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polly7
polly7's Journal
polly7's Journal
November 10, 2015
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-empire-of-chaos/
The Empire of Chaos
By Noam Chomsky and C. J. Polychroniou
Source: Truthout
November 10, 2015
US foreign policy in the 21st century has little to offer other than massive military power. Indeed, gone are the days when military might was used in order to “recreate the world in America’s image.” In the post-Cold War era, US military interventions take place in the absence of an overall strategic vision and with ideological justifications lacking force and conviction even among the United States’ traditional allies. Little wonder then that military interventions, always illegal and unjustifiable, end up accomplishing nothing more than the creation of black holes, while giving rise in turn to new and ever increasing violent terrorist organizations bent on spreading their own vision of social and political order.
In this exclusive interview for Truthout, Noam Chomsky reflects on the dynamics of US foreign policy in the 21st century and the implications of the policy of raining down destruction for world order. Chomsky also assesses the role of Russia’s involvement in Syria, the rise of the Islamic State and the apparent attraction it holds for many young Muslims from Europe, and offers a grim view about the future of US foreign policy.
CJ Polychroniou: US military interventions in the 21st century (e.g., Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria) have proven totally disastrous, yet the terms of the intervention debate have yet to be redrawn among Washington’s warmakers. What’s the explanation for this?
Noam Chomsky: In part the old cliché: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The comparative advantage of the US is in military force. When one form of intervention fails, doctrine and practice can be revised with new technologies, devices, etc. There is a good review of the process from World War II to the present in a recent book by Andrew Cockburn, Kill Chain. There are possible alternatives, such as supporting democratization (in reality, not rhetoric). But these have likely consequences that the US would not favor. That is why when the US supports “democracy”; it is “top-down” forms of democracy in which traditional elites linked to the US remain in power, to quote the leading scholar of “democracy promotion,” Thomas Carothers, a former Reagan official who is a strong advocate of the process but who recognizes the reality, unhappily.
In this exclusive interview for Truthout, Noam Chomsky reflects on the dynamics of US foreign policy in the 21st century and the implications of the policy of raining down destruction for world order. Chomsky also assesses the role of Russia’s involvement in Syria, the rise of the Islamic State and the apparent attraction it holds for many young Muslims from Europe, and offers a grim view about the future of US foreign policy.
CJ Polychroniou: US military interventions in the 21st century (e.g., Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria) have proven totally disastrous, yet the terms of the intervention debate have yet to be redrawn among Washington’s warmakers. What’s the explanation for this?
Noam Chomsky: In part the old cliché: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The comparative advantage of the US is in military force. When one form of intervention fails, doctrine and practice can be revised with new technologies, devices, etc. There is a good review of the process from World War II to the present in a recent book by Andrew Cockburn, Kill Chain. There are possible alternatives, such as supporting democratization (in reality, not rhetoric). But these have likely consequences that the US would not favor. That is why when the US supports “democracy”; it is “top-down” forms of democracy in which traditional elites linked to the US remain in power, to quote the leading scholar of “democracy promotion,” Thomas Carothers, a former Reagan official who is a strong advocate of the process but who recognizes the reality, unhappily.
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-empire-of-chaos/
November 10, 2015
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/reaper-madness-counterproductive-drone-wars/
Reaper Madness: Counterproductive Drone Wars
By Doug Noble
Source: Worldbeyondwar.org
November 10, 2015
Our entire Middle East policy seems to be based on firing drones,” Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told The Intercept. “They’re enamored by the ability of special operations and the CIA to find a guy in the middle of the desert in some shitty little village and drop a bomb on his head and kill him.”
Now government documents leaked to the Intercept show conclusively that the US drone program kills thousands of innocents on bad intelligence and careless targeting while being falsely portrayed as a program of impeccable planning and precision execution. The recently leaked “Drone Papers” reveal the extent of willful ineptitude in US drone operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, which rely on systematically faulty intelligence and astonishing inaccuracies in identifying targets. These revelations only further confirm what many of us already knew about the appalling failure, relentless deception and criminal lethality of the US drone program.
But it’s even worse. Careless execution and public distortion are one thing. If the US were in fact relying on a proven military technology and strategy to defeat terrorists and “keep America safe,” despite setbacks and innocent lives lost, there are those who could justify the cost.
But what is perhaps most insidious of all is the fact that many studies long available to military planners have shown decisively that the use of weaponized drones in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts is both ineffective and counterproductive. Even more, the historical record and recent research shows quite clearly that the “decapitation” strategy driving such drone use – the assassination of high value targets – has itself been both unsuccessful and counterproductive in defeating insurgent or terrorist organizations.
So the drone warriors have known all along it wouldn’t work: that killer drones and kill lists would slaughter thousands of civilians but never defeat terrorists. They’ve known this conclusively from decades of military experience and volumes of research studies. Yet they continue to do it anyway, ever more expansively, ever more mindlessly. Why? Because they can (and because they have no Plan B).
But it’s even worse. Careless execution and public distortion are one thing. If the US were in fact relying on a proven military technology and strategy to defeat terrorists and “keep America safe,” despite setbacks and innocent lives lost, there are those who could justify the cost.
But what is perhaps most insidious of all is the fact that many studies long available to military planners have shown decisively that the use of weaponized drones in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts is both ineffective and counterproductive. Even more, the historical record and recent research shows quite clearly that the “decapitation” strategy driving such drone use – the assassination of high value targets – has itself been both unsuccessful and counterproductive in defeating insurgent or terrorist organizations.
