(2018-03-20. Niger Delta Negligence. Amnesty International …
(2018-03-19). Ukraine: Amnesty International urges Ukraine to ensure greater protection against violence for women, children, journalists and activists. Amnesty International Amnesty International welcomes Ukraine's passing of laws aimed at providing better protection for victims and imposing penalties on the perpetrators. However, this is just a first step and the laws require effective implementation. The organization welcomes Ukraine's acceptance of recommendations to ensure the early ratification and implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.
(2018-03-19). Pakistan: Peaceful Pashtun activists face criminal cases . Amnesty International Criminal cases have been filed against Manzoor Pashteen and other leaders of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns), for peacefully calling for equality and justice for human rights violations against the Pashtun community.
(2018-03-19). Northern Ireland: Loyalist killer was a police agent. World Socialist Web Site 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.
(2018-03-19). Petroleum Executives Visit Trump, Increasing Offshore Oil Drilling. The Real News Network 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…
(2018-03-19. Niger Delta Negligence. Amnesty International …
(2018-03-19). Exclusive: Brazilian Presidential Candidate Lula on Facing Jail as He Runs for President Again. Democracy Now! 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.
(2018-03-19). US Imposes Sanctions Against Venezuela's Petro Cryptocurrency. MintPress News U.S. President Donald Trump has announced fresh sanctions against Venezuela's fledgling Petro cryptocurrency, which was launched specifically to help stabilize the Latin American nation's economy. | The blockade, due to be signed and implemented today, restricts the use of Petros in U.S. financial transactions, McClatchy reports. | Trump and other critics have claimed the Petro, backed by Venezuela's oil reserves — the largest in the world — is unreliable. Yet in presales alone, Venezuela has already made over US$5 billion dollars. | The Petro, which was made available for presale on Feb. 20, is being used specifically to counter U.S.-imposed sanctions and the economic war waged by Washington. |
| Related | Bank of America to SEC: Cryptocurrency Creating Pressure To Lower Prices | Cryptocurrency: With Inequality Rising, Citizens Seek Alternative Economies | Venezuela Bucks Petrodollar,…
(2018-03-18). Appeals Court Reverses Decision Stopping Bayou Bridge Pipeline Work Through Cypress Swamp. Truthout Stories The empty construction site for the Bayou Bridge pipeline through the Atchafalaya Basin February 25, the day after a district judge granted an injunction halting work. (Photo: Julie Dermansky) | This week the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal judge's temporary injunction halting work on the Bayou Bridge pipeline within Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin. In a 2-1 vote the higher court's decision will allow construction to proceed while the company, Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, appeals the injunction. | On February 24, US District Judge Shelly Dick, an Obama appointee, granted Earthjustice an injunction in order to prevent irreparable harm to the basin, an environmentally sensitive National Heritage Area, until the group's lawsuit challenging a US Army Corp of Engineers permit for the pipeline could be heard. | Earthjustice had filed this lawsuit January…
(2018-03-18. Niger Delta Negligence. Amnesty International …
(2018-03-18). An Iraqi Family Sought Asylum in the U.S., Thinking the Worst Was Over. Then Their American Nightmare Began.. The Intercept How a man accused of no crime found himself in indefinite detention on U.S. soil — and the remarkable lengths his family went to in order to get him back. | The post An Iraqi Family Sought Asylum in the U.S., Thinking the Worst Was Over. Then Their American Nightmare Began. appeared first on The Intercept.
