Category: Occupy
::: just click above for Pilger’s piece in full :::
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CONGRESS TELLS COURT THAT CONGRESS CAN’T BE INVESTIGATED FOR INSIDER TRADING
HOW TO KEEP NSA COMPUTERS FROM TURNING YOUR PHONE CONVERSATIONS INTO SEARCHABLE TEXT
U.S. GOVERNMENT DESIGNATED PROMINENT AL JAZEERA JOURNALIST AS “MEMBER OF AL QAEDA”
U.S. GOVERNMENT: WE CAN CLASSIFY ANYTHING AND JUDGES CAN’T STOP US
SENATORS WANT TO “BLOW ISIS OUT OF THE WATER” WITH “FANCY MEMES”
The Arctic is the “canary in the coal mine” of global warming. Over the past 50 years Arctic winters have gotten a whole lot warmer,rising in temperature by an average of 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit. With the region warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, changes in the Arctic are providing a preview of what is to come if climate change is not stopped. The picture is not pretty: the Arctic is suffering increasing coastal erosion, more acidic oceans, earlier spring snowmelt, drier landscapes, and more extensive wildfires. Significant habitat changes are also pushing many species—including the iconic polar bear—to the very brink of extinction.
The United States is taking over chairmanship of the Arctic Council at a challenging and critical time. Thanks to melting sea ice caused by climate change, the Arctic is opening up. This means that Arctic nations could soon begin sparring over new shipping routes and access to remote oil and gas deposits. At the same time, the region is being hit hard. Climate change is directly impacting the Arctic ecosystem. Rising sea levels are upending coastal settlements, while gas flaring is coating sea ice in a nasty layer of black carbon that speeds the melting causing over a million premature deaths each year from respiratory and heart disease.
If the United States wants to protect the Arctic from climate change, it can’t allow any more oil and gas drilling in the region. The Obama Administration has a unique ability to use its chairmanship of the Arctic Council to chart a new course for climate leadership in the region. According to a peer-reviewed study recently published in Nature, the world must choose between drilling for Arctic oil and maintaining a safe, liveable climate. Showing leadership on climate means cutting carbon emissions—not greenlighting oil companies’ risky plans to place new drilling rigs in the Arctic Circle.
Coverage
- US’ Kerry bids to avert Arctic melt (RTCC)
- Climate concerns take top billing as the US pivots to the Arctic (TckTckTck)
- Iqaluit to welcome Arctic Council meeting Friday (CBC)
- Major changes loom in Arctic as US leads Council (Climate Central)
- John Kerry’s mission to save the Arctic (ThinkProgress)
US takes lead in bid to cope with Arctic meltdown (ClimateWire) - As US assumes Arctic Council chairmanship, new report emphasizes cooperation over conflict (Phys.org)
- Canada’s Arctic Council leadership to be handed over at Iqaluit meeting (Canadian Press)
The Guardian describes Harry Leslie Smith as…’a survivor of the Great Depression, a second world war RAF veteran and an activist for the poor and for the preservation of social democracy. He has written several books about Britain during the depression, the war, and postwar austerity.’
Join him on Twitter @Harryslaststand
…as UK election approaches, this message is more important than ever. Just say NO to those “sinister rightwing c**ts”…
“We’re living in extreme times and if you listened to modern rock music you wouldn’t know that,” says Gillespie. “I just think it’s odd there’s no protest, resistance or critique of what’s going down. It’s like people are tranquilised. All the rights people had fought for – people like trade unionists, anarchists, artists – are being clawed back by extremists. These people [in charge] aren’t rational thinkers. Someone like Boris Johnson hides behind that bumbling public schoolboy image but he’s a sinister rightwing c**t trying to bring in anti-strike legislation … we’ve got to fight these fucking people!”
Bobby Gillespie’s primal scream: click here to go to the interview in full @ the guardian
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Momentum continues to build for the next UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Paris this December, with nations realising the huge benefits of climate action and getting on with the job of developing their national emissions reduction plans for the negotiations. These action plans – known as “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” (INDCs) – marry national goals reflecting individual circumstances and ambitions with a UN framework to keep average global warming below the internationally agreed 2DegC red line.
So far, Switzerland, the European Union, Norway, and Mexico have all submitted plans, but Australia has further cemented its reputation as a coal-obsessed wrecker by not only ignoring the deadline, but dragging its feet and only now calling for public submissions on what it should do. Its discussion paper ignores the 2DegC red line, it attempts to cook the books (again) by describing its current target as “equivalent to a reduction of 13 per cent below 2005 levels” instead of referring to its inadequate five percent below 1990 levels commitment. It also totally ignores the “5-25 per cent range” ittrumpeted in early 2010.