So the drone warriors have known all along it wouldn’t work: that killer drones and kill lists would slaughter thousands of civilians but never defeat terrorists. They’ve known this conclusively from decades of military experience and volumes of research studies. Yet they continue to do it anyway, ever more expansively, ever more mindlessly. Why? Because they can (and because they have no Plan B).
What I’ve tried to show here is something more: that these military miscreants have also known all along that their drone technology and targeting strategy are militarily bankrupt. They could not but be aware from military history and doctrine that these approaches have absolutely no possibility of defeating terrorist groups or keeping America safe. They must know that in fact the opposite is true, that their nefarious enterprise only further endangers us all. And yet they will continue ever more brazenly their Reaper madness, the scholars here all agree, until we find some way to stop them.
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/reaper-madness-counterproductive-drone-wars/
November 9, 2015
Full article: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/canadian-researchers-break-blood-brain-barrier-with-new-ultrasound-treatment-1.2648878
"Bonny Hall is the first patient to undergo the non-invasive brain treatment. Hall recently learned that the benign brain tumour she has lived with for eight years had begun to grow quickly and was malignant."
Canadian researchers break blood-brain barrier with new ultrasound treatment
CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Sunday, November 8, 2015 10:02PM EST
Last Updated Monday, November 9, 2015 7:29AM EST
Canadian scientists have made history with a world first, successfully using focused ultrasound to break through one of the human body's final frontiers -- the blood-brain barrier.
The researchers have unlocked a non-invasive way to deliver medication deep into the brain, opening the door to better treatments for brain tumours, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more.
The blood-brain barrier has long been an obstacle for doctors trying to treat brain diseases. The barrier is a layer of tightly packed cells that act like plastic wrap, surrounding each of the brain's blood vessels, protecting them from infections and toxins.
Because little can get through this barrier, it is frustratingly difficult for doctors to treat tumours and brain diseases because life-saving drugs can't enter brain cells.
But neuroscientists at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have found a non-invasive solution. They have devised a new technique involving microbubbles and focused ultrasound to get through the barrier.
The researchers have unlocked a non-invasive way to deliver medication deep into the brain, opening the door to better treatments for brain tumours, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more.
The blood-brain barrier has long been an obstacle for doctors trying to treat brain diseases. The barrier is a layer of tightly packed cells that act like plastic wrap, surrounding each of the brain's blood vessels, protecting them from infections and toxins.
Because little can get through this barrier, it is frustratingly difficult for doctors to treat tumours and brain diseases because life-saving drugs can't enter brain cells.
But neuroscientists at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have found a non-invasive solution. They have devised a new technique involving microbubbles and focused ultrasound to get through the barrier.
Kullervo Hynynen, one of the scientists who has been working on this technique, says the animal tests went well and if the approach works in humans, it would be a game-changer.
"It will revolutionize the way we treat brain disease completely. It will give hope to patients who have no hope," Hynynen says.
"It will revolutionize the way we treat brain disease completely. It will give hope to patients who have no hope," Hynynen says.
Full article: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/canadian-researchers-break-blood-brain-barrier-with-new-ultrasound-treatment-1.2648878
"Bonny Hall is the first patient to undergo the non-invasive brain treatment. Hall recently learned that the benign brain tumour she has lived with for eight years had begun to grow quickly and was malignant."
November 9, 2015
?2
Rohingya refugees are pictured on a boat off the southern Thai island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman Sea on May 14, 2015.
Aid groups say at least 6,000 refugees -- and perhaps many times that number -- have been drifting for days and months in the waters between Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. They were abandoned with little food and water by human traffickers after a regional crackdown on smuggling networks. Most are Rohingya Muslims who are stateless in Myanmar and Bangladeshis trying to escape poverty.
?2
Rohingya migrants sit on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe, May 14, 2015.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/boat-people-photos_n_7283178.html?ir=WorldPost
The Rohingya - Adrift on a Sea of Sorrows
By Eric Margolis
Full article: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42008.htm
?itok=MwUi9KOJ
More than 100,000 Rohingyas tried to escape Burma on boats in the last year. (Photo/endgenocide.org)
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/05/30/rohingya-adrift-sea-sorrows
Mass graves of Rohingya Muslim migrants found in abandoned jungle camps in Malaysia
AGENCY Sunday 24 May 2015
Full article: http://world.einnews.com/article/267110665/j47hG4-1JDja11R7
"The Rohingya people - often described as one of the most persecuted people on earth"
Bumping this d/t the Myanmar election results .......
hoping they will finally be recognized and afforded legal protection.
The Boat Of Starving Rohingya Refugees That No Country Will Take In
The emaciated faces of hundreds of refugees found adrift in Thai waters on Thursday spoke volumes about the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in South Asia.
Reporters on Thursday found about 400 refugees from Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority crammed aboard a wooden fishing boat in the Andaman Sea, desperate for food and water.
The refugees said they had been at sea for almost three months and had fled persecution in their home country. They had hoped to reach Malaysia but were turned away by Malay authorities. Six days ago, smugglers abandoned their ship, and ten people had already perished onboard, refugees said.
Christophe Archambault, a photographer for Agence France Presse, captured the harrowing scenes onboard the ship, and the desperate scramble for supplies that were eventually dropped by the Thai military.
?2
Rohingya refugees are pictured on a boat off the southern Thai island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman Sea on May 14, 2015.
