Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, Dismantling Democracy, One Word at a Time
Consider us officially in an Orwellian world, though we only half realize it...
Consider us officially in an Orwellian world, though we only half realize it...
Three infants reportedly died and five more had adverse reactions to an inactivated polio vaccine. Officials noted that the only reaction to the IPV is anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, which they claim only occurs immediately after injection. Pakistan's current vaccine drive targets 24 million children under age five for the attenuated (live) oral polio vaccine that can cause vaccine-strain polio paralysis. [...]
Ireland: Homeowners are being asked to open spare rooms or vacant properties to house Syrian migrants for periods of up to a year as part of the Irish Refugee Protection Program. The Irish Red Cross is pushing the plan on behalf of the government's effort to resettle 4,000 asylum seekers from camps in Greece and Italy. [...]
There are more questions than answers, but we have what we have — the US military presence in Syria is ballooning, hampering peace efforts and provoking armed conflicts.
Parliament’s pesticides committee has until the end of 2018 to investigate and propose improvements to the procedure for the authorization of pesticides
As Israel killed more than 50 Palestinians in cold blood protesting the American embassy move on Monday, U.S. corporate media failed to accurately report what happened in Gaza, once again meekly protecting the government line, argues Joe Lauria.
The shift to a multipolar polity has now become inevitable due to American insensitivity and political blindness. The economic shifts that will, by some judgements, sink the US economy in five to ten years and lead to the rise of competing economic centers in countries like Russia and Brazil.
China has plans to establish a network of naval and air bases in the Indian Ocean, according to an article by David Brewster posted on the website of the Lowy Institute, the Australian think-tank, on May 15.
...dig this, sent by Ms. K.M., and ponder it in the same context as today's main blog. Mind you, I'm not against capitalism, but […]
The post TIDBIT:…AND SPEAKING OF CRONY CRAPITALISM… appeared first on Giza Death Star.
Mr. L.B. sent this article, and I want to speculate about it in terms of yesterday's article about DNA-backed crypto-currencies: The startup that wants […]
The post LIFE-EXTENSION STUDIES AND CRONY CRAPITALISM appeared first on Giza Death Star.
By scrapping America’s commitment to the JCPOA and announcing that he is willing to invest billions in North Korea’s economy, Mr. Trump, the self-professed master of the “art of the deal,” has proven to be nothing more than a schlump of Netanyahu
Since the start of the Vietnam War, Noam Chomsky, an emeritus Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics at MIT, has become increasingly popular with time. By 1992, the Arts and Humanities Citation Index declared him the most cited living person and the eighth most cited person of all time. Chomsky’s radical views and critiques of U.S. policy are at their[Read More...]
The significance of the fourteenth General Election goes beyond Malaysian shores. 9th May will be remembered as the day when the multi-ethnic population of a country ousted the world’s longest ruling coalition through the ballot-box in a peaceful atmosphere without a drop of blood. This is unique in emerging democracies in the Global South. It makes one proud to[Read More...]
Recent developments in Gaza have been appalling in their own right, but the attitude of the “International Community” is beyond words. Continuing a long battle against the untiring defence of Israel by my local MP I wrote him just a few words: “What do you think of your psychopathic friends now, Grant?” I probably imagined in the moment that the[Read More...]
1500-talsbygget Kungshuset i Lundagård, mellan 1953 och 2014 hem för Filosofiska institutionen vid Lunds universitet. Hur har den analytiska filosofin kommit att bli så dominerande i Sverige? Samtal mellan filosof Wlodek Rabinowicz, idéhistoriker Victoria Höög och sociolog Carl-Göran Heidegren.På redaktionen gillar vi att tänka att vad vi gör inte är ”ett program om filosofi”, utan snarare ”ett filosoferande program om vad som helst”. Men ingen regel utan undantag.
Israeli Settler-Colonialism “For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived.” “We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build[Read More...]
Food and agriculture across the world is in crisis. Food is becoming denutrified and unhealthy and diets less diverse. There is a loss of biodiversity, which threatens food security, soils are being degraded, water sources polluted and depleted and smallholder farmers, so vital to global food production, are being squeezed off their land and out of farming. A minority of the global population has access to so much food than it[Read More...]
