Articles by M
We found 33761 results.
Dispelling the Fear of Death
Stephen Knapp – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Death is not an enemy; it is a natural fact of life, a stage of our existence, and a transition or doorway between planes of reality. Death has its own harmony with nature just as a tree loses its leaves every fall. We don’t feel that it is unjust or that the tree failed to stay fully alive when it goes dormant through the winter. It is natural. Neither should doctors and nurses feel they have failed if after every endeavor a patient dies.
→ read full article[VIDEO] Imagine… (A moving parody of Lennon’s legendary song)
Canny AI - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Imagine All the Politicians…
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Tightening the Noose on Cuba
Chandra Muzaffar - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
In dealing with US sanctions against Cuba we have to go beyond merely criticising or condemning them. The time has come to decide whether unilateral sanctions by any one nation or a group of nations against another nation or a group of nations should be tolerated at all. Shouldn’t we prohibit unilateral sanctions of this sort?
→ read full articleBrexit and the Dilemma of UK Labour
Jake Lynch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
There might once have been a Brexit capable of meeting its criteria and concerns, and of bringing Britain together. That was destroyed by May’s disastrous ‘red lines’, and the Tories appear intent on moving in Farage’s direction by embracing a no-deal exit from the EU. In response to that, Corbyn will have to work out how to combine the campaigning appeal of Labour’s pitch to transform Britain, and using the country’s EU membership as a springboard to fight inequality and injustice.
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Kierkegaard on the Individual vs. the Crowd, Why We Conform, and the Power of the Minority
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
“Truth always rests with the minority … because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion.”
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Experimental Visualization of Dynamics of the European Parliament in 3D
Anthony Judge – Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Produced on the occasion of the reconfiguration of political groupings following Europe-wide elections — coinciding with an “optics” enhancing visit of Donald Trump to Europe — raising the question of the necessary “optics” enhancement of the European Union.
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“Peace Is Possible” All-Day Summit
Alberto Portugheis | HUFUD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
We are happy to announce our “Peace Is Possible” All-Day Summit. A free event, held at Initiatives of Change in LONDON on 17 June 2019. Panel debates will follow each film and speech.
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More Than a Quarter of the World’s Countries Helped the CIA Run Its Torture Program
Akbar Shahid Ahmed, Ryan Grim and Lauren Weber – Huffington Post,
10 Jun 2019
These countries made the CIA program possible in two ways: by enabling rendition, which involved transferring U.S. detainees abroad without due legal process, and by providing facilities far beyond the reach of U.S. law where those detainees were subjected to torture.
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Genocide Is an Act of State and Demands Response by Other States
John Packer | Open Global Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
The Myanmar state can and must be held accountable for the genocide being perpetrated against the Rohingya, a point lost in largely illusory efforts to pursue international criminal trials of individuals.
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Environmental Justice in Palestine: Rights of Natives to Their Environment versus Colonial Onslaught
Mazin B. Qumsiyeh | The Beirut Forum – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Although Palestinians have long identified their relationship to their land as a key aspect of their struggle for self-determination, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rarely discussed as a struggle for environmental justice. This situation is not really a conflict since the word conflict implies equal or almost equal parties. It is a colonial onslaught on natives who have little by way of self-defense abilities. It originally derived from international sources and for most of its history was internationalized. It must therefore be brought to a resolution through an international effort that returns dignity and sovereignty to the local people.
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World Environment Day — Reacting to the Existing Terrible Situation
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
The world is celebrating the Environment Day on June 5. There will be the usual discussions and statements regarding the crisis of pollution, problems of earth’s sustainability and some well articulated action plans that governments propose to undertake but which are weak in practice.
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After 30 Years of Stagnation, Incompetence and Repression, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan Is Pushed Out
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
The Central government gave the Janjaweed guns, uniforms, equipment and indications where to attack by first bombing village–but no regular pay. Thus the bandit militias had to pay themselves by looting homes, crops, livestock, by taking slaves and raping women and girls. Village after village was destroyed; crops were burned, water wells filled with sand.
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Unfuck the World (Music Video of the Week)
Prophets of Rage – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Heavy Metal Telling Truth to Power – with Lyrics
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Creative + Strategic = Effective Movements for Change
Rivera Sun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
8 Jun 2019 – If you want to make change, think outside the protest box. It’s easy to get hung up on protests. We’ve heard about them, they’re highly visible, and they’re relatively easy to pull off. The problem with protests is that – all too often – they’re easily ignored. Creativity is key to making your actions meaningful and memorable. Paired with a sound strategy, creative actions can be unstoppable.