Aid groups say at least 6,000 refugees -- and perhaps many times that number -- have been drifting for days and months in the waters between Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. They were abandoned with little food and water by human traffickers after a regional crackdown on smuggling networks. Most are Rohingya Muslims who are stateless in Myanmar and Bangladeshis trying to escape poverty.
?2
Rohingya migrants sit on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe, May 14, 2015.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/boat-people-photos_n_7283178.html?ir=WorldPost
The Rohingya - Adrift on a Sea of Sorrows
By Eric Margolis
May 31, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - When is genocide not really genocide? When the victims are small, impoverished brown people no wants or cares about – Burma’s Rohingya.
Their plight has finally commanded some media attention because of the suffering of Rohingya boat people, 7,000 of whom continue to drift in the waters of the Andaman Sea without food, water or shelter from the intense sun. At least 2,500 lucky refugees are in camps in Indonesia.
Mass graves of Rohingya are being discovered in Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). Large numbers of Rohingya are fleeing for their lives from their homeland, Burma, while the world does nothing. Burma is believed to have some 800,000 Rohingya citizens.
This week, the Dalai Lama and other Nobel Peace Prize winners call on Burma and its much ballyhooed ‘democratic leader,’ Aung San Suu Kyi, to halt persecution of the Rohingya. They did nothing.
Full article: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42008.htm
?itok=MwUi9KOJ
More than 100,000 Rohingyas tried to escape Burma on boats in the last year. (Photo/endgenocide.org)
Thailand wants no Rohyingas; Indonesia says only a few thousand on a temporary basis. Australia, which is not overly fond of non-whites, say no. Bangladesh can’t even feed its own wretched people. So the poor Rohyingas are a persecuted people without a country, adrift on a sea of sorrows.
What of the Muslim world? What of that self-proclaimed “Defender of the Faith. Saudi Arabia?” The Saudis are just buying $109 billion worth of US arms which they can’t use, but they don’t have even a few pennies for their desperate co-religionists in the Andaman Sea. The Holy Koran enjoins Muslims to aid their brethren wherever they are persecuted – this is the true essence of jihadism.
But the Saudis are too busy plotting against Iran, bombing Yemen, and supporting rebels in Iraq and Syria, or getting ready for their summer vacations in Spain and France, to think about fellow Muslims dying of thirst. Pakistan, which could help, has not, other than offering moral support. Neither has India, one of the world’s leading Muslim nations.
In the end, it may be up to the United States to rescue the Rohyinga, just as it rescued Bosnia and Kosovo. That’s fine with me. I don’t want the US to be the world’s policeman; I want it to be the world’s rescuer, its SOS force, its liberator.
We should tell Burma to halt its genocide today, or face isolation and sanctions from the outside world.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/05/30/rohingya-adrift-sea-sorrows
Mass graves of Rohingya Muslim migrants found in abandoned jungle camps in Malaysia
AGENCY Sunday 24 May 2015
Malaysian police have discovered mass graves in more than a dozen abandoned camps used by human traffickers on the border with Thailand, where Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar have been held.
"These graves are believed to be a part of human trafficking activities involving migrants," Home Minister Zahid Hamidi told reporters.
He did not say how many bodies have been recovered.
The Malaysian newspaper The Star has reported that as many as 100 bodies were found at one camp.
Similar camps and dozens of remains were recovered in jungle camps across the border in Thailand earlier this month, where Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar had been held by traffickers until their families could pay for their freedom.
"These graves are believed to be a part of human trafficking activities involving migrants," Home Minister Zahid Hamidi told reporters.
He did not say how many bodies have been recovered.
The Malaysian newspaper The Star has reported that as many as 100 bodies were found at one camp.
Similar camps and dozens of remains were recovered in jungle camps across the border in Thailand earlier this month, where Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar had been held by traffickers until their families could pay for their freedom.
Full article: http://world.einnews.com/article/267110665/j47hG4-1JDja11R7
"The Rohingya people - often described as one of the most persecuted people on earth"
November 8, 2015
by K.J. Noh / November 8th, 2015
Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/why-the-tpp-must-be-opposed-at-all-costs/#more-60389
bbm.
Why the TPP Must be Opposed at All Costs
It’s Worse Than You Thinkby K.J. Noh / November 8th, 2015
The TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the corporate Mega-deal on “free trade” has been concluded between the partner states, and is now in the final stages of its ratification. This deal involves the US and 11 other countries (Canada, US, Mexico, Chile, Peru; Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Brunei, Japan) of the Pacific Rim, representing 40% of global economic activity. The text was secretly negotiated by hundreds of corporate lobbyists. It has now been released, and Congress will have 90 days to examine the 6000 page text before approving, which will allow the President to sign it in to law.
For six years, this corporate-drafted legislation was a pig in a poke. Nobody knew what was in it–except the hundreds (550) of corporate lobbyists that had been drafting it for years in total secrecy. They wouldn’t say what was in it. They would only say it was good for you. They just wanted you to support it. Critics were told to shut up on the grounds that they knew nothing about it. But the outline that people had been able to discern through leaks were monstrous.
The text has been just released—by the orders of a New Zealand court–and it is, as anticipated, monstrous, explaining the Manhattan-Project-level secrecy. It’s a total corporate giveaway, and despite some pathetic attempts to put lipstick on it, it’s every bit as bad as we had anticipated, and a little bit worse. Here are some of the key issues:
For six years, this corporate-drafted legislation was a pig in a poke. Nobody knew what was in it–except the hundreds (550) of corporate lobbyists that had been drafting it for years in total secrecy. They wouldn’t say what was in it. They would only say it was good for you. They just wanted you to support it. Critics were told to shut up on the grounds that they knew nothing about it. But the outline that people had been able to discern through leaks were monstrous.
