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Urging Bernie Sanders to “Speak Out” on Foreign Policy, Petition Gathers More Than 8,000 Signers in First Day
“So far,” RootsAction says, “Bernie’s stump speech hardly mentions the huge military budget — and does not talk about how it is a massive roadblock for the scale of public investment in education, infrastructure and jobs that he is advocating.”
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Afghanistan’s “Most Formidable Warlord”
“The U.S., with its history of waging aerial attacks, using helicopters and weaponized drones, and engaging in constant aerial surveillance, along with its continued night raids and detention of civilians, effectively carries itself as the most formidable warlord in the region. Throughout June, according to the New York Times, ‘American drones and warplanes fired against militants in Afghanistan more than twice as much as they had in any previous month this year, according to military statistics.’ On July 19th, 2015, U.S. helicopters even fired on an Afghan army facility in the Logar province, killing seven troops and wounding five others.…
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Shooting of Sam DuBose: Are Cams on Police the Answer?
“Cams on cops are a good thing but that does not mean citizens need to stop recording because when the footage is in the hands of police, there is never a guarantee it will not be manipulated, destroyed or simply never released. There have been numerous examples, but one that sticks out is the recent video from Gardena, California that took two years to release, and dashcam footage from the killing of a teenager by Chicago police that still has not been released even though the city settled for $5 million.”
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70 Years After U.S. Nuked Japan: Calls for Nuclear Abolition
“I strongly feel that, in order to build society where my sons and grandchildren can live in peace, it is the duty of us survivors to share our experience with as many people as possible to help them identify with it. I sincerely hope that we are the last generation of people who are tormented on a daily basis by this kind of uneasiness. Nothing is as valuable as peace.”
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“Kayaktivists” Attempt to Stop Shell’s Damaged Ice Breaker from Departing for Arctic
“Scientists are sounding the alarm, telling us we need to keep most of our known fossil fuel reserves in the ground. This makes Shell’s extreme extraction adventure in the Arctic the definition of insanity. We’re talking about putting humanity, our entire planet’s livability at extreme risk. Portland is going to be taking a stand to say, ‘Shell No!’ We’re here fighting for humanity against the most wealthy and powerful industry in human history, but we’re not afraid, because everything we love and value in life is on the line.”
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Medicare’s 50 Years of Low Overhead vs. ACA’s Increasing Bureaucratic Bloat, “Merger Mania”
“Between 2014 and 2022, the ACA will add $273.6 billion in new administrative costs over and above what would have been expected had the law not been enacted. That’s equivalent to $1,375 per newly insured person per year, or 22.5 percent of total federal expenditures for the program…Were the 22.5 percent overhead figure associated with the ACA to drop to traditional Medicare’s level, the U.S. would save $249.3 billion by 2022. In health care, public insurance gives much more bang for each buck.”
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U.S. Approval of Turkey’s Bombing: Disaster in the Making?
“The U.S. had been helping the Kurdish group in Syria — the YPG. That group is basically another branch of the PKK, which Turkey just bombed in Iraq — a sovereign country — with an apparent U.S. green light. There certainly hasn’t been a condemnation by the U.S. government of the bombing.”
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U.S. Criticized for Killer Drones and Backing Kenyan and Ethiopian “Fragmentation of Somalia”
“The biggest myth of all is that Somalia does not need reconciliation and that an election or a selection would solve all its problems. … Somalia is yet to have a national and holistic reconciliation that is Somali-led and Somali-owned. The involvement of Kenya and Ethiopia and their officially joining AMISOM [African Union Mission to Somalia] to secure an indefinite presence in Somalia has exacerbated the situation. Frontline states could never be entrusted with peace building missions that involve their next door neighbors. They always have a conflict of interest. U.S. policy toward the entire region has been ineffective, if…
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U.S. Reopening Philippines Bases Met with Protests
Lidasan testified at the recently concluded International Peoples Tribunal on the Philippines: “Subic is not only a symbol of American control over the Philippines, it is symbol of abuses … and toxic waste that continues to destroy our environment.” The Tribunal, in which Filipino Congressman Neri Colmenares participated, accused the Philippine President Benigno Aquino III of “gross human rights abuses, including war crimes, and violations to the Filipino peoples’ right to self-determination and sovereignty.” Participants also charged the U.S. government with facilitating these abuses.
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On Eve of Obama Visit, Rich Nations Block Tax Reform at Ethiopia UN Meeting
“Arguing for the establishment of a UN tax body was the G77 and China group of 134 developing countries. It was a huge missed opportunity, an appalling failure and a great blow to the fight against poverty and injustice especially in developing countries. Blocking the establishment of a UN intergovernmental tax body by the U.S., UK and Japan has confirmed that the world will be stuck with a tax system that continues to work only in the interests of rich countries, rich individuals, and rich companies for the foreseeable future. The poorest and most marginalized people, in particular women, will…
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn