Articles by TRANSCEND Media Service

We found 26487 results.


4 April 1984 and 4 April 1968
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

4 April 2017 – The famous date “April 4, 1984” appeared in one of the early pages of George Orwell’s most important novel, “1984”. The novel was a warning to readers about the continued threats to the world of a future totalitarian, corporatized, militarized police state. The novel was set in Oceania, once a thriving democracy which had been economically, structurally and morally torn apart by an atomic war that had become a perpetual war. The date April 4, 1984 was the first entry in the diary of Orwell’s main character, Winston Smith.

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(Português) Uma TeaParty tropical: A ascensão de uma “nova direita” no Brasil
Laurent Delcourt | CETRI-Centre Tricontinental – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

22 março 2017 – Em um contexto marcado por uma abrupta desaceleração econômica e um novo escândalo de corrupção que atinge os partidos da coalizão governamental, assistimos à ascensão, no Brasil, de uma direita “nova”, radical e militante. Surgida na esteira das mobilizações de junho de 2013, ela forma um conjunto heterogêneo de origens e identidades distintas, sem vínculo aparente, a não ser uma comum aversão pela esquerda em geral e o PT em particular.

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So Much for ‘Understanding’
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

The United Nations conducted a worldwide survey asking, “Would you please give your honest opinion about the solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?” Not surprisingly, it was a huge failure.

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The Infinite Hotel Paradox: A Brilliant Animated Thought Experiment to Help You Grasp the Mind-Bending Concept of Infinity
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

“Infinity is a demented concept,” astrophysicist Janna Levin, who studies the finitude of the universe, wrote in her spectacular diary-turned-book about the universe. Infinity is also a dementing concept.

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[Nobel Peace Laureate] Aung San Suu Kyi: No Ethnic Cleansing of Myanmar Muslim Minority
BBC News Asia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

6 Apr 2017 – Aung San Suu Kyi has denied there is ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, despite widespread reports of abuses. Instead, Myanmar’s de-facto leader said the country would welcome any returning Rohingya with open arms.

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The Tunic of Nessus
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

8 Apr 2017 – In A few weeks, Israel will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War. Millions of words, most of them hollow, will be poured out. As usual. But the event deserves better. It is a drama unique in human history. Only a biblical writer could do it justice. William Shakespeare could have turned his hand to it.

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Pentagon Trained Syria’s Al Qaeda “Rebels” in the Use of Chemical Weapons
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | Global Research – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

The Western Media Refute Their Own Lies – Not only do they confirm that the Pentagon has been training the terrorists in the use of chemical weapons, they also acknowledge the existence of a not so secret “US-backed plan to launch a chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime”

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Arrests at Maine, USA, Christening of Aegis Destroyer – 1 April 2017
Eric Herter – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Today, nine peace activists were arrested while blocking the entrance to the “Christening” ceremony for a new Aegis destroyer at Bath Iron Works, a leading US naval shipyard. Aegis destroyers are an important coordinating and missile-carrying component in US nuclear and conventional war strategy.

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(Français) Et l’Etat ? Le Pérou et l’Equateur face à El Niño
Maria Florencia Pagliarione – Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Ces jours derniers, le phénomène d’El Niño a déchaîné sa fureur contre les côtes de l’Equateur et du Pérou. L’inclémence climatique comprise comme réchauffement de la surface des eaux du Pacifique se caractérise par la rentrée d’une masse superficielle d’eaux chaudes dans l’océan qui génère la hausse de la température de la masse des eaux et provoque des pluies d’une rare violence.

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Vault 7: Grasshopper Framework
WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Today, April 7th 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 “Grasshopper” — 27 documents from the CIA’s Grasshopper framework, a platform used to build customized malware payloads for Microsoft Windows operating systems.

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Rohingya Killings Expose Fraud of Burmese “Democracy”
John Roberts | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

7 Apr 2017 – The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution setting up an investigation into serious crimes committed by the Burmese (Myanmar) security forces and nationalist thugs against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh. The US and its EU allies cynically exploit concerns over “human rights” in Burma and elsewhere to advance their geo-political interests.

