Politics & Globalization
International trade agreements force the U.S. and other participting countries to "harmonize" food and envrironmental safety standards to the lowest common denominator. Often these agreements are negotiated behind closed doors, shutting out Congress and the public, while granting corporations and trade associations a seat at the table. It's no surprise that these agreements give transnational corporations "special rights", allowing companies to challenge individual countries' environmental, worker and food safety laws and regulations.
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Rose and Ronnie· Joe volunteer© 2008
By now you have probably seen John Oliver’s comic take on the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on doctors’ prescribing habits. Media outlets from Mother Jones to the Wall Street Journal commented admiringly, and even the American Medical Association felt compelled to declare they were “committed to transparency” around drug company payments to doctors.
But satire will do very little to focus on the real problem if we’re distracted by the humor inherent in self-important doctors being bought off by a steak.
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The discovery of over 16,000 cracks in two Belgian reactor vessels may have global implications for nuclear safety, says the country's nuclear safety chief. He and independent experts are calling for the immediate checks of nuclear reactor vessels worldwide.
Thousands of cracks have been found in the steel reactor pressure vessels in nuclear reactors Doel 3 and Tihange 2 in Belgium - vessels contain highly radioactive nuclear fuel cores.
The failure of these components can cause catastrophic nuclear accidents with massive release of radiation.
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The drug czar's office has long functioned as a cheerleader for punitive drug policies. As someone who has been engaged in drug policy reform efforts most of my adult life, I can easily recall the forcefulness with which former drug czars like John Walters and Gen. Barry McCaffrey advocated in defense of zero tolerance policies without any regard to the scientific rationale for these policies or the destructive impact they have on individuals and communities.
However, under the Obama administration, the drug czar's office has made a notable shift in rhetoric and tone.
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On Monday, attorneys representing victims of the 9/11 attacks filed papers alleging substantial Saudi financial support for Al Qaeda and terrorism, including a plan to shoot down Air Force One. This Saudi support supposedly continued up to shortly before 9/11. Donors included leading members of the royal family.
These extraordinary allegations came in rare testimony from behind the walls of a Supermax prison by the so-called “20th hijacker,” Zacharias Moussaoui, a convicted Al Qaeda operative.
The New York Times took him
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Suppose that by enacting a particular law we’d increase the U.S.Gross Domestic Product. But almost all that growth would go to the richest 1percent.
The rest of us could buy some products cheaper than before. But those gains would be offset by losses of jobs and wages.
This is pretty much what “free trade” has brought us over the last two decades.
I used to believe in trade agreements. That was before the wages of most Americans stagnated and a relative few at the top captured just about all the economic gains.
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PITTSBURGH (AP) - Last fall, Ed Vescovi planned to restart a dormant biodiesel plant in Beaver County.
The market for biofuel was shaky. But a new owner, Weavertown Environmental, pledged to get the plant going after purchasing it in 2013. Vescovi was hoping to begin production before the end of last year.
Then, oil prices plummeted, pushing down the price of regular diesel.
“You wouldn’t get anybody to really buy (biodiesel) if you’re still selling it for $4 a gallon,” said Ed Vescovi, who Weavertown hired to run the plant.
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For nearly two decades, Big Pharma commercials have falsely told Americans that mental illness is associated with a chemical brain imbalance, but the truth is that mental illness and suicidality are associated with poverty, unemployment, and mass incarceration. And the truth is that American society has now become so especially oppressive for young people that an embarrassingly large number of American teenagers and young adults are suicidal and depressed.
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Within this century, global warming will bring about disruptive, decades-long droughts in the U.S. southwest and Great Plains, exceeding even the driest periods of the last millennium, according to new research released this month.
The study, "Unprecedented 21st-Century Drought Risk in the American Southwest and Central Plains," was published in the inaugural edition of the journal Science Advances, put out by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It supports previous predictions, but suggests that future droughts could be even worse than scientists have said in
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Marijuana has been legal in Colorado for medicinal purposes since 2009, and for recreational uses since last year. Many satisfied voters celebrate on the daily by toking up with a little less bud-induced paranoia. But the state’s pot businesses are feeling a new paranoia: namely, that financial institutions won’t do business with them.
As a result, most weed shops in Colorado conduct business entirely in cash. Which is why, the New York Times reported, a group of entrepreneurs is hoping to open Colorado’s first credit union specifically created to serve pot-selling businesses.
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One of the biggest lies we’ve been told about genetically modified organisms is that they’re the only solution to feed the ever growing world population. We all know this is a problem, one of the biggest our humanity has ever faced, so we gobble up any solution brought forth.
A compassionate heart is forced to choose between changing the system or finding a new way. I encourage you to look outside of the existing system, to thrive on this earth we need to create a new model that doesn’t revolve around exploiting it. In a world run by the almighty dollar, think of your dollar as a
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