Charles Davis (2019-09-27). Mass Killings In Afghanistan Are Acts of White Supremacy. counterpunch.org An American white nationalist killed over 30 people recently. The victims, all brown, had full lives; children, loved ones, and years, full of plans, ahead of them. But then they were incinerated. Worst of all, they were murdered while Afghan. The deaths were noted in the press, and one Democrat running for president even acknowledged More

Don Fitz (2019-09-27). Politicians Agree: \"Any White Cop Can Kill a Black Man\" counterpunch.org In 2017 my CounterPunch article, \"Any White Cop Can Kill a Black Man at Any Time,\" told how St. Louis cop Jason Stockley killed a 24-year-old black man, Anthony Lamar Smith. Though Stockley claimed he had fired in self defense when Smith pulled a gun on him, evidence showed that he had planted the gun More

Chauncey K. Robinson (2019-09-27). Review: \'The Day Shall Come\' exposes joke of \"war on terror\" peoplesworld.org The term Theatre of the Absurd deals with what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. The new film The Day Shall Come explores this idea in relation to our current political terrain. It\'s a movie that uses comedy to address the very real chaos, corruption, and …

Medea Benjamin (2019-09-27). 10 Ways that the Climate Crisis and Militarism are Intertwined. counterpunch.org The environmental justice movement that is surging globally is intentionally intersectional, showing how global warming is connected to issues such as race, poverty, migration and public health. One area intimately linked to the climate crisis that gets little attention, however, is militarism. Here are some of the ways these issues—and their solutions—are intertwined. 1. The More

John Kendall Hawkins (2019-09-27). Towards a More Mature Democracy. counterpunch.org You could be forgiven (but what\'s the fun in that), if you were to think. Looking at Jacques-Louis David\'s neoclassical painting The Death of Socrates, you could believe you\'re seeing Socrates giving the bird to democracy and demanding that Crito give him the goddamned chalice full of hemlock, and get out of the way. There More

Patrick Anderson (2019-09-27). Edward Snowden\'s Julian Assange is an Unfamiliar Julian Assange. mintpressnews.com NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks\' former editor Julian Assange have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, they share important similarities: both are perceived as dangerous enemies by the United States government, and both have been documentary subjects of filmmaker Laura Poitras. On the other hand, they clearly disagree when it comes to the means of achieving government transparency and accountability. After all, if Snowden had agreed with Assange a…

Janine Jackson (2019-09-27). \'The Remedies That Were Proposed Weren\'t About Ending the List\' – CounterSpin interview with Maha Hilal on 'terrorist watchlist'. fair.org Janine Jackson interviewed Justice for Muslims\' Maha Hilal about the \"terrorist watchlist\" for the September 20, 2019, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. | Janine Jackson: We don\'t need the anniversary of September 11, 2001, to remind us of the devastating legacies of that day: the evidently endless wars, by whatever name, in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere. And in the US, the wave of Islamophobia, not invented that day, of course, but elevated to organizing principle for law enforcement and policymakers and media—anti-Muslim bias repackaged as national security. | Now a pillar…

Murtaza Hussain (2019-09-27). It Doesn\'t Have to Be This Way: Stepping Away From a Disastrous War Over Kashmir. theintercept.com Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the crowd at the \"Howdy, Modi\" event in Houston, Texas, on Sept. 22, 2019. | , Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a stadium packed with supporters that India had bade \"farewell\" to a constitutional clause granting autonomy to the Himalayan region of Kashmir. \"Article 370 had deprived people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh of development,\" Modi told the crowd. \"Terror and separatist elements were misusing the situation. Now, people there have got equal rights.\" The crowd responded with roaring applause. | Modi\'s remark about \"equal rights\" was a jarring contr…

Staff (2019-09-27). Message to the Climate Strike Marchers in Detroit. therealnews.com Merge the strikes! Merge the tiers! | We are all for the Green New Deal! | Make Detroit the Arsenal for a Green Economy! | Frank Hammer | This is a historic day, especially for those of us here in Detroit. We are at the center of not one but two strikes: | The nation-wide strike by 46,000 UAW members to determine fate of GM, Ford and Chrysler autoworkers which will have ripple effects for the entire working class and gm communities, right here in Detroit and Warren, in the US and globally. The other strike, today\'s youth-led global climate strike, is a huge step in our fight to shape the fate of our planet, the…

Staff (2019-09-27). The Democratic Party Remains a Party of War, Not Peace. therealnews.com Green Party candidate Madelyn Hoffman says that even the progressive Democratic presidential candidates remain unwilling to challenge the Pentagon.

