Articles by M

We found 35353 results.


Diversifying Public Ownership
Andrew Cumbers | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

This paper advocates a form of economic democracy based around diverse forms of public ownership. It does not prioritize one particular scale but recognizes the importance of decentralized forms of public ownership, to encourage greater public participation and engagement, mixed with higher level state ownership, for strategic sectors and planning for key public policy goals (e.g. tackling climate change). It takes a deliberately pluralistic definition of public ownership, recognizing both state ownership and the role that cooperatives and employee ownership could play in a more democratic economy.

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Corporate Pseudo-Science, Edward Bernays, and the 2017 March for Science
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of… It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.”
— Edward L. Bernays, the Father of Propaganda in America and Sigmund Freud’s nephew, from his seminal book, Propaganda (1928)

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Democratic World Federalists and the San Francisco Promise
Roger Kotila, Editor | Earth Federation News & Views – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

The truth is that the UN Charter itself is so badly designed that it is in reality the main part of a geopolitical war system. A global peace system will require replacing the UN Charter with a genuine world federal union constitution such as the Earth Constitution. The Charter is undemocratically rigged in favor of only five nations of the UN Security Council: U.S., Russia, China, France, and UK.

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Teilhard de Chardin (1 May 1881 – 10 Apr 1955): Evolution toward World Unity
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

For Teilhard, love was not an emotion or a sentiment but the basic primal and universal psychic energy. This is a concept drawn from Chinese culture. Teilhard lived in China from 1923 to 1946. The Chinese word jen, a term translated as love, benevolence or affection, is not only an emotional-moral term, but it is also a cosmic force − a compassionate quality that is the very structure of the earth.

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Global Solidarity Now!
James Albertini | Malu 'Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

The U.S. Military is the single largest consumer of oil and the largest emitter of CO2 in the world! Here in the center of Hawaii Island is a 133,000-acre toxic waste dump that includes lead, depleted uranium and a host of other pollutants. And to make matters worse, the military is bombing the toxic waste dump. Are we inhaling military DU oxide dust?

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America’s War-Fighting Footprint in Africa
Nick Turse - TomDispatch, 1 May 2017

Secret U.S. Military Documents Reveal a Constellation of American Military Bases across That Continent

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Who Is Behind the State Department’s Coup Plot in Venezuela?
Misión Verdad – teleSUR, 1 May 2017

Creating a distorted image of the humanitarian crisis is the starting point. Painting a picture of a country on the verge of collapse is the alibi.

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Does Climate Change Increase Conflict?
Peace News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

Today’s wars are often attributed to ethnic conflict or extremism, but environmental factors could also be behind tensions. Linking climate and conflict is a controversial issue. Some scholars warn that inflating the links between conflict and climate change could be damaging to both areas of study. However, evidence on the ground appears to be increasing.

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A Rhymed Reflection Never Before Proclaimed
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

All types of nuclear weapons let us abhor.
The mention of any types of nuclear war let us deplore.

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How the Hunger Strike Could Bring Palestinian Prisoners Back to the Fore
Amjad Iraqi | +972 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

The fixation on Barghouti’s op-ed bio distracts from the strike’s impact on Palestinians, which is as much about restoring political direction as it is about attaining prisoners’ rights.

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Moscow Nights – Podmoskovnye Vechera (Music Video of the Week)
Anna Netrebko & Dmitri Hvorostovsky – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

Red Square Concert – The Russian Classic best known outside the country.

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BP Oil Spill Damage to Natural Resources Valued at $17.2 Billion, Scientists Find
Denisse Moreno | International Business Times – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

20 Apr 2017 – The April 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill did $17.2 billion in damage to natural resources, a study published in the journal Science said. Scientists conducted a six-year study of the impact of the 134-million gallon BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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To Prevent or Stop Wars: What Can Peace Movements Do?
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

We, who are part of structured (more or less) organizations for the resolution of armed conflicts, need to seek ways to meet on-going challenges, to build cooperation among groups and to reach out to the “unorganized”. The book, the first of a new peace publishing house headed by Jørgen Johansen, also of The War Resisters’ leadership, merits close reading and especially discussion of strategies.

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Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire Appeals to President Trump for Peace Leadership
The Peace People – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

“The people of North and South Korea want peace and they want a peace treaty. They do not want their country to be bombed or their government to bomb others. Having visited both North and South Korea last year and walked with thousands and thousands of Korean women, North and South, I am convinced that peace is possible and what is needed is the political will of all parties to the conflict to dialogue and for negotiations to move from a Korean armistice to a Korean Peace Treaty.”

