Articles by M

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A Disturbing Series of Events: Governments around the World Seem to Be Preparing for War
Daisy Luther | Activist Post – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

25 Aug 2016 – Remember how a couple of days ago the German government advised its citizens to start stockpiling food and water? Well, today they have announced that they are considering reintroducing conscription…the draft, to ‘help with any future disaster’. Do they know something we don’t?

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Genetic Engineering (Part 2): Cloned Chemical Colonies
Prof. Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

19 Aug 2016 – The Gaia footprint of chemicals has depressed the life out of our planet. Nature is resilient; when pushed, nature pushes back. Nature evolves. Greed does not. Survival of the fittest?

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Provoking Nuclear War by Media
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

This obeisance to the United States and its collaborators as a benign force “bringing good” runs deep in western establishment journalism. It ensures that the present-day catastrophe in Syria is blamed exclusively on Bashar al-Assad, whom the West and Israel have long conspired to overthrow, not for any humanitarian concerns, but to consolidate Israel’s aggressive power in the region.

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(Français) Milosevic est disculpé mais rien n’arrête la machine de guerre de l’OTAN
Neil Clark | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Milosevic disculpé ? Officiellement, le TPIY, tribunal formé par les puissances occidentales, n’a pas rendu son verdict. Et il ne le rendra pas, la mort de l’ancien président yougoslave ayant mis un terme au procès qui se tenait à La Haye. Toutefois, un passage intriguant du verdict rendu par le même TPIY à l’encontre de Radovan Karadzic soulève des questions sur la teneur des charges qui pesaient contre Milosevic.

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Toward a Global Realignment
Zbigniew Brzezinski | The American Interest – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

As its era of global dominance ends, the United States needs to take the lead in realigning the global power architecture.

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Johan Galtung’s Positive Peace Concept
Hanno Heynitz | TRANSCENDMedia – Galtung Institut (Germany), 29 Aug 2016

Aug 26, 2016 – Positive Peace with a focus on the concepts and definitions underpinning its practical application. The underlying question really is: What are the requirements to meet in order to implement Positive Peace through Peacebuilding?

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(Castellano) Hay casi 49 millones de esclavos en el mundo en pleno siglo XXI
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Cada 23 de agosto se celebra en el mundo el Día Internacional del Recuerdo de la Trata de Esclavos y de su Abolición. La esclavitud moderna se esconde al interior de las fábricas, en campos agrícolas, o dentro de los propios hogares.

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U.S. Government Bans Native American Tribe from Protesting on Their Own Land – Send in Police to Remove Protesters
Jafari Tishomingo – Counter Current News, 29 Aug 2016

21 Aug 2016 – The Bakken project runs through Native American sacred sites, water sources, such as the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. When money is to be made like $3.8-billion and 570,000 barrels of sweet crude oil every day to feed America’s oil habit, we don’t let scared sites or ecosystems get in the way.

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2,500 Native Americans Successfully Block Oil Pipeline Construction — State of Emergency Declared
Counter Current News Editorial Team – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

22 Aug 2016 – The Camp of the Sacred Stones has swelled from a few dozen to more than 2,500, according to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials. They are calling for further review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the end of July without a full environmental assessment.

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(Français) Comment le Sud a payé pour les crises du Nord et pour sa propre soumission
Eric Touissant | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Servicve, 29 Aug 2016

Les crises de la dette de la périphérie sont liées aux crises qui éclatent dans les pays capitalistes les plus puissants et sont utilisées pour subordonner des États. Voici une mise en perspective historique des crises de la dette des pays de la « périphérie » du 19e au 21e siècles. De l’Amérique latine à la Chine en passant par la Grèce, la Tunisie, l’Égypte et l’Empire ottoman, la dette a été utilisée comme une arme de domination et un moyen d’accumulation de richesse au profit des classes dominantes.

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Europe: When a Swimsuit Is a Security Threat
Asma T. Uddin – The New York Times, 29 Aug 2016

To an American spectator, such bans probably appear a blatant restriction on religious liberty, or liberty generally, but what is striking is that the European jurisprudence upholding them speaks in the language of human rights. By couching prejudice and fear in the language of Article 9 exceptions, the court in effect uses human rights laws to limit human rights.