(2018-03-17). For Domestic Violence Survivors, Courts Can Be Another Abuse. Truthout Stories This article was published by TalkPoverty.org. | My abuser's father was the one who delivered the court's petition to my slummy apartment. Because I had a protection order in place, my abuser couldn't do it himself. I was in the bathroom, getting ready for bed — I had an interview the next day for a job as a paid fundraiser for a local arts program — so my husband accepted the paperwork in my stead. It was a request for genetic testing to establish paternity of the child my abuser had forced me to birth when I was 19 years old. | The first day I stood in the courtroom, all I had was my story. I prepared to tell the judge that I had been groomed by the man seven years my senior since I was 14; that I had been kidnapped,…
(2018-03-17). Republicans Prioritize Airline Employees' Poor Judgment With Pets Over Young People Dying From Gun Violence. AlterNet.org Congress says WOOFF on guns. | On a day when American students and their supporters marched to demand stricter gun laws and to memorialize 17 people brutally killed at a Florida high school, the news broke that Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana intended to file an animal protection bill. The move came about 48 hours after the death of 10-month old puppy on a Houston to New York flight after United Airlines employees forced the owners to put the animal in overhead bin. I will be filing a bill tomorrow that will prohibit airlines from putting animals in overhead bins. Violators will face significant fines. Pets are family. — John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) March 14, 2018His compassion for puppies is commendable. But Kennedy proposes to take zero action on the gun violence that kills schoolchildren. OK, people love puppies, and animal welfare is an. . .
(2018-03-17). Republicans Prioritize Airline Employees' Poor Judgment With Pets Over Young People Dying From Gun Violence. AlterNet.org Animal welfare is important—and so is the safety of school kids. | On a day when American students and their supporters marched to demand stricter gun laws and to memorialize 17 people brutally killed at a Florida high school, the news broke that Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana intended to file an animal protection bill. The move came about 48 hours after the death of 10-month old puppy on a Houston to New York flight after United Airlines employees forced the owners to put the animal in an overhead bin. I will be filing a bill tomorrow that will prohibit airlines from putting animals in overhead bins. Violators will face significant fines. Pets are family. — John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) March 14, 2018His compassion for dogs is commendable. Yet Kennedy proposes to take zero action on the gun violence that kills schoolkids. Animal welfare. . .
(2018-03-17). Mexicali's 'Water Defenders' Take the Fight to Big Alcohol. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists In January 2017, the Mexican government implemented a 20 percent hike in gasoline prices, setting the stage for a nationwide rebellion and a people's mobilization against the tightening screws of neoliberalism. To a population already struggling with poverty and low wages, this blatant exercise of power and greed was a wake-up call heard across Mexico. | Today, the struggle continues, but in the desert border city of Mexicali it has expanded to the protection of water, as the people face off with a United States-based multinational corporation known as Constellation Brands. In a familiar scenario in which capitalism seeks to privatize the commons, and through secret backroom deals with corrupt politicians, Constellation Brands wants access to Mexicali's precious water to produce alcohol for exclusive export to the U.S. | At a time of increased precariousness around anthropogenic climate disruption, we are witnessing the…
(2018-03-17. Niger Delta Negligence. Amnesty International …
(2018-03-17). Are Oil Billionaires Trying to Undermine Our First Amendment Rights? The Real News Network Wyoming is the third state, along with Iowa and Ohio, to introduce a bill that would criminalize peaceful pipeline protesters as 'eco-terrorism'. Investigative journalist, Steve Horn discusses how the bill is modeled by the conservative, corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council which is funded by oil billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch…
(2018-03-16). Nigeria: Negligence in the Niger Delta: decoding Shell and Eni's poor record on oil spills. Amnesty International This ground breaking research project by Amnesty International has exposed evidence of serious negligence by oil giants Shell and Eni, whose irresponsible approach to oil spills in the Niger Delta is exacerbating an environmental crisis. Through the Decoders network, an innovative platform developed by Amnesty International to crowdsource human rights research, the organization enlisted thousands of supporters and activists to collect data about oil spills in the Niger Delta. These findings confirm that Shell and Eni are failing to operate responsibly and in line with Nigerian law and best practice standards. Their failures are resulting in worse pollution in the Niger Delta, which has a negative impact on the rights of the people living there.
