On December 8th 2016, the State of Washington's Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit against Monsanto for contaminating rivers, land, air, people and wildlife. 120 bodies of water in Washington were named as suffering from PCB contamination. This recklessness by Monsanto comes as no surprise and is a glimpse as what to expect if the Bayer Monsanto merger is completed.
Source: In These Times
The candidate who unapologetically called for the registration, “extreme vetting” and outright banning of Muslims has been elected president.
If one were to make a roster of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant all-stars, it would look a lot like Donald Trump’s appointees and inner circle: Kris Kobach, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, Frank Gaffney, Katie Gorka, Rudy Giuliani, Walid Phares.
“We know from U.S. history that lots of unimaginable things happen when people like Trump take power and when people are afraid,” says Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). “One of the most frustrating things is that there is a long list of things that are unknown. Will he follow through with his threats?”
Source: The Progressive Magazine
Among the many disturbing appointments by President-elect Donald Trump are the people charged with conducting U.S. policy in the Middle East. Trump’s ignorance of the region will make him even more dependent on his advisers than most Presidents. And that’s not good news.
Rex Tillerson,Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, as with other oil men who have taken leading positions dealing with U.S. Mideast policy, will presumably favor close relations with Arab despots, even if they are terrible on human rights. However, as CEO of ExxonMobil, he would likely oppose actions that could destabilize the region, and respect the views of State Department professionals who provide analysis and advice. Unfortunately, Tillerson may suffer the fate of William Rogers, Nixon’s first Secretary of State, a moderate on Middle Eastern affairs who was routinely bypassed and ignored by President Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. His businessman’s pragmatism may not carry much weight in the incoming administration, where foreign policy discussion will likely be dominated by ideologues.
Source: The Nation
It took a few tries before the taxi driver taking me to meet Lorena Cabnal found his way to her address. We drove up and down streets along the outskirts of Guatemala City, directions made confusing by the profusion of closed-off neighborhoods. Here, residents simply block streets and put up barriers to prevent cars from circulating, paying a guard to monitor who goes in and out. These aren’t the private gated communities of the rich, but rather survival strategies of the poor and working class in Central America’s largest metropolis.
How U.S. military engagement will proceed under the Trump administration remains to be seen. There is good reason to believe that Special Operations Command Africa will continue its border-busting missions across that continent. That, in turn, means that Africa is likely to remain crucial to America’s nameless global war on terror.
Every country has mixed feelings about its future, but some are more self-confident than others. At the present moment, there are very few countries in which self-doubt does not seem greater than self-confidence. This seems to me true of the United States, both western and eastern Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and most of Africa and Latin America. The biggest exception to this global worry and pessimism is China.
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