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The ‘Great Dying’ Nearly Erased Life on Earth. Scientists See Similarities to Today
Christopher Joyce | NPR – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
4 Jun 2019 – There was a time when life on Earth almost blinked out. The “Great Dying,” the biggest extinction the planet has ever seen, happened some 250 million years ago and was largely caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Now scientists are beginning to see alarming similarities between the Great Dying and what’s currently happening to our atmosphere.
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U.S. and Allies Wage ‘Hybrid War’ against Venezuela
Tricontinental Institute for Social Research – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
6 Jun 2019 – The various dimensions of the hybrid warfare that is currently being unleashed across Latin America—from Colombia to Haiti. At the center of this offensive is a strategy to exploit governments hostile to a world order driven by global capital: economic and financial asphyxiation, economic destabilization, diplomatic and media blockades, the instigation of internal violence, the generation of chaos by attacking essential services, and pressures attempting to create institutional fractures or a coup d’état, and even the threat of military intervention.
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(Português) Brasil Já Perdeu 85,5% da Floresta Nativa da Mata Atlântica
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Brasil precisa criar 262 mil quilômetros quadrados de unidades de conservação para proteger, pelo menos, 10% dos seus biomas, fora a Amazônia.
→ read full articleOne Day in Gaza 2019 Leaked Documentary (MUST WATCH)
BBC – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
One Day in Gaza is a Frontline/BBC documentary on Gaza which aired in Britain and was supposed to have aired in the U.S. on 14 May 2019 but was cancelled at the last minute. It was then made available on YouTube and Vimeo, but both have since taken it down. Frontline is now distancing itself from this publicly funded video, though it is still available for download in the UK.
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WHO: 3 Children a Month in Gaza Left Disabled for Life
The Middle East Monitor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
3 Jun 2019 – At least three children in the Gaza Strip are left permanently disabled every month as a result of armed attacks and Israeli violations, data from the World Health Organisation has revealed. Why Are We Seeing Such International Apathy towards the Palestinians?
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William Butler Yeats (13 Jun 1865 – 28 Jan 1939): The Transition to Aquarius
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
William Butler Yeats is the modern European poet most conscious of the transition within astrological cycles from the Piscean Period to the Age of Aquarius. The concept that humanity is at the end of a 2000-year cycle and about to start a new dispensation at a higher turn of the spiral – the gyre as Yeats called the historic spiral – was the framework within which he always worked.
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30 Years of Torture Convention – States Still Failing on Obligations
Amnesty International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
10 Dec 2014 – On the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention against Torture, Amnesty International is calling upon states not to obstruct efforts to prevent the appalling practice. While 156 states have ratified the Convention, a host of nations are still carrying out torture and are obstructing efforts to prevent, monitor, investigate and to bring about prosecutions.
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Twitting…
Anonymous – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Gimme a Break!
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The American Cult of Bombing and Endless Wars
William J. Astore - TomDispatch,
10 Jun 2019
4 Jun 2019 – From Syria to Yemen in the Middle East, Libya to Somalia in Africa, Afghanistan to Pakistan in South Asia, an American aerial curtain has descended across a huge swath of the planet. Its stated purpose: combating terrorism. Its economic benefit: plenty of high-profit business for weapons makers for whom the president can now declare a national security emergency whenever he likes and so sell their warplanes and munitions to preferred dictatorships in the Middle East (no congressional approval required).
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The Climate Crisis Is Our Third World War. It Needs a Bold Response
Joseph Stiglitz | Nobel Economics Laureate – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2019
4 Jun 2019 – Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with the climate crisis and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. They are right. They use the term “New Deal” to evoke the massive response by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States government to the Great Depression. An even better analogy would be the country’s mobilization to fight World War II.
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(Português) Advogados e juristas do mundo todo se reúnem em conferência para discutir os direitos animais
ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
As propostas, se aprovadas, significariam que produtos como hambúrgueres vegetarianos e veganos poderiam ser chamados de “discos” e salsichas de “tubos”. À luz dessas questões e assuntos semelhantes, advogados e juristas veganos de todo o mundo se reunirão em uma conferência jurídica anual para discutir como influenciar a lei em benefício dos animais e do planeta.