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Why Obama Should Declare a No-First-Use Policy for Nuclear Weapons
Ramesh Thakur | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

An American no-first-use commitment would reduce the risk of nuclear war at a time when arsenals are growing and tensions are mounting, particularly in Asia

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The Heart of Order
Robert C. Koehler | Common Wonders – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

He’d left the water running, flooding neighbors’ apartments. He’d been running around outside naked. By the time police arrived, he was standing in the window of his fourth-floor apartment threatening to jump. He pointed his finger at the cops, pretending he had a gun. “Fuck the police,” he said. The standoff lasted four hours.

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The Man behind the Viral ‘Boy in the Ambulance’ Image Has Brutal Skeletons in His Own Closet
Brad Hoff | The Canary – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

WARNING: This article may disturb some readers. The purpose of sharing it is to convey the complexities of the Syrian conflict.

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Nonviolent Revolt in the Twenty-First Century
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

The incorrect attribution of Gandhi’s insights to others starts on page 3 of the book where Gene Sharp is credited with an ‘epiphany … that nonviolence should not be simply a moral code for a small group of true believers to live by’. But it is not exclusively the fault of the authors that they incorrectly attribute Sharp because Sharp himself claims credit for this insight and they cite his claim, from an interview conducted in 2003, on page 4.

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Orwell Could Never Have Predicted This Level of Surveillance
Mark Nestmann | Activist Post – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

The creepier the technology, the more likely Big Brother will use it to keep tabs on you. A case in point is the increasing sophistication of facial recognition technology. Facial recognition combines digital images of faces with software that creates a unique “faceprint” of each one, along with a database of images against which “faceprints” can be compared.

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Pfizer Gobbles Up Cancer Drug Maker in $14 Billion Deal
Brad Dixon | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

25 Aug 2016 – Drugmaker Pfizer is set to acquire the biotech company Medivation for $14 billion. The primary aim of the deal was to secure Medivation’s cancer drug Xtandi in order to better position Pfizer within the lucrative market for oncology medications. Numerous drug companies have been circling around Medivation since April, like sharks after raw meat, including Sanofi, Merck, Celgene and Gilead, as well as Pfizer.

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The Death Toll in Yemen Is So High the Red Cross Has Started Donating Morgues to Hospitals
Alex Emmons – The Intercept, 29 Aug 2016

25 Aug 2016 – Almost a year and a half into Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-backed bombing campaign in Yemen, the humanitarian toll has become so extensive that the International Committee of the Red Cross has taken the unusual step of donating entire morgue units to Yemeni hospitals.

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The 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.

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China’s Pivot to World Markets, Washington’s Pivot to World Wars, and the Debacle of the Latin American Left
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

The US ‘pivot to Asia’, with its heavy dependence on military threats and intimidation has cost billions of dollars in lost markets and investments. China’s ‘pivot to advanced technology’ demonstrates that the future lies in Asia not the West. China’s experience offers lessons for future Latin American leftist governments. First and foremost, China emphasizes the necessity of balanced economic growth, over and above short-term benefits resulting from commodity booms and consumerist strategies.

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The Dumbed-Down New York Times
Robert Parry – Consortium News, 29 Aug 2016

27 Aug 2016 – The Times applies a conscious double standard when reporting on the actions of the United States or one of its allies (note how Turkey’s recent invasion of Syria was just an ‘intervention’) as compared to how the Times deals with actions by U.S. adversaries, such as Russia.

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US Moves Nuclear Weapons from Turkey to Romania
Georgi Gotev and Joel Schalit | EurActiv - TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

18 Aug 2016 – Two independent sources told that the US has started transferring nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey to Romania, against the background of worsening relations between Washington and Ankara.

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Destruction of Cultural Heritage Condemned by the International Criminal Court
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

On 22 August 2016, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty to organizing and helping to carry out the destruction of nine tombs of Sufi saints in Timbuktu, northern Mali. This is the first trial of the International Criminal Court in which the destruction of UNESCO-designated cultural heritage of humanity sites is a major element of the accusation.

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As Homeless Find Refuge in Forests, ‘Anger Is Palpable’ in Nearby Towns
Jack Healy – The New York Times, 29 Aug 2016

“Yes, we’re homeless,” he said, sitting in the shade of his camper here in the Arapaho National Forest. “No, we’re not vagrants. No, we’re not beggars. We just barely are making it. What you see is by the grace of God.”

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(Português) Veganismo: quando filosofia é bem diferente de dieta
Nzinga Young - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais, 29 Aug 2016

Veganismo é a filosofia e modo de vida que procura excluir – o quanto for possível e praticável – todas as formas de exploração e crueldade para com os animais com objetivo de consumo, produção de roupas ou qualquer outra finalidade. Por consequência, estimula o desenvolvimento e uso de alternativas livres de crueldade em benefício dos seres humanos, animais e meio-ambiente. Na alimentação, denota a prática de dispensar todos os produtos derivados totalmente ou parcialmente de animais.

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Strategies for Peace before Nuclear Aggression
Dr. Leo Semashko – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Strategies for Peace by Bruce L. Cook and Maria Cristina Azcona (eds), 2016, 254 pp.

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Western Propaganda – So Simple but So Effective!
Andre Vltchek | New Eastern Outlook – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

The Empire is killing millions and destroying countries and continents. But California is falling off a cliff, and clouds of huge insects are invading the entire North America. While millions of alien terrorists are now engulfing the ‘tolerant’ and ‘democratic’ Europe! Plus there are those sinister monsters like Count Vlad and Comrade Kim, waiting with their daggers behind a corner! Therefore, The Empire and its people have to ‘protect’ themselves. They have to be tough, even tougher than before! And to put their interests first! America (North America) first! Germany first! France first!

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Western Sahara-Morocco Dispute Remains Stalemated as Federation Proposal Advanced
Stephen Zunes | TheNewArab – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Neither side is likely to back down over autonomy and independence, but that doesn’t mean both sides are equally to blame. The Moroccan plan for autonomy falls well short of what is required in bringing about a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

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Never Give Up
Dag Hammarskjold – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Tired
And lonely, So tired
The heart aches.

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Saudi 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.

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Duty to Warn | The Drug-Induced Suicide of Robin Williams Two Years Later: And the Perils of Being a Drugged-up Insomniac Celebrity
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

The lessons are numerous and the teachers are available, but they are censored-out of our corporate-dominated media system. Those important lessons are there for anybody to learn, but we must first overcome the powers-that-be that know they won’t profit from our enlightenment. Spread the word. Robin Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Michael Jackson and Prince would want us to do that.

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Age of Migration/Refugees: An Excuse for Europe’s Rising Militarization
Paul Currion | Refugees Deeply – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Increasing militarization in Europe in response to the refugee crisis is akin to an autoimmune response that could attack the very body it is supposed to protect.

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Scottish Football Fans Fly Flag of Palestine in Match against Israeli Team
Middle East Eye Staff – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

17 Aug 2016 – Hundreds of fans at a football match between Glasgow Celtic and Israeli side Hapoel Beer Sheva turned whole sections of the stadium into a sea of Palestinian flags in a protest against the Israeli occupation, ignoring an official ban on political demonstrations.

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South 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.

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Nuclear Accident in New Mexico Ranks among the Costliest in U.S. History
Ralph Vartabedian – Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug 2016

22 Aug 2016 – When a drum containing radioactive waste blew up in an underground nuclear dump in New Mexico two years ago, the Energy Department rushed to quell concerns in the Carlsbad desert community and quickly reported progress on resuming operations. But the explosion ranks among the costliest nuclear accidents in U.S. history, according to a Times analysis. The long-term cost of the mishap could top $2 billion, an amount roughly in the range of the cleanup after the 1979 partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

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Why Americans Love Drones
Julia M. Macdonald and Jacquelyn G. Schneider | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

The authors point out that if either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is looking to US public opinion for cues on formulating drone policy, then we can expect a continued emphasis on drones as part of US foreign policy. Why does the US public love drones?

