Mostly Water
Health Study: Austerity is Costing Lives in Europe
By Dietmar Henning - 6 April 2013
Large sections of the European population are paying with their health, if not their lives, for the European Union (EU)-dictated austerity measures...Numerous reports from Greece and Spain describe the despair and misery of the people as a result of the crisis: children who collapse in school from hunger; parents driven by poverty and desperation to send their children to care homes; pensioners who rummage through garbage for food...“In Greece, unemployment today means death.”
Montréal Cops Seize Anarchopanda's Head
April 6, 2013 - Coop Média de Montréal
Removing Anarchopanda’s head may make him less cute and cuddly, but it will not dissuade the people that love him from fighting for free education and social justice...Even more than recent mass arrests of harmless protestors and bystanders, the hasty amputation was a clumsy move on the part of the SPVM [Montreal police].
Iranian Nuclear Talks
Iran's nuclear program is red herring cover for regime change. If it didn't exist, another pretext would be found. They're easy to invent.
Is Stephen Harper Trying to Provoke a Confrontation with First Nations?
By Daniel Wilson - April 5, 2013
There has been over 4 months of ongoing protest, hunger strikes, long distance marches by Indigenous youth, heated negotiations with First Nation leadership...and widespread calls for action from non-Indigenous people across Canada...Given these circumstances, what can be reasonably foreseen is...the increasingly real risk of outright confrontation. The only question is whether this isn’t in fact the Prime Minister’s intention.
The U.S. Press and Hugo Chavez: The Man the Media Loved to Hate
By STEVE RENDALL - Counterpunch Weekend Edition
The problem isn’t criticism; powerful leaders need to be scrutinized...The problem is that US and western reporters routinely fail to put Venezuela’s shortcomings in context, and refuse to apply a single standard...But US journalists can’t be expected to apply standards of fairness while serving Washington’s agenda.
Britain: Activists Beaten Back as Austerity Bites
By Laurie Penny - April 06, 2013
This week, 12 van-loads of police arrived at Sussex University...to evict students who had been occupying a room on campus for eight weeks. ...The suppression of student protest by the British state has been savage and efficient over the past three years. The students of Sussex were brave even to make the attempt. They knew all too well that they were risking arrest, serious criminal charges and physical violence from police and hired security, and that is what happened.
Defending IMF Financial Terrorism
It's way past time predatory international lending agencies were abolished. Saving humanity depends on it.
Bank of Japan Increases QE
On April 4, the Financial Times headlined "Bank of Japan follows the Fed, on steroids." Pedal-to-the-metal reflects new governor Haruhiko Kuroda's policy.
Israel Bombs Gaza, Shoots Down West Bank Youth
By Bill Van Auken - WSWS
...[A]nger erupted following the deaths of a prominent Palestinian prisoner and two young protesters in the occupied West Bank...Thousands joined funeral processions Thursday for Maysara Abuhamdia...and for two teenage cousins, Amer Nassar, 17, and Naki Belbisi, 18, who were shot down Wednesday night by Israeli troops...The clashes on the West Bank follow Israeli air strikes against Gaza on Tuesday...
Enviro Activist Re-Imprisoned for Writing a Blog Post
By Steven Hsieh - April 5, 2013
Federal officials sent environmental activist Daniel McGowan back to prison Thursday, just months after his release to a halfway house in December. McGowan’s wife, Jenny Synan, says officials re-jailed her husband for writing a Huffington Post blog piece critical of a controversial prison program designed to restrict inmates’ communication to the outside world.
Institutionalized Barbarism: Official Israeli Policy
Israeli criminals have avoided accountability long enough. Ignoring them any longer is intolerable.
Playing the North Korea Card
For decades, North Korea's wanted normalized relations with Washington. It's been repeatedly rebuffed. Promises made were broken. America needs enemies. North Korea's straight from central casting.
The Thin Blue Line and the Criminalization of Dissent
By Mathew Kagis - April 4, 2013
After an eight month process that was at times nonexistent and at other times exhausting, traumatic and triggering, I am left with two distinct impressions...The police still hold the thin blue line and will bend over backwards to protect their own...The criminalization of dissent continues unabated and remains the order of the day.
Oakland Police Department Implicated in Systematic Abuse
By Gabriel Black - 5 April 2013
On January 31, the independent monitor for the Oakland Police Department released an eighty-one page report showcasing events from late 2012. The monitor found that every reported case of “disproportional” police aggression was indeed in violation of police requirements. In one instance the monitor reported police “pointed their firearms at a sleeping 19-month-old child” while investigating a misdemeanor charge.
The Cruelty That Keeps Empires Alive
By Noam Chomsky - April 2, 2013
It is noteworthy that today the strongest support for Israel in the international arena comes from the United States, Canada and Australia...settler-colonial societies based on extermination or expulsion of indigenous populations in favor of a higher race, and where such behavior is considered natural and praiseworthy.
Washington Escalates Syria Intervention
By Bill Van Auken - WSWS
The US and Jordanian militaries have stepped up a secret program to train thousands of armed fighters to send into Syria with the apparent aim of carving out a buffer zone in the south of the country...Washington has ordered the training of some 3,000 officers for the so-called Syrian rebels to be completed sooner than originally planned. The aim is to finish the training program by the end of this month to exploit advances made by anti-government militias along Syria’s 230-mile border with Jordan.
Israeli Murder by Neglect
Israel operates one of the world's most unconscionable gulags. Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners fill it. Fundamental human rights are denied. Torture, ill-treatment and medical neglect are commonplace.
Public Banking: What Better Time Than Now
Money power in private hands games the system. It does so destructively. Controlling money, credit and debt for private enrichment assures speculation, booms, busts, inflation, deflation, instability, crisis, recessions and depressions.
Largest Ever Welfare Cuts in Britain
By Paul Mitchell - 4 April 2013
On April 1, the largest ever welfare cuts came into force in Britain. As a result, millions who already live on the breadline are to be driven further into destitution...For the next three years, most welfare benefits will be limited to just a 1 percent rise a year...Other benefits have been frozen including Child Benefit and the Working Tax Credit available to low-paid workers. Over nine million families will lose an average of £165 a year.
CIDA: 45 Years of Co-Optation Was Enough
By Dru Oja Jay - March 25, 2013
Canada's Conservative government announced last Thursday that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) will be merged into a new Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, ending any formal independence development and trade previously possessed...The Canadian government's involvement in "development" has one primary purpose. To advance Canadian interests, including all the things Canada does to deepen poverty in the world.