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(Français) Guerres et terrorisme: « l’effet boomerang »
Alex Anfruns | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

3 Avr 2017 – Est-ce que l’OTAN garantit notre sécurité ? Les gens s’interrogent de plus en plus à ce sujet. Aux élections présidentielles françaises, la sortie de l’OTAN figure noir sur blanc dans le programme de la France Insoumise de Jean-Luc Mélenchon. En Belgique également, quelques voix courageuses ont dressé le bilan des guerres menées au nom d’un organisme qui défend les intérêts des Etats-Unis. L’écrivain et militant pacifiste belge Ludo De Brabander en fait partie. Nous l’avons interviewé pour tirer au clair la stratégie de la France et la Belgique vis-à-vis des menaces terroristes, les intentions de l’administration Donald Trump dans le conflit syrien, ainsi que les enjeux du prochain Sommet.

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Enjoying Education for Joy and Harmony
Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Gone are the days when formal education was meant only for the prosperous and elite sections of our society. Today its importance and relevance is realized by most people even if they themselves may not have studied beyond the school level. This is so because some of the objectives of higher education as listed below are understood and appreciated and is the principal motivation to study.

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Our Nuclear Folly
Winslow Myers | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

10 Apr 2017 – The well-established assumption that North Korea is our most difficult and dangerous foreign policy challenge is worth a little dispassionate examination. NK is a pariah nation led by a greedy Stalinist family. No one can say with any certainty whether they could be brought to the table to discuss abolition. Why can’t we admit that we ourselves harbor a similar reluctance?

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Hey There Delilah (Music Video of the Week)
Plain White T – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Simply Delightful!
39,248,266 YouTube Views

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India’s Pluralism under Siege
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

India follows a system of legal pluralism that allows different religious communities to be governed by their own codes of personal law as a way of protecting distinct communal identities and safeguarding the right of citizens to practice their faith, as enshrined in the constitution. But Muslims are governed by the personal law, which came into force in 1937.

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Six Deceptive Arguments against a Nuclear Weapons Ban
Cesar Jaramillo | OpenCanada – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Should we still strive for a world without nuclear weapons, despite global security concerns? Absolutely, writes Cesar Jaramillo, as he debunks the justifications for not taking current negotiations seriously.

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Death on the Prescription Plan. The ‘White Plague’ of the 21st Century
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

6 Apr 2017 – Over the past two decades hundreds of thousands of Americans have died prematurely because of irresponsibly prescribed narcotic ‘pain killers’ and other central nervous system depressants, like tranquillizers and their deadly interactions.

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Normalization under Occupation: How Israel Understands the Arab Peace Initiative
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Trump assigned his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, an Orthodox Jew and a strong supporter of Israel’s rightwing, to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is controversial even in the eyes of some Israelis, due to his close association with extremist Jewish parties that labor to seize Palestinian Muslim and Christian properties in Occupied East Jerusalem.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Apr 10-16 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.” – David Searls

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Hidden Gems
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

A diver was exploring caves along the seashore. In one of them he found an ancient leather bag. Curious to see what treasure might be hidden inside, he quickly opened it, but was disappointed to find nothing but a bunch of hardened clay balls.

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How to Think about Vladimir Putin
Christopher Caldwell | Imprimis, Hillsdale College – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

If we were to use traditional measures for understanding leaders, which involve the defense of borders and national flourishing, Putin would count as the pre-eminent statesman of our time… He has become a symbol of national sovereignty in its battle with globalism. That turns out to be the big battle of our times. As our last election shows, that’s true even here.

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The Silent Cries of Hiding Children: Fifty Years after MLK’s Riverside Church Speech
Edward Curtin – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

“A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war. This way of settling differences is not just. This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social up lift is approaching spiritual death.” — MLK

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Lessons from Hitler’s Rise
Christopher R. Browning | The New York Review of Books – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

A major new biography—an extraordinary, penetrating study of the man who has become the personification of evil. “Ullrich reveals Hitler to have been an eminently practical politician—and frighteningly so. Timely… One of the best works on Hitler and the origins of the Third Reich to appear in recent years.” —Kirkus Reviews. “An outstanding study… All the huge and terrible moments of the early Nazi era are dissected…but the real strength of this book is in disentangling the personal story of man and monster.” —The Guardian (U.K.)