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Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (14 Jun 1928 – 9 Oct 1967)
Encyclopædia Britannica – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare, prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956–59), and guerrilla leader in South America, Guevara was a medical doctor specialized in leprosy. Traveling around South America, he observed conditions that spurred his revolt against poverty and capitalist exploitation, adopting Marxist ideology, theory and practices. He is revered by many as a martyred cultural hero, having become an iconic cult figure as a symbol of anti-imperialist struggles everywhere.
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These Are the Banks and Financial Institutions Investing $748 Billion in Nuclear Weapon Producers
ICAN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
5 Jun 2019 – Today, PAX and ICAN have co-published a report showing how banks and pension funds are financing the companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons: Shorting our security. Financing the companies that make nuclear weapons. This is what you need to know:
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Gnawing Hunger
Preeti Tej Singh – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
it rises to a crescendo
and then
gradually dies down
after all, how long
will hunger gnaw
‘We Are Literally Sawing Off the Branch We All Live On’: Amazon Deforestation Increasing Under Bolsonaro
Eoin Higgins – Common Dreams,
10 Jun 2019
5 Jun 2019 – Satellite images show massive deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, a grim reminder of the devastation wrought by the country’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro. “People who destroy forests feel safe and those who protect forests feel threatened.”
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Modern Money Theory: The Basics
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
So here’s an attempt to put the fears of Krugman and Post Keynesians to rest. There is a symmetry between bank lending and government spending. I also hope to help clarify things for a third group—the “debt-free money” folks who want Uncle Sam to spend “debt-free money”. Short answer: depending on how you look at it, he either already does, or cannot ever do so.
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Time Bombs: A Meditation on Walt Whitman’s 200th Birthday
Bill C. Davis – Common Dreams,
10 Jun 2019
31 May 2019 – Today is Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday. A friend observed it’s better he’s not seeing what’s happened to his country. He was a wound dresser during the civil war so he knew what men tend to do to each other. I suppose a war of sorts is in progress here – the enemy gets chosen not by geographical location but by a roulette wheel of sudden psychotic combatants. Background checks? First question. Are you a human being? Yes. Sorry—no gun for you.
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Myanmar’s [Nobel Peace Laureate] Suu Kyi Is Turning Far-Right
Maung Zarni | Anadolu Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
8 Jun 2019 – Pictures from Budapest of a smiling Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi shaking hands with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s president, strikes fear for my Muslim friends back home in Myanmar, including the systematically persecuted Rohingya. The two reportedly exchanged their unconcealed fear and loathing of Muslims and migrants.
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He Was Arrested at 13. Now Saudi Arabia Wants to Execute Him
Muhammad Darwish, Tamara Qiblawi and Ghazi Balkiz – CNN,
10 Jun 2019
8 Jun 2019 —Three years after he was filmed taking part in the bike protest, Saudi authorities arrested Qureiris, then just 13 years old. At the time, he was considered by lawyers and activists to be the youngest known political prisoner in Saudi Arabia. Now, at the age of 18, Qureiris is facing the death penalty after being held for almost four years in pre-trial detention, CNN has learned.
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Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution in the Crosshairs of US Imperialism
Roger D. Harris – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
7 Jun 2019 – Hugo Chávez was elected president and initiated what has become known as the Bolivarian Revolution, which has inspired the peoples of the world while engendering the enmity of both the US imperialists and the Venezuelan elites. This article explores the contributions, shortcomings, and lessons of the Bolivarian Revolution’s two decades, in the context of the US regime-change efforts from its inception to current attempts by the US to install the unelected Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president.
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(Poesia~Português) Vida em Plenitude
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
Vida em plenitude
requer profunda atitude
Meanwhile, Around the World
Johan Galtung and Antonio C. S. Rosa – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
In fact, we seem to have come to the point that we ourselves, as the major cause of death and being wounded through violence and war, are our own worst enemies. And yet we refer to ourselves as being “intelligent”, searching all over for something equally “intelligent”.
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(Português) As corporações alimentam a ultra-direita mundial: Jean Ziegler
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
26 maio 2019 – Jean Ziegler suiço, professor universitário e pesquisador,ocupa a vice-presidência do Comitê Consultivo do Conselho de Direitos Humanos da ONU. O texto nos ajuda a entender a real situação dramática do mundo, especialmente para os pobres e os que passam fome permanentemente. Ou somos nós que mudaremos essa ordem canibal do mundo, ou ninguém o fará.
