Monthly Archives: August 2019

2019-08-30: Social Media Postees

Hong Kong mass rally banned as Chinese troops deployed in show of force
wsws.org | 2019-08-30
Beijing is well aware that the protracted protests are being driven by underlying student and working class concerns about escalating social inequality.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/30/hong…

Reading the Tea Leaves in Hong Kong
Jonathan Power | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
In 1995 in a little remembered event Li Ruthuan, a member of the Chinese Politburo(containing the top seven in the government), made a speech likening the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong to the case of a lady who had agreed to sell a 100-year-old Yi-Xiang teapot that was famous for the taste of the tea it poured. Unbeknown to her, its…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/reading-the-…

Is a Rouhani-Trump Meeting Imminent?
Press TV | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-30
PressTV Interview Transcript www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qsp1UcXqEo&#038… Peter Koenig 29 August 2019 Background Tehran and Washington have been locked in a dispute since last year when the US unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear agreement and re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran. On Monday, President Donald Trump said he is ready to meet his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani within …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/is-a-rouhani-…

Iran: The Lifting of Sanctions, Is a Rouhani-Trump Meeting Imminent?
Peter Koenig | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
Tehran and Washington have been locked in a dispute since last year when the US unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear agreement and re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran. On Monday, President Donald Trump said he is ready to meet his …
globalresearch.ca/rouhani-trump-meeting/…

‘Good luck determining what happened’: Trump says US not involved in Iranian satellite ‘incident’
rt.com | 2019-08-30
rt.com/usa/467649-trump-us-iran-satellit…

‘Good luck determining what happened’: Trump says US not involved in Iranian satellite ‘incident’
rt.com | 2019-08-30
US President Donald Trump denied any American involvement after reports of a failed Iranian satellite launch, in which a rocket is said to have exploded on a launch pad. Iran, meanwhile, has not issued any accusations of the sort. | …
rt.com/usa/467649-trump-us-iran-satellit…

Stop Blaming Cows and Start Targeting the Corporations That are Destroying the Amazon
Anthony Pahnke | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
Most of the reporting on the fires raging in the Amazon try to identify the guilty parties. Some of those that have been identified include ranchers and loggers, as well as the rightwing government of Jair Bolsonaro for its lack of enforcing environmental regulations. Yet, what we need to consider is that no single actor…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/stop-blaming…

The Amazon Inferno
Evaggelos Vallianatos | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
One of the lasting highlights of my teaching at the University of New Orleans in 1991-1992 was my travel to Brazil in January 1992 for a conference on climate change. This was a rehearsal for the June 1992 Earth Summit on Climate Change in Rio. My conference took place in Fortaleza, a beautiful town in…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/the-amazon-i…

EU Sends Technicians to Help Mitigate Amazon Fires in Bolivia
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-30
On Friday, seven countries representing the European Union sent squadrons of technicians to Bolivia in order to help the South American country put out the forest fires in their region of the Amazon. | RELATED: | Bolivia’s Amazon Fire Hotspots Reduced by 85% | According to Bolivian Foreign MInister Diego Party, the E.U. technicians were deployed to the Chiquitania region, where they are working with local civil defense teams to put out these massive forest fires. | Pary stressed that the economi…
telesurenglish.net/news/EU-Sends-Technic…

Amazon Forest: 2 Landowners Arrested for Burning 5,000 Hectares
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-30
Brazilian police arrested on Thursday two owners of the Ouro Verde farm for burning 5,000 hectares of forest within the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area, at the state of Para in the southern part of the Amazon region. Authorities also found workers who remained trapped in their farm in conditions similar to slavery. | RELATED: | US Defends Brazil’s Sovereign Right To (Not) Fight Amazon Fires | Suspects are expected to respond to charges of environmental damage, pollu…
telesurenglish.net/news/Amazon-Forest-2-…

Bolsonaro Calls On Trump To Help Put Out Amazon Fires
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-30
Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stated on Friday that he requested the U.S. help fight the fires that are currently engulfing the Amazon region. | RELATED: | Bolsonaro Attacks Blacks and Calls Brazil ‘Garbage’ | Bolsonaro said that he may have an update on his request after speaking with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump earlier in the day. | Speaking to reporters in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said news on this front could materialize after Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo and the pres…
telesurenglish.net/news/Bolsonaro-Calls-…

India crows over US support for its assault on Kashmir
wsws.org | 2019-08-30
For almost four weeks, Jammu and Kashmir has been under a state of siege, with cell phone and internet service suspended, thousands held without charge, and security forces terrorizing the population.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/30/kash…

Kashmiri Pride and Dignity: My Grandfather’s Dream Will Not Be Forgotten
Nyla Ali Khan | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
In Kashmir, dissenting voices, even those of legislators and parliamentarians of opposition parties, have been muzzled. And with the lack of accountability suspension of phone and internet services in the Valley, the populace of Kashmir continues to remain incommunicado. In doing so, the federal government has ignored constitutional checks and balances that ought to prevent…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/kashmiri-pri…