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‘Trump Attacked the Very People Fighting Islamic State’
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

A rush to judgement? A one-off attack? Or maybe the start of a major military offensive in Syria? Scholars, analysts and journalists offer their opinions on the Trump administration’s decision to attack the Syrian military on Friday [7 Apr 2017].

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The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process Is Over – What’s Needed Now Is a Boycott
Mike Merryman-Lotze | OtherWords, Institute for Policy Studies – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

With the U.S. now firmly in the pro-settler camp, nonviolent campaigns to impose a cost on Israel’s occupation matter more than ever. The White House is creating new problems in Israel-Palestine, but ordinary people can start setting things right.

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(Português) Professora de geoquímica descobriu porque os chineses não adquirem câncer de mama!
Perfeito – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Esta é a história de uma grande mulher, uma cientista, que lutou contra uma doença fatal e venceu. Esta informação salvou a vida dela!

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(Français) Enjeux et devenir de la pêche
Laurent Delcourt | CETRI-Centre Tricontinental – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

La hausse constante de la consommation de poisson a fait de la pêche une industrie lucrative. Mais le boom de l’halieutique s’est aussi traduit par une explosion des inégalités, une aggravation des conflits pour le contrôle de la ressource et un effondrement des stocks. Pour y faire face, les institutions internationales ont surtout fait appel à des mécanismes de marché, qui menacent les conditions de vie précaires des communautés de pêche artisanale, sans résoudre la crise.

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(Português) Propagandhi: “De alguma forma, todo mundo que come carne sabe que existe algum dano nisso”
David Arioch | Jornalismo Cultural – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Fundada no Canadá em 1986, a banda Propagandhi, importante nome do cenário punk rock, tem se destacado por ter como bandeira a defesa dos direitos animais e o veganismo. “Não tenho nenhuma necessidade de machucar os animais para o meu próprio prazer ou conforto”.

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Can Empirical Science Give Us Peace?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Galileo’s finger points to two pillars for science: scientific knowledge must be based on empirical facts observed or by experiments; and the language to express scientific knowledge is mathematics. First objection: only the past can produce empirical facts; that limits what might or ought to be to what already have been facts. But humans are capable of transcending the past, and create new facts.

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Trump Has Scientists Mad Enough to March on Earth Day
The Philadelphia Inquirer | Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

5 Apr 2017 – It’s not every day that scientists plan to head out of the laboratory and into the streets to protest, but on Earth Day, April 22, U.S. scientists have good reason to do exactly that. The protesters believe President Trump has no respect for the truth when it comes to well-settled science on some of the most critical questions facing the country.

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The Future Will Be Battery-Powered
Amelia Urry | Grist – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

The battery might be the least sexy piece of technology ever invented but the future will be battery-powered. It has to be. From electric cars to industrial-scale solar farms, batteries are the key to a cleaner, more efficient energy system.

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The Cell Was My Canvas
Theresa Wolfwood – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

“Art is the antithesis of conflict – conflict causes destruction; art is about creation.”

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The World at 1°C 
DemandClimateJustice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

“We are at the crossroads now: We either say: this thing is too big for us, this task cannot be done. [Then] we will be transformed by nature, because we will end up with a planet warming by 4, 5, 6 or even 12 degrees. It would be the end of the world as we know it, and I have all the evidence. Or we say: We’re doing the transformation ourselves.”

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In Memory of Morton Deutsch: A Rhymed Reflection
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Morton Deutsch was the main co-editor of the acclaimed The Handbook of Conflict Resolution-Theory and Practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014. The renowned Columbia University psychologist passed away March 13, 2017.

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A Huge Mining Conglomerate Wanted to Poison This Country’s Water – After a Long Fight They Lost
Pedro Cabezas | Inequality.org – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

After a long struggle, El Salvador just proved that with enough civil society support, even a very poor country can stand up to powerful global mining firms. In response to enormous public pressure, lawmakers have rejected appeals by global corporations and voted to protect the country’s people and water supply by banning metallic mining.

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Lahore, Easter Sunday, 2016
Barbara Millar – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

On this day the Taliban bombed a popular playground/park which was well attended by families and their young children. Because it was Easter, they were targeting Christian children and their families, though Muslim, Hindu, Jewish children and their families were also killed.