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John Lennon’s Last Interview
Beatles Videos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

John Lennon sat down at the Tomorrow Show and gave his last interview ever. RIP – Listen to his first statement…

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The Old Familiar Faces: Poetry
Theresa Wolfwood – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

This collection of mainly English poetry reflecting inevitably on loss, the constant of old age, has many poignant poems, but also humour, a necessity of aging well, is here. The editors have collected poems from many centuries and from the famous to the little known.

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Australian Anzac Day Celebrations Promote Militarism and War
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 May 2017

Anzac Day celebrations on April 25 were used by the Australian political and media establishment to reaffirm its commitment to US-led wars and military preparations around the world, and to try to drown out widespread anti-war sentiment among working people.

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Over 1,000 Palestinian Prisoners Launch Mass Hunger Strike
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

On Palestinian Prisoner’s Day Monday [17 Apr 2017], hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons are staging a mass hunger strike, continuing the decades-long resistance of prisoners in the apartheid state. “Salutes of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. Glory to the martyrs. Freedom for the prisoners of freedom,” stated the PFLP in support of the strikers.

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Day of Mother Earth – 22 April
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

In traditional Indian culture, according to texts as early as the Vedas, the Earth is home to all living species that inhabit it and must not be excluded as they all contribute to the planet’s welfare and preservation. Therefore, human beings must contribute to the web of life of which they are a part and find ways of using the elements to produce food without damaging other life forms as far as possible.

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Why We Are on Hunger Strike in Israel’s Prisons
Marwan Barghouti – The New York Times, 24 Apr 2017

16 Apr 2017 — Having spent the last 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been both a witness to and a victim of Israel’s illegal system of arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. After exhausting all other options, I decided to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike. Freedom and dignity are universal rights that are inherent in humanity, to be enjoyed by every nation and all human beings. Palestinians will not be an exception.

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Yemen, World’s Largest Humanitarian Crisis
Baher Kamal – Inter Press Service-IPS, 24 Apr 2017

19 Apr 2017 – With 18.8 million people –nearly 7 in 10 inhabitants– in need of humanitarian aid, including 10.3 million requiring immediate assistance, Yemen is now the largest single-nation humanitarian crisis in the world, the UN informs. According to OCHA, over 17 million people are currently “food insecure,” of whom 6.8 million are “severely food insecure” and require immediate food assistance, and two million acutely malnourished children. The Yemeni population amounts to 27.4 million inhabitants.

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US Threat of War Forces North Korea into Siege State Mentality
Carlos Martinez – Russia Today, 24 Apr 2017

Many people in the West are worried about the situation not because of Donald Trump’s insane militarism, but that of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Such thinking is irrational and ahistorical, and is rooted largely in mass-media deception and good old-fashioned ‘Yellow Peril’ racism. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has invaded and bombed not a single country. The USA, on the other hand, has invaded and bombed dozens of countries – including Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Grenada, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and, yes, Korea.

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International Collaboration to End Violence
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

24 Apr 2017 – While much of the world is engulfed in violence of one sort or another (whether violence in the home or on the street, exploitation, ecological destruction or war), a global network of individuals and organizations is committed to ending this violence in all of its manifestations. Here is an outline of what some of these individual signatories of ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’ are doing. You are welcome to join them.

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Mountaintop Removal Site Could Become Kentucky’s Largest Solar Farm
Cassie Kelly | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Berkeley Energy is working to build a 50-100 megawatt solar farm right on top of the old coal mine. The project was announced on Tuesday [18 Apr]. “This is really a history-making project for the region,” said Ryan Johns, an executive with Berkeley Energy Group.

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On the Fifth Day
Jane Hirshfield – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

That common ground between poetry and science is what poet Jane Hirshfield sows with splendor in this poem written for the 2017 March for Science in Washington, D.C., protesting the anti-fact, anti-truth, anti-science political climate of the current American administration. (Maria Popova)

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Indescribable Feeling: We Just Hit 410 ppm of CO2 – Welcome to a Whole New World
Kate Yoder | Grist – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

21 Apr 2017 – This is not normal: We’re on track to witness a climate unseen in 50 million years by mid-century. We first hit 400 parts per million back in 2013, and that became the new norm just four years later. And on April 18 this year, as predicted, we crossed the 410 ppm threshold for the first time at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

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(Français) Guerre de Corée : après les tapis de bombes, les mensonges
Dwight Garner | Tlaxcala – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

La Corée du Nord, une menace pour les Etats-Unis? Oui, si on applique un principe fondamental de la propagande de guerre: occulter l’histoire. Par contre, si on replace les événements dans leur contexte, les tensions entre Washington et Pyongyang prennent une toute autre dimension. C’est pourquoi nous vous proposons la lecture cet article de 2010. Un historien revient sur la guerre qui a ravagé la Corée de 1950 à 1953. Utile pour remettre les pendules à l’heure.