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(Português) Livraria Bertrand, em Lisboa, é a mais antiga do mundo
RTP-Rádio e Televisão de Portugal – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Quantas histórias guarda a livraria mais antiga do mundo? Ninguém sabe, nem pode saber. Porque são incontáveis as memórias de uma casa com quase 300 anos. Refúgio de escritores, revolucionários e conspiradores, o n.º 73 da rua Garrett está no Guiness Book.

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Dag Hammarskjöld and Spirituality at the United Nations
Donald Key | Aquarian Age Community – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

It is a challenge to discuss Spirituality at the United Nations. It is a challenge because most people will think that the UN is the antithesis of spirituality. I must report, however, that I regard the United Nations as the most spiritual place in the world today. The UN is the first planetary focus at the human level.

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The Red Line and the Rat Line
Seymour M. Hersh – London Review of Books, 29 Aug 2016

Exposé: Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian Rebels

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Who Profited from the $440 Billion Greek Bailout? Not Greeks
Jack Rasmus – teleSUR, 29 Aug 2016

Hundreds of billions of dollars in loans haven’t helped the Greek economy or its people.

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Taking a Stand at Standing Rock
David Archambault II – The New York Times, 29 Aug 2016

24 Aug 2016 — Perhaps only in North Dakota, where oil tycoons wine and dine elected officials, and where the governor, Jack Dalrymple, serves as an adviser to the Trump campaign, would state and county governments act as the armed enforcement for corporate interests. In recent weeks, the state has militarized my reservation, with road blocks and license-plate checks, low-flying aircraft and racial profiling of Indians. The local sheriff and the pipeline company have both called our protest “unlawful,” and Gov. Dalrymple has declared a state of emergency.

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Update Your iPhone or iPad: Israeli Cyber-Spy Firm Can Hack You
Tim Johnson | McClatchy – Honolulu Star Bulletin & Advertiser, 29 Aug 2016

The much-talked-about hack that would allow governments to spy on your every move through your iPhone and iPad has become reality. Apple issued a security update for those devices Thursday [25 Aug] after researchers discovered spyware that allows remote operators to intercept all voice and data communications and pass along every photograph and video. The infection turns iPhone into a pocket undercover spy capable of employing iPhone’s camera and microphone to eavesdrop on activity in the vicinity of the device, recording WhatsApp and Viber calls, logging messages sent in mobile chat apps and tracking movements.

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Failures 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.

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US 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.

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Vive la Difference?
Emanuel E. Garcia, MD – Intrepid Report, 29 Aug 2016

Since the dawn of human consciousness, we have described ourselves as being intrinsically apart from Nature, whether by dint of divine creation or superior intelligence or the ability to laugh. We have christened ourselves the stewards of our habitat, and we have taken no prisoners during our mission to go forth, multiply and create dominion.

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Start 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.”

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Aug 29 – Sep 4 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Thinking, studying and learning about death is not morbidity but wisdom. Having said that, to be paranoid and trying to guess our or others’ death is pathological. Relax and live each day as it were your last. Then, go in peace with yourself, your God, and the world you are leaving behind.” – Antonio C.S. Rosa

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Karma?
Latuff – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Action-Reaction, Cause-Effect

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Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone Sign Letter against Brazil’s Coup
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

The letter is also signed by the likes of Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy, activist and author Naomi Klein, Viggo Mortensen, Tariq Ali, Harry Belafonte, and artist Tom Morello.

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Edward Carpenter (29 Aug 1844 – 28 Jun 1929): The Healing of Nations
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Edward Carpenter bought a farm that became a meeting place for discussions among many in the area. He stressed using hand-made clothes, the non-killing and non-eating of animals, and the use of herbs for health. He lived in a homosexual relationship with a farmer at a time when homosexuality was considered a criminal offense. ‘The Healing of Nations’ is his most important political book − a collection of essays for the most part published in newspapers and small journals written in late 1914 and early 1915 as World War I started.

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Arithmetic
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Little Billy returns home from school and says he got an F in arithmetic.

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The U.N.’s Cholera Admission and What Comes Next
Jonathan M. Katz – The New York Times Magazine, 29 Aug 2016

Scientists and researchers have repeatedly found, with overwhelming consensus, that U.N. peacekeepers introduced the disease to Haiti for the first time ever recorded by knowingly allowing their infected feces to slough into the Meille River, which locals used for drinking, bathing and washing — in violation of the U.N’s own protocols and the most basic tenets of public health.