Sonali Kolhatkar (2019-09-27). Children to Adults: \'Do Your Job So We Have a Future\'. truthdig.com The work of saving the planet has fallen to the youngest generation, as the Global Climate Strike made crystal clear.

Jonathan Power (2019-09-27). A Dangerous Confrontation With Russia Over Kalingrad. counterpunch.org \"What idiocy\", exclaims Jack Matlock on Facebook. Matlock is one of my \"Facebook Friends\" because I judge his knowledge of Russia as second to none, having been under President Ronald Reagan the White House\'s senior advisor on the Soviet Union and, later, his ambassador to Moscow. The object of his ire is based on a Newsday More

Ron Jacobs (2019-09-27). Are We Possessed by Our Possessions? counterpunch.org Virtually everyone agrees that people in the advanced capitalist nations have way too many possessions. Three and four car families, multiple televisions and numerous devices to send and receive messages and media all day and all night. Of course, many more people have considerably less, even in the United States, where possessions are totems to More

Christopher Ketcham (2019-09-27). Solitude and the Love of the Human Race. counterpunch.org When I return from a solo backpacking trip, all I want is company. I see another person at the trail\'s end, at the road that leads back to the cities, I\'m a slavering dog — I hump all legs, my tongue is out, I run around in circles, I want to talk and talk. My More

Louisa Willcox (2019-09-27). Exorcizing Wendigo to Save Grizzlies, Ourselves. counterpunch.org Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently aborted a planned trip to Montana to hear from farmers and ranchers seeking to boost federal budgets in order to kill more grizzlies, especially along the Rocky Mountain Front. Disappointed that Bernhardt didn\'t show, Dave McEwen of the Montana Wool Growers Association announced that stockmen will travel to DC, saying: \"Now More

Lawrence Davidson (2019-09-27). A Twenty-First Century Children\'s Crusade. counterpunch.org \"You Had Your Future, And So Should We\" This was the chant of thousands of demonstrators, most of them under 20 years of age, as they marched through New York City on 23 September 2019. At about the same time, millions of other young people were demonstrating across the globe: in Australia, India, South Africa, More

Michael Welton (2019-09-27). What\'s In It For Me? Turning Citizens Into Customers. counterpunch.org Sociation by consumption Wolfgang Streeck, author of How will capitalism end? [2016], provides us with a compelling and provocative analysis of how capitalism, slammed against the ropes and almost down for the count of ten, found a way out of its dilemmas of the 1970s. The market was saturated and the labour movement was pressing More

Tony McKenna (2019-09-27). Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory. counterpunch.org Conspiracy theories in general tend to be crude and simplistic, more often than not reflecting the nature of the people who indulge them. But when the conspiracy theory is mingled with antisemitism — as with the Rothschild rot — it represents a particular failure of the imagination, a particularly null and void exercise in dehumanisation. For it seeks to perpetuate a racial stereotype in which a group of people who have been so systematically displaced, persecuted and murdered are transformed into the persecutors on a global scale by way of a vulgar fiction which lacks any trace of humanity or self-aw…

Geoffrey McDonald (2019-09-27). Does the USA Have a Slavery Habit? counterpunch.org As part of its \"1619 Project\" on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves in North America, the New York Times Magazine ran an essay with the somewhat radical message in its title: \"American Capitalism Is Brutal. You Can Trace That to the Plantation\" (Matthew Desmond, 8/14/19). But how will studying More

