TV: North America will not be safe from Fukushima radiation if plant keeps leaking

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TV: North America will not be safe from Fukushima radiation if plant keeps leaking — Animals “suddenly died” on west coast right after 2011 disaster… Whole world noticed this strange phenomenon — “Fatally high” levels of radioactive material has entered ocean… serious pollution is ongoing (VIDEO) Posted: 28 Apr 2016 08:45 AM PDT

“Dead animals litter California beaches… Alarming phenomenon”

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“Dead animals litter California beaches… Alarming phenomenon” — “Graveyard of washed-up sea life” — “Influx of malnourished sea creatures” — Experts: We’re really starting to worry… The animals are starving to death… Covered in sores… Stunted growth… Weak immune systems (VIDEOS) Posted: 25 Apr 2016 04:26 AM PDT

Over 700 people sue gov’t over new security laws

NATIONAL APR. 27, 2016 – 07:03AM JST ( 13 )

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TOKYO —

More than 500 people in Tokyo and about 200 in Fukushima Prefecture began legal action against the Japanese government Tuesday, arguing that security laws brought in by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe violate the country’s Constitution.

One of the lawsuits filed with the Tokyo District Court seeks to block the deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces personnel under the laws, while the other calls for 100,000 yen in damages for each of the plaintiffs.

The suits are the first of several planned nationwide by a group of legal experts and others against the legislation expanding the SDF’s role overseas, which came into force last month after being enacted in the Diet in September last year.

Also Tuesday, a roughly 200-strong group sought state compensation over the security laws at the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima District Court.

The legislation, allowing Japan to use force to defend the United States and other allies if they came under attack, even if Japan itself is not attacked, followed the Abe Cabinet’s reinterpretation of the Constitution in July 2014 as allowing the country to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

Several individuals have brought legal action against the state, seeking the scrapping of the laws or their declaration as unconstitutional, but have seen their cases dismissed before reaching deliberation.

“This time the suits are in respect of specific harm, so they shouldn’t be able to be rejected,” Yozo Tamura, a lawyer and former Nagoya High Court judge, told a press conference after filing the Tokyo suits on behalf of the group.

Plaintiff Yoko Shida, a law professor at Tokyo’s Musashino Art University, said she is genuinely harmed by the laws.

“Figuring out how to teach this interpretation of the Constitution, which is so different from those that preceded it, is causing confusion in the classroom,” Shida said.

Plaintiffs in the Tokyo suit argue that the exercise of the right to collective self-defense violates Article 9 of the Constitution and has the potential to cause irreparable damage.

Article 9 states Japan forever renounces war and will not maintain armed forces as means of settling international disputes.

The group is also seeking monetary damages for the infringement of the plaintiffs’ right to live in peace, claiming that the potential for SDF deployments to lead to civilians being caught up in war or terror attacks is causing them to live in fear.

According to the group, survivors of World War II air raids on Japan and former inmates of labor camps in Siberia are among the plaintiffs.

The group is planning to file similar cases in more than 10 other district courts across the country, including in Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Opposition parties, including the Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party, have made it their goal to collectively campaign for the scrapping of the laws in the lead-up to the House of Councillors election this summer.

© KYODO

Nuclear Expert: We’ve detected a lot of cases “gargantuanism” in Fukushima

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— Reporter: “Gigantic beet… it’s almost as big as the upper part of man trying to hold it” — “They’re seeing more and more of this… people are reporting more and more of these abnormalities” (PHOTOS & VIDEO) Posted: 22 Apr 2016 07:09 AM PDT

gun reform (add your name)