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The Greatest Show on Earth (Music Video of the Week)
Nightwish – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2016

Epic Heavy Metal – Proposed by TMS Webmaster Malvin Gattinger

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The 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.

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Pokémons in Every House, Yard, Every Military Base
Sergey Kolyasnikov | Fort Russ – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

If someone wants to know what is being done in the building, say, of Parliament, Congress, Presidential Palace? Phones of dozens of MPs, representatives, janitors, journalists vibrate: “Pikachu is close!!!” And happy citizens will grab their smartphones, activating cameras, microphones, GPS, gyroscopes… spinning in place, staring at the screen, sending the video through online waves… Bingo! The world had again changed, the world is different. Welcome to a new era.

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One Humanity? Millions of Children Tortured, Smuggled, Abused, Enslaved
Baher Kamal – Inter Press Service-IPS, 22 Aug 2016

Children are being smuggled, sexually abused, maimed, killed for their vital organs, recruited as soldiers or otherwise enslaved. And 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030. These are just some of the dramatic figures that UNICEF and other UN and international bodies released few weeks ahead of the World Humanitarian Day marked every year on August 19.

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South Sudan: Hundreds of Children Recruited into Armed Groups, Reports UNICEF
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

19 Aug 2016 – Reporting that 650 children have been recruited into armed groups in South Sudan since January, the United Nations Children’s Fund called today for an immediate end to recruitment and an unconditional release of all children by armed actors.

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UN Admits Role in Haiti Cholera Outbreak for First Time Ever
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

18 Aug 2016 – The United Nations has admitted for the first time that its peacekeepers in Haiti played a role in the outbreak of the cholera epidemic in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake that sent the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation into a tailspin.

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Honduras Is a Giant Graveyard for Human Rights Defenders
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Honduras has seen at least eight human rights activists killed in 2016, making it one the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights defenders, the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights warned Friday [19 Aug].

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Individual 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.

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Free People from the Standardised Dictatorship of the 0.01%
Prof. Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Chemical corporations are trying to impose patents on all living organisms… They are trying to destroy our local food systems and replace them with industrial junk food by changing food and health safety as well as bio-safety, through ‘harmonisation’.

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The Children Are in Danger: Welcome to the ‘Kids Guantanamo’ of Egypt
Noor El-Terk – Middle East Eye, 22 Aug 2016

Electrocuted, whipped, beaten on his face, jumped on his back; the list of horrors is unending as his father fights to keep tears out of his voice. “My son was born in Japan you know, I wrote to the Japanese ambassador, if [sending him to Japan] is what it takes to keep him safe, I’ll give him up. Japan can take him as one of their own – the children here are in danger. All my son will know from this country is its dungeons. He’s seen more than what any 15-year-old should see.”

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19 August, World Humanitarian Day: A Need for Common Actions
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

In Memory of Sérgio Vieira de Mello (1948-2003) – 19 August was designated in memory of the 19 August 2003 bombing of the UN office building in Baghdad, Iraq in which Sérgio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and at the time Special Representative of the UN Secretary General was killed along with 21 UN staff members. Over 200 UN employees were injured.

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(Português) Poluição luminosa: fortes reflexos na vida dos animais
Eliza Rei | ANDA-Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

A Terra manteve durante milhões de anos os ciclos de dias claros alternados com noites escuras, mas do século passado para cá isso vem se alterando drasticamente. E o que se sabe sobre os impactos da poluição luminosa na vida dos animais? Se cerca de 30% dos vertebrados e 60% dos invertebrados têm hábitos noturnos, já se infere, de início, que os impactos não devem ser poucos.

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Physicists Confirm Possible Discovery of Fifth Force of Nature
Phys.org – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

“If true, it’s revolutionary,” said Jonathan Feng, professor of physics & astronomy. “For decades, we’ve known of four fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. If confirmed by further experiments, this discovery of a possible fifth force would completely change our understanding of the universe, with consequences for the unification of forces and dark matter.”

