Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
Anticipating the Trump Presidency
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2016
It is wildly premature to think that this election signals that the American people have descended into the swamps of racism and nativism, but it will still take a vigilant opposition movement to prevent Trump’s government from imposing its horrendous agenda on our collective future.
→ read full articleObama Is Pathetic on Human Rights in North Dakota
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
7 Nov 2016
For someone supposedly monitoring this closely, the President might be expected to know that people have already been hurt and most if not all of those hurt were nonviolent, peaceful protestors set upon by dogs and assaulted by rubber bullets, sound cannons, and chemical weapons. What fundamental, callous irrationality prompts this president to bring in Black Lives Matter? That is strange beyond comprehension.
→ read full articleUNESCO Censures Israel’s Administration of Jerusalem
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2016
In response to UNESCO resolutions adopted in October that were highly critical of Israel’s protection of sacred and cultural Islamic heritage sites in Jerusalem, there is again a fiery confrontation between Israel and this UN organ whose actions have so often touched the raw nerves of Western political sensibilities.
→ read full article(Português) A relação de uma galinha com seus ovos
Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais,
7 Nov 2016
Galinhas, como todos os animais, têm uma linguagem única para a sua espécie. Cada sequência de sons que emitem tem um significado social, emocional ou pessoal. E se você passar tempo suficiente em torno dessas amigas emplumadas, você começará, como eu, a ouvir as histórias que estão contando.
→ read full articleUSA: What Are We to Think?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
29 Oct 2016 – A cascade of developments should make us afraid of what seems to be emerging politically in the United States at this time. Although politicians keep telling us how great we were or will be or are.
→ read full articleEnding a Century of Ecocide and Genocide, Seeding Earth Democracy
Prof. Vandana Shiva | Toward Freedom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
Hundreds of People’s Assemblies, being organized everywhere, will make commitments to create a healthy future of food and of the planet. From the People’s Assemblies we will launch a boycott campaign, to liberate our seeds and soils, our communities and societies, our planet and ourselves, from poisons and the rule of the poison cartel.
→ read full article(Português) Onde está o poder hoje no mundo?
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
Há um fato que deve preocupar todos os cidadãos do mundo: o deslocamento do poder dos Estados-nações para o lado do poder de uns poucos conglomerados financeiros que atuam a nível planetário, cujo poder é maior que qualquer Estado tomado individualmente. Estes de fato detém o poder real em todas as suas ramificações: financeira, politica, tecnológica, comercial, mediática e militar.
→ read full article(Français) Venezuela: L’Assemblée Nationale peut-elle soumettre le Président de la République à un procès politique?
Misión Verdad | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
Au Venezuela, la récente tentative de « coup d’Etat parlementaire» de l’Assemblée Nationale ouvre un nouveau chapitre dans la lutte insidieuse pour tout le pouvoir politique qu’a entreprise l’anti-chavisme depuis qu’il contrôle le Parlement. La gendarmerie politique de l’élite économique vénézuélienne a entrepris un procès politique contre le président Nicolás Maduro, en plus de la révocation du Tribunal Suprême de Justice et du Conseil National Electoral.
→ read full articleColombia: A Bright Light for Peace Is Extinguished
Immanuel Wallerstein | Toward Freedom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
Frankly, I do not see any way the peace accord can be saved. Colombia is now like all the other areas of unending conflict. The chaotic world situation continues unabated in what I remind you is the struggle to decide on the successor system to the capitalist system that is now in systemic crisis.
→ read full articleVote All You Want – The Secret Government Won’t Change
Jordan Michael Smith – Boston Globe,
24 Oct 2016
The people we elect aren’t the ones calling the shots, says Tufts University’s Michael Glennon.
→ read full articleInterview on Palestine for Middle East Eye with Hilary Wise
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2016
I want above all that Palestine will not suffer the fate of other oppressed people, and be written off as ‘a forgotten struggle,’ or worse, ‘a lost cause.’ “Apartheid, annexation, mass displacement and collective punishment have become core policies of the state of Israel.”
→ read full articleNatural Rights: A Solution in the 18th Century, a Problem in the 21st
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2016
Individual and Human Rights – Let’s talk about natural rights. What shall we say? Well, let’s begin the way students in law schools begin when they brief a legal opinion to prepare for a class. They read the dissenting opinion before they read the majority opinion. Starting with the dissent is a good way to bring the issues into focus.