I squeezed my body and got ready to be shot. That’s what I did 17 years ago, as I hid, terrified, under a rusty truck. My friend, Philip, and I were ambushed by gunfire after a night out in Atlanta. I was shot in the back, but the pain of the bullet didn’t compare to the news I discovered after being taken to the hospital. Philip didn’t survive his wounds. The night we were shot, four days after the massacre at Columbine, we talked about the victims of that tragedy and their families. Not able to understand how something like that could happen. Not knowing that we would soon be thrust into an ever growing community of gun violence victims and survivors. Help me honor Philip, and all the victims and survivors of gun violence, by adding your name with mine to demand Congress act on meaningful gun reform. It’s possible Philip’s killer will be released from prison in the next few years. And thanks to the loopholes in our laws, if he gets out, he’ll still be able to buy a gun at a gun show or online, in most states, no questions asked. This man, who killed my friend, could do it again to someone else. Adding more friends and families into the community of victims. All thanks to the inaction of Congress. Dangerous people should not be able to skirt a background check. Demand Congress pass common sense gun legislation. Do it for Philip. Thank you, Kim Russell Gun Violence Prevention Advocate and Survivor

New York voting fiasco just the warm-up for the November game

by Greg Palast Buckle up, America.  The voting demolition derby that was the New York primary on Tuesday was merely the crash test for the coming voting wreckage in November:  a carefully plannedpile up. First, live from New York…. Francesca Rheannon, whom you may know as the host of Writers’ Voice radio, did the civic thing by volunteering to work the polls in a town east of New York City. “I just got off my 17 hour shift as an election official.  In my election district, out of 166 Democratic voters, 39 were forced to file affidavit ballots.  The last [election] I worked in, exactly ONE voter needed an affidavit ballot.” That’s nearly one of four voters. Why?  Their names had gone missing from the voter rolls. An affidavit ballot (called a “provisional” ballot in most other states) is a kind of placebo ballot.  You get to pretend to vote – but the chance it will actually be counted is …well, good luck.  If your name is wrongly removed, kiss your vote – affidavit or not—goodbye. Rheannon’s experience was hardly unique.  In Brooklyn alone, over 125,000 names were quietly scrubbed from the voter rolls in the five months leading up to the primary. To put it in prospective, the number of voters purged equals about half of the number who got to vote.  Scott Stringer, the New York City Comptroller will now audit the Elections Board–now that the election is over.  Hey thanks, Scott. Neal Rosenstein, the lead voting rights attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group, which plans legal action, notes that part of the problem is that partisan hacks sit on the Elections board in New York—hacks from both parties. Brooklyn is under the control of the Kings County Democratic Party, one of the last of the big city machines.  Would they attack their opponents’ voter registrations?  I don’t have to guess:  in my wasted younger days, I was in the Brooklyn County elections office with the hacks where we were assigned by the Party to challenge voters’ signatures en masse.  (I wouldn’t and nearly lost my state job.) Am I saying the machine “fixed” the election for Hillary Clinton?  Without further investigation, it would be irresponsible for me to pronounce judgment.  Some of the purged may have moved, some have died.  But those who waited in line only to fill out affidavit ballots are unlikely to be deceased. If the Machine had been aware of the mass purge underway, would they have stopped it?  As they say in Brooklyn, Fahgeddabouddit. But whether party hacks shoplifted New York or not, that’s small potatoes. Scrubbing voter rolls is not a “New York value.” It’s a nationwide epidemic, a disease eating away at the heart of our democracy. Voting officials learned a lesson from Katherine Harris the Florida Secretary of State who purged Black voters in 2000.  They learned how to repeat the purge, expand it and carefully hide it. I’ve been traveling the nation, from Ohio to Georgia to Arizona and back—and finding the voter-roll purging machinery running at full speed. Nationwide, state voting chiefs are, from my long experience, the most violently partisan officials you’ll ever encounter. From the data provided by the US Elections Assistance Commission, we can calculate that no less than 491,952 voters were wrongly removed from the rolls in 2008, the last reviewed Presidential election in addition 2,383,587 voters filled out registration forms that were simply never added to voter rolls – and 767,023 provisional and affidavit ballots were not counted. And it’s not just anyone’s ballot. I’ll never forget that, at one of my recent talks on vote suppression, I asked how many in the audience had ever been shunted to a provisional ballot.  There were only two Black people in the audience.  They were the only two to raise their hand. US Civil Rights Commission statistics tell the story.  The chance of a ballot “spoiled” – not counted for one reason or another – is 900% higher if you’re Black than if you’re White. As Rosenstein says for NYPIRG, “Instead of purging voters, we should be enfranchising them.”  Yes. Though we thought that was settled by the Civil War. OK, we didn’t know about the New York purge beforehand.  But I’m telling you this now:  My team is uncovering an unjustified ethnic cleansing of voter rolls from Ohio to Florida to Texas. This year I was in Selma, Alabama, with Hank Sanders, an African-American who joined Martin Luther King on the march to Montgomery that won the Voting Rights Act.  Today, he’s State Senator Hank Sanders, a title that is a tribute to America’s advance on voting rights.  He’s also Hank Sanders, purged voter, forced to vote “provisionally” this year. Why?  I’m investigating.  But the state officials (and let’s tell it like it is:  it’s mostly GOP officials) have used so many spurious grounds to cancel registrations—“caging,” “cross-checking” and a host of other sick tricks, it’s not easy to pin-point which one is responsible for the “lynching by laptop.” It’s worth noting that Brooklyn, like Alabama, was on the “pre-clearance” list in the Voting Rights Act.  I can tell you right now, it’s unlikely that neither Hank Sanders nor the 125,000 Brooklynites would have been purged, had the Supreme Court not gutted the Act in 2013. As I look upon the wreckage that was the New York primary, I see the prelude, the test run, for the catastrophic failure, the well-planned failure, of the voting system in November. The purges and votes “spoiled”–the votes not counted—not the voters, may well elect our President.*  *  *  *  *  *   *But there’s something you can do about it. Right now, my investigations and production team are finishing the final frames of our film on the upcoming theft of the 2016 election:  The Best Democracy Money Can Buy:  A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits. Donate $100 to support our investigation and I will list you in the movie credits, send you a signed copy of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits right now and a signed copy of the DVD once the film has wrapped.  Or support our work by making a No Gift Donation, small or ginormous, all are immensely appreciated! Most important, your tax-deductible donation will help us finish, broadcast and distribute our film and print reports before the November catastrophe and just maybe, a better democracy.

