Corporate Crime, Malfeasance, and Fraud. Wealth Inequality/Class. Corportization/Privatization of Education. Surveillance/Prison State. Trans-Pacific Partnership. Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves' Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.
This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022. According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.
The investigation also reveals: • Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project. F The Tories Freestyle. Criminalized poor are swelling Britain's slave labor private prisons. Click!
Another notch on the ratchet turning the UK from civilization to fascism this week as Britain's Justice minister, Chris Grayling, announced ten year jail sentences for those who claim too much state benefit. The latest statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that £1.3bn was fraudulently claimed in 2012/13. Tax Justice Network figures estimating tax fraud by the super-rich at £60bn, which is around 50 times greater, seem to have 'evaded' Grayling; as has the estimated five times greater figure of £10bn in unclaimed benefits. The sad fact is simply that tyrants are running the show and rather than pay their fair share they intend to squeeze the poor until the pips squeak.
Most government legal aid has also been cut off this year while destitute squatters who manage to find a derelict or empty home to spend the night have also been turned into criminals for the first time in British history. At 15% Britain has more private prisons than anywhere else in Europe. [ Episode #34 // Why America Failed ] "Losing" the World: American Decline in Perspective, Part 1. Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated -- Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example.
Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead. Right now, in fact. At the moment, we are failing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's decision to launch the most destructive and murderous act of aggression of the post-World War II period: the invasion of South Vietnam, later all of Indochina, leaving millions dead and four countries devastated, with casualties still mounting from the long-term effects of drenching South Vietnam with some of the most lethal carcinogens known, undertaken to destroy ground cover and food crops. The prime target was South Vietnam. There are important lessons in all this for today, even apart from another reminder that only the weak and defeated are called to account for their crimes. The Iraq war is an instructive case. Gauging American Decline.
Exceptionally Mediocre on a Global Scale. America the Beautiful!
America the Greatest! We’re No. 1, right? (Image: Leo Reynolds/Flickr)Absolutely, naturally, and indisputably. At least that’s the theocratic pronouncement of far-right-wing nativists who preach the dogma of American “exceptionalism.” They use the concept as a not-to-be-questioned litmus test of our patriotism. Never mind that on many crucial measures of national achievements, our Good Ol’ U.S. of A has slipped in recent years. For example, the U.S. rate of educational improvement — a bedrock indicator of a nation’s future ability to thrive — has tumbled to 25th place among rich and newly developing nations. John Nichols and Robert McChesney: Progressives Ask for Too Little, Not Too Much in Age of Plutocratic Rule. (Image: Nation Books)Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) writes of the new book Dollarocracy, by John Nichols and Robert McChesney: With this book, John Nichols and Bob McChesney invite Americans to examine the challenges facing America in new ways, and to fully recognize the threat that the combination of big money and big media poses to the promise of self-government. They paint a daunting picture, rich in detail based on intense reporting and groundbreaking research. RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism.
Democracy in America David Harvey. Living in the End Times According to Slavoj Zizek. John Perkins on Globalization. Crisis of Humanity: Global Capitalism Breeds 21st Century Fascism. The new propaganda is liberal. The new slavery is digital. CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran. Nick Turse, AFRICOM's Gigantic "Small Footprint" Slavoj Zizek and politicians on Middle East uprisings (eng sub), Part 1 of 13. Dirtywars on "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" - Jeremy Scahill, Amy Goodman and Noam Chomsky in Discussion.