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‘The Kurds’: Internationalists or Narrow Nationalists?
Marcel Cartier - teleSUR, 24 Apr 2017

Any imperialist plan for a “Greater Kurdistan” is incompatible with the ideology Democratic Self-Administration in Northern Syria.

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Korea: Challenge and Response
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

In a message to the UN Secretary-General, as President of the Association of World Citizens, I stressed that a crisis can also be an opportunity for strong initiatives and action. Citizens of the World call for speedy and creative action to meet the challenge of growing Korean tensions with a response of cooperation and reconciliation.

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Palestine’s Nelson Mandela
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

22 Apr 2017 – I have a confession to make: I like Marwan Barghouti. I have visited him at his modest Ramallah home several times. During our conversations, we discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace. Our ideas were the same: to create the State of Palestine next to the State of Israel, and to establish peace between the two states, with open borders and cooperation. I am waiting for the day when I can visit Marwan again as a free man in his home in Ramallah. Even more so if Ramallah is, by that time, a town in the free State of Palestine.

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The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance
Erica Chenoweth | TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Between 1900-2006, campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance were twice as successful as violent campaigns. Erica talks about her research on the impressive historical record of civil resistance in the 20th century and discusses the promise of unarmed struggle in the 21st century. In addition to explaining why nonviolent resistance has been so effective, she also shares some lessons learned about why it sometimes fails.

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“Over There”
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

When the massacres came, we wondered…. –
We thought we were the “Over There” people.
George M. Cohan sang us the way home:
“We won’t come back till it’s over over there.”

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Israel Cracks the Whip on Hunger-Striking Palestinian Prisoners
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

The Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs released a statement Monday [17 Apr] saying that Israeli Prison Service officials have forcibly moved hunger-striking prisoners to different sections of Israeli jails, confiscated their clothes and personal belongings and prevented lawyers and family members from visiting them in jail. Some Israeli leaders are calling for a more blood-soaked crackdown, calling on the state to execute many of the prisoners.

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Terrorists Are Terrorists and Not “Rebels” in Syria
Stephen Lendman – Information Clearing House, 24 Apr 2017

Conflict in Syria isn’t civil. All anti-government forces are US-supported terrorists (under various “jihadist” Al Qaeda affiliated labels). Names of different groups don’t matter. They’re all cut out of the same cloth. They can’t exist without foreign support. State actors bear full responsibility for turning Syria into a charnel house.

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March for Science Puts Earth Day Focus on Global Opposition to Trump
Oliver Milman – The Guardian, 24 Apr 2017

More than 600 marches held around the world, with organizers saying science ‘under attack’ from a White House that dismisses the threat of climate change. • Why March for Science? Because when it is attacked, only elites benefit

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The Bait-and-Switch ‘War on Terror’
Gareth Porter | Middle East Eye – Consortium News, 24 Apr 2017

22 Apr 2017 – New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman outraged many readers when he wrote an opinion piece on April 12 calling on President Trump to ”back off fighting territorial ISIS in Syria.” The U.S. “war on terror” has always been a bait-and-switch scam on the American people, with Washington putting the desires of its Mideast allies ahead of defeating Al Qaeda and ISIS.

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(Italiano) Resistenze oggi. Sul 25 aprile 2017 ad Aosta
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Sono le studentesse e gli studenti della scuola primaria, della scuola secondaria di primo e secondo grado e dell’università che hanno letto i Principi fondamentali della Costituzione della Repubblica italiana, dal palco delle autorità il 25 aprile.

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Vault 7: Weeping Angel
WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Today, April 21st 2017, WikiLeaks publishes the User Guide for CIA’s “Weeping Angel” tool – an implant designed for Samsung F Series Smart Televisions. Based on the “Extending” tool from MI5/BTSS, the implant is designed to record audio from the built-in microphone and egress or store the data.