The text has been just released—by the orders of a New Zealand court–and it is, as anticipated, monstrous, explaining the Manhattan-Project-level secrecy. It’s a total corporate giveaway, and despite some pathetic attempts to put lipstick on it, it’s every bit as bad as we had anticipated, and a little bit worse. Here are some of the key issues:
Subversion of Democracy and Sovereignty:
ISDS refers to Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism. Think of it really as an Intentional Subversion of Democracy and Sovereignty. This is the extrajudicial process written into the TPP (Chapter 28), whereby governments can be dragged before tribunals by corporate lawyers if they think national (health, environmental, consumer protection, public policy) laws violate their TPP rights or limit future expected profits. This is a panel of bespoke-suited corporate lawyers deciding whether environmental laws, safety regulations, public policy, or labor laws get in the way of profit or not. Imagine how they will decide. Profits or people? The outcome, written into the very raison d’être of the TPP, is a foregone conclusion. These results will be unaccountable and binding. No appeal is possible.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that corporations want profit the way that sexual predators want sex: at any cost. Instead of moderating, controlling or preventing this, this agreement enshrines into transnational law a supranational corporate entitlement to profit, regardless of risk or danger to the state, democratic sovereignty, the people, or the planet. For that reason alone, the TPP should be opposed at all costs. But there’s more. ..........
ISDS refers to Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism. Think of it really as an Intentional Subversion of Democracy and Sovereignty. This is the extrajudicial process written into the TPP (Chapter 28), whereby governments can be dragged before tribunals by corporate lawyers if they think national (health, environmental, consumer protection, public policy) laws violate their TPP rights or limit future expected profits. This is a panel of bespoke-suited corporate lawyers deciding whether environmental laws, safety regulations, public policy, or labor laws get in the way of profit or not. Imagine how they will decide. Profits or people? The outcome, written into the very raison d’être of the TPP, is a foregone conclusion. These results will be unaccountable and binding. No appeal is possible.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that corporations want profit the way that sexual predators want sex: at any cost. Instead of moderating, controlling or preventing this, this agreement enshrines into transnational law a supranational corporate entitlement to profit, regardless of risk or danger to the state, democratic sovereignty, the people, or the planet. For that reason alone, the TPP should be opposed at all costs. But there’s more. ..........
Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/why-the-tpp-must-be-opposed-at-all-costs/#more-60389
bbm.
November 7, 2015
Full article: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/shaker-aamer-13-years-guantanamo-bay-torture-uk#.Vj5daLerTq4
What was the UK's role in CIA torture?
Full article: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/what-was-uks-role-cia-torture#.Vj5eQLerTq4
Shaker Aamer: 13 years in Guantánamo Bay
Shaker Aamer has finally been released after being detained in Guantánamo Bay detention centre without charge or trial for the last 13 years.
The reports come after a 30-day 'notification' period allowing US Congress to be informed of the terms of Shaker Aamer’s release from the US military base.
46-year-old Shaker Aamer was one of the first detainees to be sent to the notorious camp in 2002, and the last UK resident to be detained there. He was cleared for transfer from Guantánamo in 2007, indicating that US authorities had no intention of bringing him to trial for the last eight years.
His lawyer maintains that Shaker Aamer remained imprisoned for so long because he witnessed US and UK agents torturing men while he was in US detention.
Shaker Aamer has claimed that MI5 officials were in the room when he was being tortured, which highlights the urgent need for an independent, judge-led inquiry into UK involvement in the CIA's programme of torture and rendition.
The reports come after a 30-day 'notification' period allowing US Congress to be informed of the terms of Shaker Aamer’s release from the US military base.
46-year-old Shaker Aamer was one of the first detainees to be sent to the notorious camp in 2002, and the last UK resident to be detained there. He was cleared for transfer from Guantánamo in 2007, indicating that US authorities had no intention of bringing him to trial for the last eight years.
His lawyer maintains that Shaker Aamer remained imprisoned for so long because he witnessed US and UK agents torturing men while he was in US detention.
Shaker Aamer has claimed that MI5 officials were in the room when he was being tortured, which highlights the urgent need for an independent, judge-led inquiry into UK involvement in the CIA's programme of torture and rendition.
'Aamer has alleged that he was tortured in full view of British agents in Afghanistan - a very serious claim that should be fully investigated as part of an independent, judge-led inquiry into a whole set of allegations that UK officials were involved in kidnap, detention and torture overseas during the ‘war on terror'.'
Kate Allen, Amnesty UK Director
Full article: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/shaker-aamer-13-years-guantanamo-bay-torture-uk#.Vj5daLerTq4
What was the UK's role in CIA torture?
The public, heavily redacted torture report summary highlights some of the gruesome details of the torture methods used in secret CIA-run prisons across the world. It details how the CIA used waterboarding, mock executions, 'rectal feeding', sleep deprivation, stress positions and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against detainees.
As well as some of the horrific effects the interrogation techniques had on the detainees themselves - including hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation. But the CIA and other US authorities did not act alone.
UK involvement in torture?
Many people were allegedly subjected to torture and rendition during the global counter-terrorism programme operated by US government and its allies after the attacks of 9/11. That includes the UK.
