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Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico
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These sharp increases in greenhouse gas concentrations are clearly correlated with rapid increases in the rate of industrialization and energy consumption within the two last centuries. It seems to me that while individual changes in behavior (such as using less stuff and reusing and recycling more) are important, they must be accompanied by concerted international governmental actions to reverse the trends. — Mano Singham
Videos of the Day:
Corbyn Allies in Labour Attacked For Supporting Palestinian Struggle The strategy to undermine Jeremy Corbyn within the Labour Party includes, charging his supporters with anti-semitism and then suspending them, says Richard Kuper of Jewish Voice for Labour.
U.S.
2010 Update: In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called “alarmist” for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote “in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media”—- controlling almost all of America’s newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world’s largest media corporation. — Media Reform Information Center
Building the Iron Wall Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, along with 18 members of the House of Representatives—15 Republicans and three Democrats—has sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanding that the Qatari-run Al-Jazeera television network register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The letter was issued after Al-Jazeera said it planned to air a documentary by a reporter who went undercover to look into the Israel lobby in the United States. The action by the senator and the House members follows the decision by the Justice Department to force RT America to register as a foreign agent and the imposition of algorithms by Facebook, Google and Twitter that steer traffic away from left-wing, anti-war and progressive websites, including Truthdig. It also follows December’s abolition of net neutrality. By Chris Hedges
Terrorism is as “‘American’ As Apple Pie” They Went In With Blood In Their Eyes and Shot Everything That Moved 50 years ago, a platoon of U.S. soldiers entered the hamlet of My Lai in South Vietnam and, in hours, massacred 504 unarmed women, children and old men. Over 300 of the victims were younger than 12; the G.I.s also raped many of the women and burned all the homes. Today, with torturers and warmongers on the rise, the horrors of My Lai serve as a grim warning. In America’s wars of choice, says one vet, we are all “one step away from My Lai.” By Abby Zimet
Is the U.S. Trying to Start a Hot War with Syria? Officials will pretend they’re doing so in the interest of human rights, but it’s only about power? As if out of nowhere, a Russian General announces that if the United States strikes Central Damascus (Syria) with an aerial attack, the Russians would retaliate. It had appeared at the start of this year that the possibility of an American attack on Syrian government targets – a serious possibility in 2013 and 2014 – was now off the table. It appeared that the Syrian government – with Russian and Iranian support – would soon take the last remaining strongholds of the opposition, now mainly reduced to one form of extremist or another. The capture of Aleppo – Syria’s largest city – was the sign of the turnaround. Each time the Syrian government forces encircled the opposition – largely extremist – fighters, it would cut a deal and send them off to the province of Idlib in the north of Syria. No major attempt to overthrow the Syrian government of Bashar Assad seemed possible. By Vijay Prashad
Escape from America “My Heart Is Dancing” — How an Iraqi Family Found Refuge in Canada After Escaping Persecution and Detention in the U.S. By Ryan Devereaux
Environment:
‘On a hot day, it’s horrific’: Alabama kicks up a stink over shipments of New York poo New York sends its treated sewage to other states to avoid dumping it in the sea – but it has plagued residents with a terrible stench. . . In Alabama, the avalanche of northern poo is part of a wider concern over the environmental risks faced by residents, particularly the impoverished and people of colour. The Big Sky Environmental site can take 25,000 tons of waste a day from all 48 contiguous states. Further south, a landfill abutting the majority African American settlement of Uniontown contains around 4m tons of toxic coal ash and welcomes other debris from 33 states. By. Oliver Milman in New York
University of Manitoba: Arctic sea ice becoming a spring hazard for North Atlantic ships More Arctic sea ice is entering the North Atlantic Ocean than before, making it increasingly dangerous for ships to navigate those waters in late spring, according to new research led by the University of Manitoba.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
‘We Must Protect the Water’: Indigenous Leaders and Allies Stage Sit-In to Protest Kinder Morgan Pipeline “Kinder Morgan and Justin Trudeau picked a fight with the wrong group of people.” Building on the massive march against the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline that brought 10,000 people to the streets of British Columbia last weekend, Indigenous leaders and their allies staged a sit-in on Saturday at a pipeline construction site on Burnaby Mountain, kicking off a wave of civil disobedience that is set to continue through next week. By Jake Johnson
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
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World:
Crumbling Capitalism: Manchester: 367 tower blocks failed to meet fire standards after Grenfell Of 489 Greater Manchester tower blocks, 75% were deemed not to have met safety standards Three-quarters of tower blocks in Greater Manchester failed to meet fire safety standards in inspections carried out after the Grenfell Tower fire, it has been revealed. In examinations of 489 residential tower blocks across the region, the fire service found that only 117 of them were “broadly compliant” with fire safety laws. By Michael Rose
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
No one can pretend Facebook is just harmless fun any more From its stance on extremist content, to its vast caches of user data, Facebook is a corporation whose power must, finally, be reined in The revelation that Cambridge Analytica exploited the data of 50 million Facebook profiles to target American voters is indeed frightening. But Cambridge Analytica shouldn’t act as a diversion from the real bad guy in this story: Facebook. It is mystifying that as his company regulates the flow of information to billions of human beings, encouraging certain purchasing habits and opinions, and monitoring people’s interactions, Mark Zuckerberg is invited to give lectures at Harvard without being treated with due scepticism. From its stance on extremist content, to its vast caches of user data, Facebook is a corporation whose power must, finally, be reined in. By Ellie Mae O’Hagan
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Facebook Scandle: Big Brother is Watching You Online!
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