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Putting a Value on Injuries to Natural Assets: The BP Oil Spill
Richard C. Bishop, et al* | American Association for the Advancement of Science – Science Magazine, 24 Apr 2017

21 Apr 2017 – BP Oil Spill Damage to Natural Resources Valued at $17.2 Billion, Scientists Find: When large-scale accidents cause catastrophic damage to natural or cultural resources, government and industry are faced with the challenge of assessing the extent of damages and the magnitude of restoration that is warranted.

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Chechnya Opens World’s First Concentration Camp for Homosexuals since Hitler’s in the 1930s
Thomas Burrows – Daily Mail, 24 Apr 2017

• Campaigners say gay men are being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death.
• One of those who fled said prisoners were beaten to force them to reveal other members of the gay community.
• Comes after 100 gay men were detained and three killed in Chechnya last week.

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An Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide
Alice Cowley and Maung Zarni | Middle East Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Waves of state-directed violence and communal destruction … have been occurring since 1978 and are part of a process of ‘slow-burning genocide.’ Decades of facts relating to the instrumental role of the Myanmar State in the abuses of Rohingya are buried alongside very real human corpses.

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A Lexicon of Polity “State” Descriptors ©
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. - TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

I sought to identify and list adjectives describing nations, states, and institutions. Adjectives are powerful words used to modify or describe a noun; they help convey or enhance the noun’s possible meanings and impact. We use adjectives many times a day to communicate our feelings or attitudes about a topic. It isn’t enough to discuss a topic, we benefit from immersing the topic in adjectives.

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Reducing Urban Violence
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

World Forum on Urban Violence, Madrid, 19-21 April 2017 – To reduce direct violence in cities we have to move from urban violence culture to an urban peace culture and from urban structural violence to a structure of peace. Street names should not glorify wars and violent heroes but peace and their heroines, often women. Move warrior on horseback monuments close to the cemetery for symbolic burial.

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What India’s Poor Really Need Is Microsavings, Not Microcredit
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

There’s an old saying about poverty: Give me a fish, and I’ll eat for a day. Give me a fishing rod, and I’ll eat for a lifetime. But these days, particularly in India, there’s evidence that one of the most effective tools to fight poverty may not be a fishing rod, but a savings account. What we need is a savings revolution.

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Pesticide Maker Dow Chemical Tries to Kill Risk Study
Michael Biesecker| Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

20 Apr 2017 — Dow Chemical is pushing a Trump administration open to scrapping regulations to ignore the findings of federal scientists who point to a family of widely used pesticides as harmful to about 1,800 critically threatened or endangered species.

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Julian Assange Strikes Back at CIA Director and Talks Trump, Russia, and Hillary Clinton
Jeremy Scahill – The Intercept, 24 Apr 2017

19 Apr 2017 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is hitting back at Trump’s CIA director Mike Pompeo following a speech last week in which Pompeo accused WikiLeaks of being a “hostile nonstate intelligence agency” operating outside of the protections of the First Amendment.

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Major Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System
Andy Greenberg | WIRED – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Friday [14 Apr] morning, the Shadow Brokers published documents that—if legitimate—show just how thoroughly US intelligence has compromised elements of the global banking system. Also included in the data dump, as in previous Shadow Brokers releases, are a load of fresh hacking tools, this time targeting a slew of Windows versions.

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(Português) Sobre campos de concentração para homossexuais na Tchetchênia
David Arioch | Jornalismo Cultural – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

O atual presidente da Tchechênia, Ramzan Kadyrov, ele mesmo considerado um criminoso de guerra e também filho de um dos maiores criminosos da história da Tchechênia, comanda um exército privado conhecido como Kadyrovtsy, que opera uma rede de prisões secretas. De acordo com a Federação Internacional de Helsinki para Direitos Humanos, o grupo é responsável por pelo menos 75% dos crimes de guerra cometidos contra os tchetchenos.

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Brazil’s Temer Confesses Rousseff’s Impeachment Was Revenge
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Brazil’s Senate-imposed President Michel Temer admitted Sunday [16 Apr 2017] in a TV interview that the former head of the lower chamber, Eduardo Cunha, opened the impeachment process against former President Dilma Rousseff because her party did not protect him from an investigation over corruption charges.

