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Lauren McCauley – Jimmy Carter on US ‘Oligarchy’ and Corrupting Power of Money on Politics

Commenting on the political landscape, now six years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter laments that Washington D.C. has become corrupted by the influence of money. “We’ve become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy,” Carter told Oprah Winfrey in an interview excerpt released on Tuesday. “I think that’s been the worst damage to the basic moral …

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Nick Barrickman – US pharmaceutical industry price-gouging and the case of Martin Shkreli

The decision by biotechnology firm Turing Pharmaceuticals to raise the cost of Pyrimethamine (or Daraprim), a drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, from $13.50 to more than $750 per pill, has aroused shock and outrage. Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease to which people with weakened immune systems from of diseases such as AIDS, as well as certain cancer patients, as well …

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Austria and Italy celebrate bans on GM crops with EU opt-out

Austrian Health Minister Sabine Oberhauser and a number of Italian Ministries have confirmed that both countries are officially requesting an opt-out from growing the eight varieties of GM maize permitted or set to be permitted at the EU level, thus there will now be a full ban on GM crops in both countries under new EU regulations. “Austria has made …

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Dr. T. P. Wilkinson – My Name is Nobody: Religious Fanaticism is a Western Tradition

http://www.globalresearch.ca/my-name-is-nobody-religious-fanaticism-is-a-western-tradition/5477826 Amidst all the handwringing across the political spectrum, commentators of every type decry the deplorable conditions that prevail in the parts of the world that have been under attack by the US, NATO, and the historic colonial powers of Europe: Britain and France. That is to say the actions for which the wealthiest countries on Earth, concentrated in the …

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John Kozy – Human Beings: The Omnicidal Species. There is Nothing They Won’t Kill

Human beings comprise an omnicidal species. Apparently there is nothing they won’t kill. Yet some claim to value life and say that all lives matter. But if all lives matter, Palestinian lives matter, Syrian lives matter, Iraqi lives matter, Afghan lives matter, Libyan lives matter. If all lives matter, Osama bin Laden’s life mattered. So did Al Awlaki’s and his …

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John Kiriakou – The Pope Goes to Prison in America

ope Francis arrived in Washington today, snarling traffic and drawing some 300,000 people into the city. I’m excited that the Pope, who has called out capitalism for its indifference to the poor, and who has reached out to gay Catholics, has come to the United States. But I’m even more excited about his follow-on trip to Philadelphia, where he’s going to …

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JUDD LEGUM – After Getting Shamed For 5000% Hike, ‘Most Hated Man In America’ Will Lower Drug Price

Martin Shkreli, the controversial pharmaceutical CEO and former hedge fund manager, announced that he would reduce the price of the drug Daraprim to “a point that is more affordable.” Shkreli has been the subject of unrelenting criticism since he implemented a 5000% increase in the price of the drug — from $13.50 per pill to $750 — which is used …

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Shane Harris – Marines Trained That Rape in Afghanistan Is a ‘Cultural’ Issue

U.S. Marines preparing to go overseas are given a detailed training session about the Marine Corps’ own rules against sexual assault. But they are offered practically no guidance on what to do if they witness rape and other sexual abuses by “local nationals” in other countries, including Afghanistan, where child rape is common. A 45-minute scripted presentation given to Marines …

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Glenn Greenwald – U.S. State Department “Welcomes” News That Saudi Arabia Will Head U.N. Human Rights Panel

Last week’s announcement that Saudi Arabia — easily one of the world’s most brutally repressive regimes — was chosen to head a U.N. Human Rights Council panel provokedindignation around the world. That reaction was triggered for obvious reasons. Not only has Saudi Arabia executed more than 100 people already this year, mostly by beheading (a rate of 1 execution every two days), and not only is it serially flogging …

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Niles Williamson – Yemen: A war crime made in America

On Sunday, a Saudi-led coalition air strike ripped through a market in Sanaa, Yemen, killing 69 civilians and injuring dozens of others. People had been out shopping for Eid al-Adha, the annual Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, when the bombs fell. Photos posted on social media show corpses strewn amidst the rubble in the aftermath of the assault. Air raids on …