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UN Expert Criticizes States for ‘Ganging Up’ on WikiLeaks’ Assange; Warns against Extradition, Fearing ‘Serious’ Rights Violations
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
On 9 May, the Special Rapporteur visited Mr. Assange with two medical experts who specialize in examining victims of ill-treatment. The team spoke to the prisoner and conducted a thorough medical assessment. “Mr. Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been exposed to for many years,” he said. On Thursday [30 May], according to reports, Assange was too ill to appear via video-link from a British prison in a hearing over an extradition request from the US.
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In Memory of Binyavanga Wainaina, a Literary Gangster
Christine Mungai – Al Jazeera,
3 Jun 2019
Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina died on May 21, 2019 after a short illness. He inspired me and a whole generation of Kenyans to put pen to paper. He publicly came out as gay in 2014, in a country where homosexuality is criminalised, becoming the only openly gay public figure that I know of in this country. Rest in Peace.
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Enrolling Winnie-the-Pooh’s Companions in Climate Change Discourse
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
29 May 2019 – Produced in commemoration of the recent destruction of the Hundred Acre Wood — and in anticipation of further environmental challenges.
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U.S. Government Seeks NGO Help for Removing Iran from Syria
Michael Brenner – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
29 May 2019 – The U.S. Department of State is offering a grant of $75 million to non-government-organizations to help it to further meddle in Syria. Americans have intoxicated themselves for two and a half years on the vapors emanating from the alleged Russian ‘interference’ in the 2016 election affair–never proven. The strongest odor, if one bothers to inhale, is from the stench of hypocrisy.
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Agony of No Return
Preeti Tej Singh – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
strike me down
with a blow
pull me down
to shreds
for i hate to see
Speeding into the Void of Cyberspace as Designed
Edward Curtin – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
While Internet billionaires like Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Mark Zuckerberg slam government surveillance, talk up freedom, and embrace Snowden and crypto privacy culture, their companies still cut deals with the Pentagon, work with the NSA and CIA, and continue to track and profile people for profit. It is the same old split-screen marketing trick: the public branding and the behind-the-scenes reality.
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Findings of Torture: The UN Rapporteur and Julian Assange
Dr. Binoy Kampmark – Global Research,
3 Jun 2019
1 Jun 2019 – Another crude and sad chapter, yet more evidence of a system’s vengeance against its challengers. While some in the cynical, narcissistic press corps still find little to comment his case, the movement to highlight his fate, and the extra-territorial vengeance of the United States, grows. Often reviled and dismissed as ineffectual if not irrelevant, the United Nations has offered Assange some measure of protection through its articulations and findings.
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What Greed Has Done
Chris Hedges | Bill Moyers – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
1 May 2019 – Real Journalism (Must Watch): Bill Moyers interviews former correspondent of New York Times Chris Hedges about his new book, Days of Destruction–Days of Revolt, on the destruction of America’s manufacturing base and the effect that unfettered and unregulated capitalism has had on the poor and vulnerable.
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Open Letter to UN SG Concerning Iran
Jan Oberg | The Transnational – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
27 May 2019 – The repeated threats of war against and sanctions on Iran contain very dangerous dynamics – for Iran, the region and the world – that could easily spin out of control. The situation is such that the UN Secretary-General must be urged to take action in accordance with the UN Charter.
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Court Docs: Monsanto Paid Chemical Industry Front Group to Claim Cancer-Causing Weedkiller ‘Safe’ and Attack Its Critics
Bill Walker | Environmental Working Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
29 May 2019 – Emails show that in February 2015, Monsanto was working with ACSH to prepare for the expected fallout from a pending report on the safety of glyphosate by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
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Sri Lanka: How the UN Failed Tamil Civilians in 2009
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Al Jazeera,
3 Jun 2019
And how the legacy of this failure is still endangering lives in Sri Lanka and beyond. Today, May 18, 2019, marks one decade since the armed conflict in Sri Lanka came to a brutal end.
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After Neoliberalism
Joseph E. Stiglitz | Nobel Laureate Economic Sciences – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
30 May 2019 – For the past 40 years, the United States and other advanced economies have been pursuing a free-market agenda of low taxes, deregulation, and cuts to social programs. There can no longer be any doubt that this approach has failed spectacularly; the only question is what will – and should – come next.
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(Português) Pelo de Cânhamo É Alternativa Vegana ao Pelo de Origem Animal
ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais | Stylo Urbano – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
A empresa ucraniana DevoHome, fabricante de tecidos à base de fibra de cânhamo, desenvolveu um inovador pelo de cânhamo como alternativa natural e vegana ao pelo verdadeiro e pelo sintético à base de petróleo. O material é feito de 50% de cânhamo e 50% de viscose.
