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Tag: History

Native Americans Have ‘Always Known’: Science Proves Genetic Inheritance Of Trauma

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Many have suspected through the years that extreme stress and trauma leave their mark not just on their victims, but on their descendants as well. Now science is catching up to these beliefs through the developing field of epigenetics.

Epigenetics is the study of how environmental factors can change the expression of a person’s DNA, often in ways which are inheritable by the next generation. This science looks at not just which genes are in a person’s DNA — the genetic “instruction manual” — but also how cells choose to read and interpret that instruction manual throughout a lifetime of development.

Earlier this month, Biological Psychiatry published a new study called “Holocaust exposure induced intergenerational effects on FKBP5 methylation,” in which the authors studied 32 Holocaust survivors and their adult children. All of the older generation of subjects had either been interned in concentration camps or otherwise intimately witnessed the torture and horror of Nazi genocide.

The Forgotten 5 Million Non-Jewish Victims Of The Holocaust

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

According to most figures, about 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis and their supporters in the Holocaust, one of the most disturbing examples of genocide in human history. But the Nazis took around 11 million lives, leaving another 5 million dead that are all too often overlooked or forgotten when in discussions of this grim period of history.

Terese Pencak Schwartz is a Polish-American Jew, born of two Holocaust survivors who were not Jewish. Because she identified strongly with her family history, Schwartz realized there was a crucial piece missing from the history of that time period. “The impression I got was that people were not aware of any other Holocaust victims except Jews,” she wrote on Remember.org in 1997. “This concerned me greatly.”

Schwartz acknowledged that the Nazis sought the total destruction of the Jews, “a significant fact that I do not repudiate, nor want to diminish in any way,” then continued:

10 Years Later, Israel Under Pressure From Successful Boycott Movement

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Ten years after Palestinian civil society put out the original call to action, the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement has become a global force. With Israel and its supporters now spending millions to prop up the country’s public image, it’s hard to deny the changes these activists have created through global solidarity.

First published July 2005, the original BDS letter was signed by over 170 global human rights organizations as well as unions, political parties and other associations based in Palestine. A year after Israel continued building its Gaza wall, despite the objections of the United Nations and international courts, and with illegal Jerusalem settlements similarly continuing to expand, there seemed no other choice than to target Israel’s finances directly. The movement is modeled after similar, successful efforts to boycott supporters of South Africa’s racist apartheid regime, and the BDS movement counts high profile fighters of apartheid like Desmond Tutu among its supporters.

Below are five of the biggest achievements of the last 10 years:

John McCain And Endless War: Best Friends Forever

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Modern American politicians are often criticized for their willingness to bow to popular opinion, changing their professed beliefs from moment to moment based on what they think the public wants to hear. Yet one senator rises above all that through his unabashed love of war — a stance that’s remained consistent regardless of what party sits in the White House and how many civilian lives could hang in the balance.

That senator is John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, who currently leads the Senate Armed Services Committee. In February, as the White House asked for authorization to use military force against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), McCain appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in support of the idea that there should be no limits on the president’s ability to make war.

“I think we should not restrain the president of the United States,” he said on the show, explaining that to do so would be “unconstitutional and frankly leads to 535 commander-in-chiefs.”

McCain has ensured U.S. support for all sides of the conflict in the Middle East. In 2012, he joined South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in calling on America to arm the Syrian rebels, many of whom later joined ISIS. Years after helping arm the Syrian rebels, he admitted to Sean Hannity that he’d met ISIS and knew them “intimately.”

Nevada Governor OKs Industrial Hemp Research As US Eases Cannabis Restrictions

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Last week, Nevada became the latest state to pass a bill supporting the cultivation of industrial hemp, a valuable cash crop that became illegal thanks to the American war on drugs.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Tick Segerblom, unanimously passed both chambers of the Nevada Legislature before reaching the governor’s desk.

“The bill will allow colleges, universities, and the state Department of Agriculture to [cultivate] industrial hemp for research purposes under an agricultural pilot program,” Thomas H. Clarke writes in The Daily Chronic, a website dedicated to cannabis law reform.

Federal regulations had banned domestic hemp cultivation until an amendment to the 2014 Farm Bill allowed limited research into the crop. Under the new regulations, large-scale cultivation is still illegal but research by state agricultural boards and universities is now allowed. The move was hailed as a limited victory by advocates for cannabis law reform.

US Government Releases Bin Laden Docs But Won’t Release His Porn

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The U.S. government on Wednesday released a trove of documents taken from Osama bin Laden, the slain leader of al-Qaida. The documents provide new insight into the inner workings of the terrorist movement, but a purported collection of pornographic materials is being kept in the dark.

The cache contains over 100 documents that U.S. intelligence agencies said were found during the raid on Pakistan that killed bin Laden in 2011. The documents were vetted by multiple agencies prior to their release and represent only a portion of the total documents recovered, which are still under review.

A spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Guardian that the documents were released because of “increasing public demand,” and denied any link between the release and a recent controversial report by renowned independent journalist Seymour Hersh that questions the official narrative of bin Laden’s capture and killing.