Brian Cloughley (2019-09-27). Trump and the Kashmir Catastrophe. counterpunch.org India\'s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump have much in common, not least extensive use of Twitter to communicate their thoughts, policies and intentions. The arrangement for a Modi-Trump meeting on September 22 in Houston Texas, at a rally of Indian-Americans, known as \"Howdy Modi!\" was greeted enthusiastically by India\'s leader (\"The special gesture of President More

Evaggelos Vallianatos (2019-09-27). Polluting the Heavens. counterpunch.org Heavens brings to mind the vast sky and the millions of stars lighting the Earth at night. Greek mythology has the sky and the Earth mating and giving birth to the natural world, the ocean, terrible monsters, the gods and the cosmos. Greek philosophers expanded myths and studied the heavens as a home of the More

Peter Certo (2019-09-27). The Case for Impeachment Goes Far Beyond Ukraine. counterpunch.org \"Has Trump finally gone too far?\" There\'s a headline you\'ve seen a thousand times. At last, Speaker Nancy Pelosi says he has. A whistleblower says Trump withheld foreign aid to Ukraine to pressure the country\'s new president into investigating Joe Biden\'s son Hunter\'s past business there. Trump doesn\'t even really deny it. Pelosi has long More

Rob Urie (2019-09-27). Climate Change and Technology. counterpunch.org Climate change is one of a host of environmental ills for which technological solutions are being proposed. In fact, most of the proposed solutions exacerbate environmental ills in other dimensions such as species loss and mass extinction. This tendency of technological reasoning to \'bleed\' from one dimension or axis to another— to cause unintended consequences, is a function of the structure of this type of reasoning. More

C.J. Atkins, John Wojcik (2019-09-27). Majority support impeachment probe as White House cover-up is exposed. peoplesworld.org According to a new poll released early Friday morning, public support for the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump has now hit a majority. The milestone comes amidst the explosive revelation of a White House cover-up aimed at hiding the details of how Trump solicited election interference from the Ukrainian president. Opinion polls conducted in …

Staff (2019-09-27). The Impeachment: Will This Be Trump\'s Unraveling? therealnews.com Ryan Cooper, National Correspondent for The Week, joins us to look at today\'s testimony, the president\'s petulance, and what all this means for the presidential campaign.

Staff (2019-09-27). Whistleblower Probe Tests GOP\'s Alliance with Trump. truthdig.com WASHINGTON—One Republican hadn\'t read the whistleblower\'s complaint. Another called President Donald Trump\'s conversation with the Ukraine leader \"thin gruel\" for any impeachment effort. A third said the whole thing was \"blown way out of proportion.\" | And yet, as more details emerged about what the president said and the efforts to shield it from view, Republicans were straining Thursday under the uncertainty of being swept up in the most serious test yet of their alliance with the Trump White House. | The quickly moving events caught Republicans off stride. While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sta…

Staff (2019-09-27). Brazilian Students Take Protest to Next Level, Launch Strike Against Bolsonaro Education Cuts. therealnews.com Brazil\'s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has proposed privatization and immediate slashing of the public education budget. Students worried about the future of education in Brazil are beginning to mobilize with a strike at one of the county\'s main universities. Mike Fox reports from Brazil…

Melanie Bender (2019-09-27). Murder of Native woman in California still unsolved. peoplesworld.org REDDING, Calif.—Driving through northern California is such a peaceful, solace-filled, meditative journey. One could get caught up in beautiful dreams and thoughts with scenery so ancient, green, and mountainous and lakes that glitter silver-blue hues in the sunshine. The last thing it evokes is thoughts of a brutal murder in the midst of the beauty. On …

Paul Street (2019-09-27). Protest Alone Won\'t Save Our Planet. truthdig.com We can all use a shot of hope. I got one from 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and the disproportionately youthful masses—4 million across 150 cities worldwide—who came out for climate sanity last week. I listened online to the speech Thunberg delivered to more than 300,000 mostly young people in lower Manhattan on Friday. She spoke eloquently about the supreme ecological danger we face, thanks to the relentless pursuit of profit and to the insincere assurances and pathetic inaction of politicians and policymakers the world over: | We have not taken to the streets, sacrificing our education…

