Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday 27 May 2013


 Daily Headlines
There was a massive demonstration at Independence Mall, in Philadelphia yesterday, protesting against Monsanto and calling for the labeling of GMO (genetically modified organisms) food. The protest, with speakers, was followed by a march to Love Park.

The bulk of the president's speech was devoted to justifying drone strikes. I was shocked when the President claimed that his administration did everything it could to capture suspects instead of killing them. That is just not true. Obama's reliance on drones is precisely because he did not want to be bothered with capturing suspects and bringing them to trial.
about 100 protesters assembled in an effort to prevent the establishment and opening of a drone command center at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Base. Photo essay

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection has shown itself incapable of meeting citizen demands for transparency, especially in oil and gas records. Is there a connection between DEP and Gov. Tom Corbett's claims that he wants to make Pennsylvania the Texas of the Natural gas Industry?
I was honored to be invited to speak at the March Against Monsanto in Philadelphia, on May 25, 2013. Here is what I said:
The extent of the fraud astonished me. The company manipulated, and outright invented, testing data to win approval from regulators throughout the world. It ended up selling largely untested and unstable drugs in more than 40 countries. This was not simply cutting corners or engaging in lax manufacturing practices. It was outright fraud. The company knowingly sold substandard drugs while working to deceive regulators.
Americans and westerners have been relentlessly bombarded with the message that We are the Noble and Innocent Victims and those Muslims are the Evil, Primitive, Savage Aggressors, so that's what many people are trained to believe, and view any challenge to that as an assault on their core tribalistic convictions.
The Jordanian government says that designating a safe corridor in the Syrian province of Daraa would help reduce the growing number of refugees pouring into Jordan. The area could provide shelter and protection for displaced Syrians and a base for the opposition. But some people say it could also be used to launch an international military intervention.
By David Swanson
Memorial Day THIS
My fellow Americans, I've been regularly shooting missiles into people's houses in several countries. I've wiped out families. I've killed thousands of people. Hundreds of them have been little children.
By Uri Avnery
The State of Whom?
As long as the world consists of nation-states, we shall have our own. And by the same logic, the Palestinian people will have one, too. Our state cannot be a nation-state of a non-existent nation. Israel must and will be the nation-state of the Israeli nation, belonging to all Israeli citizens living in Israel, Arabs and other non-Jews included. And to nobody else.
We humans have a way of acting as if the planet is our personal plaything, to lord over and do as we will with all other living creatures. It will eventually destroy us if we don't change our attitude.

Veterans For Peace Memorial Day Press Release should say that VFP, or at least many if not all VFP, first mourn the patriots of US invaded countries that fell fighting against overwhelming odds, and their civilian countrymen and children who fell in harms way of those US invading forces. Nothing less than this can dent the Memorial Day adulation for dying for what King called "atrocity wars to maintain predatory investments
By Suzana Megles
Horse Tripping in Oregon
It seems that there isn' even one day when I don't read about some kind of animal cruelty. This time it is about horse tripping. I wonder why we treat these beautiful animals so cruely. They certainly deserve better from us. There is no excuse for mistreating them as we do in other venues as well.
By Ed Ciaccio
Another Memorial Day. When Will We Ever Learn?
We need to stop deluding ourselves about Memorial Day and end wars.
I have always thought that dogs lived shorter lives than humans in general due to a higher metabolism. I stand corrected, as I think any dog lover will agree.

I garden like I pursue my calling: more the midwife than the mother of what's created.
The "mess" left by George Bush and Tony Blair in Iraq is a sectarian war, the bombs of 7/7 and now a man waving a bloody meat cleaver in Woolwich. Bush has retreated back into his Mickey Mouse "presidential library and museum" and Tony Blair into his jackdaw travels and his money. The catastrophe they ignited has brought violence and abuse into millions of homes.

By Bill McKibben
Keystone: What We Know
Analysts said earlier this spring that in the wake of the KXL battle it's likely every new pipeline will face a battle. Tarsands barons like the Koch brothers still have all the money, and they've still got the odds in their favor. But the smart money has lost a few IQ points.
We have indeed reached a crossroads. History may show that from this point forward, we will have left behind any semblance of constitutional government and entered into a militaristic state where all citizens are suspects and security trumps freedom.
By Dennis Kaiser
Six KXL Facts NBC Missed
In April NBC featured a program on the tar sands oil coming from Canada and their report was disputed on the website oilsandfactcheck.org , the owner of the site is "hidden" but one can only imagine it might be a "front" group of the Koch boys, as they stand to profit dearly (some estimate $3 Billion/per year in profits), from the Keystone XL Pipeline.
By William Bike
Schism between establishment and Tea Party Republicans to widen for 2016
The schism between the establishment Republicans and the Tea Party Republicans is a harbinger of the greater battle over the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
By Abdus-Sattar Ghazali
President Obama's speech on national security policy draws mixed reaction
President Obama's speech on national security has drawn mixed reaction.The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence panel, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, dismissed the speech as rewarding detainees at Guantanamo who are carrying out hunger strikes. Human rights groups said moving toward a smaller, more transparent drone program would be a positive step, but called on the president to do more.
The Silent Death of The American Left
Instead the Left seems powerless to coalesce, to translate critique into practice, to mobilize against wars, to resist incursions against basic civil liberties, powerless to confront rule by the bondholders and hedgefunders, unable to meaningfully obstruct the cutting edge of a parasitical economic system that glorifies greed while preying on the weakest and most destitute, and incapable of confronting the true legacy of the man they put their trust in
Organisers say that two million people marched in protest against seed giant Monsanto in hundreds of rallies across the US and in more than 50 other countries on Saturday. The US Food and Drug Administration does not require genetically modified foods to carry a label, but organic food companies and some consumer groups have intensified their push for labels, arguing that the modified seeds are floating from field to field and contaminating traditional crops. The Senate this week overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would allow states to require the labelling of genetically modified foods.