TV: Alarm over “Catastrophic Leak” at US nuclear site — “Emergency response underway”

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TV: Alarm over “Catastrophic Leak” at US nuclear site — “Emergency response underway” — Surge in radioactive leakage after “essentially blowing a hole” in massive tank containing “deadliest substance on earth” — Former Worker: “I was very shocked to hear it breached that significantly” (VIDEOS) Posted: 20 Apr 2016 02:19 PM PDT

WarNoMore2016 — Announcment from Desmond Tutu and World Beyond War

No War 2016: Real Security Without Terrorism In this video, Archbishop Desmond Tutu announces plans for #NoWar2016 event in Washington, D.C., and similar events around the world, in September: World Beyond War is planning a big event in Washington, D.C., in September 2016, just after the International Day of Peace, including a conference beginning Friday afternoon September 23, running all day Saturday September 24, and with activist workshops on Sunday morning the 25th. We’re also working with Campaign Nonviolence and the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance to plan a nonviolent activism training and a nonviolent action in D.C. onMonday September 26th. Join us to learn about and engage in working on viable alternatives to war and militarism. Learn more at: http://worldbeyondwar.org/NoWar2016 If you cannot make it, you can help cover the cost of others attending by making a contribution here. As the war system keeps societies in a state of permawar, we have reached  a stage in human history at which we can say with confidence that there are better and more effective alternatives. Of course we know the question: “You say you are against war, but what’s the alternative?” This event will develop answers to that question, building on World Beyond War’s publication A Global Security System: An Alternative to War. World Beyond War is working with our allies to plan similar events focused on alternatives to war the same week in other parts of the world. Please contact us to help plan such events. Plans for Washington are still being shaped, and we’re inviting organizations and individuals to contact us with ideas and proposals. Organizations can sign on as partners by contributing financially and in working on plans, or as cosponsors by agreeing just to help promote the event. Speakers already committed to being part of the events in Washington, D.C., include: Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich, Kathy Kelly, Miriam Pemberton, David Vine, Kozue Akibayashi,Harvey Wasserman, Jeff Bachman, Peter Kuznick, Medea Benjamin, Maurice Carney, David Swanson, Leah Bolger, David Hartsough, Pat Elder, John Dear, Mel Duncan, Kimberley Phillips,Ira Helfand, Darakshan Raja, Bill Fletcher Jr., Lindsey German, Maria Santelli, Mark Engler,Maja Groff, Robert Fantina, Barbara Wein, Jodie Evans. Partners Include: Jubitz Foundation, Womens International League for Peace and Freedom,RootsAction.org, Code Pink, and International Peace Bureau. Co-Sponsors Include: Washington Peace Center, Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence,Liberty Tree Foundation, Veterans For Peace, TheRealNews.com, United for Peace and Justice, Nonviolence International, Peace Action Montgomery, Fellowship of Reconciliation, andMilitary Families Speak Out. Please help spread the word: Forward this email. Re-Tweet this announcement. Share this Facebook video. Share this Youtube video. Learn more at: http://worldbeyondwar.org/NoWar2016 Help support DavidSwanson.org, WarIsACrime.org, and TalkNationRadio.org by clicking here:http://davidswanson.org/donate. Sign up for these emails at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/activism-alerts-from-david-swanson. Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address or to stop receiving emails from David Swanson, please click here.