Roots of the Kashmir conflict
Siddika Degia | workers.org | 2019-08-30
The writer is a Muslim woman born in a rural village in Gujarat, India. India, one of the oldest civilizations, fell under British colonial rule starting in the late 1700s. With British imperialism came the reinforcement of dividing people by religious groups, castes, languages spoken and nationalities, so that the . . . | Continue reading Roots of the Kashmir conflict at Workers.org
workers.org/2019/08/29/roots-of-the-kash…

Over 1,100 Congregations Have Agreed to Provide Sanctuary to Migrants
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-30
| It’s a hot, humid Wednesday in July but the doors of Manhattan’s Holyrood Episcopal Church are wide open. A rainbow flag flies high above the entryway and a table covered with bilingual pro-immigrant leaflets greets all who enter. The leaflets explain the rights of immigrants, outline important precautions for immigrants to take, and offer tips to allies who want to help stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. | But the church has also done much more than this, providing in-churc…
truthout.org/articles/over-1100-congrega…

Trump Hits Lebanon Bank with His Favorite Econo-Political Battering Ram
Marwa Osman | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-30
The fact that the U.S. sanctions countries whenever its president pleases could in itself be considered a hostile act. Even in wartime, these sorts of collective punishments are illegal under the Geneva Conventions.
mintpressnews.com/trump-sanctions-econom…

A Voting Calculus
Joseph Natoli | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
“Reality is not always probable, or likely” Borges tells us, but we are yet, presumptuously and foolishly, driven to find a logic and its calculus, especially regarding U.S. presidential elections. And so: Immigration:…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/a-voting-cal…

Public Charge Rule Is an Attempt to Impose a White Nationalist Vision of America
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-30
| Janine Jackson: It’s long been obvious, to anyone with a passing acquaintance with white supremacy, that Donald Trump and his ilk’s stance on immigration was never any more about “legality” than it was about all immigrants. | In the face of such an unprincipled and frankly hateful administration, a focus on the law as a bastion against irrationality is perhaps understandable. But that shoul…
truthout.org/audio/public-charge-rule-is…

US escalates regime-change machinations against Venezuela
wsws.org | 2019-08-30
Having failed to instigate a military coup, the US and its puppet Juan Guaidó are attempting to flesh out a parallel government loyal to Washington.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/30/vene…

Does the US Military “Own the Weather”? “Weaponizing the Weather” as an Instrument of Modern Warfare?
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
Weather-modification, according to the US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report, “offers the war fighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary”, capabilities, it says, extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes…
globalresearch.ca/does-the-us-military-o…

American service member killed in Afghanistan as Trump vows US will ‘always’ stay there
rt.com | 2019-08-30
An American serviceman was killed in Afghanistan in combat operations, NATO said in a statement. The news comes just a day after President Trump announced there would “always” be a US presence in the country. | The soldier died on Thursday during a combat mission, the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan announced in a statement on Friday, but withheld the serviceman’s identity, per the organization’s policies. | Also on rt.com | | ‘We’ll always have a presence’: Trump says 8,600 US troops will stay in Afghanistan | The serviceman is the third American fa…
rt.com/usa/467643-us-soldier-killed-afgh…

New Jersey Democrats authorize bonds to cover up Newark water crisis
wsws.org | 2019-08-30
A bond issue of $120 million was pushed through before residents were given an opportunity to attend hearings or scrutinize details of the proposal to replace all lead service lines in the city.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/30/newa…

What About Me … I Feel The Future Trembling, Like a Stranger In the Land Where I was Born
Philip A Farruggio | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
Just about 50 years ago the West Coast rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service recorded “What About Me”. Sadly, in this America 2019 the lyrics are more relevant. | Fifty years later! Let’s analyze certain parts of the song: | What About Me…
globalresearch.ca/what-about-me-i-feel-t…

Make America … More Like Canada
Sam Pizzigati | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
We Americans tend not to pay much attention to our northern neighbors. Often, entire election cycles can come and go without anyone running for national office saying anything about Canada. But that’s changing. Canada now looms much larger in our politics, mainly because Canadians enjoy a health care system far superior to our own. Canada’s…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/make-america…

Ecuador: Ola Bini Faces New Charges Similar to Prior Ones
teleSUR -EF | telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-30
Ola Bini was called to appear at a court hearing in Quito on Thursday by Ecuador state prosecutors who now say they want to change the charges against the Swedish expert in open software development who has been under investigation by the government since April for supposedly “hacking” state computer systems. | RELATED: | Ecuadorean Tribunal Court Upholds Prison Order for Swedish Privacy Rights Activist Ola Bini | The hearing to change the charges…
telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuador-Ola-Bini…

Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament: The British ruling class declares war on democratic rights
wsws.org | 2019-08-30
The move by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to prorogue the “Mother of all Parliaments” and govern by executive fiat is part of a turn toward dictatorial forms of rule by the ruling classes throughout the world.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/30/pers…

