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America and Pakistan in Search of New Future
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD
America and Pakistan both stand at a critical juncture in time and history and are searching for new policies for change and new relations. America had the opportunity when President Obama – the first colored president to enter the WHITE- White House erected by his black folks predecessors over the centuries and promised to enliven his moral conscience for a new beginning in American history-making. But once in inside the White powerhouse, he lost touch with the prevalent realities demanding navigational change. So the bogus War on Terror and its worst impacts on so many nations continue to this day because the President of the United States turned out to be the least powerful person in decision-making. Pakistanis have the opportunity over this weekend in their first-time ever free national elections to reject leaders of corruption, deceit and insanity and to use the ballot box for change, new beginning with new leaders. If they happened to miss this opportunity, time and history will hold them accountable for their own demise.
How Your Town Can Stop Drones
By David Swanson
Local resolutions have helped advance many issues, including war opposition, when they've been passed in large numbers. When we passed a resolution in Charlottesville, Va., last year opposing any attack on Iran, I heard from numerous cities that wanted to do the same. As far as I know, none did. I heard back from some that they'd been told it was anti-Semitic to oppose a U.S. attack on Iran. I didn't have an answer to that -- not a printable one anyway.
When Charlottesville passed a resolution against drones in February of this year, I heard from people all over the country again. Since that time, to my knowledge, one little town in Minnesota called St. Bonifacius has passed something, while dozens and dozens have tried and failed. The problem seems to be that drones can have good uses as well as bad. Of course, that's grounds for halting the lawless and reckless spread of drones until we can figure out any ways in which their good use can be compatible with our Constitutional rights. But that would make too much sense. When there's money to be made, technology to be played with, and terrorists to destroy our freedoms if we don't hurry up and destroy them first, the American way is full steam ahead. But I actually think I might have at least a partial answer this time.
Anti-Assad Forces: Caught in the Act Again
by Stephen Lendman
Previous articles discussed Washington-supported death squads in Syria. It's common practice in all US direct and proxy wars.
Massacres and unspeakable atrocities are committed. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Official coverup and denial follow.
Vietnam's Operation Phoenix became a prototype for today's wars. Terrorizing people into submission is official US policy.
Guns for hire are enlisted, armed, funded, trained, and directed. Nothing too heinous is out of bounds. Killing continues daily like sport. So do gruesome atrocities.
Industrial-Grade Fluoridation Chemicals Cost Society $Billions in Arsenic-induced Cancers
Fluoride Action Network
Industrial-grade fluoride chemicals added to US public water supplies contain arsenic that the EPA classifies as a human carcinogen. Switching to low-arsenic pharmaceutical-grade fluoride will save society $1 billion to $14 billion annually, according to research published in Environmental Science & Policy, led by former EPA senior scientists who are experts in chemical risk assessment, reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).
Although never studied for safety or efficacy, hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFSA) is added to public water supplies as a purported cavity preventive. The industry-funded group that regulates water additives, NSF International, allows several toxins in HFSA, including arsenic.
Turkey: US Imperial Tool
by Stephen Lendman
In 1999, Nobel laureate/outspoken anti-war critic Harold Pinter minced no words denouncing NATO's Yugoslavia war.
"Let us face the truth," he said. "The truth is that neither Clinton nor Blair gives a damn about the Kosovar Albanians. This action has been another blatant and brutal assertion of US power using NATO as its missile."
"It set out to consolidate one thing - American domination Europe. This must be fully recognized and it must be resisted."
Robinson Jeffers: America's Neglected-At-Our-Peril Poet-Prophet
By Gary Corseri
Robinson Jeffers
My “bridge over troubled water” is Literature and the Arts. But, these days, with the exception of a few cherished authors and websites, I am apt to get more sustenance from re-reading the Classics—even 20th Century Classics--than from reading the frothy outpourings of identity-poets and lauded, establishmentarian shills. A much-thumbed Vintage Book is one I’ve held dear since my 20s, by a poet I’ve introduced to university students surfeited on too much Frost in high school and too much Yeats and Eliot beyond that.
Now, that trio did write some great works, of course, but not one of them had much to say about American politics. And when they are taught in our public and private institutions, their politics—personal or literary—are studiously avoided. And there’s the rub! Because, if we are ever to grasp our fleeting Zeitgeist, we need the whole round picture—politics, the Arts, slang, sexuality, food—the whole cascading shebang!
The American poet who best provides that, for his time and ours, is Robinson Jeffers, who died one year before JFK was killed, but at 75, had lived to see terrible presentiments:
Close Guantanamo Now!
by Stephen Lendman
As president and commander-in-chief, Obama has legal authority to do so. On May 3, New York City Bar president Carey R. Dunne wrote him. He did so on behalf of the organization he heads.