While the rest of the world moves forward, Australia’s climate change policy is “on course for ‘disastrous’ 4DegC warming” as it allows polluters to increase emissions as much as they like without penalty. While railing against the age of entitlement, the Abbott government is looking for special treatment to keep burning and selling coal. It claims it is determined to reduce emissions “without destroying jobs”, but its actions demonstrate that it does not understand the health, employment, environmental and economic benefits that come with cleaning up its economy. The Government has been captured by a dying coal industry, is fighting the future for it, and dooming Australia to climate pariah status on the world stage for its dim prospects.
Related Tree Alerts
- Australia cooking the books to meet emissions target as carbon pollution soars
- Climate Change Authority finds Australia’s 5% emissions target “not credible”
- Australia on a wing and a prayer as momentum builds for global climate deal
- Study shows keeping most coal in the ground is the only way to contain climate change
- Australian government’s “hard-line ideological agenda” at COP19 damaging reputation
Tweets…
- MT @Mattias_S: #Australia – when can we expect your #climate contributions, #INDC , You’re already behind #Mexico – Is that leadership?
- MT @MattGrudnoff: PM ‘Australia open for business’. Unless you’re an industry the govt is ideologically opposed to #auspol #climate http://t.co/E7UjKBOIqS
- MT @fionamcrobie: Submissions on Australia’s post-2020 emissions reduction target can be made here: http://t.co/v65OQQe89B #auspol #climate
One of the six realms on the Buddhist Wheel of Life is the Hungry Ghost Realm, its inhabitants “creatures with scrawny necks, small mouths, emaciated limbs and large, bloated, empty bellies. This is the domain of addiction.”
A ravaged German-Canadian man is one day quoting the final lines of Goethe’s Faust, the next delivering a drug-fuelled anti-Semitic diatribe; a woman, very pregnant and intent on keeping her baby, is found beaten up on the sidewalk and screaming for drug money: these are among the hungry ghosts Dr. Gabor Maté encounters in his job as resident doctor at the Portland Hotel on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
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TOP STORIES THIS WEEK
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It’s clear that Rahm Emanuel is out for himself and his rich friends, not for Chicagoans. BY RICK PERLSTEIN Anti-fracking forces pushed Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to pass the ban, and proved conventional wisdom wrong. BY ERIC WELTMAN In order to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we should forget, not dwell in, an ancient past. BY SLAVOJ ZIZEK
Palestinian children are taken from their beds in night raids and not returned to their families for months. BY BETH MASCHINOT
By any other name, it still smells like torture. BY FLINT TAYLOR
The redesigned New York Times Magazine aims for a global outlook, but comes off as elitist. BY SUSAN J. DOUGLAS Public mental healthcare has been gutted in the past 50 years. An innovative Illinois law may provide an answer. BY ANNE-MARIE CUSAC Does a story-sharing program offer a chance at Southern reconciliation? BY THEO ANDERSON
While money poured into the recent elections, voters showed that they are tired of business as usual. BY KARI LYDERSEN
Kent Russell seeks to lay claim to the raw, serious stuff of the American male past. BY CHRIS LEHMANN The city’s progressives should claim no easy victories. BY MARILYN KATZ The victory wouldn’t have been possible without agitation from the grassroots. BY JAY CASSANO |
| WORKING IN THESE TIMES |
| How Chicago’s Grassroots Movements Defeated Rahm Emanuel at the Polls
The progressive swing in Chicago’s recent elections was no coincidence, it came out of years of grassroots organizing. BY AMISHA PATEL |
“I detest what you write, but I would give my life
to make it possible for you to continue to write…”
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Letters, 1770.
Saudi Arabia lashes a liberal blogger 50 times in public, despite widespread international outrage and calls for clemency from human right groups…
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, said on twitter that blogger and activist, Raif Badawi, was lashed outside a mosque in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on Friday, (09/01/15).
Badawi is due to undergo 50 lashes every week after Friday prayers, which will continue for 20 weeks until his punishment is complete.
Amnesty International says Badawi, who started the “Free Saudi Liberals” website, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes on charges related to accusations he insulted Islam on the online forum.
He was also ordered by Jeddah’s Criminal Court to pay a fine of $266,000.
Synthesis Report (2014) – IPCC
The Synthesis Report distils and integrates the findings of the three working group contributions to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Fifth Assessment Report — the most comprehensive assessment of climate change yet undertaken, produced by hundreds of scientists — as well as the two Special Reports produced during this cycle.
