Author: KJ McElrath

RoundUp Listed as Carcinogen By California – Could Other Monsanto Products Be Next?

RoundUp Listed as Carcinogen By California – Could Other Monsanto Products Be Next?

Posted by | Jun 29, 2017 | , |

Earlier this week, The Ring of Fire brought you a story about the most recent court ruling against Monsanto in its ongoing legal battle against the State of California regarding glyphosate, the active ingredient in its controversial herbicide, Roundup. Since the end of March, the agribusiness juggernaut has been fighting to keep glyphosate off the list of “chemicals known to cause cancer” by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). This week, the OEHHA announced that beginning July 7th, in accordance with California Proposition 65, glyphosate will be added to the list and the information will displayed on...

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Corporate Dem Shoots Down California Single Payer For His Wealthy Donors

Corporate Dem Shoots Down California Single Payer For His Wealthy Donors

Posted by | Jun 28, 2017 | , , |

If the history of Canada’s health care system is any indication, the best chance for the the U.S. to have a single payer health care system that guarantees medical services to everyone is to enact it on a state-by-state basis. The California legislature, firmly in Democratic control, had a golden opportunity to pass a single-payer health care bill last week. There was no reason it should not have sailed through the State Assembly – but thanks to the machinations of Speaker Anthony Rendon, Californians will have to wait another year before the bill will even come up for debate....

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Liberal Mosque In Germany Paves the Way for New Islam

Liberal Mosque In Germany Paves the Way for New Islam

Posted by | Jun 27, 2017 | , |

It may be difficult for non-Muslims to imagine, but there is are mosques where full-face veils are not allowed. Furthermore, men and women mix freely, Sunnis and Shiites alike are welcome and encouraged to sit together, and LGBT Muslims find complete acceptance. Welcome to Berlin’s Ibn Rushd-Goethe congregation, which held its first services this past Friday – and is led by a woman imam from the U.S. The new Islamic congregation is the culmination of eight years of effort by Seyran Ates, a German citizen of Turkish parentage who is a lawyer and prominent women’s rights activist – as...

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Creeping Theocracy: Trump Names Jerry Falwell Jr. to Head Education Task Force

Creeping Theocracy: Trump Names Jerry Falwell Jr. to Head Education Task Force

Posted by | Jun 26, 2017 | , , |

While paranoid right-wingers are wringing their hands over the prospect of Muslim “Sharia Law” being imposed on them, the Trump Administration appears to be doing its best to shove its Christian counterpart (known in medieval times as “Canon Law”) down our collective throats. First it was his selection of running mate, Mike Pence – a Puritanical science-denier who, in 2002, told Congress that “someday, scientists will come to see that only the theory of intelligent design [creationism] provides even a remotely rational explanation for the known universe.” Then there’s Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch, a social conservative who consistently...

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Trump’s “Travel Ban” Reaches The Supreme Court – What Now?

Trump’s “Travel Ban” Reaches The Supreme Court – What Now?

Posted by | Jun 22, 2017 | |

Trump’s largely symbolic and completely pointless “executive order” banning travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries has run into numerous barriers since the first version was signed back in January. Travel Ban 2.0  – which differed little from the initial version – was blocked by federal judges in Maryland and Hawaii. Those injunctions were appealed to the 4th and the 9th Courts of Appeals, which upheld the lower courts’ rulings. Trump threatened to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court – and this week, it came up on the docket. So what happens now? That is an...

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