Trump targets China’s century-old debt in latest trade war maneuver — report
rt.com | 2019-08-30
The Trump administration may be eyeing long-defaulted Chinese bonds as a weapon in its ongoing trade war with Beijing, according to people who hold the antique debt and say they’ve met with the president to discuss it. | Trump’s top trade warriors are “studying” the possibility of calling in century-old debts incurred by China before the nation went communist, according to a Bloomberg report published on Thursday. China doesn’t recognize the debt, of course, and decades of attempts to collect by owners of the aging bonds (which sell on eBay as collectors’ items) have amounted to naught, but with a full-blown e…
rt.com/usa/467593-trump-china-antique-de…

Let’s Make the Next Debates Good for Something
Andrew Levine | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
Do we really need three-ring circus “debates” to figure out that the only two candidates in the running for president who should be taken seriously are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren? Perhaps with Joe Biden still leading the pack; the sooner he is put back out to pasture, the better. Perhaps with Kamala Harris running…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/lets-make-th…

Capitalism, Socialism, and Existential Despair
Chris Wright | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-30
Decades ago, Edward Said remarked that contemporary life is characterized by a “generalized condition of homelessness.” Decades earlier, Martin Heidegger had written that “Homelessness is coming to be the destiny of the world.” Around the same time, fascists were invoking the themes of blood and soil, nation, race, community, as intoxicating antidotes to the mass …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/capitalism-so…

Google says hackers have been putting ‘monitoring implants’ in iPhones for years
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2019-08-30
Hackers have been using compromised websites to install “monitoring implants” in iPhones for years, according to researchers at Google.The malicious software gathers users’ images, contacts and other information.Ian Beer, from Google’s Project Zero, said in a blog post that the hacked sites had received thousands of visitors each week.Beer said: There was no target discrimination; simply visiting the hacked site was enough for the exploit server to attack your device, and if it was successful, to install a monitoring implant.Project Zero is the technology company’s team for examining new security vulnerabilities.B…
thecanary.co/global/world-news/2019/08/3…

A New Film Blows the Whistle on War
Ed Rampell | progressive.org | 2019-08-30
If the press is the “fourth estate,” the cinema is arguably the fifth. “Official Secrets” indicts Blair, Bush, and other mass murderers in the court of public opinion–at a theater near you.
progressive.org/dispatches/new-film-offi…

Hollywood reboots Russophobia for the New Cold War
Max Parry | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-30
‚ÄãIt is an age-old question as to the extent art reflects the world we live in. Bertolt Brecht allegedly said to the contrary that art was “not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” The Marxist German playwright devised theatrical methods designed to distance the audience from the …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/hollywood-reb…

Trump Eyes Mental Institutions as Answer to Gun Violence
Staff | truthdig.com | 2019-08-30
Experts warn the president’s reported plan will do little to save lives and reflects outdated thinking on the treatment of mental illness.
truthdig.com/articles/trump-eyes-mental-…

Trump’s personal assistant resigns after caught leaking information to media — report
rt.com | 2019-08-30
Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s personal assistant and ‘veteran’ of the administration, has reportedly stepped down after she was accused of sharing details about the Trump family and the White House’s inner workings with media. | The scoop on Westerhout’s exit through the Trump administration’s revolving door was reported by the New York Times on Thursday. | Also on rt.com | | ‘Leaks real, the news is fake’: Reporters hit out at Trump trashing of media | US President Donald Trump was reportedly made aware of Westerhout’s ‘betrayal’ on Thursday. The woman…
rt.com/usa/467591-westerhout-resigned-tr…

Making a Killing From Killing
Paul Atwood | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains; thieves of public property in riches and luxury. — Cato the Elder Though I encounter students and other young people who have never heard the term I hope most Americans are aware of the “Military Industrial Complex.” In his final speech to the nation President Eisenhower,…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/making-a-kil…

The Hitler-Stalin Pact, Reconsidered
Louis Proyect — Pawe≈Ç Szelegieniec | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
On August 26th, an article titled “The Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 23, 1939: Myth and Reality” appeared on CounterPunch. It made many useful points about the right of the USSR to conclude a non-aggression pact with any capitalist nation in light of the invasion that nearly destroyed it in the early 1920s. While Cold War…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/the-hitler-s…

Stunning but deadly: Satellite imagery shows Hurricane Dorian sparkling as it approaches US (VIDEO)
rt.com | 2019-08-30
As Hurricane Dorian makes its way to the US, a meteorologist has shared stunning satellite snaps of the “extremely dangerous” storm’s brightly colored lightning eruptions amid swirling clouds that look like a fireworks display. | Hurricane Dorian putting on a lightning show tonight. | Spectacular imagery. pic.twitter.com/cdrs22PZqe– Dakota Smith (@weatherdak) August 30, 2019 | Meteorologist Dakota Smith shared the footage on Twitter and explained that the flashes seen in the…
rt.com/usa/467644-hurricane-dorian-light…

The Great Cost and Myth of U.S. Defense Spending
Melvin Goodman | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
Journalists and pundits regularly refer to U.S. defense spending as greater than the next seven or eight countries. Nonsense! U.S. defense spending when correctly tabulated exceeds the defense spending of the rest of the global community. Current defense spending is greater than $1 trillion and the bipartisan support for U.S defense spending assures continued increases. Many of the largest spenders on defense, moreover, are our treaty allies.
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/the-great-co…

