POWERFUL MULTI-NATIONAL AGRIBUSINESS CORPORATIONS AND A COMPLIANT AND CORRUPT LOCAL GOVERNMENT: RECIPE FOR WORLD LAND GRABS. (Foreign Policy in Focus) Recent protests in African country of Sierra Leone highlight a world pattern: the acquisition for mono-culture cultivation of tracts of land removed from the control of local farmers. Around 20% of the country’s arable land [...]
OCCUPY VERIZON: AMERICA’S LARGEST CELLPHONE COMPANY WILL START CHARGING CUSTOMERS TO PAY THEIR BILLS. (CNET) In the latest example of mind-numbing detachment from America’s corporate sector, Verizon announced on Thursday that it will immediately begin charging a $2 fee for customers that pay their bill online or over the phone with a credit or debit [...]
“IT IS NOW NOT THE GENERALS, BUT CORPORATIONS AND BUSINESS LEADERS WHO WILL BE AT THE FRONT OF THIS STAGE.” (Reuters News) The war in Iraq is over, so send in the multi-national corporations. And they are prepared to come. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s visit to Washington was as much about “celebrating” the official [...]
CRISIS IN PAKISTAN: “THEY DEMONSTRATE COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND HUMAN LIFE, AND ARE IN STARK VIOLATION OF PAKISTANI SOVEREIGNTY.” The already-crumbling relationship between the United States government and Pakistan was dealt a new blow over the weekend when 25 Pakistani soldiers were killed in an air strike launched by US forces. It was [...]
AN “UNCOMMODIFIED RADICAL PUBLIC SPACE RIGHT IN THE HEART OF GLOBAL CAPITAL.” (AlterNet) Writer Arun Gupta so characterizes the extraordinary encampment of protesters calling themselves Occupy Wall Street. City officials are losing patience with this “uncommodified” (free services) community which tries to provide for the sanitation and health care needs of an occupying population. The [...]
DID IRANIAN AGENTS ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP THE SAUDI ARABIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES WITH THE HELP OF A MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL? (Antiwar.com) Sounds perfectly reasonable, right? This is the bizarre case being made by the US government following the announcement on Tuesday that two Iranians were apprehended based on their role in the [...]
TODAY IS THE 10th ANNIVERSARY OF INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN….BUT WHO IS CELEBRATING IT? (Antiwar.com) Certainly not President Obama, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign in which peoples’ minds are focused on retaining their jobs and their economic benefits in a recessionary period. While the majority of Americans—and the overwhelming majority of Afghans—oppose [...]
From the series of protests that have sprung up under the “Occupy Wall Street” banner to lawmakers calling for a “millionaires’ tax,” America is experiencing a rise in populist anger and resentment towards Wall Street, corporations, and the one percent of the country that makes up the “super-rich.” While there is no single target of [...]
HEALTH INSURANCE COSTS, AND INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS, ARE SKYROCKETING. (New York Times) America may be headed for a crisis in health care as costs for insurance are rising at a shocking rate. The cost of employer-based insurance for an average family has increased 9 percent over the past year, the higher costs hitting hard in [...]
AMAZON.COM: GIVING CUSTOMERS A LITTLE BIT OF DOMESTIC SWEATSHOP LABOR WITH EVERY PURCHASE… When one thinks of substandard working conditions in the world of retail and consumer products, what usually comes to mind are images of “sweatshop” factories overseas, in the manufacturing stage of a product’s journey to the United States. But in a remarkable [...]
Recent Comments