→ read full articleWhy Okinawa Should Matter
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
12 Oct 2016 – An earlier version of this post appeared in the Japanese publication, Ryukyu Shimpo. The article is devoted to a critical discussion of Okinawa’s role in serving American and Japanese strategic interests. Since the end of World War II Okinawa has been a mostly unhappy host of American military bases, and the issue has been prominent at times on the agenda of the Japanese peace movement.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Moral Duty in Yemen
Editorial Board – The New York Times,
17 Oct 2016
11 Oct 2016 – President Obama must cut off military aid to Saudi Arabia unless it ends the carnage and returns to peace talks. Yemen is near collapse, with 80 percent of the country in need of humanitarian aid. Al Qaeda’s affiliate there is becoming stronger and the population more radicalized. The longer the war goes on, the harder it will be to end.
→ read full article(Português) A Desordem Mundial: O Espectro da Total Dominação
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
A conclusão é avassaladora:”Onde quer que os Estados Unidos intervieram, como o “specific goal of bringing democracy”, a democracia constitui-se de bombardeios, destruição, terror, massacres, caos e catástrofes humanitárias…entraram para defender suas necessidades e interesses econômicos e geopolíticos, seus interesses imperiais”
→ read full articleWas the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 Wrongly Awarded?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
My comment critical of the award is printed below, and is followed by an even more critical comment by Fredrik S. Heffermehl, a Norwegian jurist who has taken a special interest in the Nobel Peace Prize, especially making a great effort to call attention to the failure of the Norwegian committee that is responsible for deciding on recipients to adhere to the will and intentions of Alfred Nobel who established this most coveted of international awards at the end of the nineteenth century.
→ read full articleThe US Just Bombed Yemen, and No One’s Talking About It
Moustafa Bayoumi – The Guardian,
17 Oct 2016
15 Oct 2016 – What if the United States went to war and nobody here even noticed? The question is absurd, isn’t it? And yet, this almost perfectly describes what actually happened this past week. The Trump show has managed to bump all serious and necessary policy debates not just off the table but out of the room.
→ read full articleThe Geopolitics of Shimon Peres’ Legacy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2016
Basically, the question posed is whether to celebrate Peres’ death as that of a man dedicated to peace and reconciliation or to portray him as a wily opportunist, a skillful image-maker, and in the end, a harsh Zionist and ambitious Israeli leader.
→ read full article(Castellano) ¿Hay una Crisis Chilena?
Prof. Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2016
6 Oct 2016 – “Chile vive una muy profunda crisis de confianza de todas las instituciones.” La opinión arriba citada no es la opinión de cualquiera. Es la opinión de quien fue el Ministro de Economía en la transición del gobierno militar al gobierno civil de 1990.
→ read full articleEvery Move You Make
James Bamford – Foreign Policy,
3 Oct 2016
Over eight years, President Barack Obama has created the most intrusive surveillance apparatus in the world. To what end?
→ read full articleGreenland’s Receding Icecap to Expose Top-Secret US Nuclear Project
Jon Henley – The Guardian,
3 Oct 2016
Camp Century – part of Project Iceworm – is an underground cold war toxic waste network that was thought to have been buried forever.
→ read full articleBees Added to US Endangered Species List for the First Time
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2016
Seven types of the yellow-faced or masked bees once found in great numbers in Hawaii are under threat, federal officials say.
→ read full articleThe Hidden Danger in Your Hand Soap
Sarah Ades and Kenneth Keiler – The Guardian,
3 Oct 2016
Antibacterial agents in handsoaps have been banned in the US. That’s good news – they seep into urine and breast milk, and can promote bacterial resistance. About 40% of soaps use at least one of these chemicals, and the chemicals are also found in toothpaste, baby pacifiers, laundry detergents and clothing. It is in some lip glosses, deodorants and pet shampoos.
→ read full articleThe Enigma That Was Shimon Peres
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2016
My own experience of the man was direct, although rather superficial, but it did give me greater confidence to trust my reservations about his impact and influence, which collides with the adulation that he has inspired among American liberals, in particular.
→ read full articleThe White Man in That Photo
Riccardo Gazzaniga - GRIOT Magazine,
3 Oct 2016
3 Oct 2016 – Today marks the 10th anniversary of Peter Norman’s passing. We want to commemorate him by publishing the story of the Australian sprinter. It’s a historic photo of two men of color rebellious gesture the day they won medals for the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. For this reason I never really paid attention to the other man, white, motionless on the second step of the medal podium.
→ read full articleRobert Redford: I Stand with the Standing Rock Sioux
Robert Redford - TIME,
3 Oct 2016
In their protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will affect far more families than their own.