Bankrupt and Irrelevant: the Presidential Debates and Four Recent Studies on Pentagon Spending
Pierre Sprey, Chuck Spinney and Winslow T. Wheeler | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
In the almost 12 hours of Democratic Party presidential primary debates on June 26-27 and July 30-31, the words “Pentagon budget” or “defense spending” were not uttered, except for a fleeting, unanswered comment from Senator Bernie Sanders. Nor did any of the cable news moderators ask a single question about the more than $1.25 trillion…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/bankrupt-and…

Film Official Secrets Is Tip of Mammoth Iceberg
Sam Husseini | fair.org | 2019-08-30
by Sam Husseini | Two-time Oscar nominee Keira Knightley is known for being in period pieces such as Pride and Prejudice, so her playing the lead in the new film Official Secrets, released in the US on Friday, August 30, may seem odd at first. That is, until one considers that the time span depicted–the early 2003 run-up to the invasion of Iraq–is one of the most dramatic and consequential periods of modern human history. | It is also one of the most poorly understood, in part because the story of Katharine Gun, played by Knightley, is so little known. I should say from the outset that having follo…
fair.org/home/film-official-secrets-is-t…

Family of Mexican Teenager Slain by Border Agent Awaits SCOTUS Ruling
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-30
| This fall, the Supreme Court will decide whether the parents of Sergio Hernández Güereca, a 15-year-old Mexican teen killed by a Border Patrol agent in 2010, can sue the American agent in a U.S. federal court. It’s been nearly 10 years since Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa, Jr. shot across the El Paso-Juárez border and struck Hernández Güereca in the head. The central question in the case is whether a Mexican citizen killed on Mexican soil by a U.S. border agent is…
truthout.org/video/family-of-mexican-tee…

Reality Check: Bank of England Governor Criticizes the Petrodollar!
Cheikh Amma Diop | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
GR Editor’s Note. | Mark Carney is a Canadian citizen and former senior official at Goldman Sachs before becoming Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008-2013). | He was the first foreign national since the founding of the Bank of England in …
globalresearch.ca/bank-england-governor-…

G7 — The Cost of Uselessness
Peter Koenig | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
The G7 Summit is an obsolete, useless talking shop, as Finnian Cunningham so adroitly says. RT calls it The Unbearable Pointlessness of G7. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States constitute the G7 gang. It should …
globalresearch.ca/g7-uselessness/5687619

Video: Militants’ Failed Terror Attack in Eastern Idlib Ends in Disaster
South Front | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
On August 27, joint forces of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other militant groups launched an attack on positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) near the town of Abu Dali in southern Idlib. Clashes between the SAA and militants erupted …
globalresearch.ca/video-militants-failed…

The Rise of the ‘Rise of the Global Right’
Rob Urie | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
In the U.S., Donald Trump remains among the least popular presidents in modern history. Given the buoyant state of the U.S. economy, at least relative to the widespread misery of the prior decade, this unpopularity reinforces the political disillusion reflected in the 2016 election results. Only Jimmy Carter, who engineered a vicious recession in the…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/the-rise-of-…

Judge Marks and Mass Incarceration in the Middle District of Alabama
Stephen Cooper | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
In 2016, together with former colleague Assistant Federal Public Defender Donnie W. Bethel, I wrote, “eople of all persuasions, political parties, and philosophies have awakened to the terrible toll the crises of overcriminalization and mass incarceration have wrought on America.” Then, a year later, highlighting the “criminalization of addiction,” I wrote about Benny King — one of Bethel’s clients –…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/judge-marks-…

Name and Shame Big Political Contributors
Basav Sen | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
This August, a phony controversy erupted over wealthy donors to President Trump’s campaign and political action committee being publicly named. After Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) tweeted the names of San Antonio contributors who’d made large donations to support Trump, some reported receiving angry phone calls. A few residents said they would boycott businesses tied to…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/name-and-sha…

Senator Cotton on the Need to Buy Greenland
Gary Leupp | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton has published an op-ed in the New York Times entitled “We Should Buy Greenland,” confirming the fact that Trump’s spurned bid was indeed dead-serious. In it Cotton reflects the imperialist mentality of his “crazy like a fox” president. Cotton:…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/senator-cott…

Trump’s Camps: the Odious Comparison
Christopher Brauchli | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
That the comparison can be made is odious–so are the conditions. So is the one imposing them. He is the most odious of all and his stench pervades the country. He wasn’t the first one to implement it when confronted by those he has made helpless. It happened in Hitler’s Germany. It was not a…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/trumps-camps…

Karl Marx and Religion
Nick Pemberton | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
Karl Marx is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated theorists of human history. Marx was above all a scientist. He used the term historical materialism to explain that it was the material state of society that produced human relations. Today, perhaps especially in the United States, the mainstream tends to tell us it…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/karl-marx-an…

DNC Kills Climate Debate Compromise
CP Editor | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/dnc-kills-cl…

Raping Words After Raping Women
Malú Huacuja del Toro | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
On the Feminist Glitter Revolt in Mexico City Let’s put it this way — I am not someone who has no idea how is it to be raped in Mexico City with no chance to get any help from the police, let alone legal resources and a fair trial, so this issue is very close…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/raping-words…

