By Joan Russow

Global Compliance Research Project

The Doom's Day clock is now at 100 seconds To midnight

A 37-kiloton blast known as "Priscilla" explodes during an Operation Plumbbob nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site on June 24, 1957. The device was detonated from a balloon.

‎UPDATE OF http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/04/fate-of-earth-must-not-be-decided-by-us-fellow-nuclear-states/ 

In June 2017, I attended the UN negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Canada and its NATO allies and nuclear weapon states, including the US, France, Russia and China Great Britain Pakistan India, North Korea and israel were  absent

Exerpt from 

Randy Caravaggio's talk on Bolivia

Double Standards & Hypocrisy 

13 years ago Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia. Although Bolivia's population is composed  2/3 of indigenous people, he was the 1st indigenous president to be elected. 

Morales won in 2005 with 53.7% of the vote, followed by re-elections in 2009 with 64.2% and 2014 with 61.3%.

The accomplishments under his leadership in Bolivia are incredible and too numerous to mention all, but I will mention just a few to give us some ideas of how much was accomplished with an honest government that had the will to work for its people and country.

The health of our oceans is at risk. The Supreme Court is allowing the pipeline to go through because they say that it is more important to enable the provinces to do business than to protect the environment. By making such a ruling they are saying in a broader sense that business trumps the protection of the environment and have set a precedent, which will decide every environmental issue on the side of the polluters. This needs to be stopped.

Global Compliance Reaearch Project

By the Global  Compliance Research Project 

The UN General Assembly should invoke under Article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations to Establish an International Tribunal to try  Donald J. Trump for Crimes Against Peace  for authorizing the United States’ military assassination of Iran’s most powerful military commander General Qasem Soleimani.

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The Nuremberg trial established key principles to apply in the case of Crimes against Peace, and War crimes. Two key principles are the following: (Principle 3) The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as head of state or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law. 

(Principle 1) Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.

It is time to finally establish an international tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law 

AND to try Donald J. Trump. This tribunal will incorporate the principles from the Nuremberg  and would be based previous  International Tribunals.

The Nuremberg trial established key principles to apply in the case of Crimes against Peace, and War crimes. Two key principles are the following: (Principle 3) The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as head of state or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law. 

(Principle 1) Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.

It is time to finally establish an international tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law 

AND to try President Donald J Trump,


Having been established by the United Nations General Assembly, under Article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations, the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed by PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump in the Territory of IRAQ  (hereinafter referred to as "the International Tribunal") shall function in accordance with the provisions of the present Statute.

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The US does not recognize the Internatiional Criminal Court (ICC) and seems to believe it can act with impunity without consequences.

And the US will probably attempt as it did in 2003 to bypass Chapter VI of the Charter and try to coerce the permanent members to support, the strike on Iran as being a preventive strike or use article 51 and argue it was self defence. As in 2003, the permanent members of  UNSC will not be in unanimity and will not support the legality of the strike.

in 2003, I was part of the Uniting for Peace Coalition and we were using 1951 Uniting for Peace Resolution which stated that when the UNSC permanent members could not agree, the responsiilty to act falls on the UNGA. In 2003,  the permanent members did not agree. We lobbied the UNGA to have an emergency session and invoke the Uniting for peace Resolution and condemn the imminent invasion OF iRAQ. It almost happened until the US sent a threatening letter to all state delegations.

The 1951 Uniting for Peace" resolution, states that in any cases where 

the Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity amongst its PERMANENT members, fails to act as required to maintain international peace and security, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately and may issue any recommendations it deems necessary in order to restore international peace and security. If not in session at the time the General Assembly may meet using the mechanism of the emergency special session.  

Avocado consumption surges in China but more cultivation means deforestation and drought in Latin America

SEE FULL ARTICLE  AT https://dialogochino.net/12287-avocado-boom-wreaks-havoc-on-latin-americas-environment/

Kevin Brown

Alejandra Cuéllar November 13, 2018

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avocado deforestation

image: Kevin Brown

“In Chile you have breakfast, lunch and you dream about avocado, but living in China it wasn’t easy to find,” says Camila Kemeny, a Chilean English teacher who lives in the eastern city of Hefei. “Lately I’ve been seeing more avocados, so I’m happy, because I’m always looking for them like crazy,” she added.

In recent years, imports of the “butter fruit”, as it is known in China, have exploded. Almost all come from Latin America. In 2017, China imported more than 32 thousand tonnes of avocado, 22% more than the previous year.