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Another Vietnam, 1965-1975: Unseen Images of the War from the Winning Side
Alex Q. Arbuckle | Mashable – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Many famous images of the war were taken by Western photographers and news agencies, working alongside American or South Vietnamese troops. But the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had hundreds of photographers of their own, who documented every facet of the war under the most dangerous conditions.

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The Zookeeper’s Wife: Reflections on Past and Present
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

I do honor the memory of the Holocaust as a prime experience of unrestrained evil, forever a source of mourning and foreboding, and acknowledge that I have a certain degree of ‘survivor guilt’ having been so arbitrarily spared despite my ethnic eligibility for the gas chamber. At the same time, I refuse to defer to that past by disregarding present evil, no matter the perpetrator. The Palestinian experience of victimization is severe, prolonged, ongoing, without an end in sight.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Apr 24-30 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Descriptive Titles
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Someone who farms is a farmer.

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Why the Donald Should Cool It on N. Korea – The Fat Boy Can’t Even Deliver His “Little Boy”
David Stockman | Lew Rockwell – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

When hostilities broke out between the two Korean sides in June 1950, Washington instantly transformed it into a proxy war against the Soviet Union and its fledgling ally in China, which had just fallen under Mao’s control the previous year. As Truman baldly put it, he was not going to lose another country to the “reds”… Yes, the pursuit of empire weaves a wretched plot, as it has on the Korean littoral for 67 years running.

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Extensive Support for Nuclear Weapons Ban
Pax for Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

4 Apr 2017 – Last week, 132 countries took part in the first round of negotiations at the United Nations on a nuclear weapons ban. Survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, survivors of nuclear tests, civil society organizations such as PAX, and other experts actively participated in the talks.

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Celebrating the Fifth of May
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

If you have successfully freed your twenty-first century mind from enslavement to the jurisprudence of the eighteenth century, you will have no trouble accepting the cancellation of debts. If you are a realist about the evolution of the human species on the planet earth, you will see necessary or desirable debt cancellation as just another adjustment of culture to its physical functions.

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Cooperative Commonwealth & the Partner State
John Restakis | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Among capitalism’s many critics, it is standard procedure to state that neoliberalism has failed and that unless our societies construct a new paradigm for how economies work, human societies will collapse under the weight of an unsustainable and environmentally catastrophic capitalist system.

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Cybersecurity for the People: How to Protect Your Privacy at a Protest
Micah Lee and Lauren Feeney – The Intercept, 24 Apr 2017

21 Apr 2017- Planning on going to a protest? You might not be aware that just by showing up, you can open yourself up to certain privacy risks — police often spy on protesters, and the smartphones they carry, and no matter how peaceful the demonstration, there’s always a chance that you could get detained or arrested, and your devices could get searched. Watch this video for tips on how to prepare your phone before you go to a protest, how to safely communicate with your friends and document the event, and what to do if you get detained or arrested.

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Let Us Struggle Today and Dream for a Better Tomorrow
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

“My problem is that I have no problem. Yes, there are difficulties of one type or the other but I do not feel depressed or frustrated. I manage to overcome these difficulties. And that is why I do not feel any problem”. He smiled broadly. I felt puzzled but could not but agree with him. A little later when I was alone I wondered what he had said about not being burdened by any problems. I remembered a quotation of a person named Anthony Robbins who had said that every problem is a gift; without problems we would not grow.

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Ending the U.S. Embargo on Cuba at the Grassroots
Peter Miller and Rita Barouch | NACLA – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

With Cuba policy under the Trump administration still uncertain, Cuba solidarity activists seek to turn the tide against the embargo at the local and state level.

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As the US Stops Funding UN Reproductive Health Services, China Should Step In
Tamara Nair – The Conversation, 24 Apr 2017

The US is the largest donor to the agency, which mandates access to high-quality sexual and reproductive health services and voluntary family planning. It allows people to make informed and voluntary choices about their sexual and reproductive lives.

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An Inevitable Post-Christian Middle East with or without ISIS?
Franklin Lamb – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

24 Apr 2017 – “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)” are reputedly among Jesus’ last words on the Cross at Calvary. Today Christ’s words can be said to apply to all Christians in the Middle East who in this birthplace of Christianity are increasingly facing the most intense persecutions since the Roman Empire and the Bolshevik revolution.

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Who Will Tell the People (That Fascism Has Come to America)?
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

When Corporations Rule the World, Thank the CIA and the Media Disinformation Campaign –
“Who will tell the people that free speech is a ruse
The corporations run the country and then they make the news
Is it media or mind control, heroic victories or crimes
Who will tell the people that we’re living in these times?”