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Christian Nonviolence in Three Crucial Points
Prof. Antonino Drago – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2017

Speech at the Prayer Vigil for the 50th World Day of Peace, Diocese of Pisa, 27 Jan 2017

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(Français) Richard Falk : de nombreux dirigeants israéliens ont eux-mêmes annoncé depuis longtemps qu’Israël deviendrait un État d’apartheid…
Richard Falk | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Une enquête sur l’apartheid dans le contexte israélien n’est pas quelque chose de scandaleux, ni même de particulièrement nouveau.

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University of Terror
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

So for year after year, century after century, society has sent its criminals to Crime University, where they learn to become better and more professional criminals. Tuition with full board, all expenses paid by the state. And, of course, a huge army of prison personnel, policemen and women, experts and academics depend on this system for their livelihood. Everybody happy.

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16 European Nations Vote against GMO Crops
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

27 Mar 2017 – The majority of European Union governments voted against a proposal to authorize two new strains of genetically modified (GMO) maize today.

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Slaves
Baher Kamal |Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were victims of transatlantic slave trade. Slavery is far from being a chapter of the past—it still there, with estimated 21 million victims of forced labour and extreme exploitation around the world–nearly the combined population of Scandinavian countries.

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The Whole World Is Watching as Trump Trashes U.S. Climate Policy
EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Questions over whether Trump’s executive order would end U.S. involvement in the Paris agreement. China showed it would continue to cement its global leadership on climate, as officials reaffirmed the country was still committed to it. “It’s important to understand that no single country, no matter how large or small, can cancel the Paris Climate Agreement.”

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Role of Education in Preventing Violence and Promoting Peace and Welfare
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Governments and scholars now agree that education is a desirable objective in itself and is also the means for inculcating right attitudes and morality among people. It is also essential for the material development of society by reducing poverty and want. It helps to empower people especially the downtrodden ones.

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Abbas to Award Khalaf with Palestinian Highest Medal
Middle East Monitor – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday [18 Mar 2017] said he would award the highest Palestinian medal to former UN official Rima Khalaf for her courageous stand for Palestinians, local media reported.

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(Italiano) Violenza contro le donne: Pace positiva
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

E in quanto ai monumenti: per favore, non l’uomo a cavallo, che brandisce la morte. Ci siano monumenti alle donne che fanno sbocciare nuova vita. Il punto fondamentale è aprire la mente maschile a un “noi insieme” per migliori matrimoni, e anche per cambiare la loro mentalità “noi contro di loro”. Meglio che trattare le donne come serve-prostitute pagate in moneta di “sicurezza” per rigovernare le stoviglie, lavare la roba, occuparsi dei bebé e insieme dei bambini, degli infermi e dei vecchi, e condividere la loro gratitudine.

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(Italiano) La politica e l’economia mondiale in questo momento
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Un altro fattore chiave è la speculazione nell’economia finanziaria – in contrapposizione all’investimento nell’economia reale – consistente in serie di prodotti derivati con super-commissioni. Se i prodotti derivati dalla droga sono illegali e biasimati, perché non farlo anche con i derivati finanziari?

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Selling São Paulo
Kathleen McCaul Moura | London Review of Books – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

17 Mar 2017 – São Paulo is for sale. João Doria, mayor since 1 January, is planning to auction off South America’s biggest city piece by piece: not only the racecourse, football stadium and carnival centre, but lighting, transport, health services and even the public funeral system.

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Washington Protests Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament
Andre Damon | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

On Monday [27 Mar 2017], the United States, together with Britain and France, walked out of a session of the United Nations General Assembly set to discuss a global ban on nuclear weapons.

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“Rohingya Resistance”: The Media Is “Bigging It Up” without Analysis or Insights
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

31 Mar 2017 – For the mass media is now bigging up Rohingya Resistance, but it isn’t telling you anything I consider intelligent, analytical, researched or factual.

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Vault 7: Project Dark Matter
WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Today, March 23rd 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 “Dark Matter”, which contains documentation for several CIA projects that infect Apple Mac firmware (meaning the infection persists even if the operating system is re-installed) developed by the CIA’s Embedded Development Branch.

