto. That’s 2 to 1 in favor of protecting organic farmers, communities, farmers and our health from pollan and seeds of the Frankenstein variety.
Vermont has signed the nation’s first GMO-labeling law, effective July 2016 (again, incremental, slide-side change — labels — but it’s something, nonetheless).
That’s the impetus — Oregon and Colorado are in a signature-gathering frenzy to get GMO labeling on November’s ballot. Interesting, uh? Capitalism, left of center or right of it politically. Interesting. Can you imagine a world where the corporations, the toxin purveyors, the land killers, air polluters, …
Gilad Atzmon is a brother. He puts himself out there, and is often unfairly pilloried for it. ((Kim Petersen, “Independent News as Vehicle for Character Assassination,” Dissident Voice, 23 August 2013.)) He is an expert on the subject of Jewish personality politics, and he exposes a significant segment of Jewish mentality that speaks to tribalism and supremacism. Consequently, it explains why Zionist Jews have usurped the land of another people and wage war on their neighbors.
However, when he strays into the more generalized terrain of politics, his message may lack coherence. I sometimes become confused when Atzmon …
In part 1 of this series (“Globalization’s Game of Thrones”) I examined the concept of corporate and financial dynasties holding significant power in the modern world. In this, part 2 of the series, I examine the realities of the ‘wealth management’ industry in being responsible for handling the wealth and investments of the world’s richest families, and the role of a unique institution dedicated to protecting and propagating dynastic wealth: the family office.
A Family Affair
In 2010, Forbes – a major financial publication which publishes an annual list of the world’s richest people – noted that the richest of the …
Does Tom Wheeler Really Not Get It or Is He Saying One Thing and Doing Another?
by Kevin Zeese / May 27th, 2014
The path for an open Internet that functions without discrimination is evident: polls of the American people, the courts, federal communications law and reality all point to the Internet being treated as a common carrier, a public utility that operates without discrimination. The Chair of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, is saying he wants an open Internet without discrimination. Why isn’t he taking a path that leads there?
Once it became known that Tom Wheeler was going to recommend a tiered Internet with different levels of service based on fees, the negative reaction was massive and swift. The reaction included emails, petitions …
Two California state senators, Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) and Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), introduced SB 1372, a landmark bill that would help bridge the gap between rich and poor. What SB 1372 would do is raise the corporate tax on any company whose CEO makes more than 100 times the median rate of its employees, and lower the tax on any company whose CEO makes less than 100 times the median rate.
California’s corporate tax rate is currently 8.84% of a company’s net income. With passage of SB 1372, that rate could drop to as low as 7% if the company’s CEO were …
South Korean police were clamping down on a villager who was resisting the construction of a Korean/U.S. naval base at her village. Mi Ryang managed to turn the police away by taking off her blouse and, clad in her bra, walking toward them with her clear warning. Hands off! Mi Ryang is fondly referred to as “Gangjeong’s daughter” by villagers who highly regard her as the feisty descendant of legendary women sea divers. Her mother and grandmother were Haenyo divers who supported their families every day by diving for shellfish.
After the attack on Iraq a frequently heard comment from those with no interest in foreign affairs or much, from activists, journalists and political observers of all hues, was: “Soon no American or British citizen will be safe anywhere on earth, for decades to come.” It was repeated after Libya, at every sabre rattling at Iran. Throughout the meddling, funding and support for terrorists in Syria the phrase has resurfaced, as again after US Under Secretary Victoria Nuland boasted of her government’s $5 billion illegal coup in Ukraine. Guantanamo, renditions, secret prisons and US drone strikes are also cited. Abu …
DePaul students don't want their tuition dollars invested in weapons manufacturers who supply the Israeli government, army and prison services
by Stuart Littlewood / May 26th, 2014
Nothing, it seems, is too ridiculous for Nick Clegg, UK Deputy Prime Minister, to contemplate. See him in this painful video ‘Nick Clegg welcomes the Jewish Manifesto‘ aimed at EU election candidates and voters.
Fortunately Clegg received a bloody nose yesterday in the EU elections. His infatuation with the EU and all its rotten works caused his party (the Liberal Democrats) to be almost wiped out at the polls. His days as leader are probably numbered.
If you’re wondering what the Jewish community’s EU Manifesto says, you can read it here. This propaganda effort is a prime example of the …
The American Condolleezza Rice, 60, Iraq War architect, and the French Christine Lagarde, 58, International Monetary Fund managing director, have little in common beyond being women of power who have contributed to the misery of millions of people they never cared to meet. And now they have another quality in common, cowardice under fire, albeit only verbal fire after they were invited to speak at college commencements.
Rutgers University invited Rice to speak (for $35,000 and an honorary degree) and Smith College invited Lagarde (compensation undisclosed).