→ read full article(Castellano) El persistente bullying contra el PT, Lula y Dilma Rousseff
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
18 Sep 2016 – Es conocido el bullyng, es decir, el acoso político y social que están sufriendo de manera persistente el PT, Lula y la expresidenta Dilma Rousseff. Una cosa es reconocer que hubo corrupción y errores políticos del PT y otra cosa es atribuir casi exclusivamente tales hechos y más a la crisis actual, al PT y a la expresidenta.
→ read full articleBrazil’s “Saddest Day”: The Parliamentary Coup
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
18 Sep 2016 – They took sadistic pleasure in hurting an incorruptible and honorable woman, on the pretext that some of her fiscal practices had been criminal, something that the great majority of legal and economics specialists denied. They staged a farce and betrayed the Constitution. Removing a President without having proven a crime is a coup. The correct term for it is: a “parliamentary coup.”
→ read full articlePublisher Wins Rights to Voynich Manuscript, a Book No One Can Read
Agence France-Presse – The Guardian,
26 Sep 2016
Tiny Spanish publisher can clone centuries-old manuscript written in language or code that no one has cracked.
→ read full article“Unruly Equality”: A Brief History of Anarchism
Andrew Cornell | Toward Freedom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
The very terms anarchy, anarchism, and anarchist are so overcoded with meanings and burdened by associations that people frequently talk past one another, or resort to awkward attempts at humor, even when attempting to discuss them in good faith.
→ read full articleA Warming of US/Turkish Relations?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
There are continuing concerns in Washington and Ankara about whether and to what degree United States-Turkey relations can be restored; it depends on the behavior of the two governments, and likely will be influenced by the outcome of the American presidential elections.
→ read full article
This Might Be the Coolest Visualization of Evolution Ever
Harvard Medical School – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
Bacteria Overcoming Antibiotics on a “Mega-Plate” Petri Dish
→ read full articleLaw Is to Justice as Treaties Are to Native Americans
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
19 Sep 2016
Once again, it’s the American empire versus interfering outsiders. As a Yale senior joining Skull and Bones, Jeb Boasberg kissed Geronimo’s skull. That act of atavistic triumphalism shines through in his legal decision against the Standing Rock Sioux. Kissing the skull of an enemy is just another way of showing who’s in control here, whose burial is sacred, and whose is not.
→ read full articleContaining the United States
Edward S. Herman | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2016
9 Sep 2016 – “Containing the United States” is, of course, a ridiculous and self-contradictory idea in the U.S. and Western ideological and propaganda system. We all know that the United States had to “contain” the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991, and since then has had the task of containing Russia and China. Only they threaten, bully, aggress and worry countries like Poland and Vietnam.
→ read full articleHave Big Banks Gotten Safer?
Natasha Sarin and Lawrence H. Summers | Harvard, Brookings Institution – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2016
PhD candidate Natasha Sarin and Prof. Lawrence H. Summers, from Harvard, challenge a widely-held belief that major financial institutions in the USA and around the world are safer today than they were prior to the 2008 Recession. They find no evidence that markets regard banks as safer today than they were before the crisis, despite large decreases in leverage. In fact, measures of volatility and beta appear to be higher post-crisis than they were pre-crisis.
→ read full articleInterview on Israel, Palestine, and Peace
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2016
14 Sep 2016 –The U.S. Government and Israel have signed a military assistance agreement promising Israel $38 billion over the next ten years, the largest such commitment ever made. Again, we should grieve over the extent to which ‘reality’ and morality is sacrificed for the sake of the ‘special relationship’ while looking the other way whenever the Palestinian ordeal is mentioned.
→ read full articleA Cinematic Approach to Drug Resistance
Ekaterina Pesheva | Harvard Gazette – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2016
Scientists film bacteria’s maneuvers as they become impervious to drugs–breakthrough.
→ read full article(Castellano) Las Bajas Jubilaciones en Chile
Prof. Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2016
“Nuestro mayor problema político es la falta de imaginación”. –Michel Foucault ~ La apuesta de la economía social y solidaria es que la misma lógica cálida que rescata a los victimas del sistema es capaz de transformar el sistema.
→ read full articleThe Uses and Abuses of Uncertainty: The Case of Turkey
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2016
9 Sep 2016 – One of the paradoxes of the digital age with its real time awareness is the degree to which information overloads clouds our imagination with cheaply achieved and false clarity, which in political contexts is often the Mad Men work of selective interpretation or deliberate manipulation.
