'Unseen' News and Views
Impeachment Finally Under Way
The long-delayed impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump are finally starting, but at present the focus is on a relatively minor crime–the Ukraine/Biden scandal. However, Trump has committed (and is still committing) major crimes and these ought to be in the spotlight. Let us look at a few of them.
Let’s Look at His Major Crimes, Rather than at Minor Ones:
DAYLESFORD, Australia, 13 October 2019 — Violence is pervasive throughout human society and it has a vast range of manifestations.
Robert J. Burrowes
Moreover, some of these manifestations – particularly the threat of nuclear war (which might start regionally), the climate catastrophe and the ongoing ecological devastation, as well as geoengineering and the deployment of 5G – threaten imminent human extinction if not contained.
Separately from these extinction-threatening manifestations, however, violence occurs in a huge range of other contexts denying many people the freedom, human rights and opportunities necessary for a meaningful life.
LOOKING BACK
The first World Social Forum in 2001 ushered in the new century with a bold affirmation: “Another world is possible.”
Roberto Savio
That gathering in Porto Alegre, Brazil, stood as an alternative and a challenge to the World Economic Forum, held at the same time an ocean away in the snowy Alps of Davos, Switzerland.
A venue for power elites to set the course of world development, the WEF was then, and remains now, the symbol for global finance, unchecked capitalism, and the control of politics by multinational corporations.
– The UN’s smoldering cash crisis, which has threatened staff salaries and payments to vendors, has triggered strong reactions and rattled the over 6,400 staffers who work in the 39-storeyed Secretariat building in New York.
“State sovereignty is a goner. Bankism and Military Capitalism rule the world in all respects now.
“Militaries are the ultimate manifestation of direct, structural and cultural violence—a cancer that must be extirpated from humanity.”********************
It is very likely that the idea of impeaching Donald Trump will be a boomerang. Trump fans are listening to a furious campaign which smacks of coup d’etat and call his accusers traitors who deserve to go to jail.
Roberto Savio
In the first three hours after the announcement of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, that an impeachment process would be launched, Trump received a million dollars, five million in 24 hours, and 8.5 million in two days. His campaign received 50,000 new donors.
Trump won the election by just under 80,000 votes. It should be borne in mind that the US electoral system does not elect the president by the majority of the votes of its citizens, but by delegates that each State elects to vote the president.
– Large transnational corporations (TNCs) are widely believed to be paying little tax. The ease with which they avoid tax and the declining corporate tax rates over the decades have deprived developing countries of much needed revenues besides undermining public faith in the tax system.
Anis Chowdhury
The rise of digital giants, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, is an additional concern for all countries.
By OXFAM* — The expansion of large scale mining activities and agribusiness in Latin America has greatly increased territorial disputes and resulted in an alarming rise in violence suffered by individuals who defend water, land, forests and the rights of women, afro-descendants, indigenous and farming communities.
Threats, bullying, judicial harassment, illegal surveillance, forced disappearances, blackmail, sexual assault and murder are common practice.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 