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Abuses Show Assange Case Was Never About Law
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
27 May 2019 – It is astonishing how often one still hears well-informed, otherwise reasonable people say about Julian Assange: “But he ran away from Swedish rape charges by hiding in Ecuador’s embassy in London.” That short sentence includes at least three factual errors. In fact, to repeat it, as so many people do, you would need to have been hiding under a rock for the past decade – or, amounting to much the same thing, been relying on the corporate media for your information about Assange.
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The Perils of Financialization
Lyndsey Jefferson and Matthew Oxenford | Chatham House – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
28 May 2019 – The enduring risks of the financial sector in the global economy and how the mistakes of the 2008 financial crisis continue to resonate. Financialization – it’s a bit of a buzzword, but what does it actually mean? In the most general sense, it means that financial services are taking up a larger and larger portion of the global economy. There are really two different types of financialization if you want to talk about this broadly.
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Big Pharma and Organized Crime–They Are More Similar than You May Think
Carolanne Wright | Wake up World – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
If you believe pharmaceutical corporations hold the health of the general public in high regard, it’s time to reconsider. The industry is filled with examples of wrongful death, extortion, fraud, corruption, obstruction of justice, embezzlement, fake journals, harassment and hit lists that would make even the most hardened Mafia godfather blush. Big Pharma has been fined billions by the U.S. Department of Justice, but these enormous fines don’t curb the corruption, it’s just looked upon as “the cost of doing business,” similar to paying the utilities.
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US Blockade Deprives Venezuelan Cancer Patients of Treatment
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
31 May 2019 – The U.S. blockade is putting the lives of hundreds of chronically ill patients at risk, the Latin American Foundation of Human Rights (Fundalatin) denounced today. Without a way to pay for state-funded treatments, patients — both young and old — are being refused medical attention around the world.
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Marxist Economic Theory Easily Explained
Richard Wolff | The Jimmy Dore Show – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Richard David Wolff is an American Marxian economist known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program of the New School University in New York. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum. In 1988 he co-founded the journal Rethinking Marxism. In 2010, Wolff published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, also released as a DVD.
→ read full articleCreationism versus Redemptionism: How a Money-Issuer Really Lends and Spends
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
I will examine three analogous questions (each of which has the same answer):
1. Does the government need to receive tax revenue before it can spend?
2. Does the central bank need to receive reserve deposits before it can lend?
3. Do private banks need to receive demand deposits before they can lend?
How to Keep Criticism from Sinking Your Confidence: Walt Whitman and the Discipline of Creative Self-Esteem
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
“I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood.”
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Rand Corporation: How to Destroy Russia
Manlio Dinucci – Global Research,
3 Jun 2019
Force the adversary to expand recklessly in order to unbalance him, and then destroy him. This is not the description of a judo hold, but a plan against Russia elaborated by the Rand Corporation, the most influential think tank in the USA. With a staff of thousands of experts, Rand presents itself as the world’s most reliable source for Intelligence and political analysis for the leaders of the United States and their allies.
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Find a Deal, and It Goes ‘Round, ‘Round, ‘Round, as It Spins Along…
Christine Barie and Kathie Malley-Morrison | Engaging Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Dealmaker?
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The Bankers’ “Power Revolution”: How the Government Got Shackled by Debt
Ellen Brown | Web of Debt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
31 May 2019 – The debt-growth model has reached its limits, as even the Bank for International Settlements, the “central bankers’ bank” in Switzerland, acknowledges. The BIS said that debt levels were too high, productivity growth was too low, and the room for policy maneuver was too narrow. “The global economy cannot afford to rely any longer on the debt-fueled growth model that has brought it to the current juncture,” the BIS warned. But the solutions it proposed would continue the austerity policies long imposed on countries that cannot pay their debts.
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Jurisprudential Notes toward Empowering and Liberating International Law and the United Nations
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
2 Jun 2019 – When law is aligned with injustice it gives rise to resistance, which historically is associated with the hallowed tradition of civil disobedience, influential with Tolstoy, Gandhi, and more recently, Martin Luther King, Jr. In these contexts civil disobedience can involve the nonviolent transgression of any legal norm that calls attention to the specific injustice.