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Waiting at Sea
Dr. Emanuel E. Garcia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Heading out was always easier:
The cleaving rush of the prow,
Songs in my ears that backward fled,
The ebb and burst of rhyme

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Elisabeth Mann Borgese (24 Apr 1918 – 8 Feb 2002): Visionary of Common Oceans
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

While the resulting Convention of the Law of the Sea has not revolutionized world politics – as some of us hoped in the early 1970s – the Convention is an important building block in the development of world law. We are grateful for the values and the energy that Elisabeth Mann Borgese embodied.

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(Português) Religião: uma visão da Bíblia sobre os animais
Aline Parkin - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais, 24 Apr 2017

“Que pecado!” Eu já ouvi muita gente dizer isso quando vê um animal sendo maltratado. O que talvez possa parecer apenas uma maneira de falar é, na verdade, uma afirmação corretíssima. Pecado, por definição, é uma ação que não está de acordo com a vontade ou lei moral de Deus e, na sua Palavra, a Bíblia, Ele diz claramente como deseja que os animais sejam tratados: “O justo importa-se com a vida do seu animal doméstico”, diz Provérbios 12:10.

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(Português) Bugios: eles não precisam de mais uma ameaça!
Leonardo Merçon | Conexão Planeta – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Quando parei para fotografar a cena, um destes macacos, que estava com o grupo, que dormia todo encolhido e junto para se proteger do frio, levantou a cabeça me direcionou um olhar bem profundo. Aquele olhar me comoveu. Na hora, senti que aquela foto um dia serviria para uma causa maior. Fui para casa, editei a imaem e guardei para utilizá-la no momento certo.

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Conservative Opposition to Pope Francis Spurs Talk of a Schism in the Catholic Church
Tom Kington – Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr 2017

17 Apr 2017 – Of all the recent attacks launched by conservatives against Pope Francis, one stood out more than most. The cardinal, Gerhard Mueller, the pope’s own doctrinal chief, made it clear in an interview in February that he firmly opposed Francis’ tinkering with the church’s ban on divorced and civilly remarried Catholics taking Communion.

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‘A National Disgrace’: Catalogue of Animal Suffering at Scottish Abattoirs Revealed
Andrew Wasley and Rob Edwards - The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 24 Apr 2017

19 Apr 2017 – Cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens have been found injured, emaciated, diseased or dead on arrival at abattoirs. Numerous animals were slaughtered while heavily pregnant or had to be repeatedly stunned before they were killed. “It shows without a shadow of a doubt that the business of slaughtering animals is brutal and all too often is conducted without a thought for either the law or the appalling suffering of the animals involved.”

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Oh, that Eternal Swing
Adolf P. Shvedchikov – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Oh, that eternal swing,
Up into the sky, then down,
Unattainability of the desired goal,
And again the cornice of abyss…

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Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire: 2016 Freedom Flotilla to Gaza
The Peace People – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

Women’s Boat to Gaza

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Our American Pravda
Ron Unz | The Unz Review – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Apr 2017

17 Apr 2017 – Top academic scholars and seasoned Intelligence professionals have widely derided the alleged Syrian government Sarin gas attack as an apparent false-flag hoax. Yet our fanatically Trump-hating mainstream media has almost totally ignored these facts, instead fulsomely praising the President for immediately launching an unconstitutional missile attack upon Syria in retaliation, while congratulating him for his new-found “moderation” in potentially provoking a dangerous military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.

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(Italiano) Può darci pace la scienza empirica?
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Il dito di Galileo indica due pilastri della scienza: la conoscenza scientifica deve basarsi sull’osservazione o la sperimentazione di fatti empirici; e la matematica è il linguaggio usato per esporre questa conoscenza scientifica. Prima obiezione: soltanto il passato può produrre fatti empirici; il che limita quello che potrebbe essere o che dovrebbe essere a ciò che già è manifesto in alcuni fatti. Ma gli esseri umani sono in grado di trascendere il passato e creare fatti nuovi.

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(Italiano) Frattanto, per il mondo …
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Cominciando dall’Unione Europea, 60enne, che rende importanti i piccoli stati (il Lussemburgo!) rendendoli membri di qualcosa più grosso, ma ridimensiona stati più grandi, addirittura imperiali, rendendoli semplici “membri”.

