Black Hole

George Monbiot

The fake grassroots campaign run by grouse shooters is just one instance of the way democracy is being bypassed. Story here.

Dear Ontario Government - Please Revisit Your Royalty Regime and Make De Beers Compensate Attawapiskat Fairly. PLEASE SIGN!

+SumOfUs

The De Beers diamond mine 90 km from Attawapiskat paid just $226 in royalties two years ago -- after extracting $2.5 billion in gems since 2007.

  Story here.

Indigenous Peoples of Northern Russia in the Fight Against Big Oil

Greenpeace

For generations, the Nenets and the Khanty people have bred reindeer, fished, picked berries and gathered. They travel hundreds of kilometers to come together and conduct sacred rituals at Lake Numto.  It's threatened by an oil company; oil operations would wreck local communities and spell disaster for its wildlife and ecosystems. Story here.

'Out of Control' Inequality: Global One Percent Owns Half of World's Wealth

Common Dreams

The Credit Suisse report shows worldwide inequality growing even faster than experts had predicted. Story here.

Document Shows Canadian Police View Environmentalists, Not Climate Change, as Real Security Threat

Common Dreams

RCMP document says 'small but violent-prone faction' of groups could pose 'a credible threat' to security. Story here.

The Fiery Cage and the Lynching Tree. Brutality is Never Far Away

Common Dreams

They burned him alive in an iron cage, and as he screamed and writhed in the agony of hell they made a sport of his death. Story here.

Peru's Indigenous People Protest Against Relicensing of Oil Concession

theguardian

Kichwa communities along an Amazon tributary, string cables to stop oil company boats from passing. They accuse government of turning a blind eye to contamination from oil operations in the forest. Story here.

Lies, Damn Lies and the "F" Word. (Video)

Related: "Free Trade: Path to Prosperity - or Back Road to Corporatism?"

Killing Ragheads for Jesus

OpEdNews - Chris Hedges

"American Sniper" lionizes the most despicable aspects of U.S. society -- the gun culture, the blind adoration of the military, the belief that we have an innate right as a "Christian" nation to exterminate the "lesser breeds" of the earth, a grotesque hyper-masculinity that banishes compassion and pity, a denial of inconvenient facts and historical truth, and a belittling of critical thinking and artistic expression. Many Americans, especially white Americans trapped in a stagnant economy and a dysfunctional political system, yearn for the supposed moral renewal and rigid, militarized control the movie venerates. These passions, if realized, will extinguish what is left of our now-anemic open society. Story here.

'Nauseating' Praise for Dead Saudi King Exposes Hypocrisy of West, Say Critics

CommonDreams

Western leaders' responses to King Abdullah's death serve as a reminder that Saudi Arabia, with its wealth and geopolitical influence, is a perpetual exception to the west's emphasis on human rights. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper praised him as a 'strong proponent of peace' in the Middle East. Story here.

Richest 1% to Have More Than Rest Of Humanity Combined

CommonDreams

New Oxfam report shows the scale of global inequality is "simply staggering." Story here.

Answering for America’s Madness

by Ann Jones 

TomDispatch

Americans who live abroad — more than six million of us worldwide (not counting those who work for the U.S. government) — often face hard questions about our country from people we live among. Europeans, Asians, and Africans ask us to explain everything that baffles them about the increasingly odd and troubling conduct of the United States.  Polite people, normally reluctant to risk offending a guest, complain that America’s trigger-happiness, cutthroat free-marketeering, and “exceptionality” have gone on for too long to be considered just an adolescent phase. Which means that we Americans abroad are regularly asked to account for the behavior of our rebranded “homeland,” now conspicuously in decline and increasingly out of step with the rest of the world.

A Cinematic Insight Into the Kind of Country Canada Embraces as a "Free Trade Amigo"

RELATED:  "Free Trade: Path to Prosperity - or Back Road to Corporatism?"

Epic Chevron Battle Lands in Canadian Court

AMAZON WATCH

Oil giant asks Canadian Supreme Court to rewrite laws in attempt to avoid seizure of assets by Ecuadorian rainforest communities. Story here.

16,000 Landless Workers Protest for Agrarian Reform in Brasilia

La Via Campesina

(Brazilia) The ministry esplanade was covered in red yesterday afternoon. Around 16 thousand landless workers participating in the 6th Landless Workers’ Movement National Congress made the 9km journey to the Plaza and back. Details here.