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(Português) Governo permite que caçadores brasileiros comprem até 15 armas
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
27 maio 2019 – Desde que o Decreto nº 9.785 foi publicado este mês no Diário Oficial da União, mudando as regras sobre armas, caçadores brasileiros passaram a ter o direito de comprar até 15 armas. Segundo o decreto, caçadores registrados no Exército podem adquirir munições em quantidade superior ao limite permitido pelo Exército.
→ read full articlePhilosophical Arithmetic…
Anonymous – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Hmmm…
→ read full articleAre Environmentalists and Climate Scientists in Denial?
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
28 May 2019 – Climate Change Recognized as Primarily a Psychological Challenge – The key to any viable strategic response to the planetary environmental tragedy is as much a psychological matter as one of constraining carbon emissions and other excesses.
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Which Lessons Did Germany Adopt?
Amos Gvirtz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
28 May 2019 – The German Bundestag’s decision to brand the activities of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) as anti-Semitic is in my opinion misguided, for two main reasons: the lessons of World War II and the question of nonviolent versus violent struggle. Israel has officially drawn two particular lessons from the Holocaust: “Never again”, and “We are allowed to do anything and no one is permitted to criticize our actions.”
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John Pilger Speaks Out: “Today It’s Julian Assange, Tomorrow It Could Be You”
World Socialist Website – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
31 May 2019 – Investigative journalist, broadcaster and film maker John Pilger told the media outside the Westminster Magistrates Court that Julian Assange’s “‘crime’ here, is the crime of good journalism, and every journalist who practices their craft in a conscientious way, and in a truthful way, and who investigates the power that imposes itself on people, be it the government or their vested interests, should be deeply concerned about this.
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CRDI’s Statement on AI’s Report
Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
30 May 2019 – Amnesty International’s latest report, “No one can protect us” is an evidence-based, persuasive detailing of the most recent military violence in Rakhine state against ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya.
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The World Bank Is Rewarding Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar
Azeem Ibrahim – The Washington Post,
3 Jun 2019
30 May 2019 – This month, the World Bank published a proposal for a $100 million development project in Rakhine state, the region of western Myanmar that recently saw the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim community. This funding project also attaches no conditions on Myanmar. To spell it out: The World Bank is funding a state that has carried out ethnic cleansing in just the past 24 months, with no strings attached.
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Washington’s Huawei Hypocrisy… US Government Is Instrument of American Corporations
Finian Cunningham – RT,
3 Jun 2019
31 May 2019 – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Chinese Huawei as an agent for Beijing. The US government, conversely, is the consummate instrument of American corporations. Its congenital service to corporate profit-making is the real national security risk to American citizens and a global security threat for all people of the world due to the wars that Washington unswervingly pursues on behalf of US corporate interests.
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Success & Self-Determination
Mazin Qumsiyeh | Popular Resistance – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
1 Jun 2018 – What distinguishes a healthy successful human being (or animal for that matter) from apathetic pathetic creatures who make excuses for their failures in life? Those who succeed are precisely those who have self-confidence to decide to work hard to change their circumstances and not take things for granted.
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8 June–International Day of the Oceans: World Citizens Call for Renewed Efforts to Resolve Asian Maritime Delimitations Dispute
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Factions in both Japan and China are playing a “nationalist card” concerning the maritime delimitations disputes, no doubt for reasons which go beyond the specific aspects of the disputes. Although the Chinese “nationalist” focus is directed toward Japan, there is a vision among some Chinese that the USA is the cause of the continuing problems with Taiwan and Japan.
→ read full articleRenaming the Earth’s Geological Time Scale: An Alternative Spiritual Description of Our Earth
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
While not contesting the scientists’ proposal to rename the present epoch as Anthropocene because of the factors that demonstrate the footprint of people in clear terms, I also wish to present an alternate description of our condition. This may be termed as Indian spiritual Advaita principle based on the Vedic philosophy. Let me explain.
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The Worst Enemy a Person Can Have Is His or Her Own Uncontrolled Mind
Radhanath Swami – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Our mind works like a television set. A television set is just some plastic, metal, and glass fitted with circuits inside. This box can tune into waves of energy transmitted by a satellite to produce images and sounds. The pleasure that we are looking for in this world is compared to the energy emitted by the satellite. Satellites can transmit energy that can be received through millions of television sets, but not every television is tuned into same channel.
→ read full articleRoadmap for Peace Activism
David Adams | Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
1 Jun 2019 – In this month’s bulletin of CPNN we try to identify those to whom we can look for peace leadership in these turbulent times. Let us consider their actions and advice. Let’s listen first to the new generation of youth activists.