The just concluded 2018 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) intersessional, held at Bonn, Germany, brings the Paris Agreement one step closer to implementation. Country representatives met at Bonn in order to thresh out further details of the Paris rulebook, the manual that will contain the modalities, procedures, and guidelines (MPGs) needed to operationalize the Agreement. The rulebook must[Read More...]
US voters seemingly always think that if they try out a new model (like a new type of a car or some other product like a coffee making machine), they will get a different result. The same applies to Presidents. Yet, quickly they see the same old patterns settling into place whether with the Bush Presidents, Obama, Trump or others.[Read More...]
“What do you think might happen if one worked around the clock in a given community — selflessly — and managed to increase positive test scores in a school by 50% and reduce violence in the neighborhood by 50%? Do you think for one moment that the ‘success’ would be limited to that realm?” — Richard Martin Oxman “Whenever anyone[Read More...]
“The Beatitudes of Jesus are a new and revolutionary model of happiness that contradicts what is usually communicated by the media and prevailing wisdom.” — Pope Francis in his Message for World Youth Day, January 21, 2014 “Our mission is to empower, educate and advocate for all youth in Stockton and the San Joaquin Valley (with an emphasis on those[Read More...]
I. Aijaz Ahmad is one of the preeminent Marxist political and literary theorists in the world today. Most famous for his In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures (Verso, 1992), Ahmad has been a poignant and prolific voice on the left for many decades, cultivating an expertise in the politics of the third world, the theoretical debates surrounding imperialism, and the[Read More...]
He came with a lizard in his beak. A choice tidbit, most appreciated. But only if you’re a Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill (Ocyceros gingalensis). The female lays up to four white eggs in a tree hole blocked off during incubation with a cement made of mud, droppings and fruit pulp. There is only one narrow aperture, barely wide enough for[Read More...]
Mohodai Sena Pati Ji: Namashkar Ever since you assumed the top position within the Indian army, Kashmiris have been following your statements with quite an interest. This is because they are unique despite now being too many – from outright threats to elderly counsels, and prophecies to the ones that clearly show that you are as clueless as the rest[Read More...]
(“The country of Kashmir may be conquered by the force of spiritual merit, but not by the force of soldiers!” Kalhana) Recently the Army Chief challenged Kashmiri militants saying that they cannot get Azaadi as they cannot fight his Army. “I want to tell Kashmiri youth that Azaadi isn’t possible. It won’t happen. Why are you picking up weapons? We will always[Read More...]
Despite the spectacular strides made in economic growth and having a technological boom, India still continues to struggle to attain freedom from hunger. It is bearing witness to a triple burden of malnutrition—the coexistence of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition. According to the Economic Survey (2017-18), child and maternal malnutrition posed the most challenging health risk of our times. India[Read More...]
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
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Robert Louis Stevenson
The Country Of The Camisards
We travelled in the print of olden wars;
Yet all the land was green;
And love we found, and peace,
Where fire and war had been.
Consortium News is launching its Spring Fund Drive so that we can bring you expanded coverage and analysis of the most pressing international and domestic issues of the day. We are setting our spring fundraising goal at $30,000, so we…Read more →
RT | May 16, 2018 A sample of Novichok, the nerve agent allegedly used to poison the Skripals, was obtained by German intelligence back in the 1990s, local media report. The substance has since been studied and produced by NATO countries. Western countries, including the US and the UK, have long been aware of the […]
ISIS attacked a funeral just north of Baghdad leaving dozens of dead and injured.
The post Suicide Bomber Attacks Funeral; 16 Killed in Iraq appeared first on Antiwar.com Original.
RT | May 17, 2018 The OPCW report claiming that chlorine was “likely used” in Saraqeb, Syria in February is “seriously misleading” because its narrative is based on evidence provided by jihadists, a former UK ambassador told RT. A fact-finding mission (FFM) of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Wednesday published […]
(RPI Op-ed) — Back in the 2008 presidential race, I explained to then-candidate Rudy Giuliani the concept of “blowback.” Years of US meddling and military occupation of parts of the Middle East motivated a group of terrorists to carry out attacks against the United States on 9/11. They didn’t do it because we are so rich and so […]
United Front Against Austerity|Tax Wall Street Party American System Network|Wednesday, May 16, 2018 Beware Scenarios of “Mediation” by Xi or Putin; Run-Up to 1938 Munich Appeasement Conference Was Last Chance to Oust Hitler; In Italy, Leaked Coalition Draft Shows Abject Incompetence of Feuding Would-Be Prime Ministers DiMaio of Five Star Movement and Salvini of League; [...]