Ewen MacAskill ✔ @ewenmacaskill
Handcuffed CIA prisoner hanging from bar 22 hours a day for two days. "was wearing a diaper and had no access to toilet facilities".
As well as some of the horrific effects the interrogation techniques had on the detainees themselves - including hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation. But the CIA and other US authorities did not act alone.
UK involvement in torture?
Many people were allegedly subjected to torture and rendition during the global counter-terrorism programme operated by US government and its allies after the attacks of 9/11. That includes the UK.
Full article: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/what-was-uks-role-cia-torture#.Vj5eQLerTq4
November 7, 2015
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/mexicos_supreme_court_rules_that_smoking_pot_is_a_fundamental_human_r
Mexico’s Supreme Court Rules That Smoking Pot Is a Fundamental Human Right
Posted on Nov 6, 2015
Mexico’s Supreme Court opened the door Wednesday to legalizing marijuana, ruling 4 to 1 that outlawing the possession and use of the marijuana plant constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights.
The motion represents a sharp challenge to the country’s strict drug laws, adding the court’s weight to the growing debate in Latin America over the costs and consequences of the war on drugs.
While Wednesday’s ruling does not signify that marijuana is now legal in Mexico, as it only applies to the four plaintiffs in this specific case, “it’s really a monumental case,” according to Hannah Hetzer of the Drug Policy Alliance, a drug reform advocacy group. “It was argued on human rights grounds, which is unusual, and it’s taking place in Mexico, the epicenter of some of the worst effects of the war on drugs,” Hetzer said.
The motion represents a sharp challenge to the country’s strict drug laws, adding the court’s weight to the growing debate in Latin America over the costs and consequences of the war on drugs.
While Wednesday’s ruling does not signify that marijuana is now legal in Mexico, as it only applies to the four plaintiffs in this specific case, “it’s really a monumental case,” according to Hannah Hetzer of the Drug Policy Alliance, a drug reform advocacy group. “It was argued on human rights grounds, which is unusual, and it’s taking place in Mexico, the epicenter of some of the worst effects of the war on drugs,” Hetzer said.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/mexicos_supreme_court_rules_that_smoking_pot_is_a_fundamental_human_r
November 7, 2015
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/mass-mobilization-to-stop-the-tpp-announced-as-text-is-released/
bbm.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/10/spread-the-word-tpp-is-toxic-political-poison-that-politicians-should-avoid/#more-60210
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/06/a-real-threat-isds/
Are we overlooking the most dangerous aspect of TTIP?
Alex Scrivener
19 October 2015
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2015/oct/19/are-we-overlooking-most-dangerous-aspect-ttip
Definitely not 'FAIR' trade, by any means.
Canada is the most sued country in the ‘developed’ world, that should sound alarm bells in the EU
Maude Barlow
30 October 2015 Trade
Full article: http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2015/oct/30/canada-most-sued-country-developed-world-and-should-sound-alarm-bells-eu
If we can't fight off these barbaric suits to the cost of millions for we, the taxpayers, to pay off, what chance do poorer nations have?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016112245
Post em yourself. I just have articles showing how 'real' people have
suffered. These new agreements are 'NAFTA on steroids' - common sense tells me exactly what will happen now to even more.
Your stats don't reflect reality and I don't believe in any of them, they can be adjusted to show pretty much anything.
The protest, co-sponsored by 59 organizations, is being spearheaded by Popular Resistance and Flush The TPP and includes environmental, human rights, labor, climate change and good government groups. They have been organizing this mobilization for months knowing that the TPP would be made public around this time.
“At its root, the TPP is about modern colonialism. It is the way that Western governments and their transnational corporations, including Wall Street banks, can dominate the economies of developing nations,” said Margaret Flowers, co-director of Popular Resistance. She continued “The reality is that without trade justice there cannot be climate justice, food justice; there cannot be health justice or wage justice. That is why people are mobilizing to stop the TPP.”
Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins, organizer for Flush The TPP, said: “The TPP impacts every issue we care about as a result, a unified movement of movements to stop the TPP has developed. People who care about corporate power versus democracy and our sovereignty or about jobs and workers, the environment and climate change, health care, food and water, energy regulation of banks are mobilizing to make stopping the TPP their top priority.”
“At its root, the TPP is about modern colonialism. It is the way that Western governments and their transnational corporations, including Wall Street banks, can dominate the economies of developing nations,” said Margaret Flowers, co-director of Popular Resistance. She continued “The reality is that without trade justice there cannot be climate justice, food justice; there cannot be health justice or wage justice. That is why people are mobilizing to stop the TPP.”
Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins, organizer for Flush The TPP, said: “The TPP impacts every issue we care about as a result, a unified movement of movements to stop the TPP has developed. People who care about corporate power versus democracy and our sovereignty or about jobs and workers, the environment and climate change, health care, food and water, energy regulation of banks are mobilizing to make stopping the TPP their top priority.”
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/mass-mobilization-to-stop-the-tpp-announced-as-text-is-released/
bbm.
And, similar to the TPP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is having troubles in Europe. Europeans see TTIP either not advancing or going in the wrong direction because of the heavy handedness of the U.S. The French negotiator said: “France is considering all options including an outright termination of negotiations.” More than 3 million people across Europe signed a petition calling on the European Commission to scrap the agreement and hundreds of thousands marched in Berlin on October 10 opposing the TTIP. People realize that rather than opening up new markets, since the U.S. and EU countries already trade a great deal, it will privatize public services for corporate profits.