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Technotyranny: The Iron-Fisted Authoritarianism of the Surveillance State
John W. Whitehead | The Rutherford Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
29 May 2019 – Red pill or blue pill? You decide. We are living the prequel to The Matrix with each passing day, falling further under the spell of technologically-driven virtual communities, virtual realities and virtual conveniences managed by artificially intelligent machines that are on a fast track to replacing us and eventually dominating every aspect of our lives. Science fiction has become fact.
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Rohingya repatriation: UNHCR, UNDP signs extension of MoU with Myanmar
The Daily Star [Bangladesh] – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
28 May 2019 – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UN Development Programme today signed extension of a memorandum of understanding with Myanmar for one year aimed at creating conducive conditions for voluntary and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya from Bangladesh. “UN agencies have not even consulted the Rohingyas, the survivors of genocide,” said Ro Nay San Lwin, coordinator of Free Rohingya Coalition from Germany over phone.
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Hair: Let the Sunshine In (Music Video of the Week)
TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Musical scene of the movie Hair where a hippie changes place with a soldier, is sent to the Vietnam War by mistake and dies in battle. A Classic!
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Manufacturing War with Russia
Chris Hedges | Truthdig – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
3 Jun 2019 – Despite the Robert Mueller report’s conclusion that Donald Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russia during the 2016 presidential race, the new Cold War with Moscow shows little sign of abating. The demonization of Putin and Russia was designed to poison bilateral relations, boost U.S. war industry profits and make détente impossible.
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Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Is Recipient of Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize 2019
Kimpa Vita Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
28 May 2019 – Every two years, the city of Osnabrück , Germany, has awarded the Peace Prize named after writer Erich Maria Remarque, born there. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o essays, collected in his anthology Decolonising the Mind, determine the discussion of the continuing consequences of the colonisation of Africa to this day. Since 1984, he has been writing his literary texts only in his mother tongue, Kikuyu (Gikuyu), which he then translates into English.
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Modern Monetary Realism
James K. Galbraith | Project Syndicate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) a potential boon to economic policymakers, or, as Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff recently argued, a threat to “the entire global financial system” and the front line of the “next battle for central-bank independence”?
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What You See Is Not What You Get
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
Poem at Springtime
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The Secret Tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between UNHCR, UNDP & Myanmar
Free Rohingya Coalition – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
28 May 2019 – The MoU was first signed in Naypyiday on June 6 last year, which has been extended for one more year.
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Resurrecting the PLO Is Palestine’s Best Response to the ‘Deal of the Century’
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
29 May 2019 – Palestinian groups, Fatah, Hamas and others should not confine themselves to merely rejecting the Trump Administration’s so-called ‘Deal of the Century’. Instead, they should use their resistance to the new American-Israeli plot as an opportunity to unify their ranks.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: Sectarian Violence and the Higher Self
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
On 14 and 15 May 2019, revenge violence broke out in a number of towns in Sri Lanka against Muslim shopkeepers by Christians motivated by the Easter Sunday attacks on three Christian churches. As has been said, it is difficult to solve problems on the same level from which gave rise to the problem. While Christian-Muslim dialogue is necessary in Sri Lanka, as elsewhere, it is only as the individual person moves beyond their self-identification as Christians or Muslims that a true harmonious society can grow.
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American Militarism Destroying the Future of Humanity
Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
22 May 2019 – The wars of 9/11 continue, with no end in sight. Now, the Pentagon is investing heavily in technologies that will intensify them. By embracing the latest tools that the tech industry has to offer, the US military is creating a more automated form of warfare – one that will greatly increase its capacity to wage war everywhere forever. America or its allies in the Arab Middle East face no formidable enemy except themselves against their own naïve designs of military superiority.
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Walt Whitman Returns. . .
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
May 31, 2019 is the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth in West Hills, New York. I wonder what Walt Whitman would say if he appeared in our time? I know he would recognize the betrayal of history’s lessons, humanity’s continued infatuation with violence and war, and our limited empathy. He would scold us! Reprimand us! Remind us solutions are to be found in compassion and connection, not metal.
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Will Trump Be the Sage One?
Maureen Dowd – The New York Times,
27 May 2019
18 May 2019 – “On one side, you have a president who doesn’t want war, who simply wants to do with Iran what he has done with North Korea, to twist the arm of the Iranians to bring them to a negotiation on his terms,” said French Ambassador Gérard Araud. “He thinks they will suffer and at the end, they will grovel in front of his power.” But in a way, the face-off with the Iranians is more “primitive and dangerous” because, besides Bolton, other factions in the Middle East are also “dreaming of going to war.”