US alarmed over end to South Korea-Japan intelligence sharing
wsws.org | 2019-08-30
Seoul’s decision to withdraw from a key intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo is part of the deepening rift between Washington’s two military allies in North East Asia over economic and strategic issues.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/30/skja…

Sex Work and the 2020 Presidential Campaign
David Rosen | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
The next Democratic presidential-candidates debate is scheduled for mid-September and it would be interesting if a network moderator asks the candidates whether they were in favor of decriminalizing consensual, adult sex work? One can well imagine the question provoking a host of reactions ranging from cautious non-answers to strong statements of support. Most revealing, no one…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/sex-work-and…

Greetings From Echo Park
Jeffrey St. Clair | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
This is the second (and final) installment of Jeffrey St. Clair’s essay, Deep Time and the Green River, Floating. Click here to read Part One. Dawn in the canyon. The early morning light is liquid and orange, amniotic. Everyone is sleeping. Jennifer is zipped up tight under a spreading box elder. Craig and Chris have…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/greetings-fr…

UK Home Office set up fake social media network to target young British Muslims
wsws.org | 2019-08-30
“This is Woke,” which describes itself as engaging “in critical discussions around Muslim identity, tradition and reform,” was created by a media company on behalf of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism at the Home Office.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/30/woke…

Protesters vow ‘if you steal our democracy, we’ll shut down the streets’
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2019-08-30
Organisers are hoping “hundreds of thousands” of people will take part in disruptive protests across Britain this weekend in response to the Prime Minister’s plan to prorogue Parliament.Anti-Brexit campaign group Another Europe Is Possible has organised 32 #StopTheCoup demonstrations to take place in England, Scotland and Wales on Saturday.Meanwhile, left-wing group Momentum is calling on its members to “occupy bridges and blockade roads” in conjunction with the protests.According to the Mirror, Laura Parker, Momentum’s national co-ordinator, said she would join an occupation of Parliament as the group stepped up…
thecanary.co/uk/2019/08/30/protesters-vo…

Unhinged before the Fall: Boris Johnson, Parliament and Brexit
Dr. Binoy Kampmark | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
The Brexit no deal prospect is engendering an element of lunacy fast seeping into every pore of the British political establishment. As with all steeped in such thinking, some of it made sense. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been inspired …
globalresearch.ca/boris-johnson-parliame…

Humanity Denied: What Is Missing from the Omar, Tlaib Story
Ramzy Baroud | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
Israel’s decision to bar two United States Democratic Representatives, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, from entering Israel and visiting Palestine has further exposed the belligerent, racist nature of the Israeli government. But our understanding of the Israeli decision, and the massive controversy and discussion it generated, should not stop there. Palestinians, who have been at…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/humanity-den…

The Pentagon’s New Missile Drive Is Bringing Armageddon Closer
Michael T. Klare | thenation.com | 2019-08-30
The Pentagon’s New Missile Drive Is Bringing Armageddon Closer…
thenation.com/article/inf-treaty-pentago…

Border Patrol Has Killed At Least 97 People Since 2003. Hear Some of Their Victims’ Stories
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-30
U.S. Border Patrol agents have killed 97 people since 2003, including at least six Mexicans on Mexican soil. Democracy Now! traveled to the borderlands of Arizona earlier this month to cover one of these killings: the death of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, who was gunned down by a Border Patrol agent in 2012. We met with Richard Boren of the Border Patrol Victims Network in Nogales, Arizona, at exactly the spot where agent Lonnie Swartz pointed his gun through the border wall to shoot and kill José Antonio. At this site, Richard Boren displayed a banner with images of José Antonio and other victims of Border Patr…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/30/richard_b…

Justice demanded for “comfort women”
Joe Piette | workers.org | 2019-08-30
Three young activists, biking across the U.S. from Los Angeles to New York City, stopped in Philadelphia on Aug. 26 to raise awareness about the issue of justice for women once held in military sexual slavery by Japan. As part of the Triple A Project to educate the public about . . . | Continue reading Justice demanded for “comfort women” at Workers.org
workers.org/2019/08/29/justice-demanded-…

Save the Amazon
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
climate emergency Zebedee ParkesIssue 1235 Australia Amazon forest firesAugust 30, 2019Environmental activists rallied in Melbourne and Sydney on August 25 in response to fires destroying the Amazon rainforest. | They demanded an end to the deforestation po…
greenleft.org.au/content/save-amazon-0

Anti-War Protest: U.S. Out of Yemen
SF Demo | indybay.org | 2019-08-30
As separatists and government-backed forces battle for control of the Yemeni capital, innocent civilians suffer. Yemeni-Americans and allies gathered in front of San Francisco’s federal building on August 16 with a message for Nancy Pelosi. | PHOTOS: Please credit the photographer as noted | Terry Scussel, Pro Bono Photo.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/29/1882581…