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Why Is Global Community Ignoring Slaughter of Yemeni Children?
Catherine Shakdam | Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

I realize that truth and honesty are hard commodities to come by, but let’s momentarily see if we can stomach the reality the people of Yemen have had to endure as the global community chose to avert its gaze. Yes, a school was bombed and children were butchered. Yemen was violated and scarred beyond the tolerable and the comprehensible. What else is new? Yemen has died a thousand deaths already, and none have come to its rescue.

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Powerful NSA Hacking Tools Have Been Revealed Online
Ellen Nakashima – The Washington Post, 22 Aug 2016

16 Aug 2016 – Possibly Stolen NSA Spy Tools May Be Auctioned Off to Any Bidder Soon – Some of the most powerful espionage tools created by the National Security Agency’s elite group of hackers have been revealed in recent days, a development that could pose severe consequences for the spy agency’s operations.

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Olympic Jews?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

20 Aug 2016 – The scene at Ben-Gurion airport this week was rather astonishing. More than a thousand young male fans came to welcome the two Israeli Judo fighters who had won a bronze medal each at the Olympic games in Rio. Yet judo is not a very popular sport in Israel. So Israeli crowds suddenly became judo fans (some called it “Jewdo”). People who did not go wild with enthusiasm were considered traitors.

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Democracy Education and Peace
René Wadlow - TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Democracy Education and Peace, by Surya Nath Prasad and Suman Shukha (Eds) – Democracy and Peace-Interrelated but not interdependent: “Thus it may be safely, yet regretfully, assumed that Democracy does not exclude War and therefore bears no direct relationship to Peace. The reverse is equally true − Peace may reign without any consideration of democracy (cf Pax Romana).”

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Angie (Music Video of the Week)
The Rolling Stones – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

A Classic of the Stones – One of the two official promo videos for the Rolling Stones’ 1973 single “Angie”. Composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and produced by Jimmy Miller.

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Interview with Gary Corseri on US Foreign Policy
Gary Corseri – Muslim Press, 22 Aug 2016

How do you compare Bush and Obama’s policies on the Middle East?
Gary Corseri: What’s the diff? Bush and Obama are “suits.” They dress according to the fashion of the time. But, they are essentially the same–Empire-builders, Empire-expansionists, Empire-apologists and preservationists. After 911, George W. Bush could take his cowboy act on the road, act like a big sheriff, come out with his “Wanted Dead or Alive!” B.S. about Osama bin Laden.

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Dieselgate in Europe: How Officials Ignored Years of Car Emissions Evidence
Markus Becker and Gerald Traufetter – Der Spiegel, 22 Aug 2016

When American authorities revealed that Volkswagen used software to trick pollution tests, it spurred widespread outrage. Documents obtained by SPIEGEL show that European officials knew about the deception for years – but didn’t act on it.

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(Français) La France, sponsor des terroristes? De l’esclavage au néocolonialisme, «Y’a bon la françafrique!»
Maël Alberca | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

La France en guerre contre le terrorisme? Un coup d’oeil dans le rétroviseur nous rappelle qu’elle n’a rien à envier aux méthodes de ceux qu’elle prétend combattre. Plus inquiétant, le présent n’apparaît pas vraiment plus réjouissant…

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Aug 22-28 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Where there is great love there are always miracles.” – Willa Cather

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Human 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.

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A World at War: We’re under Attack from Climate Change—And Our only Hope Is to Mobilize like We Did in WWII
Bill McKibben – New Republic, 22 Aug 2016

15 Aug 2016 – Enemy forces have seized huge swaths of territory; with each passing week, another 22,000 square miles of Arctic ice disappears. Experts dispatched to the battlefield in July saw little cause for hope, especially since this siege is one of the oldest fronts in the war. “In 30 years, the area has shrunk approximately by half,” said a scientist who examined the onslaught. “There doesn’t seem anything able to stop this.”

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The NSA Leak Is Real, Snowden Documents Confirm
Sam Biddle – The Intercept, 22 Aug 2016

On Monday [15 Aug], a hacking group calling itself the “ShadowBrokers” announced an auction for “cyber weapons” made by the NSA. Based on never-before-published documents provided by Edward Snowden, The Intercept can confirm that the arsenal contains authentic NSA software, part of a powerful constellation of tools used to covertly infect computers worldwide.