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Cultivating Community Economies
J.K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, Kelly Dombroski, Stephen Healy and Ethan Miller | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Building on J.K. Gibson-Graham’s feminist critique of political economy, the CEC challenges two problematic aspects of how “the economy” is understood: seeing it as inevitably capitalist, and separating the economy from ecology. We understand the economy as comprised of diverse practices and as intimately intertwined with planetary ecosystem processes. In a complexly determined world there are multiple ways of enacting change; we are energized by possibilities that are afforded by this framing of economy.

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(Castellano) A la cultura de la violencia oponemos la cultura de la paz
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Al abordar el tema de la paz en su encíclica, el obispo de Roma, Francisco, repite lo que Gandhi y otros maestros han dicho antes: «la paz no es ausencia de guerra. La paz interior de las personas tiene mucho que ver con el cuidado, con la ecología y con el bien común, porque cuando es auténticamente vivida, se refleja en un equilibrado estilo de vida, aliado con la capacidad de admiración que lleva a la profundidad de la vida; la naturaleza está llena de palabras de amor».

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Jane Goodall: How Can We Believe It Is a Good Idea to Grow Our Food with Poisons?
Katherine Paul | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

9 Mar 2017 – Two new reports published in recent weeks add to the already large and convincing body of evidence, accumulated over more than half a century, that agricultural pesticides and other toxic chemicals are poisoning us. Both reports issue scathing indictments of U.S. and global regulatory systems that collude with chemical companies to hide the truth from the public, while they fill their coffers with ill-gotten profits.

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Japan’s Ruling Party Calls for Military to Have Offensive Weapons
Peter Symonds | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

1 Apr 2017 – Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has called on the government to boost the country’s anti-ballistic missile systems and to consider acquiring, for the first time, weapons capable of carrying out attacks on enemy bases. The recommendations are another step towards the remilitarisation of Japan pressed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that is adding to sharp regional tensions.

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(Português) Patrik Baboumian: “A força deve construir, não destruir. Minha força não precisa de vítimas. Minha força é a minha compaixão”
David Arioch | Jornalismo Cultural – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Em 2011, quando conquistou o título de homem mais forte da Alemanha, o atleta abraçou o veganismo mesmo sem saber se isso iria afetar o seu desempenho como atleta e o seu grande volume muscular. Questionado se teria alguma sugestão a dar para quem está cogitando o vegetarianismo ou o veganismo, ele recomendou que as pessoas não deem ouvidos aos supostos gurus da nutrição e da indústria de suplementos que dizem que precisamos de carne, ovos e laticínios para conseguir proteínas o suficiente.

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The West Is Becoming Irrelevant: The World Is Laughing
Andre Vltchek | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

The greatest minds of Russia, China, Latin America and the rest of the world are trying to determine what brought our world, our civilization, to this ludicrous downfall. The answer: Western imperialism (military, economic and ‘intellectual’/ ’cultural’), colonialism and neo-colonialism, as well as that dreadful byproduct of all the above – a savage form of capitalism.

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Everyone in Middle East Given Own Country in 317,000,000-State Solution
The Onion – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

The broad and extensive compromise, which affects more than 3,000,000 square miles formerly occupied by the territories of Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan, will reportedly draw over 750,000,000 new borders in what experts claim will help drastically curb sectarian violence.

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Letter to a Concerned Friend of One of the Many Victims of the Psychiatric and Psychopharmaceutical Industries
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

28 Mar 2017 – I recently had a dialogue with a person who had emailed me about a friend of hers who had been mis-treated for years by drug-prescribing psychiatrists. The psychiatrists – and their alarming and illogical drugging – had made him worse and worse and eventually totally disabled over the years.

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U.N. Considers a Historic Ban on Nuclear Weapons: U.S. Leads Boycott
Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Mar 30, 2017 – Some 120 countries gathered at the United Nations this week to draft a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. But the United States is leading a boycott of the talks. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 scientists signed an open letter endorsing the talks, and, on Tuesday [28 Mar], Pope Francis encouraged the UN to pursue the “total elimination” of nuclear weapons.

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U.S. Military Personnel Deployments by Country
Jeff Desjardins | Visual Capitalist – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

18 Mar 2017 – The U.S. spends more on defense than the next 7 countries combined. Part of that money goes to supporting 200,000 troops abroad in 177 countries. Look at the charts.