At its root, the TPP is about modern colonialism. It is the way that Western governments and their transnational corporations, including Wall Street banks, can dominate the economies of developing nations. To be part of the TPP, governments are required to allow foreign ownership of property, including buying land in signatory countries. The TPP allows corporate trade tribunals to overrule their laws, acquire resources cheaply and provide slave wages to workers. And, if all else fails, the U.S. and allied militaries will be there to enforce agreements.
The TPP gives incredible power to foreign banks to move money in and out of countries without restrictions. It minimizes regulation of big finance to allow risk-tasking that endangers the world economy. Countries that need money will be enslaved by loans from big finance like Citigroup, and once they are in debt, they will be unable to stand up to the demands of banksters who threaten them as we witnessed recently in Greece.
The reality is that without trade justice there cannot be climate justice, food justice; there cannot be health justice or wage justice. Injustice in trade undermines all the issues the social movement is working to correct.
As a result the largest trade justice movement has developed and is growing. Be part of this cultural shift that will challenge corporate power and build the power of people.
The TPP gives incredible power to foreign banks to move money in and out of countries without restrictions. It minimizes regulation of big finance to allow risk-tasking that endangers the world economy. Countries that need money will be enslaved by loans from big finance like Citigroup, and once they are in debt, they will be unable to stand up to the demands of banksters who threaten them as we witnessed recently in Greece.
The reality is that without trade justice there cannot be climate justice, food justice; there cannot be health justice or wage justice. Injustice in trade undermines all the issues the social movement is working to correct.
As a result the largest trade justice movement has developed and is growing. Be part of this cultural shift that will challenge corporate power and build the power of people.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/10/spread-the-word-tpp-is-toxic-political-poison-that-politicians-should-avoid/#more-60210
ISDS is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement process that is part of recent so-called trade agreements. The zealots pushing ISDS are those who worship Mammon and who seemingly are willing to sacrifice everything else on the altar of short-term greed. Specifically, ISDS is being pushed by Wall Street, transnational corporations and rich investors.
Under ISDS, if a foreign corporation/investor thinks that a government’s policy reduces its profits or expected future profits, ISDS allows the foreign investor to evade the usual judicial system. Instead, the investor can bring a nation before a hearing of a tribunal of trade lawyers. These lawyers may represent an investor in one case and be an arbitrator in another case. Public interests, such as protection of public health, the environment, buy local programs, etc. take a back seat to commercial considerations in these deliberations. Laws passed by a democratic process can be overridden and national sovereignty is out the window.
If the investor wins, the government must either change the policy or pay what can turn out to be a very substantial fee. If the state wins, there is no cost to the investor. In addition, the ISDS is even more one-sided as the state has no corresponding right to bring an original claim against the foreign investor.
According to an article by Robin Broad in the January/February Dollars & Sense issue, in 1964, 21 developing-country governments voted no on the establishment of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a predecessor of ISDS, as a new part of the World Bank. All 19 of the Latin American countries attending the meeting voted no.
Felix Ruiz of Chile spoke on behalf of these 19 countries and said:
Under ISDS, if a foreign corporation/investor thinks that a government’s policy reduces its profits or expected future profits, ISDS allows the foreign investor to evade the usual judicial system. Instead, the investor can bring a nation before a hearing of a tribunal of trade lawyers. These lawyers may represent an investor in one case and be an arbitrator in another case. Public interests, such as protection of public health, the environment, buy local programs, etc. take a back seat to commercial considerations in these deliberations. Laws passed by a democratic process can be overridden and national sovereignty is out the window.
If the investor wins, the government must either change the policy or pay what can turn out to be a very substantial fee. If the state wins, there is no cost to the investor. In addition, the ISDS is even more one-sided as the state has no corresponding right to bring an original claim against the foreign investor.
According to an article by Robin Broad in the January/February Dollars & Sense issue, in 1964, 21 developing-country governments voted no on the establishment of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a predecessor of ISDS, as a new part of the World Bank. All 19 of the Latin American countries attending the meeting voted no.
Felix Ruiz of Chile spoke on behalf of these 19 countries and said:
The new system that has been suggested would give the foreign investor, by virtue of the fact that he is a foreigner, the right to sue a sovereign state outside its national territory, dispensing with the courts of law. This provision is contrary to the accepted legal principles of our countries and, de facto, would confer a privilege on the foreign investor, placing the nationals of the country concerned in a position of inferiority.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/06/a-real-threat-isds/
Are we overlooking the most dangerous aspect of TTIP?
Alex Scrivener
19 October 2015
Collateral damage. Enhanced interrogation. What’s the name for those phrases or words that sound relatively innocuous but are actually covering up something that’s very violent or very bad. Here’s another one: regulatory cooperation. Cooperation is a good thing, right? It doesn’t sound so threatening, but it’s a masterful example of the power of language to make something terrible sound benign. And it’s nestling at the heart of the trade deal being hammered out between the EU and the USA.
To most people, regulations such as air pollution limits and food safety standards are common sense protections against dangerous threats. However, to many big businesses, these rules are just red tape or “non-tariff barriers to trade” (NTBs) which inhibit profits. Proponents of TTIP say that 80% of the supposed benefits of the deal will come from getting rid of these NTBs.
