Monthly Archives: January 2020

New Report Details How EPA Is Promoting ‘Worst of the Worst Pesticides’

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From 2017-2018, the agency approved 69 new pesticide products containing an ingredient the EPA recognizes as a “known” or “likely” carcinogen.

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-10-2020

A detail of the cover image for Toxic Hangover, a new report by Center for Biological Diversity. (Image: Center for Biologicial Diversity)

A new review into the pesticide products the U.S. approved in 2017 and 2018 reveals the Environmental Protection Agency is carrying out an industry-friendly, “broken” regulatory process that included green-lighting over 100 products with ingredients widely deemed extremely dangerous.

Entitled Toxic Hangover: How the EPA Is Approving New Products With Dangerous Pesticides It Committed to Phasing Out, the 11-page analysis was released Tuesday by the Center for Biological Diversity. Continue reading →

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Fresh Calls to #RaiseTheWage After Study Shows $1 Increase Could Prevent Thousands of Suicides

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The House-approved Raise the Wage Act is among hundreds of bills sitting on the desk of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the self-declared “grim reaper” of progressive legislation.

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-9-2020

A study published this week found that raising the minimum wage just $1 could prevent thousands of suicide deaths in the United States. Photo: Wisconsin Jobs Now/flickr/CC

A new study that suggests raising the minimum wage could prevent thousands of suicide deaths in the United States sparked fresh calls for relief from federal lawmakers and cast a spotlight on Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s legislative graveyard.

“Low-wage employees are in desperate need of a raise, and the Senate’s refusal to pass the #RaiseTheWage Act is keeping vulnerable Americans in harm’s way,” the advocacy group Patriotic Millionaires tweeted on Thursday, linking to NPR‘s report on the study. Continue reading →

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Propaganda and Islam: What You’re Not Being Told

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The truth about Muslims and Islam.

By Justin King.  Published 6-21-2014 by The Anti-Media

Image: braveandboldthinking

Propaganda is the wheel by which the government steers the bus of a nation; typically driving it into war or off the cliff of humanity. It is amazing to see how many people who are otherwise rational human beings will blindly follow the herd on the matter of how subhuman a perceived national enemy is.

Some western media wonderfully paints Islam as a death cult bent on world domination. Continue reading →

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Latest Count of ONE BILLION Animals Killed in Australia Fires a “Very Conservative” Estimate

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“Over a billion would be a very conservative figure,” according to Ecologist Chris Dickman.

By Elias Marat  Published 1-7-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

While Australia’s unprecedented wave of fires has devastated the country, it’s been difficult for experts and authorities to accurately measure the true extent of the damage sustained by the country’s wild animals and plants.

However, new figures released by specialists studying the blaze reveal horrifying new statistics about the number of animals killed in the bushfires, which likely now exceed one billion. Continue reading →

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Soleimani Was in Iraq on Peace Mission When US Assassinated Him, Trump Lied About “Imminent Attacks”

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The revelation is leading some to accuse Trump of setting a trap for Soleimani that resulted in his assassination.

By Emma Fiala Published 1-6-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi revealed on January 5 that the late General Qassem Soleimani was in Baghdad on request from Iraq in order to respond to Saudi Arabia regarding de-escalation proposals, in what can be considered a peace mission rather than one aimed at planning attacks on Americans, as U.S. media and government sources have continued to repeat.

Abdul-Mahdi was scheduled to meet with Soleimani on Friday, the same day he and six others were killed at the Baghdad airport. Continue reading →

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‘This Is Alarming’: Iranian-Americans Reportedly Detained, Asked About Political Views at US Border

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“Deeply disturbed by reports that Iranian-Americans, including U.S. citizens, are being detained at the Canadian border with WA State,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-5-2020

“First they ban us. Then they starve our families via sanctions. Then they threaten our cultural heritage sites with bombs. Now they’re detaining us at the border,” said NIAC organizing director Donna Farvard. (Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Flickr/cc)

Reports that dozens of Iranian-Americans were detained at the U.S.-Canada border on Saturday and questioned about their “political views and allegiances” were met with alarm by lawmakers and rights groups, particularly given the soaring military tensions between Iran and the U.S. brought on by the Trump administration.

On Sunday, the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it is “assisting more than 60 Iranians and Iranian-Americans of all ages who were detained at length and questioned at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Wash.” Continue reading →

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Openly Threatening a War Crime, Trump Says US Prepared to Strike ’52 Iranian Sites’

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“Not only does Congress need to halt this march to war and atrocity, they need to get him out of office.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-4-2020

Photo: Notions Capital/Flickr/cc

Just 24 hours after claiming he isn’t seeking war with Iran, President Donald Trump Saturday night threatened that the U.S. is prepared to strike “52 Iranian sites” if Tehran retaliates for the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani.

“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets. “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level and important to Iran and  the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!” Continue reading →

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Corporate Media Turns to Warhawks, Including Former Bush Officials, to Beat Drums of War on Iran

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“Nothing’s been learned from 2003. Nothing.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-3-2020

Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer, senior adviser and White House press secretary under the George W. Bush administration, appeared on Fox News Thursday night in the hours after the Trump administration assassinated top Iranian military official Qasem Soleimani. (Photo: Fox News/screenshot)

Trump critics and peace advocates watched in horror Thursday night and Friday morning as some of the top architects of the Iraq War took to the corporate media to spin a narrative aimed at retroactively convincing Americans that the killing of Iranian military official Qasem Soleimani was essential to the safety of the U.S.—a replica of the run-up to the Iraq War nearly two decades ago.

Following reports that President Donald Trump ordered the airstrike that killed Soleimani, the major general of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, former George W. Bush administration officials were among those who media outlets called on to make a case for the act. Continue reading →

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‘Entire Species Are Being Wiped Out’: Ecologists Say Half a Billion Animals May Have Been Killed by Australia Wildfires

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“The fires have burned so hot and so fast that there has been significant mortality of animals in the trees, but there is such a big area now that is still on fire and still burning that we will probably never find the bodies.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-2-2020

Screenshot: ABC News

Ecologists at the University of Sydney are estimating that nearly half a billion animals have been killed in Australia’s unprecedented and catastrophic wildfires, which have sparked a continent-wide crisis and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in desperation.

News Corp Australia reported Wednesday that “there are real concerns entire species of plants and animals have been wiped out by bushfires following revelations almost 500 million animals have died since the crisis began.” Continue reading →

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Federal Judge Blocks NC’s Voter ID Law, Citing State’s ‘Sordid History’ of Racist Voter Suppression

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Judge Loretta Biggs said the law’s provision preventing voters from showing public assistance ID cards to vote was “particularly suspect.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-1-2020

Photo: Pinterest

Civil rights advocates on Tuesday praised a federal judge in North Carolina who struck down the state’s new voter ID law, saying in her ruling that there was likely “discriminatory intent” behind state Republicans’ attempt to force voters to present specific forms of identification at the polls.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs wrote in her ruling that the law, S.B. 824, was the latest example of North Carolina’s “sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression stretching back to the time of slavery, through the era of Jim Crow, and, crucially, continuing up to the present day.” Continue reading →

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