The three "scandals" that the White House is facing reveal a double standard that is overlooked by both congress and the media.
This piece deals with the potential consequences of the assault on unionism, and the resulting decline in union membership and wages. This was followed by a rise in profits. The rift between the profit recipients and wage earners has the potential of causing the emergence of political instability, which could split the country apart.
In January 2013, the staff at Cuentame received a phone call from 9-year-old Stephanie Pucheta and her mom Maria Ortiz. Their request seemed simple and straightforward: Would Cuentame help in preventing the deportation of Stephanie's dad, Julio Cesar Pucheta?
President Obama's counterterrorism speech failed to quiet his critics on the Left who want an immediate end to the "war on terror" and those on the Right who demand more Bush-Cheney policies. Obama charted a middle course of gradually reducing violence and asking for patience.

 Latest Articles
Leonard Peltier: Eagle in a tarnished cage
this article addresses the ongoing civil rights issue of Leonard Peltier's 37 years of incarceration for a crime that everyone knows he did not commit...when and how will justice be served?
In all the analysis of the Rios Montt trial and conviction for genocide, it is rarely even mentioned that the General was a born again Christian. He was directly and vocally supported not only by Ronald Reagan and Elliot Abrams, but by prominent clerics like Pat Robertson. Robertson's support of Montt was not casual. Nor was it ignorant of Montt's tactics. Will Robertson be the next target of U.S. drones?

The third and fourth sections of Russia's "South Stream" will be completed by 2018. However, supranational structures in Brussels and their representatives in Berlin still cannot set forth a predictable and unified position on this project of undisputed geopolitical importance.
Individuals who have achieved long lives often attribute their longevity to odd dietary habits that would probably not work for most of us. But there is one proven factor that trumps all others for longevity
If the Zionists realized their prominent role in causing the crisis, and made amends, then the course of history might dislodge the impediments to a just resolution. Because its continued mention drowns out discussion on other relevant resolutions, the two-state solution will not disappear until after the Palestinian community fades into history.

 Best News Links from the Web
Depending on your point of view, U.S. General Keith Alexander is either an Army four-star trying to stave off a cyber Pearl Harbor attack, or an overreaching spy chief who wants to eavesdrop on the private emails of every American. According to Alexander, the NSA has its hands full keeping tabs on potential terrorists, and does not have the bandwidth to read the 420 billion emails generated by Americans each day - even though some foreign governments were trying to do that.

Further shock occurred when I realized after the hope promised by the election of our first black president, that not one high ranking official was held accountable for this incredible breach of human dignity done in my name as a citizen of the United States. Then came the economic collapse and the near collapse of the world financial system. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes, billions in retirement savings disappeared, jobs were sacrificed and people became homeless and hungry; yet not one person in banks called, "too big to fail" have been prosecuted.
Xander University Professor Douglas Melton and postdoctoral fellow Peng Yi today announced that they have identified a hormone that induces reproduction of new insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, offering hope for a better way to treat type 2 diabetes. (04.25.2013)
Since the beginning of 2013, Israel has forbidden tourists from the United States and other countries to enter the territories under Palestinian Authority control without a military entry permit -- but it has not explained the application process to them. The spokesperson for the U.S. Consulate did not answer Haaretz's question as to whether Israel has informed the American authorities about the restriction and the obligation to sign, and did not explain the viewpoint of the U.S. Department of State on the issue.
The "economic therapy" imposed under IMF-World Bank jurisdiction is in large part responsible for triggering famine and social devastation in Ethiopia and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, wreaking the peasant economy and impoverishing millions of people.
Starting next month, the administration and its allies will conduct a nationwide campaign encouraging Americans to take advantage of new high-quality affordable insurance options. But those options will be unavailable to some of the neediest people in states like Texas, Florida, Kansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia, which are refusing to expand Medicaid.
After the story about Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie undergoing prophylactic double mastectomy broke about a week ago, doctors, especially oncologists, in Bangalore have been flooded with queries about the treatment, surgically removing one or both of a woman's breasts to check the spread of cancer. Some doctors have been asked by patients, a few of whom have been treated for breast cancer earlier, to consider performing mastectomies on them. But Dr Naik of HCG said, "They shouldn't fall prey to anxiety. It must also be kept in mind that 95% of women diagnosed with breast cancer do not have the offending genes._
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 03:39