(2018-03-16). Nigeria: Amnesty activists uncover serious negligence by oil giants Shell and Eni . Amnesty International A groundbreaking research project by Amnesty International has exposed evidence of serious negligence by oil giants Shell and Eni, whose irresponsible approach to oil spills in the Niger Delta is exacerbating an environmental crisis. | Through the Decoders network, an innovative platform developed by Amnesty International to crowdsource human rights research, the organization enlisted thousands of supporters and activists to collect data about oil spills in the Niger Delta. Their findings were then analyzed by Amnesty International's researchers and verified by Accufacts, an independent pipelines expert. | According to this publicly available data, Amnesty International found that Shell and Eni are taking weeks to respond to reports of spills and publishing misleading information about the cause and severity of spills, which may result in communities not receiving compensation. | "Shell and Eni claim they are doing everything they can to prevent oil…
(2018-03-16). Mexico: 48 asylum seekers at risk of refoulement. Amnesty International 48 people including families and children, who came to Mexico looking for protection, are at risk of being deported to possible persecution or grave human rights violations in their countries due to unusual failures in the procedures of Mexico ¥s refugee agency and migration authority.
(2018-03-16). New Law Could Send Armed Secret Service Agents to Polling Places. MintPress News SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION AT POLLING PLACES. | This section shall not prevent any officer or agent of the United States Secret Service from providing armed protective services authorized under section 3056 or pursuant to a Presidential memorandum at any place where a general or special election is held. [emphasis added]— H.R. 2825, section 4012 | The single sentence above, which amends current federal law, would give the president unprecedented authority to send armed Secret Service agents to any US polling place for any reason. The law allows the president to send armed Secret Service agents to every US polling place if he has enough agents. | The 250-page bill containing this new authority, H.R. 2825, is the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act, introduced in the House on June 8, 2017, by Texas Rep. Michael McCaul with eleven fellow…
(2018-03-16). Ukraine: Police must protect women's rights activists. Amnesty International Across Ukraine, marches marking International Women's Day, on 8 March, were marred by violence against peaceful demonstrators. Far-right groups physically attacked and have threatened with further violence women's rights activists taking part in the event. The local police say that they are unable to offer protection from far-right groups.
(2018-03-16). There's a New Law That Could Allow the President to Send Armed Secret Service to Polling Places. AlterNet.org This is an assault on voting rights. | SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION AT POLLING PLACES. | This section shall not prevent any officer or agent of the United States Secret Service from providing armed protective services authorized under section 3056 or pursuant to a Presidential memorandum at any place where a general or special election is held. [emphasis added]— H. R. 2825, section 4012The single sentence above, which amends current federal law, would give the president unprecedented authority to send armed Secret Service agents to any US polling place for any reason. The law allows the president to send armed Secret Service agents to every US polling place if he has enough agents. The 250-page bill containing this new authority, H. R. 2825, is the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act, introduced in the House on June 8, 2017, by Texas Rep. Michael McCaul. . .
(2018-03-16). Breaking the Ice. counterpunch.org Perhaps the best political news of the Trump era has been the emergence of sanctuary cities — city governments valuing the presence of immigrants and standing for the protection of their right to live without fear — and their defiance of this country's current manifestation of legal racism. "How dare you vilify members of our More
(2018-03-16). U.S. Wildlife Protection Panel Stuffed With Trophy Hunters. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists The new advisory board was created to help rewrite federal rules for importing parts of elephants, lions and rhinos. Some of its members have ties to the Trump family. | The post U.S. Wildlife Protection Panel Stuffed With Trophy Hunters appeared first on Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists.