Sunday, 20 July 2014 09:29

REPOSTED De-legitimization of war War on trial

Prosecution argument 
By Joan Russow Global Compliance Research Project -

photo shock and awe in Iraq 2003

War should be placed in the Dustbin of History? The Transcript of the presentation at ngo conference at the UN and videotaped 

 Joan Russow: Prosecution

Sadly, the United Nations has often been equated with the UN Security Council, (UNSC) which is deemed to be able to bestow legality, under Article VII of the Charter of the United Nations, on an invasion of another state. The UN Security Council violates a fundamental principle in the Charter of the United Nations: the principle of sovereign equality, and by being given the power to bestow legitimacy on an act of war, violates the fundamental purpose of the Charter of the United Nations - to prevent the scourge of war. The UN Security Council should be abolished and the UNGA should be strengthened.

PROVISIONS UNDER CHAPTER VI FOR THE PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES

Canada backs coup against Bolivia’s president

BY Yves Engler https://yvesengler.com/2019/11/11/canada-backs-coup-againgst-bolivias-president/

"There's really nothing in [the OAS's] latest so-called preliminary audit that shows that there was any fraud in this election. But it was repeated over and over again," Weisbrot told Democracy Now. The coup came after "The Trump administration and the OAS...tried — without offering any evidence — to discredit Bolivia's national election in the past couple of weeks," Weisbrot wrote at The Nation.

CEPR's Andrea M. Beaty and Shawn Fremstad prepared a report comparing rental housing and homelessness policies expressed or proposed by most of the presidential candidates of the two major parties. This report documents the candidates' positions on a broad range of rental housing policy, including affordabilty, housing assistance, tenant protections, discrimination, and homelessness. In addition, it outlines the current funding levels of selected federal housing and homelessness programs.

Inflation inequality is one more reason the US must update its poverty measure, writes Shawn Fremstad. Citing research by the Groundwork Collaborative, Fremstad notes that the US "is the only country in the world…using a poverty line set over half a century ago and since then only adjusted for inflation." 

Eileen Appelbaum will be a featured presenter at The Hidden Costs of Healthcare, a special two-hour event hosted by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). The event draws attention to important, but overlooked, factors contributing to rising healthcare costs, including groundbreaking research from Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt into the role private equity firms play in surprise medical billing.

The event is tomorrow, November 15, starting at 10 am, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. This is a public event, but please register here.

CEPR is Looking for Winter Interns (January – May 2020)
If you're passionate about current economic and global justice issues, apply for a paid internship in our domestic program by Saturday, November 30 or in our international program by Sunday, December 8th.

The Revolving Door Project (RDP), a project of CEPR, now has a newsletter and its own official Twitter account. Every two weeks, the newsletter will give you an update on how the executive branch is promoting economic inequality, what Congress is or isn't doing in response, and whether 2020 presidential candidates would be any better. Subscribe to the RDP newsletter and follow @revolvingdoorDC on Twitter.

Newsletter:
Less Drowsy Congress Still Less Observant than Bank Lobbyists
November 6, 2019

RDP Highlights:

Dems Must Confront GOP Attacks On Independent Agencies
by Max Moran

Freshman Democrats Seek to Make Corporate Oversight Routine Again
by Eleanor Eagan

New York Magazine, quoting Eileen Appelbaum, The Senseless Death of Deadspin

BBC World News, interviewing Mark Weisbrot, The Bolivian Elections

New York Times, quoting Dean Baker, Bill Gates, I Implore You to Connect Some Dots

CNN, citing CEPR, Bolivia's Evo Morales on Plane to Mexico Amid Political Crisis

Thom Hartmann Program, interviewing Guillaume Long, Right Wing Oligarchs Behind Bolivian Coup Exposed!

Inflation Inequality and the Poverty Measure

by Shawn Fremstad

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives.

CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999.

Examination Finds Tally Sheets Consistent with Evo Morales’s First-Round Victory

For Immediate Release: November 8, 2019
Contact: Dan Beeton, 202-239-1460

WRITTEN BY CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH CEPR

Washington, DC — Statistical analysis of election returns and tally sheets from Bolivia’s October 20 elections shows no evidence that irregularities or fraud affected the official result that gave President Evo Morales a first-round victory, researchers and analysts at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) say. Contrary to a postelection narrative that was supported, without evidence, by the OAS Electoral Observation Mission, statistical analysis shows that it was predictable that Morales would obtain a first-round win, based on the results of the first 83.85 percent of votes in a rapid count that showed Morales leading runner-up Carlos Mesa by less than 10 points.