→ read full article(Português) Brasil: Golpe de 1964 e golpe de 2016 – A mesma natureza de classe
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2016
5 setembro 2016 – Entre o golpe de 1964 e o golpe de 2016 há uma conaturalidade estrutural. Ambos são golpe de classe, dos donos do dinheiro e do poder: o primeiro usa os militares, o outro o parlamento. Os meios são diferentes mas o resultado é o mesmo: um golpe com a ruptura democrática e violação da sobernia popular.
→ read full articleUS Cluster Bombs Kill Children for Decades in Laos, and Now Yemen
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
12 Sep 2016
Does anyone think America is accountable for its own actions? The preposterous ironies of President Obama’s unapologetic visit to Laos on September 6 have not yet generated the attention they deserve, but they provide an excellent measure of the self-righteousness of the monstrous continuity of American violence inflicted on the world from Viet Nam in the 1950s to Yemen more than sixty years later.
→ read full articleHow Alcohol Affects the Gut Microbiome
Dr. Edward Group | Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism considers at-risk drinking to be more than four drinks per day or fourteen per week for men, and more than three drinks per day or seven per week for women. Heavy drinking can lead to an array of serious health issues. In this article, we will focus on one of the lesser known—dysbiosis—which is an imbalance in the gut microbiota.
→ read full articleClinton versus Trump: How It Might Matter for the Middle East
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
If voting for an American president was only about the Middle East, I would rate the candidates as a tossup, but it isn’t. When the American domestic scene is taken into account, as well the rest of the world, Clinton holds the clear edge unless one feels so disgusted her candidacy as to write in Bernie Sanders on the ballot or cast a vote of conscience for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. I remain uncertain as to which of these choices to make.
→ read full articleNew US Policy: Kill the Kurds
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
5 Sep 2016
The incoherence, insanity, and ultimate inanity of US policy in and around Syria was highlighted by Vice President Joe Biden on a state visit to Turkey August 24, when he threatened the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State – the Kurdish militias – with American punishment if they didn’t play nice with the Turks, who have spent years supporting the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL), attacking “bad” Kurds in Turkey and Iraq, and who are now attacking “good” Kurds in Syria.
→ read full articleAftermath
Leonard Roy Frank – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
With “therapeutic” fury
search-and-destroy doctors
using instruments of infamy
conduct electrical lobotomies
in little Auschwitzes called mental hospitals.
(Castellano) “El dia triste” de Brasil: el golpe de clase trámite el parlamento
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
3 septiembre 2016 – Y sucedió que en aquellos días sicarios se travistieron de senadores, en gran número, no todos, y decidieron atacar a una dama honrada e incorruptible que les cortaba el atajo para llegar al poder de Estado.
→ read full articleThe Olympic Games: A Metaphor for a Humanized Humanity
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
In the Olympic Games another logic prevails, different from the daily logic of our capitalist culture, whose articulating axis is an excluding competition: the stronger triumphs and, in the market, if it can, devours its counterpart. In the Olympic Games there is competition, but it is an inclusive competition, because everyone participates. The competition is to be the best, while appreciating and respecting the qualities and virtuosity of the other… The Olympic Games invite us to reflect on the anthropological and social importance of play.
→ read full articleSaudi Arabia Kills Civilians, the U.S. Looks the Other Way
Samuel Oakfordaug – The New York Times,
29 Aug 2016
19 Aug 2016 – In the span of four days earlier this month, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen bombed a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital, killing 19 people; a school, where 10 children, some as young as 8, died; and a vital bridge over which United Nations food supplies traveled, punishing millions.
→ read full articleSouth African Elections 2016
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
Bloomberg frames the expected reforms as the efficient causes that will generate prosperity and employment. That investors are already expecting higher profits is framed as good news for the poor. The proposition that more investor-friendly reforms (on top of the many South Africa has already had) will serve the common good is treated as a given needing no proof; as if it were a joke that had already been told; as if those who did not understand the joke and did not know when to laugh, or did not know whether to laugh or cry, were not so much mistaken as left out of the conversation, deprived of voice.
→ read full articleI Created the Burkini to Give Women Freedom, Not to Take It Away
Aheda Zanetti – The Guardian,
29 Aug 2016
The burkini does not symbolise Islam, it symbolises leisure and happiness and fitness and health. So who is better, the Taliban or French politicians?