During Global Month of Action For Yemen, SF Protesters Make Demands of Pelosi
End the Genocide in Yemen | indybay.org | 2019-08-30
As separatists and government-backed forces battle for control of the Yemeni capital, innocent civilians suffer. Yemeni-Americans and allies gathered in front of San Francisco’s federal building on August 16 with a message for Nancy Pelosi. | PHOTOS: Please credit the photographer as noted | Cornelia Grimes, Pro Bono Photo.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/29/1882580…

Justice for José Antonio: Family Demands Accountability for Mexican Teen Killed by U.S. Border Agent
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-30
Nearly seven years ago, 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez was killed in Nogales, Mexico, by U.S. Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz, who fired his gun from the U.S. side of the border. The teenager — who was unarmed — died face-down on the sidewalk just a couple of blocks from his home. Border Patrol has for years been plagued with hundreds of allegations of abuse and unnecessary use of deadly force, including the cross-border killings of at least six people on Mexican soil. Most cases are not investigated, and border agents are rarely criminally charged for using violent force. After nearly fiv…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/30/jose_anto…

Family of Mexican Teenager Slain by Border Agent Awaits SCOTUS Ruling to Determine If They Can Sue
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-30
This fall, the Supreme Court will decide whether the parents of Sergio Hernández Gàºereca, a 15-year-old Mexican teen killed by a Border Patrol agent in 2010, can sue the American agent in a U.S. federal court. It’s been nearly 10 years since Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa Jr. shot across the El Paso-Juárez border and struck Hernández Gàºereca in the head. The central question in the case is whether a Mexican citizen killed on Mexican soil by a U.S. border agent is protected by the U.S. Constitution — allowing for the family members of victims to file civil lawsuits. If the Supreme Court rules in…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/30/scotus_ca…

Get to It. “The sweet smell of success. From an ignorant child you’d never learn it”
Edward Curtin | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
From an ignorant child you’d never learn it. | Yet the sophisticated know it is work | That is the secret of the good life. God forbid, | Not labor that breaks your back, picking | Vegetables, cleaning toilets, laying down | That steaming hot | …
globalresearch.ca/get-to-it-the-sweet-sm…

Emergency Palantir Mass Mobilization to Stop ICE Terror
R.R. | indybay.org | 2019-08-30
An angry group of activists mobilized on August 23 at the headquarters of Palantir Technologies in Palo Alto. Just 3 days earlier Palantir renewed its ICE Investigative Case Management contract that enables ICE to track the every move of undocumented immigrants until 2022; protesters responded quickly and loudly. | Photos by Jack Owicki, Pro Bono Photo. Please credit the photographer.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/27/1882574…

Protesters Force Palantir to Empty HQ
Fight for What’s Right | indybay.org | 2019-08-30
Palantir, the secretive $20 billion data-analysis company whose work with ICE has even led some of its own employees to make a fuss, succumbed to the power of protesters on August 23. The main office at 100 Hamilton, Palantir’s world headquarters, was emptied in advance of the arrival of demonstrators. | Photo credit: Cornelia Grimes, Pro Bono Photo…
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/27/1882575…

City Attorney Stonewalls Homeless Activists on Settlement Conference
Robert Norse | indybay.org | 2019-08-30
After leveling the Ross Camp, sending its 200-300 residents fleeing into the parks, greenbelt, downtown, and neighborhoods, and fencing off the area, the City is now refusing to sit down and work out compromise settlement terms as suggested by Judge Edward Devila. It apparently prefers to incur more costs.at the expense of its homeless residents.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/29/1882579…

Behind Islamophobia Is a Global Movement of Anti-Semites
Nafeez Ahmed | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
The global rise of white nationalist violence proves that the threat of fascism is not just about one community — it threatens all communities: white people, black people, Muslims, Jews, and beyond. The spate of mass shootings at the end of July comes head on the heels of an escalating epidemic of U.S. gun violence.
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/behind-islam…

Venezuela’s Press Is More Free Than You’d Think
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-30
Opposition figures regularly speak their mind on talk shows and news programs in Venezuela, undermining the notion that freedom of the press is highly restricted, says Joe Emersberger…
therealnews.com/stories/venezuelas-press…

Press Freedom in Venezuela: Much Freer Than Most Believe
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-30
Even a cursory glance at Venezuelan private television, shows that opposition figures regularly speak their mind on talk shows and news programs, undermining the notion that freedom of the press is highly restricted, says Joe Emersberger…
therealnews.com/stories/press-freedom-in…

Is it Cynical to Believe the System is Corrupt?
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-30
While a new poll shows most US citizens believe the political and economic system is rigged against them, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren also echo this sentiment. Some conservatives are now pushing back. But what says the evidence? Bill Black analyzes the situation…
therealnews.com/stories/is-it-cynical-to…

Are Russia and India Global Partners? The Brahmos Supersonic Missiles, The Russia-China Relationship
Andrew Korybko | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-30
The announcement that the Brahmos supersonic missiles jointly produced by Russia and India will soon be exported to third countries that are on friendly relations with both increases the odds that their historic Vietnamese partners might receive these game-changing weapons….
globalresearch.ca/russia-use-brahmos-mis…