(2018-03-16). A Spark to a Wider Fire: Movement Against Immigrant Detention in New Jersey. counterpunch.org Trump has delivered on his promise to step up attacks on immigrant workers: A surge in arrests by ICE, targeting of immigrant activists like Ravi Ragbir in New York City, ending DACA protection for 700,000 young people, and threatening cities and states that offer even minimal protections to immigrants. How do we respond? How do More
(2018-03-16). Why Trump's Tariff Travesty Will Not Re-Industrialize the US. counterpunch.org SHARMINI PERIES: It's The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or known as the OECD, predicted on Tuesday that Trump's tariffs on aluminum and steel imports could initiate a wave of protectionism and slow global economic growth. The tariffs have already spurred various More
(2018-03-16). Clean Energy is Calling. Will Your Phone Company Answer? counterpunch.org There currently is a cavernous lack of leadership in our federal government on tackling climate change. Fortunately, cities, states, universities, and some businesses have stepped up to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and grow our renewable energy. But there's been one reluctant industry: your phone company. The telecom industry uses enough electricity to power all More
(2018-03-16). What to Do at the End of the World? Interview with Climate Crisis Activist, Kevin Hester. counterpunch.org Kevin Hester is an environmental and anti-imperialist activist living in New Zealand who is raising the alarm about the dramatic, planetary-scale changes that are underway. He is expecting "the imminent collapse of the biosphere from the perfect storm of runaway abrupt climate change and indifferent human hubris." He regularly publicizes the latest pertinent stories and More
(2018-03-16. Niger Delta Negligence. Amnesty International …
(2018-03-16). "Real Organic" Label Bites Back at Industrial Agriculture. Truthout Stories Support from readers keeps Truthout 100 percent independent. If you like what you're reading, make a donation! | When you think of organic food, you probably imagine a bucolic farm with happy cows out in the pasture and crops growing lush and healthy in fields free of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. | There's a reason for that image: It was the original intent of the organic movement, which aimed to reclaim farming and preserve soil integrity. Unfortunately, the value of the organic label — now regulated by the USDA — has been undermined in recent years by the rise of what some refer to as " industrial organic." | Now, "organic" includes (2018-03-16). Drenched in Crude: It's an Oil Free For All, But That's Not a New Thing. counterpunch.org For decades our public lands have been exploited by oil and gas companies and the price these greedy developers are paying for the right to drill continues to plunge. A recent analysis by Project on Government Oversight (POGO) reveals that since 1983, the per acre price for oil drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico More
(2018-03-15). On 10th Anniversary of Wall Street Crash, Democrats Help GOP Set Stage for Next One. Truthout Stories Thirty seconds: That's how long it takes to support the independent journalism at Truthout. We're counting on you. Click here to chip in! | | Democrats had the power to stop a massive big bank giveaway from passing the Senate Wednesday night, but instead they decided — with a " green light" from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) — to hand the GOP more than enough votes to ram the deregulatory bill through instead, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis by significantly increasing the risk of another one. | In addition to Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), 16 Democrats joined a unified Republican caucus in approving the so-called "Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act." | Rootstrikers, an anti-corruption group that worked for weeks to mobilize against what progressive critics…
(2018-03-15). Philippines: Onslaught on human rights defenders must end. Amnesty International The Philippine government must immediately halt its latest wave of dangerous attacks on human rights defenders and international institutions. Human rights defenders – among them two UN human rights experts – must be guaranteed protection in the country and be allowed to carry out their work freely.
(2018-03-15). Stephen Hawking: Fighter for Progressive Politics. The Real News Network Scientist Stephen Hawking spoke out against wars, called for action against climate change, and defended socialist programs – Ben Norton reports.