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North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Aren’t Backing Down to Oil Pipeline Developers
Sarah Aziza | Waging Nonviolence – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

On Thursday [11 Ago 2016], nonviolent protesters outside North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux reservation entered their second day of confrontation with private security and local law enforcement. Armed with drums, tribal flags, and cell phones, demonstrators moved to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.7 billion dollar crude-oil conduit slated to cut just 1,000 feet from the perimeter of native land.

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Presidential Elections Need Not Matter So Much
Timothy Braatz | ZNet – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

So vote happily for a presidential candidate, or hold your nose and vote, or don’t vote at all, but help build a nonviolent movement to compel the president to act for human good. The greater that movement, the less presidential elections will matter. Learn from the successes and failures of the Civil Rights Movement. And keep in mind the words of Mohandas Gandhi, which Martin Luther King learned to quote: “There go my people. I must rush to catch up with them, for I am their leader.”

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Game Changer
Tom H. Hastings | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Everything we’ve done has been destructive. We are great at destroying. Bomb refugee camps, hospitals, funerals. Bomb Iraq, and Afghanistan, also Pakistan, don’t forget Somalia, Libya or Yemen. Bomb bomb bomb… Hey, ISIS, we need to talk. Hey, my fellow American voters, we need to elect leaders who can get this done. Innovation has been abandoned to devastation—let’s fix this.

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Médecins Sans Frontières Leaving Yemen after Saudi Airstrikes on Hospitals
PressTV – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has announced that it is evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen, saying it cannot get assurances that its hospitals will not be bombed again by Saudi warplanes. The decision was “never taken lightly,” said the Paris-based relief agency in a statement on Thursday [18 Aug 2016], condemning the Saudi “indiscriminate bombings.”

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Democratizing Wealth: A Next System Model for the U.S. South and Beyond
Ed Whitfield | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Ed Whitfield presents the Fund for Democratic Communities vision for a next system based on communal ownership of productive assets. The goal must be total economic democracy and community control over production, in order to place “the wealth created by human labor back into the commons for the benefit of all.”

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(Português) Pokemon, o jogo que traz espiões para dentro de casa
Sergey Kolyasnikov | Fort Russ – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Se alguém quiser saber o que está a ser feito no edifício, digamos, do Parlamento? Telefones de dúzias de deputados, pessoal da limpeza, jornalistas vibram: “Pikachu está próximo!!!” E cidadãos felizes agarrarão seus smartphones, activarão câmaras, microfones, GPS, giroscópios… circulando no lugar, fitando o écran e enviando o vídeo através de ondas online… Bingo! O mundo mudou outra vez, o mundo está diferente. Bem vindo a uma nova era.

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End the First-Use Policy for Nuclear Weapons
James E. Cartwright and Bruce G. Blairaug – The New York Times, 22 Aug 2016

The United States has a policy allowing the first use of nuclear weapons. Abolishing it will save money and make the world safer. President Obama would be wise to follow China’s example. As commander in chief, he can adopt no-first-use overnight and lead the way in establishing it as a global norm among all of the nine countries with nuclear weapons.

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Peace Journalism: What Johan Galtung Asked the Taliban
Liam McLoughlin – New Matilda, 22 Aug 2016

The Norwegian sociologist, who helped found the field of ‘peace journalism’, spoke about conflict, terror, and talking to the Taliban. The scholar is a vocal critic of mainstream media coverage of violence. In his critique of the failure to give context for events and explore the causes of conflict, Galtung differentiates ‘war journalism’ from ‘peace journalism’. We began the interview with a succinct explanation of the difference.

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African Farmers Can Feed the World, If Only…
Baher Kamal – Inter Press Service-IPS, 22 Aug 2016

Can African farmers feed the world?. Apparently the answer is “yes.” Bold as it may sound, this statement is based on specific facts.

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Alzheimer’s Disease: Period Pain Drug Cures Symptoms in Mice, New Research Shows
Seerat Chabba – International Business Times, 22 Aug 2016

Is the Cure for Alzheimer’s Already on the Market?