Summary for Policymakers
SPM + Longer Report
Headline Statements
Factsheets
Video
Quick link to report PDFs
DID YOU MISS IT…
Gaza City – Since this summer’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip, the number of patients seeking help from the Gaza Community Centre’s mental health programme has jumped by close to 50 percent.
The centre, which previously handled about 15 patients daily, is now seeing up to 25, administrators say – and the Gaza City centre is just one of three branches of Gaza’s mental health network. The NGO’s psychiatry, social work and physiotherapy services are available for free to residents, but social stigma still prevents an untold number from seeking help.
Psychologist Hasan Zeyada spoke with Al Jazeera about the challenges facing Gazans in the wake of a war that killed 2,200 Palestinians, and amid an ongoing, crippling siege.
Al Jazeera: How has your patient load changed since the summer war?
Hasan Zeyada: We have more cases that are referred to our centres. It’s the immediate reaction after war. A lot of people had psychological and behavioural consequences because of the trauma during the military Israeli aggression. A lot of people, they are in need of consultation, they are in need of intervention. We started to do our intervention immediately through field visits for the families who lost their homes and lost their family members, and for the injured people…
“The war was brutal and it was for a long time, and it’s the third experience for the children here in Gaza, so a lot of people have already developed acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. They are in need of intervention.”
::: click on through to piece in full @ Al Jazeera :::
This is not your sanitized, Hollywood version of Dr. King.As “Selma” opens in a number of cities this week and expands to nationwide release in a couple of weeks, the country is given a chance to assess the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. Doing so is particularly relevant right now, in light of boisterous protests against police brutality that have been going on since the summer…
…just click image for piece in full @ AlterNet…
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SONY HACK: CLOONEY SAYS MOVIE IS ABOUT SNOWDEN, NOT JOURNALISM
IRONY 101: STUDY ETHICS WITH LEGAL ACE WHO SANCTIONED NSA WIRETAPPING, CIA TORTURE
MEET ALFREDA BIKOWSKY, THE SENIOR OFFICER AT THE CENTER OF THE CIA’S TORTURE SCANDALS
BILLION DOLLAR SURVEILLANCE BLIMP TO LAUNCH OVER MARYLAND
THE LATEST TWIST IN THE BIZARRE PROSECUTION OF BARRETT BROWN
As Australia picked up its shameful fourth Fossil of the Day award at the Lima climate talks Thursday (11/12/14), Climate Action Tracker (CAT) released a new analysis showing that creative accounting and years of diplomatic manoeuvring are allowing Australia to increase emissions while still meeting its minimum five per cent reduction commitment. CAT says in real terms Australia’s emissions are likely to be 26 per cent above 2000 levels by 2020, and a huge 47-59 per cent above its original Kyoto pledge.
Yet while its actual emissions are soaring, Australia can still meet its already lax commitments with barely any action thanks to being selective on baseline emission sources, and its creative approach to accounting for land use change and forestry. Australia has now taken to making threats if it is not allowed to use these favourable rules, which would allow it to emit a further six per cent more carbon on top of its already worst-in-show per capita emissions.
extract…
International law prohibits the granting of immunities to public officials who have engaged in acts of torture. This applies not only to the actual perpetrators but also to those senior officials within the US Government who devised, planned and authorised these crimes.
As a matter of international law, the US is legally obliged to bring those responsible to justice. The UN Convention Against Torture and the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances require States to prosecute acts of torture and enforced disappearance where there is sufficient evidence to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction. States are not free to maintain or permit impunity for these grave crimes.
It is no defence for a public official to claim that they were acting on superior orders. CIA officers who physically committed acts of torture therefore bear individual criminal responsibility for their conduct, and cannot hide behind the authorisation they were given by their superiors.
However, the heaviest penalties should be reserved for those most seriously implicated in the planning and purported authorisation of these crimes. Former Bush Administration officials who have admitted their involvement in the programme should also face criminal prosecution for their acts.
President Obama made it clear more than five years ago that the US Government recognises the use of waterboarding as torture. There is therefore no excuse for shielding the perpetrators from justice any longer. The US Attorney General is under a legal duty to bring criminal charges against those responsible.
Torture is a crime of universal jurisdiction. The perpetrators may be prosecuted by any other country they may travel to. However, the primary responsibility for bringing them to justice rests with the US Department of Justice and the Attorney General.”