(2018-03-15). No Cards Left to Play but the Threat of Armageddon. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists There is no mystery to the ideological collapse of U.S. ruling class politics under late stage capitalism and imperial decline. Simply put, the corporate duopoly parties have nothing to offer the masses of people except unrelenting austerity at home and endless wars abroad. A shrunken and privatized Detroit serves as the model for U.S. urban policy; Libya and Syria are the scorched-earth footprints of a demented and dying empire. The lengthening shadow of economic eclipse by the East leaves the U.S. Lords of Capital with no cards left to play but the threat of Armageddon. | As China reclaims its historic place at the center of the earth, alongside the huge and heavily armed landmass of Russia, Washington flails about in a frenzy of firewall-building, buying time with the blood of millions, hoping to somehow preserve its doomed hegemony. But the "exceptional" superpower…
(2018-03-15). Jim Hightower: Everybody Does Better When Everybody Does Better. AlterNet.org How to build a Democratic Party for the future. | My father, W. F. "High" Hightower, was a populist. Only, he didn't know it; didn't know the word, much less the history or anything about populism's rich democratic ethos. But he knew about bankers who regularly squeezed small-business families like ours with usurious interest rates. He knew how rough it was for a local business to fight off deep-pocketed chain stores that use predatory pricing and sledgehammer advertising budgets to seize local markets. And he saw with his very own eyes that the governor and legislature in faraway Austin operated as subsidiaries of Big Oil, the utility monopolies, and the other giants that were allowed to profit by picking the pockets of the general public. He and my mother, Lillie, knew one other thing, too: There was once a Democratic Party that stood up for. . .
(2018-03-15). #MAGA Staffing Solutions (Video). Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists Now that Rex Tillerson is out of the way, it looks like the scary fun is really going to begin. While Tillerson was happily gutting the State Department, his relationship with President Trump was deteriorating for a variety of reasons. Chief among them seemed to be that Ol' Oilhound Rex wasn't sufficiently "America First." | Trump found his man for State in Mike Pompeo, a guy who is the number one all-time top recipient of Koch funding, has called for Edward Snowden to be put to death and has talked about how easy it would be to bomb Iran into oblivion. Pompeo a Tea Partier, who had been heading the CIA, seems like a perfect match for the insanity of Trump administration "diplomacy." | Tuesday was a busy day: Tillerson was out, Pompeo was…
(2018-03-15). Britain's Not So Distant History of State Sponsored Assassinations. MintPress News With the eyes of the world focused on the alleged nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal, the Russian who worked as a British double-agent before being exiled to the UK in 2010, since he and his daughter were found slumped on a Salisbury public bench last Sunday, one can't help but notice the hypocritical reaction of the British political establishment to the attack. | Addressing the House of Commons on Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May alleged Kremlin involvement in the incident due to 'Russia's record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations'. | These words were spoken in a self-righteous sense, one that suggested the UK held the moral ground over Russia and would never go so far as to conduct assassinations of political opponents on foreign soil. | Anyone with even a basic knowledge of British foreign policy towards Ireland however, would know that this…
(2018-03-15). Pakistan's Wasteland: The Bhutto Backyard. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists Marjan, a mother of six, and her husband, Mumtaz Ali, an unemployed driver, live in a mud hut with a thatched roof held up by tree trunks. Inside, a plastic bag holding a few tomatoes and a few sprigs of cilantro hangs on a nail, and along the walls the couple have displayed the few steel utensils—cups, plates and bowls—that make up their family wealth. | Like many of the few hundred homes in Marjan's community, the house has no toilet. Marjan's bathing area is at an open-air, rusty hand pump that draws water from the ground; she's been collecting bricks around it, hoping to build walls one day. Her kitchen is a tiny patch of land shaded by a discarded political banner where she squats over a fire fueled by buffalo dung as she cooks rice for her children. |
(2018-03-14). Anti-Pipeline Indigenous 'Mass Mobilization' Has Begun. The Real News Network 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…
(2018-03-14). US Senators Urge EPA to Keep Protecting Kids from Pesticides. Human Rights Watch News Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, answers a question during the Concordia Summit in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. | © 2017 Reuters | Yesterday, while the world watched as US President Donald Trump fired his Secretary of State and reshuffled people in two top posts, 28 US senators made an important move that might not make headlines: They protested US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposals to weaken pesticide protections for children. | The lawmakers wrote to Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator, after the EPA announced it was considering rolling back two Obama-era safeguards that prohibit children under 18 from handling pesticides on farms and in other workplaces. The Senators, led by Tom Udall (D-NM), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Dianne…