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How ‘Think Tanks’ Generate Endless War
Todd E. Pierce – Consortium News, 22 Aug 2016

U.S. “think tanks” rile up the American public against an ever-shifting roster of foreign “enemies” to justify wars that line the pockets of military contractors who kick back some profits to the “think tanks.”

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Beyond 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.

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Searching for Antiquities and Uncommon Beliefs
Dr. Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Most of us have a desire to know who our grandparents or great grandparents were — how and where they lived and what they did. This feeling is accentuated if one has been forced to leave one’s ancestral home or village.

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Photo of Boy Pulled from Rubble Reminder of ‘Unimaginable Horrors’ Syrian Children Face – UNICEF
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

19 Aug 2016 –“No child in Syria [is] safe while the conflict drags on,” Christophe Boulierac, a spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund told the press in Geneva, referring to the photograph which went viral on social media yesterday and has galvanized world attention to the suffering in Aleppo, Syria’s iconic second city.

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(Castellano) Multipolaridad e integración postneoliberal en América Latina
Sergio Martín Carrillo | CELAG - teleSUR, 22 Aug 2016

Entramos en una nueva fase de disputa geopolítica en la región. La misma se caracteriza por el cuestionamiento del liderazgo latinoamericano en el fortalecimiento de la multipolaridad.

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Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Stiglitz Tells Us Why ‘Neoliberalism Is Dead’
Will Martin | Business Insider – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

19 Aug 2016 – Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and former adviser to US President Bill Clinton, says the consensus surrounding neoliberal economic thought has come to an end.

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The Importance of Cheering for Caster Semenya
Lindsay Gibbs | ThinkProgress – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Semenya is allegedly intersex. Ever since her world championship race in 2009 — when news unacceptably leaked that the International Association of Athletics Foundation was going to subject her to a gender test — she has been more famous for her naturally-occurring testosterone levels than her talent. When she was only 18 years old, the South African runner won gold at the 2009 world championships in the 800 meters. She went on to win the silver medal at the London Olympics, and is the overwhelming favorite in Rio.

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Brazil’s Uplifting Olympics
Roger Cohen – The New York Times, 22 Aug 2016

Why is it the developed world has to find fault in a developing country that organizes a major sporting event?

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Cultivating the Myth of Human Equality
Anthony Judge | Laetus in praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Ignoring Complicity in the Contradictions Thereby Engendered – At the time of writing, the argument can be made otherwise with the popular appeal of the promise of one US presidential nominee to “make America great again”. How is the desperate need to “be number one” to be related to whatever is implied by human equality? The question of principle is strikingly defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that: all men are born free and equal in rights and dignity.

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The Ruling Class and the Spectre of Leon Trotsky
Chris Marsden | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

20 Aug 2016 – Seventy-six years ago today, the assassin Ramon Mercader plunged an ice axe into the head of Leon Trotsky at his home in Coyoacan, Mexico City. He died of his injuries the following day. Trotsky is forever associated with the incorruptible struggle against Stalinism and for international socialism.

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Eight Years
Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh | Popular Resistance – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

16 Aug 2016 – It has been 8 years since I moved back from the USA to occupied Palestine and it may be worth a brief reflection… All of this was done while struggling against not just Israeli occupation with its repression (e.g. inability to import things normally, lack of freedom of movement) but some Palestinian societal backward culture including nepotism, patriarchy, bureaucracy, and corruption. We were learning as we go how to deal with people (including the “mental occupation”).

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Monsanto Just Made a Massive Mistake
Tom Philpott – Mother Jones, 22 Aug 2016

One of its weed killers seems to be wiping out valuable crops, too. Oops. The Environmental Protection Agency announced it had gotten an ‘unusually high number of reports of crop damage that appear related to misuse of herbicides containing the active ingredient dicamba.’ Complaints of drooping and often dead crops appeared in no fewer than 10 US states.

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Libya’s ‘Operation Odyssey Lightning’ – The Obama Doctrine is Ravaging the Middle East
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2016

Now, wars are carried out as a matter of course. With multiple war fronts and conflicts fermenting all around, many are becoming desensitized. Americans particularly have, sadly, swallowed the serum of perpetual war, to the extent that they rarely mobilize in any serious way against it. In other words, a state of war has become the status quo.

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