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Epidemic of Birth Defects and Cancer in Iraq: America's Toxic Legacy
by Stephen Lendman
America's Gulf War, intermittent bombings in the 1990s, the 2003 war, and aftermath left a toxic legacy.
Children born with two heads reflect it. Some had only one eye. Missing sockets look like the inside of an oyster. They're milky and shapeless.
Some children had tails like a skinned lamb. One or more had a monkey's face. Girls had their legs grown together. They were half fish, half human.
Miscarriages are frequent. Hundreds of newborns have cleft pallets, elongated heads, overgrown or short limbs, and other malformed body parts. Some are too gruesome to view.
Deformed Iraqi newborns are commonplace. So are virtually every known illness and disease. They're inordinately frequent. They range from severe headaches, muscle pain and debilitating fatigue, to serious infections, cardiovascular disease, brain tumors and numerous type cancers.
They include leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and multiple myeloma. Others affect the bile ducts, bones, brain, breasts, colon, prostate, esophagus, gall bladder, liver, lungs, pancreas, pharynx, ovaries, salivary glands, small intestine, stomach, thyroid, urinary tract, and pelvis.
Assad: Winning Hearts, Minds and Battles in Syria
by Stephen Lendman
Most Syrians support Assad. They do so for good reason. Mass crowds turn out in liberated areas. Syria's military is cheered.
Polls show over two-thirds of Syrians back their government. The longer conflict continues, the greater Assad backing grows.
It's not surprising. Syrians want no part of living under a Washington-imposed dictatorship. They're willing to sacrifice, fight and die to prevent it. They've come this far and won't quit.
Whistleblowing: Exemplary Patriotism
by Stephen Lendman
Whistleblowing reflects doing the right thing. It exposes wrongdoing. It does so because it matters.
Edward Joseph Snowden follows a noble tradition. Others before him established it. Daniel Ellsberg called his NSA leak the most important in US history. More on him below.
Expressions of patriotism can reflect good or ill. Samuel Johnson said it’s the last refuge of a scoundrel. Thomas Paine called dissent its highest form. So did Howard Zinn.
Limbaugh Mocks Freedom of Speech
Joel S. Hirschhorn
By now most people know that though it is perfectly fine to shout fire in a packed theater if there really is a fire, even constitutionally protected freedom of speech does not allow such behavior if there is no fire. It is now clear that Rush Limbaugh is doing exactly the same as shouting fire when none is present during most of his radio rants. He feels no obligation whatsoever to have a factual basis for spewing forth the most inflammatory statements imaginable. Single-handedly, he is one of the most powerful forces destroying the American political system and, indeed, our democracy. It is nonsense to shrug him off as merely an entertainer.
During my daily car ride to run errands I listened to the Rush Limbaugh radio show the other day and was truly stunned by the declaration that right now there is a coup d’etat by the Obama administration. Limbaugh is the master of public idiocy. But this assertion is beyond all previous nutty, totally wrong and intentionally provocative Limbaugh statements. Why make it? The only obvious answer is that he wants to infuriate his large audience of right wing nuts, to feed their fear, paranoia and hatred.
'Lies and the lying liars that tell them' - Al Franken and the so-called liberals
Michael Collins
"I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people."
Senator Al Franken (D-MN), June 11
What a total bullshit artist! When it was Bush spying on emails and secretly eavesdropping on citizens, Franken and others were outraged. Now that it's a Democratic president, well, damn, it's all good. Spy away NSA. (Image)
All of this spying on we the little people has to be OK because Obama says so. Peek in every corner. Prevent unspecified terrorist attacks that you just can't mention because, you know, it's national security. And never mention that policies like invading nations that pose no threat causing hundreds of thousands to die or sending drone killing machines to foreign countries might have something to do with threats of terrorism here.
"Trust me," the liberal defenders of Obama ask us.
Sure thing, Al, you hypocrite of the worst order. Do any of those defending the president have the slightest knowledge of history? How about this creep, who asked and received the trust of tens of millions:
Police State America in Good Hands with James Comey
by Stephen Lendman
He's Obama's FBI director choice. He'll replace current rogue head Robert Mueller. In September, he'll step down.
