2021-01-23: News Headlines

Sarah Volpenhein (2021-01-22). Wisconsin Nursing Home Staff Laid Off for Declining COVID-19 Vaccine. anti-empire.com Employees at a Janesville nursing home risk losing their job if they do not take the COVID-19 vaccine, a policy that has caused outrage among many staff members. | Officials at Rock Haven, a Rock County-owned facility, issued a memo in December telling employees that the vaccine was "a requirement for all staff" and that employees who failed to get the vaccine would be laid off. A copy of the memo was obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through an open records request. | According to the memo, a laid-off employee will not be eligible to return to work until they complete the two-dose vaccine regimen. | Roc…

Staff (2021-01-22). Joe Biden Canceled Keystone XL. Indigenous Leaders Demand the Same for the Dakota Access Pipeline. democracynow.org After President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, pressure is growing from Indigenous leaders and environmental groups for the new administration to do the same with the Dakota Access pipeline, the controversial project that sparked the historic Standing Rock uprising in 2016. "The pipeline is illegal," says Jodi Archambault, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and former special assistant to President Barack Obama on Native American affairs. "The best thing that he can do is drop the appeals to this and stop the oil from flowing now." We als…

Norman Lewis (2021-01-22). 2020 Has Been the Year of the Living Dead. The Tyranny of Expertise Has Anaesthetised Society. anti-empire.com Death was unavoidable in 2020. The grim statistical body-count dominated the media, including social media, day and night. Death overshadowed life. | That death generated by the The fact that death tolls rather than recovery rates have dominated t…

The Babylon Bee (2021-01-22). Nation's Liberals Point Out Conservatives Could Always Leave Earth, Make Free Society on Some Other Planet. anti-empire.com After a week in which four corporations demonstrated their ability to crush all dissenting voices and silence the most powerful human on the planet, liberals of the nation remain unsure why conservatives seem so worried. | "We've heard this song and dance before," said local liberal Janet Bobinski. "They whine and whine about us systematically eliminating their voices and ruining their livelihoods, blah blah blah. This whole time, they have always been free to create their own little conservative media, university, whatever they want – just so long as it's not on this planet. There's no room on Earth for free spe…

MEE staff (2021-01-22). UN expert condemns Egypt's detention of journalists, human rights defenders. middleeasteye.net UN expert condemns Egypt's detention of journalists, human rights defenders | Special rapporteur calls on authorities to stop silencing dissent and shrinking civic space in country | Fri, 01/22/2021 – 21: 23 | Egypt has embarked on brutal crackdown on dissent since 2013, jailing more than 60,000 activists (AFP) | A UN rights expert condemned Egypt for targeting journalists, human rights defenders and their fam…

Len Yannielli (2021-01-22). A Love/Hate Tango — Science and Ruling Classes. peoplesworld.org and in particular, to its technology side. | What was Ben's adult "friend" really pushing? Was it a message to get into science, chemistry, and technology to help humanity? No again. His unwanted advisor with that heavy arm had a clear message — get into financialization boy. He meant stocks and other investments to ride a booming war economy stimulated by the Cold War. Plastics — read fossil fuels —…

_____ (2021-01-22). Local Activists Call Attention To Housing Rights. popularresistance.org Graham, North Carolina – Amy Cooper said she and a handful of other activists came together at Court Square in Graham on Wednesday for an event touting tenants' rights while decrying evictions. | "A lot of landlords take advantage of people not knowing their rights, so one of the things we want to do is push tenants' rights so people know what they can and can't do as a tenant," Cooper said. | Cooper's thoughts echo criticism from housing advocates across the country. Last Wednesday, housing rights advocates held simultaneous nationwide demonstrations in the hopes of sparking a paradigm shift away from the curren…

Rev. John Dear (2021-01-22). 'I Never Thought I'd Live to See This Day': The Beginning of the End for Nuclear Weapons. commondreams.org Few antiwar activists ever thought they'd see nuclear weapons banned, but thanks to dedicated organizing, a historic UN treaty goes into effect today. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

commondreams (2021-01-22). MPower Action Co-Founder Linda Sarsour Releases Statement on Andrew Yang's Comments on BDS. commondreams.org ______________________________…

commondreams (2021-01-22). Sunrise Movement Activists Show Up Across the Country in a Show of Force: They Demand No Compromise, No Excuses. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Pepe Escobar (2021-01-22). The Making of US Empire at the Dawning of Its End. globalresearch.ca This article was originally published on As the Exceptional Empire gets ready to brave a destructive — and self-destructive — new cycle, with dire, unforeseen consequences bound to reverberate across the world, now more than ever it …

Martha Grevatt (2021-01-21). Flint water scandal charges: Slap on the wrist for ex-governor. workers.org Activists demand justice for Flint, 2016. In April 2014 the city of Flint, Mich., made the fatal decision to switch its water supply from Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the heavily contaminated Flint River. Flint residents have waited almost seven years for the responsible parties — in particular former . . . |

Field Empty (2021-01-21). People Are Flocking to South Dakota. anti-empire.com South Dakota is dealing with A survey by United Van Lines this month