The Canary (2019-09-27). Second wave of worldwide protests demanding climate action kick off. thecanary.co Tens of thousands of mostly young people have marched to New Zealand\'s parliament, kicking off a second wave of worldwide protests demanding swift action on climate change.The protests were inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who spoke to world leaders this week at a United Nations summit in New York.The march to the parliament in the capital Wellington was one of the largest protests ever seen in New Zealand, and organisers had to change their security plans to accommodate the swelling crowd.Thousands of people gather near New Zealand\'s parliament (Nick Perry/AP)Thousands more marched in Auckland and in…

Rick Sterling (2019-09-27). Remembering Hisham Ahmed: Activist, Professor and Palestinian Powerhouse. mintpressnews.com H isham Ahmed was born in Deheisheh refugee camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem, Palestine in 1963. Blind from birth, Hisham somehow surmounted all odds and ultimately earned a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He taught for many years at Birzeit University in Palestine, before coming to Saint Mary\'s College of California in 2006. He died of cancer in July 2019 at age 56. The following remembrance was given at his memorial service on 25 September 2019 at St Mary\'s College. | Sometimes you meet someone who is unforgettable. Hisham Ahmed was such a…

unitedEditor (2019-09-27). Intrigue of Afghanistan\'s Presidential Elections. uwidata.com However, the elections will be held among massive social confusion and ambiguity: the candidates need not only win the loyalty of people, they must also be recognized by the Taliban, the main opposition force in the country. Without question, the coming presidential election will be one of the most important events for the people of …

Staff (2019-09-27). With the Gears of Impeachment Finally Grinding, the Hard Part Begins. truthout.org | | Now that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has enough votes in hand to open an official impeachment inquiry into the rogue presidency of Donald Trump, it is worthwhile to contemplate what got us here, or more specifically, what didn\'t. | Meticulously documented cases of Trump obstructing justice didn\'t get us here, nor did his ongoing violations of the emoluments clause, his ongoing policy of caging separated children in concentration camps, his Muslim ban, his public embrace of racism and fascist whi…

Max Blumenthal (2019-09-27). Following Grayzone exposé, top Venezuelan coup official Ricardo Hausmann is forced to resign. thegrayzone.com After The Grayzone\'s Anya Parampil published an exposé of Guaidó appointee Ricardo Hausmann\'s opaque and hypocritical financial practices, he was…

Kevin Zeese (2019-09-27). Marijuana goes to house floor with landslide victory for SAFE Banking Act. nationofchange.org For the first time since the war on marijuana was declared by President Richard Nixon, progressive marijuana law reform was considered on the Floor of the House of Representatives, and won by a landslide. Now, it is likely to be considered by the Senate. Yesterday, members of the House of Representatives voted 321 to 103 …

Kevin Zeese (2019-09-27). At UN Session, US Empire in Decline and Global Solidarity on the Rise. globalresearch.ca As the United Nations General Assembly conducts its fall session, Popular Resistance is in New York City for the People\'s Mobilization to Stop the US War Machine and Save the Planet. Themes of the mobilization are connecting militarism and …

Kevin Zeese (2019-09-27). Marijuana Goes to House Floor with Landslide Victory for Safe Banking Act. globalresearch.ca For the first time since the war on marijuana was declared by President Richard Nixon, progressive marijuana law reform was considered on the Floor of the House of Representatives, and won by a landslide. Now, it is likely to be …

Norman Solomon (2019-09-27). To Joe Biden, Trump\'s Potential Successor Mike Pence \"Is a Decent Guy\" counterpunch.org When Joe Biden told an audience that Mike Pence \"is a decent guy,\" Pence had already been vice president for more than two years. After the comment drew fierce criticism, Biden responded that he\'d said it \"in a foreign policy context\" — an odd effort at damage control, given that Pence has publicly backed every one of More