→ read full articleFailures of Militarism in Countering Mega-Terrorism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
27 Aug 2016 – A critique of the American response that is based on a ‘war’ rather than a law enforcement paradigm. An argument is then made to adapt international law to new modalities of conflict while at the same time learning the right lessons from the repeated militarist failures of transnational counterterrorism.
→ read full articleUS Okay With Surgical Strikes on Yemen Hospitals
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
29 Aug 2016
This war is a war of aggression [on Yemen], started by Saudi Arabia in March 2015, with crucial US blessing, participation, personnel, and ordnance. The US has been a willing, guilty partner and enabler in 18 months of military atrocities in a one-sided war that everyone involved knew – or should have known – was a pure war crime.
→ read full articleStart with Worker Self-Directed Enterprises
Richard D. Wolff | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
Richard Wolff describes a next economic system centered on worker-directed cooperatives. To transition to a non-capitalist system we must change the “who and the why of key economic decision making.” To do so he proposes changes at the “basic enterprise level” by “making workers their own bosses.”
→ read full articleThe Sky above Turkey
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
23 Aug 2016 – It seems so important at this time for the sake of the future of Turkey that the West look at the country and its political circumstances in a far more balanced way than how the situation has been portrayed since the coup. How to explain this imbalance is another matter that should be explored at some point, but for now is largely put aside.
→ read full articleIndividual and Human Rights
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
Take a cue from the days when Jesus could say “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” In those days money belonged to sovereigns and sovereigns used their financial privileges to defray their expenses, mainly the expenses of waging wars. Now banks and other financial institutions have privileges that the sovereign people should have and should use to make social rights real rights.
→ read full articleHuman Rights after the Failed Coup in Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
It is probably wise to separate human rights concerns from an appraisal of Turkish constitutional democracy. It is quite possible that present tendencies toward a more inclusive democracy will continue, and at the same time, denials of human rights are almost certain to persist, and justify scrutiny and vigilance.
→ read full articleBeyond Jewish Identity: Exceptionalism Revisited
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
20 Aug 2016 – The problem with Jewish identity is Jewish identity! By this I mean, the hegemonic forms of Jewish exceptionalism to which most Jews are enthralled, including a provocative insistence on willed disaffiliation in a few rate instances… Instead of Jewish exceptionalism (or American exceptionalism) the call of this bio-political moment is for species exceptionalism.
→ read full articleThe Disappearance of Silence
Edward Curtin - Intrepid Report,
22 Aug 2016
Silence is a word pregnant with multiple meanings: for many a threat; for others a nostalgic evocation of a time rendered obsolete by technology; for others a sentence to boredom; and for some, devotees of the ancient arts of contemplation, reading, and writing, a word of profound, even sacred importance. Gandhi, the revolutionary, put it perfectly, “In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.”
→ read full article(Português) De tempos em tempos a plutocracia brasileira tenta um golpe
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
No atual processo de impeachment à Presidenta Dilma contam com um aliado poderoso: o complexo jurídico-policial do Estado que substitui as baionetas. O vice Presidente usurpou o título de Presidente e montou um ministério de pantomima com vários ministros corruptos.
→ read full article‘Dreaming of Freedom:’ Palestinian Child Prisoners Speak
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
8 Aug 2016 – This is a collection of reflections by child prisoners in their own words, edited by Norma Hisham. It is a successor to her earlier volume of Palestinian prison recollections. I post below some blurbs that convey the importance of Dreaming of Freedom and the text of my Foreword. As much as anything I have read, these texts convey the reality of the experience of all Palestinians living under occupation or as exiles or as a subjugated minority.
→ read full articleDark Past: So Little Has Changed in Australia’s Posture towards Asylum Seekers
Antony Loewenstein – The Guardian,
15 Aug 2016
After more than two decades of brutalising asylum seekers on the Australian mainland and offshore, this is what Australia represents. These are our ‘values’.
→ read full articleUkraine, Instability, and the US Election – No Way Out?
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
15 Aug 2016
Headline: Ukraine claims Russian invasion possible ‘at any minute’ – The headline shown above is from the Irish Times, over a story quoting unnamed sources in the Kiev government, who in turn quote unnamed sources in Crimea. Nothing in the story, taken as a whole, supports the fearmongering headline. Even Kiev acknowledges that Russian troop movements are exercises, of unstated scale at an unstated distance from the border.
→ read full article(Castellano) Intento de Golpe de Estado en Turquía, Nueva Constitución en Chile
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
¿Qué es lo que es la democracia? Según el realismo critico la palabra “democracia” –y cualquier otra palabra—es una herramienta de acción social. Hablar es actuar. Esgrimir la palabra “democracia” es una acción. Debe ser una acción responsable. Sucesos actuales en Turquía y en Chile subrayan la importancia práctica de esta perspectiva teórica.
