Neoliberal Globalization: Is There an Alternative to Plundering the Earth?
PCVW | Global Research | 2018-03-22
Is there an alternative to making war? Is there an alternative to destroying the planet? No one asks these questions because they seem absurd…
globalresearch.ca/neoliberal-globalization-is-there-an-alternative-to-plundering-the-earth/24403
Facebook 'hypocrites' working against online privacy law — campaigner.
RT | RT US News | 2018-03-21
Tech giants including Facebook and Google are pumping millions of dollars into halting new laws in California which would expand online privacy protections. Campaigners hope this week's revelations will force a Facebook climbdown. | RT.com…
www.rt.com/usa/421943-facebook-california-data-sharing-law/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
EPA Head Spends Over $100K in Taxpayer Money to Fly Around the World in First Class.
Noor Al-Sibai, Raw Story | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-21
This administration continues to burn through money that isn't theirs for personal luxuries. | Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt spent over $105,000 on first-class flights during his first year as the department's secretary. Politico reported Tuesday night that the figure comes from records published by the EPA's internal watchdog and provided to the House Oversight Committee. The $105,000 does not include the previously-reported $58,000 Pruitt spent on taxpayer-funded charter fights and a military jet taken from Cincinnati to New York so that he and his staff could catch a connecting flight to Europe. Of the flights listed in the new House Oversight records, which were obtained by Politico, the single most expensive first-class trip took place in December, when Pruitt racked up $16,217 after missing a flight out of Morocco while promoting American natural gas exports. After missing the connecting flight,. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/533932250/0/alternet
Fictional Free Trade and Permanent Protectionism: Donald Trump's Economic Orthodoxy.
Binoy Kampmark | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-21
Let's put it out there with suitable portions of provocation: free trade has never actually taken place. There is an uncomfortable, skirmish-ridden middle ground, where states compete for primacy over surplus and deficits, where the notion of prosperity is language deferred, not to citizens, but corporations who are often backed for pursuing technological remits. The…
counterpunch.org/2018/03/21/fictional-free-trade-and-permanent-protectionism-donald-trumps-economic-orthodoxy/
Holding Killers to Account for Hate Crimes in India.
Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch News | 2018-03-21
Members of a "cow protection" group try to take the cows from the back of a truck that the group stopped on November 8, 2015, in Ramgarh, Rajasthan state, India. | © 2015 Getty Images/Allison Joyce | A court in India yesterday sentenced 11 people to life in prison for beating to death Alimuddin Ansari, a Muslim, who his killers believed was trading in beef. Among those convicted was a local leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). | Many Hindus consider cows to be sacred, and in the past four years a violent vigilante campaign against beef trade and consumption has led to the killing of at least 29 people, mostly Muslims, across the country. Dalits, so-called untouchables, have also been targeted because they handle animal carcasses and leather.
www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/21/holding-killers-account-hate-crimes-india
Amnesty International urges Guatemala to step up efforts to strengthen the judiciary and end to protect human rights defenders.
Amnesty International | 2018-03-21
Amnesty International welcomes Guatemala's support of 21 recommendations related to strengthening protection measures for human rights defenders. Defenders operate in an extremely hostile environment in Guatemala, with 483 attacks against them recorded in 2017 by local NGOs. The organization urges Guatemala to implement these recommendations and to adopt a public policy for their protection, in line with Guatemala's international obligations.
Libya: No Free Elections in Current Climate.
Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch News | 2018-03-21
A woman votes at a polling station inside a school in Tripoli, Libya, June 25, 2014. | © 2014 Reuters | (Geneva) — The United Nations should urge the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord and competing authorities in eastern Libya to create conditions conducive to a free and fair vote before rushing to hold general elections in 2018, Human Rights Watch said today. | For elections to be free and fair, they need to be held in an environment free of coercion, discrimination, or intimidation of voters, candidates, and political parties, Human Rights Watch said. Three key elements should be respected: protection of free speech and assembly; rules that are neither discriminatory nor arbitrary in excluding potential voters or candidates; and the rule of law, accompanied by a functioning judiciary that is able…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/21/libya-no-free-elections-current-climate
New Zealand: No end in sight for Christchurch earthquake rebuild.
WSWS | World Socialist Web Site | 2018-03-21
Seven years after the 2011 earthquake, thousands of houses are still damaged and insurance claims unresolved.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/21/chch-m21.html
Stumbling Blocks: Tim Kaine and the Bipartisan Abettors of Atrocity.