(*) Check the Special Rapporteur’s full report: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22-52_en.pdf
Ben Emmerson (United Kingdom) is the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. On 1 August 2011, he took up his functions on the mandate that was created in 2005 by the former United Nations Commission on Human, renewed by the UN Human Rights Council for a three year period in December 2007, in September 2010 and again in March 2013. As Special Rapporteur he is independent from any Government and serves in his individual capacity. Learn more, log on to:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Terrorism/Pages/SRTerrorismIndex.aspx
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
UN Human Rights, country page – United States of America: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/USIndex.aspx
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TOP STORIES THIS WEEK
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Those who toil for Big Dairy face vile and often dangerous conditions. BY JOSEPH SORRENTINO
Retirees stand to lose as Congress nears a vote on the changing private pension law. BY COLE STANGLER
Some activists are trying to beat back the tide of the market. BY YANA KUNICHOFF
We can’t change the grand jury’s verdict, but we can require police to wear body cameras. BY IAN REIFOWITZ
Big banks are more than happy to take workers’ retirement funds–as long as those workers don’t want to know what the banks are doing with the money. BY DAVID SIROTA
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| WORKING IN THESE TIMES |
| A Chicago Teacher Explains How Her School Fought Back Against Standardized Testing–And Won
Parents, teachers and students worked together to lead a successful standardized testing boycott. BY SARAH CHAMBERS |
“Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong”
William D. Nordhaus is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale. (March 2012)
His evidence based article is freely available below and above at
the New York Review of Books…
www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/22/why-global-warming-skeptics-are-wrong/
Rupert Murdoch ordered editors to ‘kill Whitlam’, according to US diplomatic cables
http://t.co/9SA0wmTT06 #auspol
Rupert Murdoch ordered editors to ‘kill Whitlam’, according to US diplomatic cables #auspol
Document date: 2014-10-20 23:54:11
Released date: 2014-10-20 23:54:11
The UN Climate Talks, otherwise referred to as COP 20, begin next week in Lima, Peru at a time when climate change has rocketed back to the top of the global political agenda. The Lima talks are an opportunity for governments to harness momentum that has been growing around the world for months and begin taking internationally coordinated action to address the global climate change crisis. In Lima, governments can move forward on an international action plan to be finalized in Paris at the end of next year, which aims to accelerate the ongoing transition away from dirty fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy.
The foundation of any agreement in Paris will be built in Lima. That foundation includes getting nations to begin crafting Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), where countries will offer their plans for how to slash global carbon emissions so that the world’s warming is contained to no more than 2degC. The deadline for the INDC offers is March 2015, making Lima an opportunity for governments to put the finishing touches on what these commitments should contain, how long they should last, and how they should be presented.
COP 20 is also an opportunity for governments to continue supporting the Green Climate Fund, which now has commitments for up to 9.6 billion in funding, but has an investment target of $100 billion by 2020. Politically, COP 20 comes at a pivotal time. In September, hundreds of thousands of individuals from New York to Mumbai took part in the People’s Climate March, where the demand for governments to act on climate was made at historic levels. Days later, the march was referenced by several leaders, including Barack Obama and Ban Ki-moon as a reason to act.
Coverage…
- UN climate negotiators outline priorities for Lima (RTCC)
- China Fears Republican opposition to Climate Talks ($)(FT)
- Below the headlines – the nuts and bolts of a new global climate deal (Greenpeace)
- Leonardo DiCaprio confirmed to attend Lima UN Climate Conference (Peru This Week)
- Lima talks to test political will for global climate deal (WWF International)
- France ready to engage Zim on climate change issues (News Day)
- COP 20: A week prior to its kick-off (Andina)
- COP 20: Indigenous voices to be heard, now more than ever (Peru This Week)
- UN climate negotiators outline priorities for Lima (RTCC)
- China insists rich nations must do more at Lima climate meeting Hurri Daily News)
- 10 questions for delegates heading to UN climate talks in Lima (RTCC)
- Obama’s Climate Change Envoy: ‘Pretty Obvious’ Fossil Fuels Have To Stay In Ground (HNGN)
- CO2 emissions must be zero by 2070 to prevent climate disaster, UN says (The Guardian)
- ‘Build bridges for Lima climate talks‘ (The Guardian)
- Why we need to talk about the scientific consensus on climate change (The Guardian)
Stand with the Alyawarr and Anmatyerr Peoples and tell the government not to abandon homelands.
http://www.amnesty.org.au/homelandsThe Government has no right to abandon Aboriginal people for choosing to live on their homelands.
the interpretOr 