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Why Is Trump Fighting ISIS in Syria?
Thomas L. Friedman – The New York Times, 17 Apr 2017

“Trump should not defeat ISIS in Syria. The USA should use ISIS as a proxy in the same way we encouraged the mujahedeen fighters to bleed Russia in Afghanistan.” Thomas Friedman becomes aroused by war. It would be more appropriate for the NYT to let him manage this pathology from the safety of his private space than on the pages of the newspaper.

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(Português) Prisão do mais importante cientista nuclear brasileiro é questionada por políticos
Fania Rodrigues | Brasil de Fato – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

5 abril 2017 – A prisão e condenação do homem que colocou o Brasil entre os poucos países que dominam a tecnologia nuclear é assunto polêmico no meio político. O almirante da Marinha do Brasil e físico nuclear, Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva, de 77 anos foi condenado a 43 anos de prisão, em agosto de 2015, pelo juiz Sérgio Moro, no âmbito da operação Lava Jato.

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Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

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(Français) Mais où sont donc passés les droits de l’Homme?
Robert Charvin | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Les droits de l’homme ont progressivement quitté l’avant-scène politique : par « nécessité », l’idéologie « droitdel’hommiste » n’était plus « à la mode ». Elle ne correspondait plus aux besoins des dominants, au contraire.

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Law, Roads, Housing, Buses Are All Separate; It’s Called Apartheid
Jews for Justice for Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Mehdi Hasan in The Intercept presents testimony from Israelis from Ben Gurion to today, and from international observers, that Israel fulfils all the criteria of being an apartheid state. This is because, by keeping Palestinians impoverished and stateless and expanding settlements, Israeli Jews and Palestinians are increasingly in the same space.

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Crime and Punishment in Syria
Vithal Rajan – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Why then are the Western powers, led by America, so certain that Assad is the culprit? Criminal investigation experts inform us that all criminals have a distinctive modus operandi, a criminal signature, by which their agency is recognized. Just as Nikki Haley held up a photo of children dying of gas attack to initial America’s direct military engagement in Syria, way back in 2003 Secretary of State Colin Powell held up a tube of anthrax in the Security Council meeting to assert Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction.

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Dr Maung Zarni on the Question of Rohingya Statelessness
Burma Times TV – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

TRANSCEND Member Maung Zarni on the question of Rohingya statelessness and Myanmar racism. LSE Rule of Law Roundtable with Aung San Suu Kyi, 19 June 2012.

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The G[e]assing Game in Syria: Regime Change and Beyond
Chandra Muzaffar – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Given conflicting accounts, an independent international inquiry should be conducted to determine what really happened on 4 April. The members of the panel should comprise credible experts who are not citizens of any of the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council. The UN Secretary-General should appoint the panel.

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Vault 7: Hive Project
WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Today, April 14th 2017, WikiLeaks publishes six documents from the CIA’s HIVE project created by its “Embedded Development Branch.” HIVE is a back-end infrastructure malware with a public-facing HTTPS interface which is used by CIA implants to transfer exfiltrated information from target machines to the CIA and to receive commands from its operators to execute specific tasks on the targets.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Apr 17-23 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“Man strives for glory, honor, fame, so that all the world may know his name
Amasses wealth by brain and hand
Becomes a power in the land
But when he nears the end of life and looks back over the years of strife
He finds that happiness depends on none of these but love of friends.”
– Unknown

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Afghanistan: Elegy . . . Unfinished Tapestry?
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

I write in sympathy, empathy, compassion, and shared hope.

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Leaked NSA Malware Threatens Windows Users Around the World
Sam Biddle – The Intercept, 17 Apr 2017

14 Apr 2017 – The ShadowBrokers, an entity previously confirmed by The Intercept to have leaked authentic malware used by the NSA to attack computers around the world, today released another cache of what appears to be extremely potent (and previously unknown) software capable of breaking into systems running Windows. The software could give nearly anyone with sufficient technical knowledge the ability to wreak havoc on millions of Microsoft users.

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(Italiano) Mezzaluna e libertà. Turchia: ancora gravi condizioni legali e politiche limitano la libertà accademica, giornalistica e politica
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Domani 16 aprile (ieri per i lettori di TMS) in Turchia si vota per il referendum. Per approvare o rifiutare un pacchetto di modifica costituzionale. Un grande carcere a cielo aperto.

