Source: asidriftthroughspace
Remembering America’s Soldiers…With Charts
From MJ senior editor and chart guru Dave Gilson:
How long should you spend commemorating Memorial Day? It can be accomplished in just 60 seconds if you follow a 2000 presidential memo from Bill Clinton that encouraged Americans “to pause for one minute at 3:00 p.m. (local time) on Memorial Day, to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by so many to provide freedom for all.” That comes out to 0.0000446 seconds of reflection for each of the approximately 1.3 million Americans who have died in uniform since the earliest days of the republic (according to Wikipedia).
If you have some more time on this, the day after Memorial Day, check out these charts about those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Source: Mother Jones
Random Acts of Chaos: 6 Ways the Rich Are Waging a Class War Against the American People
Denying the very existence of an entire class of citizens? That’s waging some very real warfare against them.
By Joshua Holland - AlterNet
There hasn’t been any organized, explicitly class-based violence in this country for generations, so what, exactly, does…
Source: alternet.org
“For the second year in a row, more American soldiers—both enlisted men and women and veterans—committed suicide than were killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
This has happened in every US war starting with Vietnam.
(via stfuconservatives)
Source: GOOD
Blue Fin Tuna War--Protection at Stake in Lybia
This is pretty crazy, let’s hope these poachers don’t get the best of this species.
A war is raging in Libya, but it’s not the one in the news.
Its battles are set in the dazzling Mediterranean offshore. Its warriors are foreign, their motives mostly mercenary.
Their casualties? Atlantic bluefin tuna. Although it’s not an officially endangered species — with help from the Obama administration — overfishing has reduced bluefin populations by 80 percent since 1970. A single bluefin typically sells for $75,000, and that’s what will happen to those caught off Libya, unless Captain Paul Watson, armed with international law and big serrated knives, wins this war.
Two ships from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a nonprofit Watson founded in 1978, nine years after cofounding Greenpeace, are now speeding toward Libyan seas. French, Spanish, German, Italian and Maltese poachers ply these waters with impunity, although the EU has outlawed all fishing here due to Libya’s civil war. It’s a NATO no-fly zone, which is good news to poachers: No inspectors. No surveillance.
Except, that is, for the Sea Shepherd’s 60-foot helicopter-mounted flagship Steve Irwin and its small, swift scout vessel.
“Any boat we find will be an illegal boat,” warns Watson, who says he liberated 800 tuna off Libya last year.
Bluefin are not killed upon being caught, but hauled live in huge underwater nets to shore stations “where they can be fattened up” like feedlot steers, Watson explains. Sea Shepherd divers slit those nets with knives.
It’s the latest in a long series of rip-roaring and highly controversial rescue missions involving blades and ballistics, fire and ice, stink-bombs and blood. Sea Shepherd vessels ram Japanese whalers, get rammed back, and rock wildly under water-cannon fire on Animal Planet’s Whale Wars and in Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist, a new documentary directed by SSCS veteran Peter Brown.
Sea Shepherd crews have scuttled — that is, sunk — at least 10 whaling vessels. Sea Shepherd ships ram whalers, foul their propellers, intercept their harpoons, block their slipways to prevent loading, and barrage them with bottles of foul-smelling butyric acid. In return, Sea Shepherd vessels have been rammed, burned, flash-grenaded, fired upon, and depth-charged — including by a Norwegian naval vessel.
Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist calls Sea Shepherd a “vigilante organization,” its members “a band of pirates” and “the world’s most wanted environmental heroes.” Watson’s many honors include the Amazon Peace Prize and inclusion among the Guardian’s “50 People Who Could Save the Planet.” He has been beaten, suffocated, immersed in icy seas, and even shot in the chest by opponents, he says. He’s been arrested in many countries and charged with many crimes, including attempted murder, but never convicted.
“We don’t do anything illegal. We target illegal operations. Everybody’s so concerned about private property. They think private property is sacred.” But if that private property is being used to flout conservation codes, all deals are apparently off.
“We’re an interventionist organization fighting against poaching on the high seas.”
Head on over to alternet.org for the rest of the story
Source: envirolutionary
China warns US against war with Pakistan
China has officially put the United States on notice that Washington’s planned attack on Pakistan will be interpreted as an act of aggression against Beijing. This blunt warning represents the first known strategic ultimatum received by the United States in half a century, going back to Soviet warnings during the Berlin crisis of 1958-1961, and indicates the grave danger of general war growing out of the US-Pakistan confrontation.
“Any Attack on Pakistan Would be Construed as an Attack on China”
via @beautifulsoulo
Source: garymelvin
Congress To Vote On Declaration of Worldwide Perpetual War; No Borders, No Clear Enemies
‘The United States Congress is set to vote on legislation that authorizes the official start of World War 3, a worldwide war against an invisible enemy that can reside in any country the U.S. Government chooses.
The legislation authorizes the President of the United States to take unilateral military action against all nations, organizations, and persons — both domestically and abroad — who are alleged to be currently,(or in the past) engaged in hostilities, or who have provided aid in support of hostilities against the United States or any of its coalition allies.
The legislation removes the requirement of Congressional approval for the use of military force and instead gives the President totalitarian dictatorial authority to engage in any and all military actions for an indefinite period of time.
It even authorizes the President the authority to launch attacks against American citizens inside the United States with no Congressional oversight whatsoever.’
(via garymelvin)
Source: activistpost.com
“Germans in the Woods” a StoryCorps animation
If you’re not watching StoryCorps’ videos, a project dedicated to documenting the real life stories of Americans from all walks of life, then you are missing out. Don’t worry, they are not all as dark as this one, but they all share a unique and poignant viewpoint on life.
Source: create-love
Joe Rogan: The American War Machine