→ read full articleJerusalem: A Rock and a Hard Place (Part 1)
Al Jazeera English – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
31 Mar 2019 – During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Jewish forces captured West Jerusalem as the eastern half became part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Almost two decades later, the 1967 Six-Day War would see the Jewish state claim rights to the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and all of Jerusalem. Since then, Israel has established over 200 illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land with about 600,000 settlers in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
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Understanding NATO, Ending War
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
On 4 April 2019 NATO marked its 70th anniversary. Coinciding with it, peace activists and concerned scholars in several countries conducted a variety of events to draw attention to, and further document, the many war crimes and other atrocities committed by NATO (sometimes by deploying its associate and crony terrorist armies – ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Nusra – recruited and trained by the CIA and funded by Saudi Arabia, other Gulf countries and the US directly.
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Pretexts for an Attack on Iran
Ray McGovern – Consortium News,
27 May 2019
15 May 2019 – Ray McGovern probes the step-up in U.S. belligerence towards a country posing the same non-existent strategic threat as Iraq.
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R2P and the Palestinian Ordeal: Humiliating the UN
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
23 May 2019 – The fact that Gaza has not even been discussed at the UN, despite the prolonged, intense victimization of its vulnerable and impoverished civilian population is one more indication of the primacy of geopolitics and the marginalization of international law and morality. Only civil society activism can keep the torch of justice burning in this global climate.
→ read full articleVarieties of Fake News and Misrepresentation
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
27 May 2019 – Produced in the light of concern regarding dissemination of “fake news” undermining elections to the European Parliament, of claims regarding the “fake news” purveyed by those seeking election, and in anticipation of an imminent false flag justification for war.
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The Hellish Cycle
Baher Kamal | Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
15 May 2019 – Indebted, exploited, hunted down, shamed at home… the harsh reality of Southeast Asia’s migrants. The immense human dimension justifies this new attempt to report on an aspect that is deliberately hidden, unwanted to be seen by the new wave of pseudo-politicians in the United States and so far a full dozen of European countries. See what it is about.
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Mainstream Under-Reporting of the Climate Crisis
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
25 May 2019 – Only immediate climate action can save the future. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world are on the horizon.
→ read full articleUnusual Events, Unusual Times
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
Every person has experienced unusual events at different times–some interesting, some puzzling and some unpleasant. These events are sketched in the person’s memory.
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Thanks to Facebook, Your Cellphone Company Is Watching You More Closely Than Ever
Sam Biddle – The Intercept,
27 May 2019
20 May 2019 – Offered to select Facebook partners, the data includes not just technical information about Facebook members’ devices and use of Wi-Fi and cellular networks, but also their past locations, interests, and even their social groups. This data is sourced not just from the company’s main iOS and Android apps, but from Instagram and Messenger as well. The data has been used by Facebook partners for more controversial uses like racially targeted ads.
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The Balkan Wars Created a Generation of Christian Terrorists
Azeem Ibrahim and Hikmet Karcic | Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
24 May 2019 – War radicalized the far-right–and nobody stopped them at home. This failure produced the same kinds of figures and networks of radical extremism on the European right as happened with Islamist terrorism.
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How to Pay for the War
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
16 May 2019 – I’m going to talk about war, not peace, in relation to our work on the Green New Deal—which I argue is the big MEOW—moral equivalent of war—and how we are going to pay for it. So I’m going to focus on Keynes’s 1940 book— How to Pay for the War—the war that followed the Economic Consequences of the Peace.
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The Bottom Line: Go for the Money
Rivera Sun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
24 May 2019 – It’s rare to hear business magazines admit the power of nonviolent action. As the editor of Nonviolence News, a service that collects and shares 30-50+ stories of nonviolence in action each week, I often see business journals minimizing the effect of activism. Usually, industry tries to conceal the impact nonviolent action has on their bottom line by chalking it up to market pressures.
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Newly Revealed Documents Show Syrian Chemical “Attacks Were Staged”
Institute for Public Accuracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
21 May 2019 – An internal engineering assessment by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons undermines claims justifying U.S. attacks on Syria last year; many claimed that the Syrian government had launched a chemical weapons attack on Douma on April 7. Theodore Postol, professor of science, technology, and international security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, provided the Institute for Public Accuracy with his initial assessment of the newly revealed OPCW document.
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