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How Amateur President, Amateur Secretary of State and Amateur UN Ambassador Could Start World War III
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Throughout its history, the evidence of American military atrocities and war crimes are routinely censored-out by the American mainstream media, with sugar-coated fake news being substituted instead. We simpletons and untermenschen are only allowed to see the nefarious deeds of the “bad guys” of enemy nations, but never our own. So it is easy to believe the propagandized version of the wars that are fought by the honorable warrior sons of our “shining city on a hill”.

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Irish Recollections: After the Cork Conference on ‘International Law and the State of Israel’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

14 Apr 2017 – Palestinian wounds will not heal until a credible reconciliation process is established that includes Israeli official acknowledgements of historic wrongdoing centered on the nakba, conceived of as a process of dispossession, displacement, and domination.

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Global Turmoil: Flatulence or Substance
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Every day and throughout the world we read and hear of turmoil, of threats, violence, divisions, wars for peace and peace for wars, freedom as oppression and oppression as freedom. In a world where words have lost their meanings and meanings have no words, how do we go about understanding turmoil?

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Danger of Global War: On the Edge of Global Crucifixion & Martial Law
James Albertini | Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

In the event of a hot war with either Russia or Korea, the likelihood of a rapid escalation to the use of nuclear weapons is very real. It is even conceivable that the U.S. will attempt a pre-emptive nuclear first strike on Russia and/or North Korea under the illusion that it can “win” a nuclear war. If citizens of the world do not rise up to stop this madness now before it escalates further, the missiles fly, and the death toll mounts, Martial Law will be declared for those who survive.

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Protection of Law and Justice for Peace through Universal Peace Education
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

When we do not obey the unjust law, we plead justice for humanity. Alexis De Tocqueville rightly says, “When I refuse to obey unjust law, I do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.

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Solving the Problem
TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

Case closed.

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Hava Nagila – הבה נגילה (Music Video of the Week)
André Rieu – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

First known as a Hasidic melody it became a perennial favorite at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and Jewish–and non-Jewish–cultural events around the world. André Rieu at his best.

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(Português) George Harrison: “A coisa que me repeliu em relação a comer carne foi a ideia de matar animais”
David Arioch | Jornalismo Cultural – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

“Seu prato favorito era Dahl, uma sopa de lentilha que, quando misturada com arroz, forma uma proteína perfeita e um substituto ideal da carne”, escreveu. O vegetarianismo de Harrison era tanto moral quanto espiritual.

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Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 Apr 1891 – 6 Dec 1956)
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

B R Ambedkar had seen the oppression faced by the lower castes–the so called untouchables–first hand in his place of birth in Mhow. He was aware of the struggles of Phule to bring about social justice and liberation of the oppressed masses of Maharashtra and was inspired by his writings on the subject. Subsequently he wrote extensively about the injustice and discrimination faced by the lower castes whom he called Dalits.

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Brazil: An Impeached President, Reeling but Defiant
Ernesto Londoño – The New York Times, 17 Apr 2017

13 Apr 2017 – Nearly a year ago, Brazilian lawmakers voted to suspend President Dilma Rousseff from office. The overthrow of the former guerrilla leader who was tortured during the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s marked the end of a 13-year period of rule by the leftist Workers’ Party. I interviewed Ms. Rousseff last weekend at the Brazil Conference at Harvard and M.I.T., during which she delivered a defiant speech warning that Brazil’s democracy is in peril.

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Assessment of White House Intelligence Report of April 11, 2017
Theodore A. Postol | Massachusetts Institute of Technology – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

17 April 2017 – A Quick Turnaround Assessment of the White House Intelligence Report Issued on April 11, 2017 about the Nerve Agent Attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria

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Warmongers by Any Other Name
Sonny Lê – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

For those of us who grew up in South Vietnam, or “free Vietnam,” we saw America as an ally that was there only to help contain and defeat the “evil” Communist North Vietnam. The United States of America represented freedom, open society, the country that gave us chewing gum, Coca-Cola, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley and John Wayne. However, we never saw or understood U.S. foreign policy or how America used its military power in totality.

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The Easter Message
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2017

From Trump’s USA was not resurrection, but death. 59 Tomahawk missiles for Syria, the “mother of all bombs” for Afghanistan; Muslim states. Both attacks were based on lies: the old lie that 9/11 had its origin in Afghanistan, the new lie that Assad deliberately had used sarin . The counter-narrative–that USA had provided the gas and used the accident as pretext for an attack–may stand. Let us see if USA-NATO accept an investigation; with a clean conscience, they would.

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