Chris Floyd | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-21
I've written a lot about Yemen over the past few years. And I knew the US Senate would never vote to end our direct participation in the Saudi war crime there that has led to the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. I knew they — like 60 Minutes and the rest of the US — would kowtow to the extremist religious autocrats who rule over the most repressive regime on the face of the earth (with the possible exception of North Korea). I knew our leaders were bought and sold by Saudi money, which has also helped finance and arm violent extremists all over the world, for years. I knew they wouldn't vote against America's bipartisan participation in this genocide — and they didn't.
counterpunch.org/2018/03/21/stumbling-blocks-tim-kaine-and-the-bipartisan-abettors-of-atrocity/
Trump Administration Is Now Auctioning Off Public Land in Utah for Oil and Gas.
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-21
The land is located near protected national monuments. | The Interior Department on Tuesday is auctioning off 32 parcels of public lands in southeastern Utah for oil and gas development. The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) lease sale includes more than 51,000 acres of land near Bears Ears–the national monument significantly scaled back by the Trump administration last year–as well as the Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients monuments. The Trump administration has aggressively pushed for fossil fuels. Even though Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has previously insisted "this is not about energy," Interior Department documents made public by the New York Times earlier this month showed that gaining access to the oil, gas and uranium deposits in Bears Ears and coal reserves in Grand Staircase-Escalante were key reasons behind. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/533937170/0/alternet
Peru's President Offers Resignation Amid Political Turmoil.
Staff | Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists | 2018-03-21
If Peru's congress accepts Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's resignation, ahead of a vote on whether to impeach the former Wall Street investor on corruption charges, power would transfer to Vice President Martin Vizcarra. | The post Peru's President Offers Resignation Amid Political Turmoil appeared first on Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists.
truthdig.com/articles/perus-president-offers-resignation-amid-political-turmoil/
"Environmental Extremism" or Necessary Response to Climate Emergency? Pipeline Shutdown Trials Pit Activists Against the Oil Industry.
Alleen Brown | The Intercept | 2018-03-21
Climate activists turned the valve wheels on five tar sands pipelines in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and Washington state to stop the flow of oil. | The post "Environmental Extremism" or Necessary Response to Climate Emergency? Pipeline Shutdown Trials Pit Activists Against the Oil Industry appeared first on The Intercept.
theintercept.com/2018/03/21/pipeline-protest-necessity-defense-tar-sands/
'Next Deepwater Horizon disaster a matter of time': Critics slam record offshore oil lease sale.
RT | RT US News | 2018-03-21
The Trump administration has held the biggest lease sale of oil and gas in US history. Environmentalists fear the auction will massively expand fossil fuel production and could lead to the next Deepwater disaster. | RT.com…
www.rt.com/usa/421960-deepwater-critics-slam-offshore-oil/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
The Ease of Accusation: The Skripal Affair.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark | Global Research | 2018-03-21
The policy of responding to assassinations on British soil is a near non-existent one. Her Majesty's Government is certainly in the habit of huffing, and steam can issue from deliberations in the House of Commons. But substance is often absent….
globalresearch.ca/the-ease-of-accusation-the-skripal-affair/5632848
Trump's Tariffs Throw US Workers Under the Bus, Yet Again.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-21
Contrary to what Trump claims, his tariffs will not revive the aluminum industry. Instead they are certain to wreck diplomatic relations, invite retaliation and boost the profits of aluminum executives in the US, who will be able to charge higher prices. Most importantly, the tariffs will destroy jobs for some of the very people who voted Trump into office.John Rodriguez monitors the operation as a slab of steel is heated and rolled into a coil of steel at the NLMK Indiana steel mill on March 15, 2018, in Portage, Indiana. Steel producers in the US and worldwide are preparing for the impact of the recently-proposed 25 percent tariffs on imported steel by the Trump administration. (Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images) | The US and the world are hurtling toward a full-blown trade war over the tariffs imposed on imported steel and…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43907-trump-s-tariffs-throw-us-workers-under-the-bus-yet-again
Do Trump's Voters Even Want to Live in a Democracy?
Chauncey DeVega, Salon | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-21
A new study reveals a staggering percentage would simply prefer a "strong leader. " | Donald Trump is a giant in the political forest: loud and destructive, incapable of subtlety, and utterly transparent in his intent. Trump is in fact a clumsy authoritarian, which is one of the things preventing him from implementing a full-on fascist regime. It certainly isn't our elected officials, the will of the American people or the news media that is stopping him. What has Donald Trump wrought over these last few days in his relentless assault on America's democratic norms, rules and institutions? To consolidate power Trump is continuing his purge. The most recent "victim" is former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was apparently fired on Twitter. (And then reportedly got a phone call from White House chief of staff John Kelly while on the toilet. ) It is now. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/533988832/0/alternet
A Private Mercenary Firm Is Making Millions Off Tragedy in Houston, Puerto Rico and Standing Rock.