He's run the agency since September 4, 2001. He succeeded acting head Thomas Pickering. He assumed office days before 9/11.
Appointing him perhaps related to what followed. War on terrorism was declared. So was authorization for war on humanity. Nonbelligerent Afghanistan was attacked.
Doing so was planned months in advance. Wars aren't launched overnight. Extensive planning precedes them. Pretexts justify the unjustifiable. It's standard US policy.
America was never beautiful. Democracy's more illusion than reality. Things are worse now than ever. Freedom hangs by a thread. Humanity's threatened. It's perhaps the most perilous time in world history.
Seven Kinds of Sustainability
by Nancy DeLucrezia
The following article by PLACE President, Chris Velasco, is not only brilliant, but reflects an altruistic view that is applicable to virtually every aspect of our lives! (Reprinted by permission)
What is “Sustainability?”
Sustainability is a difficult word to define, or more precisely, is difficult to reduce to a single definition. American Heritage defines the term as “capable of being continued without long-term effect on the environment.” This definition certainly does not solidify the linguistic ground beneath our feet. It is a sort of negative definition, partially defined by the absence of “long-term effect.” I don’t know what “long-term effect” means. Anything that exists has a long-term effect on the environment. For that matter, everything that stops existing, or goes extinct has a long-term effect on the environment.
Sustainability as a construct owes a great deal to the Brundt Commission report to the United Nations in 1987, entitled, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. The report establishes three pillars of sustainability: Ecology, Economy and Equity (often referred to as the Three Es). You can also find the three pillars at work in the notion of the triple bottom line business, with the three bottom lines being People, Planet, Profit, as attributed to John Elkington.
Aleppo, Istanbul, and London
Michael Collins
The war in Syria went from a seeming quagmire to a conflict that may reach a dramatic climax with the coming battle for Aleppo, a city of nearly three million people that was once the commercial center of the nation. Political leaders and events in two other cities, Istanbul and London, will play a central role in the outcome of the battle. (Image)
The Syrian Army finished off final rebel resistance in the city of Qusayr last week fighting alongside the Lebanese group Hezbollah. As a result, the rebel supply line from Lebanon is shut down and the major road from Damascus to Aleppo via Qusayr is open. The road will serve the supply line for an attack to end rebel occupation of half of that city.
A victory by the Syrian military in Operation Northern Storm, its name for the Aleppo effort, will leave the rebels with very little in the way of major influence or meaningful territory. From the start, the rebel strategy focused on urban warfare. The various groups would have little chance of survival in a conventional battle with the Syrian Army. With the shelter of cities and towns, the Syrian Army's advantage vanished allowing the rebels to carry on the conflict and prevail in key areas.
Genetic Weapons--Can Your DNA Kill You?
Janet C. Phelan
Activist Post
It is a scene out of a futuristic political thriller—the Secretary of State issues secret orders for embassy officials to collect the DNA of foreign heads of state while the President, speaking at a $1000 a plate dinner, is surrounded by a contingent of Secret Service agents wiping clean his drinking glasses and picking up stray hair follicles. They are not just protecting the President—they are protecting the President's DNA.
If this sounds like a script treatment for a Hollywood version of a Philip K. Dick novel, consider this: The Secretary of State's name is Hillary Clinton and her directives to embassies were uncovered in a 2010 WikiLeaks cable release. The President in this scenario is Barack Obama and the Secret Service unit pledged to protect his DNA is a group of Navy stewards, as revealed in the 2009 book by Ronald Kessler, entitled In the President's Secret Service.
America's Student Loan Racket: Stiffer Debt Bondage Coming
by Stephen Lendman
For growing numbers of American youths, higher education is increasingly out of reach. High tuition and fees make it unaffordable. So does a disturbing government/corporate partnership.
Millions of students need financial aid. They're exploited for profit. Providers are enriched. Higher education involves debt entrapment.
Students graduate tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Some post-graduates face burdens up to $100,000. If unpaid after 30 years, it's multiples higher. If default or declare bankruptcy, it's unforgiven. Bondage is permanent until repaid.
Loan providers thrive from defaults. Wages can be garnished. So can unemployment benefits, disability payments, tax refunds, as well as Social Security and other retirement benefits.
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