Brazil: Rio’s governor celebrates more Black deaths
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
racist policing Tony RosenbergIssue 1235 Brazil Bolsonaro governmentAugust 30, 2019Rio de Janeiro’s population watched in shock on August 20 as the state’s governor, Wilson Witzel celebrated the shooting by a sniper of a 20-year-old Black man who held 37 people…
greenleft.org.au/content/brazil-rio-gove…

War on the Mexican border: How did it happen?
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
immigrant rights Barry SheppardIssue 1235 United States US-Mexico border wallAugust 30, 2019What became the United States was first a series of white British — “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant” (WASP) — settler colonies. | Besides starting the…
greenleft.org.au/content/war-mexican-bor…

Sudanese relieved but wary of new transitional government
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
Susan PriceIssue 1235 Sudan Sudanese revolutionAugust 30, 2019Following months of mass mobilisations, which successfully toppled former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir only to have the military attempt a take-over, the Forces for Freedom and Change and the Transitional Military Council (TMC) agreed on August 17 to a transitional gove…
greenleft.org.au/content/sudanese-reliev…

Rojava: Human shields defy threats of Turkish invasion
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
Rojava revolutionIssue 1235 Northern Syria Turkish military Democratic Federation of Northern SyriaAugust 30, 2019The people of Rojava in Northern Syria are continuing human shield actions along the Syria-Turkey border, to prevent an invasi…
greenleft.org.au/content/rojava-human-sh…

‘SpaceCom’ is Trump’s Response to Threats From China and Russia
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-30
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday the creation of the “Space Command” (Spacecom), a new institution whose mission will be to protect the interests of his country in space, which is considered as a realm that the United States, China and Russia are disputing. | RELATED: | Trump Cancels Trip, Florida on Alert as Hurricane Strengthens…
telesurenglish.net/news/SpaceCom-is-Trum…

‘We Are Waiting for War’: Lebanese Say Israel Has Gone Too Far
Andre Vltchek | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-29
After the recent Israeli attacks against Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, the Middle East has found itself in the midst of an undeclared war. | Almost everyone in Lebanon appears to agree. “This time Israel went too far. In just two days, …
globalresearch.ca/war-lebanese-say-israe…

“We are waiting for war”
Andre Vltchek | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-29
Israel is right here behind this wall After the recent Israeli attacks against Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, the Middle East has found itself in the midst of undeclared war. Almost everyone in Lebanon appears to agree. “This time Israel went too far. In just two days, it bombed three countries,” I am told by a …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/we-are-waitin…

Israeli Attacks on Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Netanyahu’s Election Strategy
Steven Sahiounie | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-29
Benyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of “Israel”, the occupier of Palestine, may lose the election on September 17th. He is the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the occupation; however, he is facing possible defeat even though …
globalresearch.ca/israeli-attacks-on-leb…

HK Police Warn of Increased Violence Amid Ongoing Protests
Xinhua | telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
Hong Kong police said Wednesday said protests and assemblies over the past two months have escalated in violence and are dedicated to bringing all offenders to justice. | RELATED: | China Boycotts Saudi Shrimp, Will Buy From Iran Instead | Speaking at a daily press conference, Tse Chun-chung, chief superintendent of the city’s police public relations, said more radical acts have sprung up and spread out across various districts in Hong Kong. “The escalation and extension of violence ha…
telesurenglish.net/news/HK-Police-Warn-o…

The Saudi Axis and Israel’s Drone War on the Shiite Crescent
Juan Cole | commondreams.org | 2019-08-29
Netanyahu leads the most militarily powerful state in the Middle East, but is dedicated to further settler colonialism in the Palestinian West Bank, and needs the bogey man of Iran to wag the dog of international diplomacy in favor of Israel. (Photo: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/views/2019/08/29/saudi-…

US Travel Industry Feels Chill as Chinese Tourists Stay Away
Xinhua | telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
For tourists going to Washington, the historic White House is a centerpiece attraction. But the rhetoric coming out of the building is turning Chinese visitors away. | RELATED: | China Boycotts Saudi Shrimp, Will Buy From Iran Instead | Statistics confirmed that fear on Tuesday: the number of Chinese tourists to the U.S. capital city has seen a precipitous fall. | According to a report by Destination DC, a local tourism promotion organization, about 226,000 Chinese tourists descended…
telesurenglish.net/news/US-Travel-Indust…

Neocolonialism Will Spell the Amazon’s Demise
Staff | truthdig.com | 2019-08-29
The 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz unnecessarily handed Brazil’s Neofascist Bolsonaro a propaganda coup with which to rally his dwindling support. With his approval falling to record lows and facing international attacks of unprecedented intensity, their colonial-sounding rhetoric allowed him to appear heroically nationalistic, a defender of Brazilian sovereignty over the Amazon, when in reality he and his government are fully geared to serve the interests of foreign capital in true comprador tradition. | Jair Bolsonaro is effectively the G7’s guy. H…
truthdig.com/articles/neocolonialism-wil…

The Open Amazon and Its Enemies: A Call for Action and Optimism
Francesc Badia i Dalmases | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-29
The Amazon, now on fire, has become the central political and geopolitical hot spot for humanity’s right to its own future. Optimism is the gasoline that must feed the fight. | *** | June and July have been the hottest months on …
globalresearch.ca/open-amazon-its-enemie…