Kathy Kelly (2019-09-27). The Wounds of War. progressive.org Recovering from a broken hip, peace activist Kathy Kelly reflects on her experiences with people disabled and traumatized by war.

teleSUR (2019-09-27). Italy: Over a Million Climate Protesters Take to the Streets. telesurenglish.net In a collective action, rarely seen in decades, over a million Italians turned to execute their \"Scopiero Per il Clima\", the local version of the climate strike promoted by the Fridays for the Future (FFF) movement which the Swedish Greta Thunberg has been active in since last year. | RELATED: | Young Activists Sue World Leaders due to Climate Change | Citi…

Dan Bacher (2019-09-27). Extinction Rebellion Activists in Sacramento. counterpunch.org Over 20 activists from the Extinction Rebellion today targeted the offices of the Western State Petroleum Association (WSPA) offices at 1415 L St. at 12 Noon. They sang songs, shouted out chants and briefly blocked the street in front of the WSPA offices just down the street from the State Capitol. There were no arrests. The Western States More

Defund Fossil Fuels (2019-09-27). 7 Climate Activists Arrested for Blocking Major Banks in SF. indybay.org Arrests at September 25 Direct Action. | [Photos: Terry Scussel, Pro Bono Photo, please credit the photographer]…

commondreams (2019-09-27). Women\'s Rights and Climate Activists to Host Briefing on A Feminist Agenda for the Green New Deal. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Demand Banks Defund Climate Extinction (2019-09-27). Climate Activists Shut Banks and Blocks of SF Financial District. indybay.org 7 protesters were arrested during a demonstration which blocked streets and buildings in San Francisco\'s Financial District on September 25. Demonstrators targeted banks including Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and US Bank, demanding that they stop all funding of fossil fuel producing businesses. | [Photos: Terry Scussel, Pro Bono Photo, please credit the photographer]…

Robert Dodge (2019-09-27). Hope and Necessity This International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. commondreams.org Making the connection between the environment, nuclear war, peace and the survival of our world is critical. (Photo: Scott Howe/DVIDS) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/nuclearweapons_0.jpeg …

Richard Moser (2019-09-27). Soldiers and Veterans are Anti-War Leaders. Could This Be The Peace Movement of Our Time? counterpunch.org \"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own Government.\" — Martin Luther King If you want to stop the wars, challenge the empire and deal with climate crisis then support our anti-war soldiers and veterans. Soldiers and veterans carry special knowledge. Sometimes that knowledge starts with the gut-wrenching realization that they have fought, suffered, More

United Nations (2019-09-27). At UN, Modi outlines development successes, says India gave world \'Buddha, not war\'. un.org In his address to the UN General Assembly\'s general debate on Friday, the Prime Minister of India outlined how the world\'s largest democracy has embodied the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its work towards \"peace, development and progress in the world\".

United Nations (2019-09-27). \'No place for violence, intimidation or fraud\' in Afghan elections: UN chief. un.org All key actors in Afghanistan must \"uphold their responsibility to support a peaceful, credible, transparent and inclusive electoral process\", UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement on Friday, the day before presidential elections are due to be held in the country, adding that \"there is no place for violence, intimidation or fraud\".

United Nations (2019-09-27). Human Rights Briefing: Updates on Egypt, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. un.org Here\'s a roundup of human rights news this Friday: UN\'s Bachelet urges restraint over arrests of Egypt protestors; expert calls for \'democratic shift\' in Zimbabwe; Human Rights Council agrees fact-finding mission to Venezuela; independent experts urge freedom for Saudi women's rights defender, after 500 days in prison.

Joseph Thomas (2019-09-27). Hong Kong Protests: Fading Foreign Tantrum, Not Genuine Revolution. globalresearch.ca Just as unfolded in 2014 during the so-called \"Umbrella protests\" or \"Occupy Central\" movement, a growing backlash has begun across Hong Kong against US-funded protests that have attempted to disrupt governance and commerce as part of a floundering movement to …