→ read full articleAftermath of Political Ruptures: Iran, Egypt, Turkey
Richard Falk | Social Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
12 Aug 2016 – This post offers a commentary of recent dramatic developments within Turkey and the largely critical international media and diplomatic responses. It compares international reactions to political ruptures in Iran (1979) and Egypt (2011, 2013), and encourages greater public attention to the importance attached by the Turkish citizenry to the defeat of the coup attempt and more sympathy with the kind of political leadership provided by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since the coup attempt of July 15th.
→ read full articleGlobal Surveillance Industry Database Helps Track Big Brother Worldwide
Deirdre Fulton – Common Dreams,
8 Aug 2016
“Without instruments capable of restricting transfers and shining a light on the companies and the trade, surveillance technologies developed in and traded from the West will further undermine privacy and facilitate other abuses,” says report.
→ read full articleContext Matters: Turkey after the Failed Coup
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
Part of the prescribed contextualization, given Turkish realities, is to avoid premature international appraisals, admit underlying uncertainties, and allow enough imaginative space to enable a hopeful future for Turkey.
→ read full articleTrump vs. Clinton vs. Sanders: The Blind Leading the Blind Leading the Blind
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2016
My thesis is that the proposals put forward by Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders offer no solutions to the fiscal crisis of the state, and partly for this reason do not and cannot promise social integration. I am not complaining. I am just trying to do my part as a philosopher to help generate better ideas, ideas that will work.
→ read full articleThe Movement to Free Hens from Cages May Be Going Global
Karin Brulliard – The Washington Post,
1 Aug 2016
On Monday [25 Jul], one of the world’s largest food service suppliers, Paris-based Sodexo, upped the ante, saying it would switch to cage-free eggs in all its global operations by 2025. The announcement by a major international company is a sign that the rapid shift to cage-free eggs, led by consumers but long championed by animal rights activists, is going more global.
→ read full articleIs Genocide a Controversial International Crime?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2016
Why ‘Genocide’ is still a Controversial Crime? In this strikingly original, strange, and brilliant book, Philippe Sands raises a haunting question among a tangle of other intriguing issues discussed throughout East-West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (New York: Knopf, 2016).
→ read full articleHow the United States Government Obstructs Peace for Palestine/Israel
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2016
The United States Government has not only taken Israel’s side in diplomatic negotiation between Israel and Palestine, but has actively opposed all moves toward the establishment of an independent sovereign state for the Palestinian people (meaning that the American endorsement of the two-state mantra as the consensus formula for peace was a deliberate official lie).
→ read full articleNarrating Turkey at a Time of National Crisis
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2016
In times of tension, it is particularly important for the defense of what is good and identification of what would worsen the status quo, to strive for balanced assessments, always hoping for the best, while trying to identify and oppose any and all steps toward coercive authoritarianism. I have had the same reaction to conversations in the United States with friends who deem the country to have become ‘fascist.’
→ read full articleKinetics of Empire
Paul Edwards – Information Clearing House,
25 Jul 2016
Whether our dissolution comes through annihilation by war or evisceration through financial meltdown, it will be the greatest act of state terrorism ever inflicted on humankind. In this catastrophic imperial suicide, the collateral damage will be the world.
→ read full article(Português) A Violência: Uma contribuição a suas várias interpretações (1ª Parte)
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
O Brasil comparece como um dos países mais violentos do mundo. Só no ano de 2015 foram assassinados 66 mil pessoas, a maioria delas negros e habitantes pobres das periferias. Isso é mais que as vítimas das guerras do Iraque, do Afeganistão e atualmente da Síria.
→ read full article(Português) A Violência: Uma contribuição a suas várias interpretações (2ª Parte)
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
Se a violência em uma origem histórica, cultural, social e radical, é mediante outro tipo de história, de cultura, de sociedade e de radicalidade que ela será minimizada e controlada em seu aspecto destrutivo.
→ read full articleThe Nice Terror Attack: Mind at the End of Its Tether
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
Nice is an opportunity to work on learning what we should be trying to learn anyway: how to live in peace with one another. As Baruch Spinoza pointed out in 1677 –and it was already old news then—anybody can kill anybody. Nice dramatizes the fact that peace through law enforcement is not feasible. Anybody can kill people with a truck, and there is no way to deploy police everywhere to stop that from happening. Peace is a table with four legs: justice, justice, justice, and justice.