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Syria: Armed Conflict Resolution and the Reconstruction of an Inclusive and Just Society
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

On 5 April 2017, the European Union and the United Nations will hold a joint conference on the future of Syria and its region. “Civil Society” is invited to participate, but it is not clear in advance if the Brussels meeting will be a “fundraising” one, in which case most non-governmental organizations (NGO) in consultative status with the UN will have little to contribute, or if there will be wider aims.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Apr 3-9 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “When you don’t get a miracle, you can be a miracle for someone else.” – Nick Vujicić

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(Castellano) ¿Y el Estado? Perú y Ecuador frente a El Niño
Maria Florencia Pagliarone | CELAG Centro Estratégico Latinoamericano de Geopolítica – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

20 Mar 2017 – En los últimos días, el fenómeno de El Niño ha desatado su furia contra las costas de Ecuador y Perú. La inclemencia climática definida como un calentamiento de la superficie de las aguas del Pacífico se caracteriza por el ingreso de una masa superficial de aguas cálidas en el mar, lo que genera el aumento de la temperatura de la masa de agua e intensas lluvias.

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Let’s Come to Our Senses on Nukes
Kevin Martin | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

So one might reasonably ask the president, who has come to their senses on nukes, and who has not? Let’s cancel the New Nuclear Arms Race, challenge the other nuclear states to do likewise, and join the talks for a treaty to once and for all close the door on the folly of nuclear weaponry.

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Six Months after Hurricane Matthew, Hunger and Desperation Grip Haiti’s South
John Marion | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

1 Apr 2017 – There have been multiple reports of people eating poisonous plants or tree bark just to stave off hunger, and in the city of Jérémie people are still living under tarpaulins after the storm. According to Le Nouvelliste, an elderly couple in the town of Candache hanged themselves because of hunger. On March 22, Food for the Poor found 240 people, including 84 women and 62 children, living in a cave near Jérémie in Grand’Anse.

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“Putin Is a Killer”
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

(Beginning with a line by US fake-news media honcho, Bill O’Reilly)

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Anonymous Brazilian Youth Talent (Music Video of the Week)
TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Meu Pedacinho do Céu – Homemade Facebook video

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The Hidden Monopolies That Raise Drug Prices
David Dayen | The American Prospect – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Morphed from Processors to Predators – Under fire for their many drug-pricing scandals, from Martin Shkreli to Valeant, the pharmaceutical industry has tried to deflect blame by citing PBMs .

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Wealth of World’s Billionaires Soars amid Stock Market Surge
Shannon Jones | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Combined, the top 10 billionaires on the Forbes list alone took in $558 billion, more than the Gross Domestic Product of Venezuela. Just eight of those billionaires control as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population, 3.6 billion people, according to Oxfam. More fundamentally, the increasing concentration of wealth among the world’s richest represents a social retrogression in which society’s resources are being plundered in the name of a mad pursuit of private gain, profits; unjustifiable, pernicious greed.

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US Navy Prepares Decapitating Attack against Russia
Alex Gorka | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

27 Mar 2017 – The US preemptive nuclear strike capability has significantly grown. The Bulletin of American Scientists reports that as a result of improvements in the killing power of US SLBMs, they carry more than three times the number of warheads needed to destroy the entire fleet of Russian land-based missiles.

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Germany Converts Coal Mine into Giant Battery Storage for Surplus Solar and Wind Power
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

The Prosper-Haniel coal mine will be converted into a 200 megawatt pumped-storage hydroelectric reservoir that acts like a giant battery. The capacity is enough to power more than 400,000 homes.

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Vault 7: Marble Framework
WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Today, March 31st 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 “Marble” — 676 source code files for the CIA’s secret anti-forensic Marble Framework. Marble is used to hamper forensic investigators and anti-virus companies from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the CIA.

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Meanwhile, Around the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Starting with EU at 60, making small states (Luxembourg!) big by being members of something bigger, but making bigger, even imperial, states smaller by being “members”… UK outside and France inside are now paying the heavy immigration price for devastation wrought by their empires; with no EU solidarity… Trump is seen as psychotic with crazy policies: military up $54 billion at the expense of the poor, health, environment, climate, arts, culture. The US killings all over were not seen as crazy, but Trump kills at the cost of basics. He may not last 100 days, impeached or-?

