The Ukrainian Government said on April 7th that any country sending representatives to Russia’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of their victory against Adolf Hitler, will be blacklisted by Ukraine. That celebration will take place on May 9th. According to the Russian news report, “Over the weekend, Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov noted that the leaders of at least 25 states …
The Myths of US Exceptionalism – Jack Rasmus
One of the elements of cultural ideology in the USA is that the United States is somehow exceptional compared to other countries; that is, it is different in a number of positive ways that distinguish it from all other countries. Exceptional in Health, Education & Retirement? In a perverted way, there is some truth to this. The United States is …
US Agribusiness, GMOs And The Plundering Of The Planet
Small family/peasant farms produce most of the world’s food. They form the bedrock of global food production. Yet they are being squeezed onto less than a quarter of the planet’s farmland. The world is fast losing farms and farmers through the concentration of land into the hands of rich and powerful land speculators and agribusiness corporations. By definition, peasant agriculture prioritises …
Saving Seeds: Farmers Rise Up Against Industry-Backed Laws
For millennia, the practice of saving and exchanging seeds has been fundamental to crop production in farming communities across the globe. Now, faced with a growing push on the part of governments and corporate agribusiness to limit this practice and thus threaten the food sovereignty of millions, farmers worldwide are fighting back. International peasant farmer and food justice groups La Via …
New study hints at spontaneous appearance of primordial DNA
The self-organization properties of DNA-like molecular fragments four billion years ago may have guided their own growth into repeating chemical chains long enough to act as a basis for primitive life, says a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Milan. While studies of ancient mineral formations contain evidence for the evolution of bacteria from …
Living the High Life After Congress
As the latest chapter in the curious saga of Congressman Aaron “Fly Me” Schock recently came to an end, there was an unintentionally, darkly comic moment. It happened just after the Downton Abbey fanboy announced his resignation from the House of Representatives. In an interview, his father, Dr. Richard Schock, told a Chicago TV station, “Ten years from now, whatever he’s doing, he’ll …
White House Reveals Desperate Lack of Support for TPP
The White House has published a handful of comments from “environmental groups” implying widespread support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other corporate trade agreements. Yet these cherry-picked comments from some of the most conservative, corporate-funded environmental groups actually reveal the administration’s desperation to find any support for such deals. Indeed, the reality is that scores of major environmental organizations including …
Mysterious desert fairy circles share pattern with skin cells
“The distribution of fairy circles throughout the desert may look random, but turns out to have a pattern that very closely matches the distribution pattern of skin cells. A pattern spanning such drastically different size scales — microscopic skin cells and the desert landscape — is almost unheard of in nature.” Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University …
Times covers up Washington’s monstrous evil: Hiding America’s War Crimes in Laos, While Reporting on the Grim Results – Dave Lindorff
The NY Times on Monday ran a lengthy piece (“One Woman’s Mission to Free Laos from Millions of Unexploded Bombs”) on Channapha Khamvongas, a 42-year-old Laotian-American woman on a mission to get the US to help Laos clean up the countless unexploded anti-personnel “bombis” that it dropped, which are still killing peasants — especially children — half a century after the so-called …
California Water Authorities Using Smart Meter Data as Evidence to Impose Fines
The smart grid isn’t coming. It’s already here. Everywhere people’s houses are being fitted if they already haven’t with smart electric meters and smart water meters. These meters communicate real-time usage data via radio frequency (which comes with its own set of health problems). Essentially, consumption of utilities in your home is being big brother tracked and traced at all times …