→ read full articleAn Unlikely AMEXIT: Pivoting Away from the Middle East
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
Unfortunately, for America and the peoples throughout the Middle East the US seems incapable of extricating itself from yet another geopolitical quagmire that is partly responsible for generating extra-regional terrorism of the sort that has afflicted Europe in the last two years.
→ read full articleBlair Misled the Country over Iraq – Something Similar Could Happen Again
Clare Short – The Guardian,
11 Jul 2016
Chilcot’s devastating critique of the events that took us to war shows that power in the UK is still concentrated in too few hands, with too little oversight.
→ read full articleSmearing BDS Supporters
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
The misappropriation of anti-Semitism as a propaganda weapon to smear pro-Palestinian activists, especially those supportive of the BDS Campaign. Also the issues of representation by explaining the formal differences between the PLO and PA, which do not seem presently consequential in my understanding.
→ read full articleBlood Spills on to the Shores of the Danish Faroe Islands in the First Pilot Whale Slaughter of the Year
Sea Shepherd News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
6 Jul 2016 – The ordeal began this morning when locals spotted a pod of between 100-150 pilot whales passing by Svínoy. Several boats then drove the pod of whales approximately 11 kilometres to Hvannasund, where the whales were forced to beach, and slaughtered by locals. Faroese media outlets have confirmed between 30-50 pilot whales have been killed.
→ read full articleWhy Arms Control Is the Enemy of Nuclear Disarmament
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
No First Use: Arms Control versus Disarmament Perspectives
→ read full articleThe 1% Are Recovering from 2008 Recession While 99% Are Still Waiting
Jana Kasperkevic – The Guardian,
11 Jul 2016
In 2015, the income of the 99% grew by just 3.9% – ‘the best real income growth in 17 years’ – while the rich saw growth was twice that at 7.7%.
→ read full article
Oprah Winfrey’s Harvard Commencement 2013 Inspirational Speech
Harvard University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
”It doesn’t matter how far you might rise — at some point, you are bound to stumble. Because if you’re constantly doing what we do — raising the bar — if you’re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages predicts that you will, at some point, fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: There is no such thing as failure — failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.”
→ read full articleAre We Heading Toward Global Autocracy, Ecological Collapse, Political Malaise?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
The failures of neoliberalism, the successes of digitization, the scourge of random violence, and more broadly, the dilemmas posed by late modernity are among the root causes of this global crisis of legitimate governance, which is deepened while being mishandled by unprecedented ecological challenges, extremely irresponsible geopolitical leadership, and a variety of ultra-nationalist backlashes against the encroachments of economic globalization.
→ read full articleSupport Your Digestive System with Aloe Vera
Dr. Edward Group | Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
A healthy gut reacts positively to good nutrition and is also the result of good nutrition. Refined sugar, artificial ingredients, and artificial coloring offer no nutrition and, even worse, can upset gut balance. Aloe vera, on the other hand, is a nutrient-dense superfood that soothes, nourishes, and promotes detoxification and normal bowel movements.
→ read full articleSri Lanka Wants the World to Forget about Justice for War Victims – Please Don’t
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – The Guardian,
4 Jul 2016
With the Sri Lankan government winding back commitments to reconciliation and justice measures, it’s up to the international community to hold them to account.
→ read full articleCluster Bombs Used in Sri Lanka’s Civil War, Leaked Photos Suggest
Emanuel Stoakes – The Guardian,
27 Jun 2016
Exclusive: images appear to confirm use of the indiscriminate weapon in a conflict which cost the lives of at least 100,000.
→ read full articleEnjoy These 10 Detox Water Recipes All Year Long!
Dr. Edward Group | Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2016
Detox water is basically water infused with fruits, vegetables, and/or herbs. Sometimes called infused water, many people use it as part of a body detox strategy. I know many people who don’t enjoy drinking water. Some say it’s tasteless and dull. That’s what makes detox water so excellent. It adds flavor to plain water while also infusing key, beneficial nutrients.
→ read full articleCounting the Crimes of the War on Terror
Rebecca Gordon – TomDispatch,
20 Jun 2016
Should George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Others Be Jailed? Maybe we’ll never see America’s torturers behind bars. They should still have to tell the truth about what they did.
→ read full articleAung San Suu Kyi Is in Power. So Why Is She Ignoring Her Country’s Most Vulnerable People?