(2018-03-14). White House Shakeup Threatens Legal Protections. Human Rights Watch News Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 13, 2018. | © 2018 Reuters | President Donald Trump's nomination of Mike Pompeo to head the State Department and Gina Haspel the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) do not bode well for US commitments to uphold basic rights and the rule of law at home and abroad. | Last year, Human Rights Watch opposed Pompeo to be CIA director partly because of his prior endorsement of torture. These concerns persist. During his confirmation hearing, Pompeo said waterboarding and other previously used interrogation techniques that amounted to torture were barred by a 2015 law. But in written follow-up questions, he raised the possibility that the law may have to be revised if it became an…
(2018-03-14). Italy Shuts Down 'Worrying' Migrant Hotspot. Human Rights Watch News Migrants disembark from the SOS MEDITERRANEE ship Aquarius at the Italian island of Lampedusa, April 18, 2016. | © 2016 SOS MEDITERRANEE | Good news! The Italian Interior Ministry announced yesterday the temporary closure of an abusive migrant processing center on Lampedusa, Italy's tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea. | The government decision came after damning reports by the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights, the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration, and IndieWatch, which documented how some asylum seekers faced lengthy detention in the facility, known as a "hotspot," intended only for use to house asylum seekers and other migrants for short periods while they are formally identified. It also found degrading conditions and lack of protection for women and children. One family that applied for asylum…
(2018-03-14). South Sudan: UN Mission must boost efforts to protect civilians amid ongoing violence. Amnesty International The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) must boost efforts to protect civilians against the senseless violence that has plagued the country for over four years, and publicly report on the human rights situation, Amnesty International said today. | The UN Mission, whose mandate is set to be extended tomorrow, has a crucial role to play in providing much-needed civilian protection, and timely public reporting on the human rights situation in the country. | "With the continuing conflict and associated human rights violations in South Sudan, the possibility of civilians returning to their homes or being resettled remains remote. The Protection of Civilians (POC) sites are truly life-saving for hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of protection," said Dr. Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes. |
(2018-03-14). Challenging Trump's Greatest Crimes. counterpunch.org One of the best responses to Donald Trump's energy and environmental policies, that are destroying the Earth by accelerating severe climate change, is for the International Criminal Court ("ICC") to promptly charge him with several crimes against humanity. On February 26, 2018, I filed a complaint with Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, asking her to prosecute Trump and EPA administrator More
(2018-03-14). 4 Things You Should Know About Ayahuasca. AlterNet.org If you're thinking about a spiritual journey with the hallucinogenic tea, read up. | If you boil the two plants Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis long enough, you'll end up with the powerful brew ayahuasca. But, I don't recommend you make it yourself, nor drink it along, unless you really known what you're doing. It's not something to approach lightly. When consumed, it usually creates extraordinary experiences of visions, intense emotions and possibly vomiting. In this article, you'll learn: Why people drink ayahuasca. What are the risks and benefits of drinking the brew. Why preparing for an ayahuasca retreat is so important. Why the period after a retreat is also so important. Who Is Drinking Ayahuasca? The brew has been used in special ways by many native peoples of the Amazon Rainforest for healing, magic and social welfare for at least a few centuries, possibly much longer. In. . .
(2018-03-14). Skripal, Novichok, Russia, Israel, Syria, MI6 and Salisbury. Global Research The same people who assured you that Saddam Hussein had WMD's now assure you Russian "novichok" nerve agents are being wielded by Vladimir Putin to attack people on British soil. As with the Iraqi WMD dossier, it is essential to …
(2018-03-13). Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State & Company Surveillance of Protesters. Democracy Now! 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.
(2018-03-13). Notes on Terminology. counterpunch.org Climate Crisis, Not "Climate Change" My next-to-last CounterPunch essay ("Someone Tell a Reporter: the Rich Are Destroying the Earth") elicited a smart criticism from a senior scientist: "Please stop using the phrase 'climate change.' I am a 78-year-old, Ph.D. physicist who has been talking about the CLIMATE CRISIS for more than 35 years. To me, More