Mehreen Kasana, AlterNet | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-20
The company has bullied protesters and profited off recent hurricanes. | The practice of governments and security firms conducting wide-scale exploitation of major disasters, natural and otherwise, is nothing new. Last week, the Intercept reported on TigerSwan, a mercenary security firm that follows a similar disaster-capitalist model and has attacked the No Dakota Access Pipeline (NoDAPL) movement since 2016, at least. But that's not all: TigerSwan has also been preying on relief needs in hurricane-hit areas like Houston and Puerto Rico since 2017. So far, the mercenary firm keeps its media presence at a minimum level, attracting little attention from the press. This makes sense considering the depth and scale of its massive military-style operations, including suppressing anti-pipeline activists by infiltrating activist groups with informants, surveilling the movement and calling on law enforcement agencies to suppress activist organizing. In spite of. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/533656036/0/alternet
Petroleum Executives Visit Trump, Increasing Offshore Oil Drilling.
TRNN | The Real News Network | 2018-03-19
The American Petroleum Industry (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) held meetings at the Trump Hotel in DC. At the same time, these associations are also lobbying the Trump administration for an expansion of offshore oil exploration…
therealnews.com/idirect.php?i=21389
Northern Ireland: Loyalist killer was a police agent.
WSWS | World Socialist Web Site | 2018-03-19
Gary Haggarty was working as a British agent when he killed five people on what the government still insists is the "British soil" of Northern Ireland.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/19/irel-m19.html
Exclusive: Brazilian Presidential Candidate Lula on Facing Jail as He Runs for President Again.
Democracy Now! | 2018-03-19
We continue our conversation with former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the highly popular former union leader who is running for president in this year's election even as he is facing a possible prison term on what many believe to be trumped-up corruption charges tied to the sprawling probe known as "Operation Car Wash." Lula was convicted of accepting a beachside apartment from an engineering firm vying for contracts at the state oil company Petrobras. But many of Lula's supporters say the conviction was politically motivated. President Lula responds to the charges against him. "We're awaiting for the accusers to show at least some piece of evidence that indicates that I committed any crime," he notes.
www.democracynow.org/2018/3/19/exclusive_brazilian_presidential_candidate_lula_on
Stephen Hawking: Fighter for Progressive Politics.
TRNN | The Real News Network | 2018-03-15
Scientist Stephen Hawking spoke out against wars, called for action against climate change, and defended socialist programs – Ben Norton reports.
therealnews.com/idirect.php?i=21376
Anti-Pipeline Indigenous 'Mass Mobilization' Has Begun.
TRNN | The Real News Network | 2018-03-14
In what may become the 'Standing Rock of the North', thousands protest Kinder Morgan's Trans-Mountain Pipeline expansion, which would carry more toxic tar sands through First Nation territories…
therealnews.com/idirect.php?i=21366
Humanity's Meat and Dairy Intake Must Be Cut in Half by 2050 to Avoid Dangerous Climate Change.
Julie Cappiello, AlterNet | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-14
Going vegan will help reduce animal suffering, protect your health and halve your carbon footprint. So what are you waiting for? | In a recent press release on its website, Greenpeace called for a reduction in meat, dairy, and egg consumption. A new report by the organization states that "global meat and dairy production and consumption must be cut in half by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change. " The report also confirms what many health professionals have said for years: Eating meat and dairy raises various health risks, including risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Indeed, calling for such a reduction is vital to the fight against global warming, as animal agriculture is the number-one driver of climate change. Why are meat, dairy and eggs so harmful to the environment? Every year we raise and. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/532448788/0/alternet
Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State & Company Surveillance of Protesters.
Democracy Now! | 2018-03-13
In Louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across Louisiana's wetlands. The documents show the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who've set up a protest encampment along the pipeline's route. Other newly revealed documents show close coordination between Louisiana regulators and the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners. This comes just one week after a U.S. district judge in Baton Rouge ordered a temporary injunction against construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in order to "prevent further irreparable harm" to the region's delicate ecosystems, while court challenges proceed. For more, we speak with Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church. We also speak with Pamela Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.
www.democracynow.org/2018/3/13/critics_of_bayou_bridge_pipeline_in
Toxic Coal Ash Being Dumped in Puerto Rico, Which Already Suffers Worst Drinking Water in the Nation.
Democracy Now! | 2018-03-09
Even before Hurricane Maria struck the island nearly six months ago, the majority of Puerto Rico's residents lived with water that violated health standards set by the U.S. law. Since the storm, residents say the situation has only gotten worse. Among the sources of potential water contamination are mountains of coal ash generated by a coal-fired power plant owned by a private company called AES. For years, residents have demanded the company stop dumping toxic coal ash into their community, saying the waste is poisonous to their health and the environment. We speak with Mekela Panditharatne, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council who just returned from the island and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post headlined "FEMA says most of Puerto Rico has potable water. That can't be true."
www.democracynow.org/2018/3/9/toxic_coal_ash_being_dumped_in