Oh, the elite, or the admin class, or the middling white managerial class, how they are confounding it all, and nary a real activist sees that we are cooked until we wipe them away from positions of power.
I appreciate all the work of environmentalists, for sure, and on this Memorial Day, how does that fit into the scheme of green things? How does it fit when we have liquid gas coming to Coos Bay, Oregon, or Vancouver, WA. How does it all mix when we all have given the valley of death and the valley of hope to …
The state of English Language Teaching (ELT) (and teaching content, electives overall) is going through a serious, almost radical, transformation. Long gone are the days where union chapters, building reps and others who represent a teaching staff have the backing of their affiliate or parent union for support. No more do we see teachers of all areas praised for working miracles with society’s problem students/children. Forever gone are the school days filled with bright eyes, smiling faces, recess, and an obvious love of learning. What we see are bubble tests, exhausted and anxiety ridden students and teachers, and administrators and …
When Pope Benedict XVI visited the Holy Land five years ago, Israel heightened its security, gladly emphasising the potential threat he supposedly faced in Israel from Muslim extremists.
As his successor, Pope Francis, arrived in Israel late on Sunday, security was no less strict. Some 9,000 police had been drafted in to protect him, Christian institutions were under round-the-clock protection, and the intelligence services were working overtime. According to a Vatican official, Israel’s preparations had turned “the holy sites into a military base”.
On this occasion Israel was less keen to publicise the source of its fears, because the most tangible threat …
Brilliant. Stunning, concise synopsis, or rather, epitaph, regarding the ‘situation on the ground,’ which the Freak-Monsters-from-Planet-X who run this casino/bordello/slaughterhouse “one-stop-shop” and the flesh-eating Zombies who love them, categorically deny (fear? habit? something big and evil in the works?).
Problem is — for whatever my two-cents are worth (not much you can get with two-cents these days) — this whole land of opportunists, according to Morris Berman in Why America Failed, is exactly that. The opportunists who “discovered” this continent full of profitable goodies were an admixture of capitalist hucksters, religious zealots, psycho-killers and con-men, …
The sweeping electoral victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India is the latest expression of the world-wide advance of a new power bloc which promises to impose a New World Order harnessing ethno-religious fanaticism and narrowly trained technocrats to capitalist absolutism.
The far-right is no longer at the margins of western political discourse. It is center-stage. It is no longer dependent on contributions by local militants; it receives financing from the biggest global corporations. It is no longer dismissed by the mass media. …
The Fight For Environmental Justice Broadens, Deepens & Becomes More Militant
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / May 25th, 2014
No longer dominated by the traditional “Big Green” groups that were taking big donations from corporate polluters, the new environmental movement is broader, more assertive and more creative. With extreme energy extraction and climate change bearing down on the world, environmental justice advocates are taking bold actions to stop extreme energy extraction and create new solutions to save the planet. These ‘fresh greens’ often work locally, but also connect through national and international actions.
The recent national climate assessment explains why the movement is deepening, broadening and getting more militant. The nation’s experts concluded that climate change is impacting …
1%-ers fight against the 99%-ers for rights to universal education, worker rights, unimpeded right to vote, and rights to a clean environment
by Kim Petersen / May 24th, 2014
Brave New Films have updated their documentary, Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition, on the billionaires David and Charles Koch. The Kochs like to operate in the dark, where evil is said to thrive. The best tonic is said to be shining a light in the darkness, and that is what Brave New Films has done.
Evil is an awfully loaded word, and I have only alluded to the word without direct reference to the Kochs. However, when you watch the film, now available online free (or donate what you can), and discover what drives the two silver spooners (the …
JEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA – For the past two weeks, I’ve been in the Republic of Korea (ROK), as a guest of peace activists living in Gangjeong Village on ROK’s Jeju Island. Gangjeong is one of the ROK’s smallest villages, yet activists here, in their struggle against the construction of a massive naval base, have inspired people around the world.
Since 2007, activists have risked arrests, imprisonment, heavy fines and wildly excessive use of police force to resist the desecration caused as mega-corporations like Samsung and Daelim build a base to accommodate U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for their …
Had extreme measures been inaugurated worldwide 20 years ago to sharply curtail reliance on fossil fuels, much of what we are now experiencing — unwelcome temperature change, dangerous storms, droughts, floods, etc. — would have been minimized. But to this day Washington is among the tiny minority of countries that have refused to ratify the basic UN document …
Since 1976, the bicentennial of the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) that led to the founding of the United States of America from thirteen originally British colonies, Black History Month has been an officially recognised period—in February—when the descendants of the Founding Fathers acknowledge that the descendants of their slaves also have a history. Also in February, Presidents’ Day—initially George Washington’s birthday but now a combined birthday celebration for Washington and Abraham Lincoln: the Father of the Country and the Great Liberator. The year starts with Martin Luther King Day in January, when some whites and Blacks commemorate the man …
There are tentative signs that the people of Ethiopia are beginning to organise themselves and stand up against the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government, a brutal dictatorship, dressed in western democratic garb.