TV: Surge in babies being born with extra arms, legs after Fukushima

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TV: Surge in babies being born with extra arms, legs after Fukushima — “I feel officials know the cause is radiation” — Nurse says many are getting abortions to avoid ‘inconvenient’ babies — “High number of stillbirths” — Many people reporting cancers, even far away from Fukushima (VIDEO) Posted: 18 Apr 2016 05:14 AM PDT

What I’m Seeing on Tour of U.S.

I’ve been touring the U.S. a bit, with much more to come. I’ve been around North Carolina, and D.C., and Baltimore, plus Washington State and Oregon. Speaking to college classes in particular, but also at book stores and peace-group-organized events, I’m finding a big new audience that hasn’t heard much before about what’s wrong with routinely waging war after war after war. I’m also finding that peace groups are largely over any depression resulting from placing false hopes in President Obama, and that they are relatively free of placing such hopes in anyone new. Instead, I’m finding a willingness to organize educational and nonviolent resistance work for peace. I’m collecting tons of signatures on World Beyond War’s pledge for peace, and meeting lots of people who want to volunteer. The Baltimore event on the anniversary of Freddie Gray’s killing was packed. The Seattle event on (traditional April 15th) tax day was huge, and we sold out of books. Here’s a nice video of the Seattle event including opening remarks and all the questions and answers: David Swanson – War is a Lie – Seattle April 15, 2016 I can continue taking the time to do these events only with your help. Please support my work here. Here are some more items of possible interest: What’s the Truth Hidden by the “Super Predators” Lie? The Catholic Church is Now More Advanced Than U.S. Philosophy Departments The Habit of Thought That Made U.S. #1 in Prisons and Wars Ten Revealing War Lies Why Do Ethics Classes Fantasize About Murder So Much? Talk Nation Radio: Gregory Shupak on the Case Against Bombing ISIS Giving Diplomacy a Chance in Syria and Iran Should Override Power of America’s War Machine Talk Nation Radio: Margaret Kimberley on Politics, Scams, and Activism Oh Frack, President Obama Front Line Scratches Surface of Saudi Arabian Squalor Israeli War Lies Fall As Corporate Media Falls U.S. State Department: Don’t Hurt ISIS Blowback Denial, Climate Denial, and Apocalypse Talk Nation Radio: Erin Aubry Kaplan on Loving Obama No Matter What Talk Nation Radio: Paul Engler on THIS IS AN UPRISING U.S. Air Force’s Ability to Deliver Death But Not Food Is A Choice Obama’s Seven Slaughters: It’s a Disease, Not a Doctrine Hillary Is A Neocon War Is A Lie: Second Edition will be published by Just World Books on April 5, 2016. Help support DavidSwanson.org, WarIsACrime.org, and TalkNationRadio.org by clicking here:http://davidswanson.org/donate. Sign up for these emails at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/activism-alerts-from-david-swanson. Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address or to stop receiving emails from David Swanson, please click here.