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WikiLeaks Reveals “Marble”: Proof CIA Disguises Their Hacks as Russian, Chinese, Arabic…
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

31 Mar 2017 – WikiLeaks’ latest Vault 7 release contains a batch of documents, named ‘Marble’, which detail CIA hacking tactics and how they can misdirect forensic investigators from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to their agency by inserted code fragments in foreign languages. The biggest malicious hacker on Earth was, and still is, the CIA.

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Were There Two Buddhas?
Stephen Knapp – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

In the following material, we will look at the evidence that seems to indicate that there was first the Avatara Buddha, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu who appeared near 1800 BCE, and then there was another person who became known as Gautama called Buddha, born around 560 BCE.

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Neo-Feudal Society: Tax Havens for Big Multinationals Is ‘Robbery of Population’
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

28 Mar 2017 – It’s alarming big European banks, unlike ordinary people are not paying their fair share of taxes, says Oxfam policy advisor Aurore Chardonnet. Tax dodging is a crime against the people, a robbery of the population, adds business consultant Gerald Celente.

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(Italiano) Intervista a Murat Cinar in vista dell’incontro di STORIE_Aosta 8 aprile 2017
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

1 Apr 2017 – STORIE, sezione del progetto culturale Collettivamente memoria 2017, presenta, per il quarto incontro, il giornalista, blogger, fotografo (e amico) turco Murat Cinar. In anteprima una breve intervista.

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Can Our Social Institutions Catch Up with Advances in Science and Technology?
Lawrence Wittner | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

There is a glaring discrepancy between technological advances and the social institutions that can ensure that they are used for the benefit of humanity. The real question is whether people and nations can muster the political will to reshape their behavior and social institutions to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

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Maya Angelou (4 Apr 1928 – 28 May 2014): On Identity and the Meaning of Life
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Angelou’s timeless wisdom shines with unparalleled light in a 1977 interview by journalist Judith Rich, in which Angelou explores issues of identity and the meaning of life.

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Explaining to a Blind Person
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Someone asked Albert Einstein at a party: “Oh, you are Albert Einstein, could you please explain me your relativity theory in three or four sentences?”

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India Needs to Move Beyond Hubris
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Sometimes we filter when we listen, having a preconceived notion of the ground realties. In a country as large and diverse as India, it makes sense to connect those who live in similar climates and by tracking the effectiveness of the projects they manage and making appropriate, informed changes to those that aren’t working.

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The Gift of Insults
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

A great Samurai warrior, now old, had decided to teach Zen Buddhism to young people. Despite his age, the legend was that he could defeat any adversary.

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Settled Wanderers – The Poetry of Western Sahara
Theresa Wolfwood – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

This remarkable book is far more than a collection of poetry, little-known in the English-speaking world. It is a concise history and geography of the Saharawi people, the lives of their poets; a glossary and explanation of the unique language of this nation, Hassaniya.

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Learning to Be Fascists
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

Learning to be fascists, victims, and bystanders (and everything in-between). We learn to love, hate, kill, slaughter, rape, torture, etc. In my view, the Burmese society is undergoing this experience regarding the Rohingya victims of state terror, social ostracism/exclusion and the emerging sadistic culture of those who call themselves “Buddhists”.

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Argentina Set to Drop US$2 Billion for Largest Weapons Acquisition since Malvinas War
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

28 Mar 2017 – [Rightwing] Argentinean President Mauricio Macri is poised to dole out US$2 billion in large military equipment from the United States in what will be the biggest weapons acquisition since the country’s Malvinas War in the 1980s.

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How Many Civilians Can We Kill?
Robert C. Koehler | Common Wonders – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

As Barbara Ehrenreich writes in her book, Blood Rites, “War has dug itself into economic systems, where it offers a livelihood to millions, rather than to just a handful of craftsmen and professional soldiers. It has lodged in our souls as a kind of religion, a quick tonic for political malaise and a bracing antidote to the moral torpor of consumerist, market-driven cultures.”

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US Senate Votes to Let Internet Providers Share Your Web Browsing History without Permission
Jacob Kastrenakes | The Verge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

23 Mar 2017 – The US Senate has voted to overturn consumer-friendly internet privacy rules that would have prevented internet providers from sharing your web browsing history without permission. Altogether, it’s just pure bad news for consumers, whose private data is about to be open for sale again.