He called indefinite detention "legally and morally indefensible." He said 25 retired military flag officers said it's "an effective recruiting tool for our enemies."
He urged "concrete steps to restart the process toward closure."
On May 7, the New York City Bar said "Obama has the authority to close (Guantanamo) under Section 1028 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013…."
It’s about transferring detainees "to foreign countries or other foreign entities."
America is Dying (But don't blame me, I'm just the messenger)
By Vincent L. Guarisco
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" ~~Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Strength to Love, 1963
Over the years I have written many articles about issues I felt are prevalent. For damn good reasons I have sounded the alarm bell for most of my life. And, for those who have paid attention and have answered the call to action while others have not, our country truly thanks you. For the rest of you, at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that in your absence, we have given it our best and we'll continue to do so, regardless of your silent ineptness, but don't blame me when I say our country is dying. I'm only the messenger, not the culprit.
Many of my essays on a variety of topics are published at OpEd News. All I can suggest for those who keep their heads buried in FOX News sand -- either get wise, get active, or get busy digging a big grave for our national corpse.
If you want a great example of what it means to selflessly give part of yourself to society, a few years ago I wrote an essay honoring my parents, both whom were mavericks for hope and change. This tribute piece was the hardest thing I will ever attempt to write in my lifetime. When I submitted it to Consortium News back in 2008, editor-in-chief Robert Parry wrote a sobering introduction to the article -- one that I consider a prime example of where I came from in the activist role-model department:
Israeli Lobby Power in America
by Stephen Lendman
In 1949, the American Zionist Council (AZC) was established. It operated until 1962. It was ordered to register as a foreign agent.
It failed to do so. It transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC. It calls itself "America's Pro-Israel Lobby. It operates as an unregistered foreign agent.
It's done so since 1953. With rare exceptions, no one in Congress confronts it. It wields enormous influence over US foreign policy. It fronts for Israeli lawlessness. It's one of 52 major US Zionist organizations.
James Petras' important book titled "The Power of Israel in the United States" discussed its enormous influence on US policy. It's done so for over half a century.
Rap’n About Wrapping
or “What Kind of Maple Syrup is This?
by Nancy DeLucrezia
I was shopping with my friend, Stew, the other day and I saw this pretty young woman load three large cases of small plastic bottles of drinking water onto the lower deck of her shopping cart as she chatted playfully with her little girl, sitting in the front of the cart. I wanted to say something but what does one say in that situation, “Excuse me, but do you have any idea how reckless it is to so blatantly contribute to the destruction of our beautiful planet, not to mention doing it in right front of your daughter?” OK – probably not so appropriate, and yet how appropriate is it for us to continue going through 1,500 plastic water bottles PER SECOND (in the U.S. alone) – even many of us who know better, or should know better, or might know better (help me here) – what the (@*#$*@#$ are we thinking?
I recently returned from Out-to-lunchville about this enough to ask the students at my school not to bring plastic water bottles into the building anymore, and figured I would at least put together a cohesive list of reasons that might inspire them to join me in an effort to contribute to the solution rather than the problem. I don’t personally drink water from plastic bottles because I don’t particularly care for the taste of plastic and I’m not fond of thinking about it floating around and accumulating in my system. A friend once told me that he boiled down water from plastic bottles for a few days like maple syrup and ended up with a sheet of plastic in the bottom of the pan that was thick enough to play Frisbee with (oh, what we do with our spare time). There’s currently, for those of you who don’t know, a growing “garbage patch” of plastic estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific Ocean. Hello!!! How is that OK?
One new student came to enroll the other day and I drafted him a program-contract to take home and review. As he was leaving I pointed to the plastic water bottle in his hand and gently mentioned that he would not be allowed to bring it into the school once he enrolled and gave him a copy of my handout. He was very cool about it and explained that his girlfriend was trying to get him to drink more water. When he came back the next day to sign his contract he thanked me for mentioning it saying that he had taken my handout back to his girlfriend along with a beautiful reusable travel bottle he had bought her as a gift, and that she converted with less resistance than he expected.
“See that,” I said, “ I wake up and decide to create a handout, I give it to you, you give it to your girlfriend…”
“I guess that’s how it happens,” he answered.
Yes, indeed, that IS how it happens!
And while we’re at it, how hard is it to throw a couple of reusable shopping bags in the back seat of the car rather than participate in the practice of handing out plastic one’s at the checkout like tissues at an Italian funeral?
OK – I’m not a rapper but I just channeled this the other night at 2 a.m.:
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