After 23 years of suppression at the hands of the EPRDF, simmering discontent and anger appears to finally be spilling over onto the streets. Robbed of hope, the people have had enough, enough of the wide-ranging human rights abuses. The denial of constitutional rights, the arbitrary imprisonments and torture, regime violence, the displacement of people from ancestral land, the partisan distribution of aid, and the rising …
May 25, 2014 is the 56th anniversary of Afrikan Liberation Day (ALD) and it should be observed as more than a commemorative event. ALD was institutionalized by the emerging independent states in Afrika to give focus, direction and resources to the struggle against colonial domination. However, the work of emancipating Afrika and Afrikans from exploitation and domination is still a work-in-progress during this post-colonial or flag independence moment. ALD started out as Africa Freedom Day (AFD) on April 15, 1958 at the Conference of Independent Afrikan States in Accra, Ghana, which had in attendance the eight states that won …
Michael Ratner — President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin: WikiLeaks promises to name the 5th country where MYSTIC mega data collection program is applied.
Kelly Cogswell is a columnist for New York’s Gay City News and the author of Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger. “Eating fire” refers to an initiation performed in front of spectators in which the Avengers lit torches and swallowed fire. In the following interview, Cogswell speaks about writing her memoir and her days with the Lesbian Avengers, a direct action group formed in 1992 to promote lesbian visibility and survival.
*****
John Wisniewski: What do you feel was accomplished by the activism of The Lesbian Avengers during the 1990’s?
Note — It’s pure satire. Maybe Swiftian, in a modern drone world where everything printed and digitized is collected by our overlords. Comedy. Humor. Something. Avatar — 57-year-old punch drunk minion of the Mighty Dead Middle Class!
How to Paddle Through the Sewage of News 24/7
Oh fools of the never-ending echo chamber. Academics coming on line acting as if they have discovered something. Old hat, old hand. These people today are great writers, talk the talk on National Propaganda Radio, get the gig in the New York Review of Books, and just yammer on and on.
I live in Philadelphia. There was a time when I wrote book reviews and op-eds for the Philadelphia Inquirer. That period ended, however, thanks to the intemperate language I hurled at its editors for the far too many articles and columns they published that attempted to justify an invasion of Iraq. Subsequently, whenever I was moved by something in the Inquirer that was egregiously lousy, I would write an article about it. Some of these articles eventually were given the title, “Stinky Inky.”
Well, the “Stinky Inky” is at it again. Upset by events in Ukraine, Trudy Rubin is stinking up …
The time of rational politics, if it ever existed, is over.
”Realpolitik” has become a mixture of marketing soundbites, propaganda and leaders making statements that border on the Theatre of the Absurd. Thinner and thinner links to Real-ity.
This is what happens when decline in being denied.
All empires go down. The U.S. empire is in decline. Macro historians (see British Arnold Toynbee’s 12-volume work 1934-61) tell that there are many reasons when empires fall:
• militarism with constant warfare;
• overextension – trying to control more than you can manage;
• loss of legitimacy in the eyes of others;
• structural economic crisis;
• moral decay;
• loss …
Ecological economists such as Herman Daly write that the more full the world becomes, the higher are the social or external costs of production.
Social or external costs are costs of production that are not captured in the price of the products. For example, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico that result from chemicals used in agriculture are not included as costs in agricultural production. The price of food does not include the damage to the Gulf.
Food production is a source of large social costs. Indeed, it seems that the more food producers are able to lower the measured cost …
Bethlehem University is a very special place which I have been fortunate to visit several times. Described by its Vice-Chancellor as “an oasis of peace and a beacon of hope”, I found it a warmly-welcoming, vibrant melting-pot of Christian and Muslim giving off endlessly good vibes.
The University’s latest newsletter arrived today with this important announcement:
Bethlehem University is on the cusp of some major developments. The library renovation is the first important step in a comprehensive facility master plan that will shape the University over the next 40 years and beyond. The renovation will transform one of the oldest buildings on …
Profiting from Russian and Chinese Engineering, Technology, Manpower
by John Stanton / May 23rd, 2014
Boeing is a leader in creating the U.S.-China Aviation Cooperation program, an initiative of U.S. government and American aviation companies, working with CAAC and airlines to help advance China’s commercial aviation. Good corporate citizenship has always been an essential part of The Boeing Company. In China, the company’s vision for corporate social responsibility program is to stretch Boeing expertise and commitment to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education of Chinese youth from elementary school to college.
— Boeing in China, Backgrounder, April 14, 2014
It is a fine thing that Boeing is supporting STEM education in China. But as part …