Our new briefing shows how regulatory cooperation presents a unique opportunity for corporate interests on both sides of the Atlantic to lobby for these standards to be brought down to the lowest common denominator. Many of the major corporate interests pushing for TTIP actually think this, not ISDS, is the aspect of the deal that is most important to them. Some supporters of TTIP have even gone as far as to advocate sacrificing ISDS to protect regulatory cooperation. Corporate lobbyists have expressed the hope that regulatory cooperation will make them so powerful that it will allow them to effectively “co-write” regulation with policy-makers.
Our new briefing shows how regulatory cooperation presents a unique opportunity for corporate interests on both sides of the Atlantic to lobby for these standards to be brought down to the lowest common denominator. Many of the major corporate interests pushing for TTIP actually think this, not ISDS, is the aspect of the deal that is most important to them. Some supporters of TTIP have even gone as far as to advocate sacrificing ISDS to protect regulatory cooperation. Corporate lobbyists have expressed the hope that regulatory cooperation will make them so powerful that it will allow them to effectively “co-write” regulation with policy-makers.
Proponents of TTIP say all of this is just scaremongering, but the reality is that this stuff is already happening. The mere prospect of the deal is already weakening certain EU standards. For example, US officials successfully used the prospect of TTIP to bully the EU into abandoning plans to ban 31 dangerous pesticides with ingredients that have been shown to cause cancer and infertility. A similar fate befell regulations around the treatment of beef with lactic acid. This was banned in Europe because of fears that the procedure was being used to conceal unhygienic practices. The ban was repealed by MEPs in a Parliamentary Committee after EU Commission officials openly suggested TTIP negotiations would be threatened if the ban wasn't lifted.
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2015/oct/19/are-we-overlooking-most-dangerous-aspect-ttip
Definitely not 'FAIR' trade, by any means.
Canada is the most sued country in the ‘developed’ world, that should sound alarm bells in the EU
Maude Barlow
30 October 2015 Trade
Several weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of people across Europe and the UK marched to protest the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a massive planned new trade deal between Europe and the US. They were rightly sounding the alarm as TTIP will greatly reduce the ability of local governments to spend public money for local development, impose new limits on the right of governments of all levels to regulate on behalf of their citizens and environment, endanger public services and jeopardize Europe’s higher standards on labour, food safety and social security.
TTIP also includes Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a provision that will allow American corporations to sue European governments for laws and practices that threaten their bottom line. There are now over 3,200 bilateral ISDS agreements in the world, and foreign corporations have used them to sue governments over health, safety and environmental laws.
Cigarette maker Phillip Morris used ISDS to challenge Australian rules around cigarette packaging intended to promote public health. A Swedish company, Vattenfall, is suing Germany for a reported €4.7 billion relating to Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power. ISDS is profoundly anti-democratic and threatens the human rights of people everywhere.
But people in the UK and Europe should be paying attention to another deal that has had way less attention. CETA – the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada – is equally disturbing and way further along in the process. I’m coming on a speaking tour of the UK to share a powerful story of Canada’s experience that is relevant for two reasons.
The first is that we Canadians have lived with ISDS for twenty years. It was first included in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico, and has been used extensively by the corporations of North America to get their way. As a result of NAFTA, Canada is now the most sued developed country in the world.
TTIP also includes Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a provision that will allow American corporations to sue European governments for laws and practices that threaten their bottom line. There are now over 3,200 bilateral ISDS agreements in the world, and foreign corporations have used them to sue governments over health, safety and environmental laws.
Cigarette maker Phillip Morris used ISDS to challenge Australian rules around cigarette packaging intended to promote public health. A Swedish company, Vattenfall, is suing Germany for a reported €4.7 billion relating to Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power. ISDS is profoundly anti-democratic and threatens the human rights of people everywhere.
But people in the UK and Europe should be paying attention to another deal that has had way less attention. CETA – the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada – is equally disturbing and way further along in the process. I’m coming on a speaking tour of the UK to share a powerful story of Canada’s experience that is relevant for two reasons.
The first is that we Canadians have lived with ISDS for twenty years. It was first included in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico, and has been used extensively by the corporations of North America to get their way. As a result of NAFTA, Canada is now the most sued developed country in the world.
Full article: http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2015/oct/30/canada-most-sued-country-developed-world-and-should-sound-alarm-bells-eu
If we can't fight off these barbaric suits to the cost of millions for we, the taxpayers, to pay off, what chance do poorer nations have?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016112245
November 6, 2015
Afghanistan “After” the American War
By Ann Jones
Source: TomDispatch.com
November 5, 2015
"Ten months ago, on December 28, 2014, a ceremony in Kabul officially marked the conclusion of America’s very long war in Afghanistan. President Obama called that day “a milestone for our country.” After more than 13 years, he said, “our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.”
That was then. This is now. In between, on September 28, 2015, came another milestone: the Taliban takeover of Kunduz, the capital of the province of the same name in northern Afghanistan, and with a population of about 270,000, the country’s fifth-largest city.
A few invaders strolled unopposed to the city center to raise the white flag of the Taliban. Others went door to door, searching for Afghan women who worked for women’s organizations or the government. They looted homes, offices, and schools, stealing cars and smashing computers. They destroyed three radio stations run by women. They attacked the offices of the American-led organization Women for Afghan Women and burned its women’s shelter to the ground. They denied reports on Kabul TV stations that they had raped women in the university dormitory and the women’s prison, then threatened to kill the reporters who broadcast the stories.
