Adventures of a Gonzo Journalist
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
For many in North America, the notion of a community without access to clean water seems like something that would only exist in a far-off, undeveloped country. Yet impoverished indigenous communities throughout the continent don’t have clean water or, in some cases, any running water at all.
For members of the Navajo Nation, and some of Canada’s First Nations tribes, the struggle to get clean water is a part of daily life.
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
In the minds of many Americans, Canada represents a more liberal vision of a democratic society — a diverse society that hadn’t followed the United States down the path toward becoming a post-9/11 police state. But it may be following post-9/11 trends more closely than previously thought.
Indeed, American and Canadian leaders recently met to discuss deepening the integration between our countries’ respective militaries, and anti-terrorism legislation passed this year shows that Canada was taking notes from its neighbor to the south on how to use fear to justify a loss of freedoms.
C-51, the controversial anti-terrorism bill, became law in Canada in June, despite vocal opposition from civil liberties activists. It criminalizes speech which encourages terrorism, and also makes it a criminal offense to share terrorist propaganda. It also expands the government’s power to scrub information it deems to be propaganda from the Internet.
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
With presidential candidates hoping to court young voters, it’s not surprising that the student debt crisis and the rising cost of a college education have become key campaign issues. While Hillary Clinton has promised to make college more affordable, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Dr. Jill Stein want to make it accessible to everyone.
As of the end of June, the Federal Reserve estimated there were about $1.19 trillion dollars worth of seriously delinquent education loans, according to USA Today, with many analysts predicting that this debt crisis could cause another serious financial collapse. A recent study by the Brookings Institution suggested predatory behavior by for-profit colleges created a substantial portion of this debt, as Shadowproof’s Dan Wright reported earlier this month.
Heather Gautney, a professor of sociology at Fordham University, openly praised Clinton’s ideas in an analysis of Sanders and Clinton’s competing college plans published in August on Sanders’ official campaign website. “[T]he Clinton plan doesn’t go far enough,” Gautney argued, warning that it would still place too much burden on struggling families and students: “It fails to place the issue of college affordability in the proper context: as a societal, rather than an individual, problem.”
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
A website that profiles activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement with the goal of ruining their careers is coming under fire, with some comparing it to McCarthyism.
The Canary Mission features profiles of dozens of activists, students, college professors and journalists which the site’s authors accuse of anti-Semitism and even having ties to terrorism. Among the alphabetical listings on the site is a profile of this journalist, along with over 100 others.
The organization’s goals are clear: It seeks to ruin the careers or future job prospects of its targets, especially students associated with the growth of BDS on American college campuses. “By shining a light on hate group members and their activities, the public will become better informed about those involved in hate movements in their communities,” the Canary Mission explains on its About page. A video on the site warns: “It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees.”
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
A growing number of people worldwide support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to bring an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, and it’s already forced major corporations to change their practices.
Earlier this month, MintPress News offered six grocery products to avoid to support BDS, but companies whose products support Zionist war crimes aren’t limited to grocery store shelves.
Here are five products and companies to avoid in support of a free Palestine, starting with one of the most well-known product boycotts:
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
Despite ample evidence pointing to the therapeutic, non-addictive qualities of marijuana, the new head of the Drug Enforcement Agency wants to keep it legally classified alongside heroin and other highly addictive substances.
“If we come up with a medical use for it, that would be wonderful. But we haven’t,” declared Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, in a Sept. 5 interview with Fox News.
This surprising denial of medical science came in response to a question posed by James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for the network. He asked Rosenberg whether it was time to remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, considering two of the past three presidents of the United States have admitted to using the substance recreationally.