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Secret Companies Allow Corrupt Cash to Flood Key Real Estate Markets
IPS World Desk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Apr 2017

30 Mar 2017 – The governments of Australia, Canada, UK and USA need to close legal loopholes to prevent the corrupt elite from laundering the proceeds of grand corruption in their local real estate markets, the Berlin-based Transparency International said on March 29 in a new report, Doors Wide Open: Corruption and Real Estate in Key Markets.

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(Français) Lettre de démission de Rima Khalaf, secrétaire exécutive de l’ESCWA (commission économique et sociale pour l’Asie de l’Ouest)
Rima Khalaf | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

Lettre de démission de la secrétaire exécutive de l’ESCWA (commission économique et sociale pour l’Asie occidentale) Rima Khalaf, en réponse à la demande formelle du secrétaire général des Nations Unies pour que l’ESCWA retire la publication d’un rapport qui affirme que l’Etat d’Israël a mis en place une situation d’apartheid.

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Vincent van Gogh (30 Mar 1853 – 29 Jul 1890)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

Vincent van Gogh is considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, although he remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life. After having been physically and psychologically unstable, he cut off his ear and offered it to a prostitute.

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Is Israel an Apartheid State?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

This post was originally published on March 22, 2017 by The Nation under the title “The Inside Story of Our UN Report Calling Israel an Apartheid State.” What is below is somewhat modified.

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Genocides Have No Winners
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

Genocides are what students of politics call ‘path-dependent’. Once a genocidal process is set in motion it is hard to recall. All genocides end in tears and destroy humanness in all involved in it, as perpetrators, on-lookers, whitewashers, collaborators, and victims.”

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Cambodia Rejects US War Debt, Slams US Imperial Brutality
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

21 Mar 2017 – Following the United States’ renewed insistence that Cambodia pay back its alleged “war debts,” fury across Cambodia has been widespread. “We should raise our voices to talk about the issue of the country that has invaded other (countries) and has killed children,” said Cambodia’s prime minister. $38 Billion for Israel, but not $274 Million for Cambodia.

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China’s Great Leap Forward: Western Frogs Croak Dismay
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

23 Mar 2017 – From their dismal swamps, US academic and financial journal editorialists, the mass media and contemporary ‘Asia experts’, Western progressive and conservative politicians croak in unison about China’s environmental and impending collapse.

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(Castellano) Una ética para la Madre Tierra
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

14 mar 2017 – Hoy es un hecho científicamente reconocido que los cambios climáticos, cuya expresión mayor es el calentamiento global son de naturaleza antropogénica, con un grado de seguridad del 95%. Es decir, tienen su génesis en un tipo de comportamiento humano violento con la naturaleza.

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These Two Rivers Were Just Given the Same Legal Rights as Humans in India
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

The High Court of the Indian state of Uttarakhand ruled that the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their tributaries are “legal and living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities.” The judges noted that the once-mighty rivers are “losing their very existence.” The decision marks the first time a court has recognized a non-human as a living entity in India.

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After Creating Haiti’s Cholera Crisis, UN Can Barely Fight It
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

20 Mar 2017 – It was seven years ago when the outbreak first began. Haiti’s cholera outbreak has ravaged hundreds of thousands of lives — killing nearly 10,000 and sickening nearly 800,000 more. After years of dodging responsibility, the U.N. is now struggling to help fight the health scourge it created.

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“Total War:” Weaponizing and Exporting USA Popular Culture
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

The power of USA popular culture is vast and complex. It has been exported to virtually all nations. It is a “war-like” invasion and occupation of a way-of-life, displacing and overwhelming existing cultural values and practices. Even as the USA is subject to increasing criticism for its abusive and intrusive actions in the culture’s of other nations, USA leaders appear reluctant to accept criticism.

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Climate Breaks All Records: Hottest Year, Lowest Ice, Highest Sea Level
IPS World Desk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Mar 2017

23 Mar 2017 – Climate has, once more, broken all records, with the year 2016 making history-highest-ever global temperature, exceptionally low sea ice, unabated sea level rise and ocean heat. And what is an even worse– extreme and unusual trends continue in 2017.

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