Dave DeCamp (2021-01-21). Over 18,000 Pentagon Contractors Remain in Afghanistan. anti-empire.com While US troop numbers in Afghanistan are down to 2,500, a deep US presence According to a report released by the US military this week, there are over 18,000 contractors in Afghanistan. The numbers mean that the Pentagon employs about seven contractors for each US service member in Afghanistan. | At the height of President Obama's Afghanistan surge, there was about one contractor for each US soldier. As troop numbers decreased, the Pentagon increased reliance on contractors. | About 4,700 of the current contra…

Suzanne Downing (2021-01-21). Class Warfare: Pupils in Anchorage Will Kneel in Front of Their Chairs, No Recess. anti-empire.com Some of the youngest students returning to classes today in Anchorage will enter a dystopian classroom world, where they must kneel for hours on end on the floor while masked, and have no recess or art or physical expression. | Pre-K—2, K—6, self-contained special needs programs, and the Whaley School are returning to in-person learning at Anchorage School District classes on Tuesday, Jan. 19. | Parents who viewed the classroom their students will be returning to expressed shock: All desks have been removed. Students will kneel on gardening pads and use chairs as their desks for 5.5 hours. | [Parents,…

Ethan Yang (2021-01-21). Study: Lockdowns Caused 15 Thousand Deaths of Despair Among US Men Aged 15 to 55. anti-empire.com It should be common knowledge by now that younger people are

Schiff Gold (2021-01-21). European Central Bank Takes Bond Market Manipulation to the Next Level. anti-empire.com Peter Schiff According to

IMEMC & Agencies (2021-01-21). Major Victory for BDS Movement in Spanish Court Ruling. imemc.org The Electronic Intifada Activists in Spain are celebrating a big legal win against Israel lobby efforts to punish support for Palestinian rights. Their victory also exposes a lie that European Union officials are spreading to discredit BDS — the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. On 11 January a court in Valencia dismissed a criminal complaint …

Rebecca Gordon (2021-01-21). The US Empire Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes. thenation.com The US Empire Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes…

Pip Hinman (2021-01-21). Medevac refugees released from torture centres, activists vow to continue the campaign. greenleft.org.au The release of refugees from detention has given activists hope that there will be a change in policy. But, as Chloe DS writes, they won't stop organising until all refugees are released from onshore and offshore prisons and given permanent protection.

Michael Day (2021-01-20). Italian Doctors Sanctioned for Raising Questions About COVID Vaccine. anti-empire.com An Italian doctors association has warned or disciplined 10 medics for promoting anti-vaccination propaganda and is considering sanctions against three others who are accused of downplaying the gravity of covid-19. | This comes amid growing concern that public scepticism over covid-19 vaccines could undermine Europe's fight against the coronavirus pandemic. | Antonio Magi, president of the Ordine dei Medici di Roma (Rome Doctors Guild), said that inquiries into 10 medics accused of unwarranted criticism of vaccinations had been completed, with punishments ranging from warnings to two month suspensions. The other…

Dave DeCamp (2021-01-20). Trump Administration Designates Cuba a State Sponsor of Terrorism. anti-empire.com After weeks of rumors, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the Trump administration is Cuba was first designated as a state sponsor of terror by the Reagan administration in 1982. This move was reversed in 2015 by President Obama, who took other steps to normalize with Havana, including lifting travel res…

The Guardian (2021-01-20). Parler Back Online Thanks to Servers in Russia. anti-empire.com Parler, the social network popular with The network vanished from the internet after it was

Taylor Ikehara (2021-01-20). AFRICOM says they left Somalia, San Diego activists tell the truth. liberationnews.org On Jan. 16, ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation held a speak-out and banner drop at Teralta Park in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego to demand a withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Somalia and an end to AFRICOM. City Heights is …

Juan Cole (2021-01-20). An Admiring Review of Cole, 'Muhammad: Prophet of Peace,' in Algeria's Echorouq. juancole.com The Algerian newspaper Echorouq [al-Shuruq] has published a positive review of the Arabic translation of my book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires Available at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor And Hachette And Barnes and Noble And Amazon Juan says: In turbulent era, I am most gratified that Muslim readers on the …

Brett Wilkins, staff writer (2021-01-20). 'Pure Sadism': Biden Blasted for Continuing Trump's Recognition of Guaid√≥ Coup Regime and Deadly Sanctions in Venezuela. commondreams.org "How about a new Good Neighbor Policy on non-interference?" asked CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

John Whitehead (2021-01-20). The Deep State's Stealthy, Subversive, Silent Coup to Ensure Nothing Changes. mintpressnews.com Donald Trump swore to drain the swamp in Washington DC, instead, he paved the way for lobbyists, corporations, and the military industrial complex. Here's why Joe Biden will be no different.

Colin Todhunter (2021-01-20). Indian Farmers on the Frontline Against Global Capitalism. counterpunch.org In a short video on the empirediaries.com YouTube channel, a protesting farmer camped near Delhi says that during lockdown and times of crisis farmers are treated like "gods", but when they ask for their rights, they are smeared and labelled as "terrorists". He, along with thousands of other farmers, are mobilising against three important pieces of farm legislation that