Dernière partie de cet article détaillé sur la commémoration de Charles Maurras – afin de faire vivre le débat historique. Nous publierons les réponses d’historiens à cet article.
As news of the statement by the North Korean vice minister for foreign affairs Kim Kye Gwan spread, the usual suspects could hardly contain their glee: Trump’s vaunted Korean peace initiative had been a fraud all along! The summit was off! The North Koreans had been faking it, and Mr. Art of the Deal had … Continue reading "The Korea Story: Why Is the Media Getting It So Wrong?"
The contrasting images coming out of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories on Monday could not have been starker – or more disturbing. Faced with protests at the perimeter fence in Gaza, Israeli snipers killed dozens of unarmed Palestinians and wounded more than 2,000 others, including children, women, journalists and paramedics, in a hail of … Continue reading "West’s Failure to Act Will Be Cause of the Next Gaza Massacre"
Read Part 1 The rise of the murderous Nazi and Stalinist totalitarian regimes during the 1930s and the resulting conflagration of World War II is held to be, correctly, the defining event of the 20th century. But that truism only begs the real question. To wit, were these nightmarish scourges always latent just below the … Continue reading "Why the Empire Never Sleeps: The Indispensable Nation Folly, Part 2"
Back in the 2008 presidential race, I explained to then-candidate Rudy Giuliani the concept of “blowback.” Years of US meddling and military occupation of parts of the Middle East motivated a group of terrorists to carry out attacks against the United States on 9/11. They didn’t do it because we are so rich and so … Continue reading "Trump’s Plan for Iran: Put Terrorists in Charge"
Cambridge Analytica was created around 2013, initially with a focus on U.S. elections, with $15 million in backing from Long Island neo-Nazi billionaire Robert Mercer. Steve Bannon came up with the name, which was focussed on stealing U.S. elections.I've been told that no law enforcement agencies have questioned Mercer or his vicious crackpot daughter Rebekah, the owners of the company, and the fascists behind the direction it has taken.
Kalle Lind och Mattias Enn diskuterar La Nilsson - Skånes, Sveriges och världens största operasångerska. Lennart Nilssons kamera! Kyrkosångerskor med vackra hattar! Många slängar mot dagens Sverige! Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play.
Christopher Wylie, who testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, declares that Russian fingerprints are all over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
He said that he thinks that the Russians had access to the data that Cambridge Analytica illicitly collected on millions of Americans, and that the company was paid by Russians to perform some projects.
Additionally, Wylie says that Cambridge Analytica used Russians to harvest data on Americans that was then shared with companies which had active links to the FSB.
Sputnik | May 16, 2018 MOSCOW – The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that it considers calls to disrupt voting in Venezuela’s presidential elections due May 20 to be interference in the affairs of a sovereign state. “Assertions about the illegitimacy of the election campaign continue to be circulated, calls for disruption of the voting process are […]
This originally appeared on TruthDig.
I’ve written many hundreds of columns. The one below has caused me the most uncertainty about going public with it.
I’m accustomed to writing about facts, quotes, documented history, while offering assessments. But this piece extrapolates from the current zeitgeist, going into realms of events that must be speculative and—until too late—unprovable.
Diary
So lucky to be here. Tiny island of dreams.
By Martha Rosenberg | CounterPunch | May 16, 2018 How high are Pharma’s prices? Novartis wants $475,000 a patient for its new cancer therapy. Hep C drugs cost $95,000 for a course of treatment. The immune drug, Actimmune, costs $52,321.80 a month. The parasite drug Daraprim costs $45,000 a month. And the gallstone drug Chenodal costs $42,570 a […]
Palestinians protesting at the Gaza fence posed no threat whatsoever and even if they were trying to cross the border, you don’t use live fire to kill them, says Diana Buttu in this inerview with Dennis J. Bernstein. By Dennis…Read more →