India just carried out one of its largest-ever covert operations in peacetime, striking a Myanmar-based terrorist group and killing over 100 of its members. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang), known more popularly by its initials NSCN-K, was targeted because of the terrorist attack it pulled off last week in the Northeast Indian state of Manipur. In the worst ambush suffered by the …
Racism as an Element of Fascism by PROLETARIAN ALTERNATIVE COLLECTIVE
On Wednesday, June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old man walked into a church, prayed with the parishioners, and opened fire, killing nine people. All were Black. Subjectively, he thought that African-Americans are soon going to take over an imperialist social formation—so killing nine of them was apparently for him an initial step of slowing down the process of realizing that transfer …
China Is Building a Massive Railway Across South America—at Significant Human and Environmental Cost – Michelle Chen
It’s been a while since China built a transcontinental railway in the Americas. Last time, Chinese laborers were deployed to work on the railway that linked the East and West Coasts of the United States—and were rewarded with epidemic labor abuse and racial-exclusion laws. Today, China has a lot more to gain from its latest railway construction venture: linking two oceans …
The Lancet: Fossil Fuels Are Killing Us… Quitting Them Can Save Us – Jon Queally
The bad news is very bad, indeed. But first, the good news: “Responding to climate change could be the biggest global health opportunity of this century.” That message is the silver lining contained in a comprehensive newly published report by The Lancet, the UK-based medical journal, which explores the complex intersection between global human health and climate change. “It took on entrenched interests …
Not ‘If’ But ‘How’: New Study Shows Why All Extreme Weather Is Climate Related – Nadia Prupis
The debate over climate change has long focused on determining attribution—whether rising greenhouse gases and global warming caused a particular storm, drought, flood, or blizzard. Now, a new study inNature Climate Change published Monday seeks to shift the underlying question from “if” to “how.” “The climate is changing,” wrote National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo and …
Our Jihadis and Theirs By Tom Engelhardt
Consider this paragraph a holding action on the subject of getting blown away in America. While I write this dispatch, I’m waiting patiently for the next set of dispiriting killings in this country. And I have faith. Before I’m done, some angry — or simply mentally disturbed — and well-armed American “lone wolf” (or lone wolves) will gun down someone …
When science gets ugly – the story of Philipp Lenard and Albert Einstein – Richard Gunderman
Scientists are not always as scientific as many suppose. Recent well-publicized cases of scientific fraud prove that scientists can be as susceptible to the allures of wealth, power and fame as politicians, the group that enjoys the lowest public trust. Glaring recent cases have included falsified results in the development of an HIV vaccine and new techniques for producing stem cells. Such breaches …
Paleo diet? Science has moved on since the stone age By Tim Spector
“Our ancestors didn’t eat like this, so we shouldn’t.” This is the main ethos of many modern diets which advise us to exclude a number of recent additions to our plates because they were not part of our distant predecessors diet. There are many different variations on the theme – from all-encompassing “palaeolithic-style” diets to grain-free or gluten-free regimes – …
‘A Great Day for Corporate America’: US Senate Passes Fast Track – Deirdre Fulton
The cloture motion to end debate needed 60 votes and it got just that, passing the chamber 60-37. The full roll call is here. A final vote will come on Wednesday. Having overcome the biggest hurdle, the legislation is expected to pass, and will then be sent to President Barack Obama’s desk to become law. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who campaigned vigorously against …
The Plague Comes Back from the Dead in Colorado – Robert Harrington
This recent headline is concerning on the face of it, but how serious really is the potential for the spread of the plague? Actually the plague has been around practically forever with cases usually occurring between late Spring and early Fall. The states of Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico are the only three that produce cases due to flea bites. …