They called the mobile phones of targeted women who had escaped the city and warned them they would be killed if they returned. No longer safe in Kunduz, those women found that they were not safe in the places to which they had fled either. London’s Telegraph reported that “the lasting legacy of [the Taliban’s] invasion may ultimately prove to be the dismantlement of the city’s women’s rights network.” ..........
.........."I think of all my brave Afghan colleagues who go to work in women’s organizations, like those in Kunduz, every day under threat of death. I think of fearless Afghan women across the country — activists, parliamentarians, doctors, teachers, organizers, policewomen, actresses, TV presenters, singers, radio broadcasters, journalists, government ministers, provincial officials, candidates for public office — who over the last 10 years have been assassinated one by one, by teams of armed men on motorcycles, or by a bomb attached to the underside of a car, or by masked squads with ropes or Kalashnikovs. These killings have gone on year after year, the names of the dead women remembered and their numbers tallied by Human Rights Watch, while the Afghan government and the Bush or Obama administrations uttered scarcely a word of protest or condolence, and Afghan police failed to arrest a single assassin. George W. Bush famously claimed to have “liberated” Afghan women. Fourteen years later, with the Taliban again rising, with Washington having sunk tens of billions of dollars into the training and arming of hundreds of thousands of Afghan men to defend their country, it’s now time to offer Afghan women a course in how to defend themselves?"
Ann Jones has worked with women’s organizations in Afghanistan periodically since 2002. A TomDispatch regular, she is the author of Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan and most recently They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America’s Wars — the Untold Story, a Dispatch Books original. She is currently an associate of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University.
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/afghanistan-after-the-american-war/
(And yes, I know there are other countries that were involved, including my own, but I can't change the titles ....)
November 5, 2015
Made in Bangladesh - the fifth estate
VOICES
The True Cost of Fashion
Reviewed by Sharon L. Fawcett – communicator, author and Voices member
Fifteen-year-old Nasrin is one of Bangladesh's 4 million garment factory workers. She earns about $1.70 a day.
"The True Cost" - a film written and directed by Andrew Morgan; produced by Michael Ross
Released 2015; 92 minutes; available on Netflix or at truecostmovie.com
http://www.worldvision.ca/getinvolved/voices/Pages/The-True-Cost-of-Fashion.aspx
'The True Cost' - Official Trailer
Made in Bangladesh - the fifth estate
VOICES
The True Cost of Fashion
Reviewed by Sharon L. Fawcett – communicator, author and Voices member
Fifteen-year-old Nasrin is one of Bangladesh's 4 million garment factory workers. She earns about $1.70 a day.
"The True Cost" - a film written and directed by Andrew Morgan; produced by Michael Ross
Released 2015; 92 minutes; available on Netflix or at truecostmovie.com
One in six people on the planet work in the global fashion supply chain, making fashion the most labour-dependent industry on earth. “The True Cost”—a breathtaking and heartbreaking documentary—reveals how consumer fashion choices impact these workers, the rest of us, and our world.
Eighty billion garments are purchased each year globally—400 percent more than two decades ago. The industry that once had two fashion seasons annually now has 52 as retailers peddle new product weekly, supplying shoppers with an endless fix of inexpensive clothing.
What is the consequence of this fashion obsession—the true cost of “fast fashion?” According to the documentary, it is the suicides of hundreds of thousands of Indian cotton farmers unable to escape debts to biotechnology and agrochemical companies, the decimation of local garment industries in low-income countries swamped by donations of cast-off clothing, and the toll taken on the earth’s ecosystems as every step in a garment’s life threatens them.
The enormous quantities of chemicals and natural resources used to produce the raw material for clothing (such as cotton and leather), manufacture the product, and ship goods worldwide, have made the fashion industry the second most polluting industry on earth, second only to the fossil fuel industry. They have also led to high rates of disease and disability among people exposed to this pollution—people who often cannot afford medical treatment.
The true cost of fast fashion is also borne by garment factory workers labouring with few protections in hazardous conditions, often not earning enough to meet their families’ basic needs. While the profits earned by fashion companies increase, the wages paid to those who make the clothing decline as the industry now outsources nearly all of its manufacturing to factories in low-income countries.
Eighty billion garments are purchased each year globally—400 percent more than two decades ago. The industry that once had two fashion seasons annually now has 52 as retailers peddle new product weekly, supplying shoppers with an endless fix of inexpensive clothing.
What is the consequence of this fashion obsession—the true cost of “fast fashion?” According to the documentary, it is the suicides of hundreds of thousands of Indian cotton farmers unable to escape debts to biotechnology and agrochemical companies, the decimation of local garment industries in low-income countries swamped by donations of cast-off clothing, and the toll taken on the earth’s ecosystems as every step in a garment’s life threatens them.
The enormous quantities of chemicals and natural resources used to produce the raw material for clothing (such as cotton and leather), manufacture the product, and ship goods worldwide, have made the fashion industry the second most polluting industry on earth, second only to the fossil fuel industry. They have also led to high rates of disease and disability among people exposed to this pollution—people who often cannot afford medical treatment.
The true cost of fast fashion is also borne by garment factory workers labouring with few protections in hazardous conditions, often not earning enough to meet their families’ basic needs. While the profits earned by fashion companies increase, the wages paid to those who make the clothing decline as the industry now outsources nearly all of its manufacturing to factories in low-income countries.
http://www.worldvision.ca/getinvolved/voices/Pages/The-True-Cost-of-Fashion.aspx
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