Brazil’s Bolsonaro causes global outrage over Amazon fires
Eds. | mronline.org | 2019-08-29
The far-right populist leader initially dismissed the hundreds of blazes and then questioned whether activist groups might have started the fires in an effort to damage the credibility of his government, which has called for looser environmental regulations in the world’s largest rainforest to spur development. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/08/29/brazils-bolsonar…

How Bolsonaro’s climate change denial & anti-indigenous policies led to massive fires in the Amazon
Amy Goodman | nationofchange.org | 2019-08-29
In Brazil, fires continue to rage in the Amazon, and new drone footage shows the smoke and flames gathering strength. A vast plume of smoke has spread across South America and the Atlantic Ocean and is visible from space. The fires are also destroying large swaths of land in Bolivia. The fires are unprecedented in …
nationofchange.org/2019/08/29/how-bolson…

Indigenous Women of the Amazon Send a Call: The Fight for Mother Earth Is the Mother of All Fights
Osprey Orielle Lake | commondreams.org | 2019-08-29
A fire burns trees next to grazing land in the Amazon basin in Ze Doca, Brazil. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/views/2019/08/29/indige…

Western regime-change operatives launch campaign to blame Bolivia’s Evo Morales for Amazon fires
Wyatt Reed | thegrayzone.com | 2019-08-29
As Brazil’s Bolsonaro allows elite landowners to incinerate the Amazon, professional regime-change operatives like Jhanisse V. Daza seek to redirect…
thegrayzone.com/2019/08/29/western-regim…

No Refuge for the Amazon in Evo Morales’ Bolivia
Devin Beaulieu | commondreams.org | 2019-08-29
Response by the ideologically leftwing government of Evo Morales has been forced, instead, largely due to domestic pressure by Bolivians that increasingly view the response as not only as too little too late, but also directly blame Morales’ pro-development policies for ongoing destruction of the Amazon. (Photo: Evo Morales by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/views/2019/08/29/no-ref…

Amazon Fires Will Have Global Consequences. The UN Must Act
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-29
| The Amazon is burning. Nearly 75,000 fires have started in the iconic Brazilian rainforest this year to date, an 84 percent increase from the year before. Since August 10, a spate of intentionally set fires have been raging in the Amazon. But Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, who t…
truthout.org/articles/amazon-fires-will-…

Amazon ‘smart’ doorbell company partnered with 400+ police departments to surveil your neighborhood
rt.com | 2019-08-29
Over 400 US police forces have access to the video footage generated by Amazon’s “smart” Ring doorbells, creating an unprecedented – and largely unaccountable – surveillance network outside existing legal structures. | Video-sharing partnerships allow law enforcement to automatically request video from Ring owners within a designated timeframe and area, giving them access to millions of cameras that police claim have proved invaluable for investigations. Officers are not supposed to receive access to live-streaming video, and users can deny the footage requests — which come in the form of emails thanking…
rt.com/usa/467508-ring-doorbells-surveil…

US Defends Brazil’s Sovereign Right To (Not) Fight Amazon Fires
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
The United States government said Wednesday it did not approve the offer of US$20 million in aid to Brazil made by the countries during the G7 summit last weekend to fight the fires in the Amazon rainforest. | RELATED: | Bolsonaro Attacks Blacks and Calls Brazil ‘Garbage’ | “We didn’t agree to a G7 initiative that failed to include consultations with (Brazilian President) Jair Bolsonaro,” Garrett Marquis, the official spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said on Twitt…
telesurenglish.net/news/US-Defends-Brazi…

Trump reviews Ukraine aid to ensure it’s being used in US’ interests — report
rt.com | 2019-08-29
US President Donald Trump is reviewing military aid to Ukraine to ensure American interests are being “prioritized,” according to a senior administration official, putting the funding on hold and enraging Russiagate truthers. | Around $250 million in funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, earmarked for weapons, training, equipment and intelligence support, has been frozen while administration officials review whether the money is being used “in the best interest of the United States,” the official told Politico on Wednesday. Trump reportedly wants to ensure that other nations are “paying their…
rt.com/usa/467512-trump-freezes-ukraine-…

The Grayzone’s Anya Parampil on Fox: US regime change policy fuels migration crisis
Anya Parampil | thegrayzone.com | 2019-08-29
On Fox News, Anya Parampil explained how the US coup in Honduras and bipartisan support for the corrupt, right-wing President…
thegrayzone.com/2019/08/29/the-grayzones…

The Death of Arms Control
Scott Ritter | truthdig.com | 2019-08-29
A deadly accident in northern Russia earlier this month caused the U.S. arms control community to stand up and take notice. The Russians claim they were testing “isotopic sources of fuel on a liquid propulsion unit,” and that only after the test was completed did the engine explode. There was a spike in radiation levels detected in the city of Severodvinsk, roughly 18 miles away, shortly after the accident. Seven people were killed as a result of the explosion, including at least two who died of acu…
truthdig.com/articles/the-death-of-arms-…