Richard Cockett – Foreign Policy,
20 Jun 2016
For the Rohingya, Burma’s new democratic government is little better than the old dictatorship.
→ read full articleA Weak UN Ensures a Weak Secretary General
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
13 Jun 2016 – There are many angles of interpretation relevant to the startling admission by Ban Ki-moon that he succumbed to undisguised diplomatic pressure when removing Saudi Arabia from the ‘shame list’ of countries whose armies are found responsible the maiming and killing of children, earning them dishonorable mentioned in an annex to the annual UN report on violations of children’s rights.
→ read full articleZionism, Anti-Semitism, BDS, and the United Nations
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
The misuse of anti-Semitism by those defending Israel to deflect a rising tide of civil society activism and public criticism of Israeli policies and practices.
→ read full articleAustria Elects a New Green President against the Rising Right
Rene Wadlow | Toward Freedom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
There was a sense of relief among Europeans when it was announced that Alexander Van der Bellen won the election for President of Austria over his far right-wing opponent Norbert Hofer. Austria was split: 50.3% for Van der Bellen, leader of the Green Party and an active ecologist, and 49.7% for Hofer. The vote was also a rural-urban split that also reflected educational levels as well as a generation gap.
→ read full articleWhat Are the Benefits of Turmeric and Curcumin?
Dr Edward Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
Turmeric has been traditionally used for pulmonary and gastrointestinal system problems. Research within the 50 years has shown much of the supposed benefit of turmeric is due to curcumin, the active component, a polyphenol that has displayed activity in antioxidant, anti-redness, anti-harmful organism capacities.
→ read full articleA Moral Revolution? Reflections on President Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
5 Jun 2016 – There is doubt that President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima this May crossed some thresholds hitherto taboo. Above all the visit was properly heralded as the first time a sitting American president has dared such a pilgrimage… The whole idea of impunity for the victors and capital punishment for the losers is morally regressive.
→ read full articleHow the Pentagon Punished NSA Whistleblowers
Mark Hertsgaard – The Guardian,
30 May 2016
Long before Edward Snowden went public, John Crane was a top Pentagon official fighting to protect NSA whistleblowers. Instead their lives were ruined – and so was his.
• Snowden calls for whistleblower shield after claims by Pentagon source
• Exclusive: Pentagon source goes on record against whistleblower program
Putin Vows Retaliation over US Missile Shield; Warns Poland, Romania Now in the “Cross Hairs”
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2016
28 May 2016 – While Obama was in Hiroshima as the first standing president of the only nation to have ever used a nuclear weapon during wartime, and without offering an apology to Japan, Russian president Putin was in Greece. The Greek people have turned increasingly against remaining in the Eurogroup, a shift Putin certainly hopes to capitalize on. But it wasn’t the latest Greek pivot toward Russia that was the highlight of Putin’s trip: it was his latest warning that the Russian response to the most recent NATO provocation in Europe will be significant.
→ read full article(Português) A Volta da Classe do Privilégio e o Golpe Parlamentar no Brasil
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2016
Segundo o Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada são apenas 71 mil pessoas (ou 1% da população que representa apenas 0,05% dos adultos), multibilionários brasileiros, que controlam praticamente nossas riquezas e nossas finanças e através delas o jogo político. Essa classe do privilégio, além de perversa socialmente, sempre consegue manobrar o poder de Estado em seu benefício.
→ read full articleOn (Not) Loving Henry Kissinger
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2016
There is an irony that would be amusing if it was not depressing about news that Donald Trump has been courting the 92-year old foreign policy sorcerer Henry Kissinger. Of course, the irony is that earlier in the presidential campaign Hilary Clinton proudly claimed Kissinger as ‘a friend,’ and acknowledged that he “relied on his counsel” while she served as Obama’s Secretary of State.
→ read full articleAs Palestinians Mourn Their Nakba, the UK Must Acknowledge Its Responsibility
Ahmad Samih Khalidi – The Guardian,
16 May 2016
15 May 2016 – Today marks the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe): the Palestinians’ dispossession and the loss of their homeland. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. It behooves the UK to face up to its role in the dispossession of the Palestinians. Their plight remains without redress in the UK.
→ read full articleGeneral Golan’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Speech
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2016
Speaking at Tel Yitzak Kibbutz, where the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies is located, General Golan urged that this very special day of observance in Israel be treated as an occasion for soul-searching. He placed this call in an extraordinary context by suggesting that conditions in Israel were disturbing in ways relevant to the Holocaust, horror of horrors.
→ read full article