Through a shadowy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, the billionaire Koch brothers have helped advance a number of state laws that benefit corporate and right-wing interests. An internal document shows ALEC is tracking 131 bills which, among other issues, seek to roll back renewable energy standards, combat federal coal regulations and tout the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. ALEC’s efforts recently paid off in Oklahoma where Gov. Mary Fallin has signed a measure allowing utilities to charge customers who generate energy from solar panels or small wind turbines. ALEC’s victory in Oklahoma comes as a federal judge …
For years, Palestinian factions have strived for unity, and for years unity has evaded them. But is it possible that following several failed attempts, Fatah and Hamas have finally found that elusive middle ground? And if they have done so, why, to what end, and at what cost?
On April 23, top Fatah and Hamas officials hammered out the final details of the Beach Refugee Camp agreement without any Arab mediation. All major grievances have purportedly been smoothed over, differences have been abridged, and other sensitive issues have been referred to a specialized committee. One of these committees will be entrusted …
What does the Lord require… but to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
— The Book of Micah
Grant us your forgiveness, Lord. And unto you be our becoming.
— The Salaat, the final Muslim prayer of the day
About 90 pages into Other Lands Have Dreams, Kathy Kelly’s extraordinary book of recollections and reflections, we’re immersed again in the immediacy of her amazing life:
“Just prior to beginning my sentence I had been released from the hospital following major surgery after a lung collapse caused by a congenital abnormality.
“…. The women prisoners glaring at me were seeing …
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / April 30th, 2014
The findings of the most recent IPCC report are sobering. We have 15 years to mitigate climate disaster. It is up to us to make a major transition to a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy within that time frame. Big Energy and our plutocratic government are not going to do it without effective pressure from a people-powered movement.
Earth Day is no longer about celebration. We are making Mother Earth sick by using extreme methods to extract fuels from her mountains and from beneath her surface and by massive spills of oil, chemicals and radiation. We must mobilize ourselves …
You get what you pay for, and if it’s money and debt, you get nothing, really. The money changers of culture have bastardized it until we have accepted 90 percent of NY books publishing and West Coast movie making. Forget about NYT Review of Books, APR, all the MFA rags, all the preening and ID politics and denuded life in all those poets’ works. Forget about Terri Gross of Fresh Air, The Q out of CBC, and freaks like Charlie “I Am an American-through-and-through” Rose. The sign of the times is cultivated high art, zilch for politics in poetry and …
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.
– Robert Frost 1920
We have met the enemy and he is us.
– POGO Walt Kelly 1970
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
– Barack Obama 2008
Georgia’s new gun law goes into effect July 1, allowing firearms in bars, nightclubs and government buildings without security checkpoints. Georgia churches can …
The fool is John Kerry, who has looked bad in his rushing around between Washington and Tel Aviv trying to get in place a “framework” agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that would show progress in the efforts of the honest broker, assailing Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela for his “terror campaign against his own people,” and, of course, denouncing the Russians for their “aggression” against the coup-regime of Ukraine. His statement that “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext,” has to be regarded as an Orwellian …
ABC News reports this morning — Secretary of State John Kerry did what for many of Israel’s supporters is the unthinkable and used the A-word: apartheid.
Apparently for many Jewish groups, the suggestion that the Jews only State is, or even could be, an ‘Apartheid State’ is unthinkable. But far more interesting is the fact that the Jewish Lobby in America believes that it can dictate to the Secretary of State what terms to use and what words to avoid. “Any suggestion that Israel is, or is at risk of becoming, an apartheid state is offensive and inappropriate,” AIPAC’s …
Planet Earth is seen through rose-colored glasses by 58% of congressional Republicans who refuse to accept the fact that humans are responsible for climate change. And, they have a right to their opinion, same as the other side on this issue.
But, are they wearing rose-colored glasses and only fooling themselves? Or, are their scientific advisers wearing rose-colored glasses? Or, are they correct about global warming?
Whichever question is the appropriate one, the thesis of this article questions whether their scientific advisers are giving them good advice.
Here’s why: Their science advisers are smack dab in the cross-hairs of the most divisive political …
Humans have caused climate change by pumping ever more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and we must quickly cut these emissions.
True, but what has this got to do with unions?
Well, at their core unions are organizations that bring people together to fight for the common good. This essential truth is reflected in the structure, philosophy and history of most unions.
But exactly whose “common good” a union is fighting for can vary widely.
Is it narrowly defined as immediate job interests of local union members? Is it the common good of all those working in a particular trade? All union members in …
bad Jews acting badly; education’s leaders a la Walmart; culture bought and paid for by whitey
These white tours of the lumpen masses end up aestheticizing poverty, and making the degradations of daily life for the working poor a sort of aesthetic Petri dish. The poor, who they basically detest, are still envied. So the appropriation of their stories is like stealing the last thing they have. The point is not the suffering for such directors, but to see what is’cool’ and marketable, what image might emerge from the experiment that can be reproduced as a commodity. The poor are not …
Righting wrongs. It’s often quite subjective. In the United States it’s the province of fantasy superheroes or government torturers. Elsewhere it took the form of a window decal I was too bashful to photograph, a life-sized bin Laden standing tall with that hebephrenic grin and three airliners zooming toward us over his head, fluffy contrails in perspective.
There’s another way to look at it, too. It doesn’t get much press, for it lacks drama. Going against the grain of our extremist tit for tat, the international community wants to right wrongs with a code of conduct shared by all civilized nations. …
There are a lot of seemingly disparate things happening at various levels of scale in the world outside my window these days. But there is one color that describes them more than any other.
My world is browning. As deserts grow and forests shrink, as smog, soot and dust clouds fill the skies horizon to horizon, as average heat levels (represented by yellows, oranges and browns on maps where they are most intense) increase, you start to see that color everywhere, eating away at the greens and blues of our old picture of the planet. What is the color of drought, …
Last month, we reviewed the mind-boggling contrast between corporate media coverage of the January 2005 election in Iraq and the March 2014 referendum in Crimea.Whereas all media accepted the basic legitimacy of an Iraq election conducted under extremely violent US-UK military occupation, they all rejected the legitimacy of a Crimea referendum conducted “at [Russian] gunpoint”.
It was not difficult to guess how the same media would respond to the Afghan presidential election of April 5 under the guns of Britain and America’s occupying force.
The Daily Telegraph had welcomed ‘the first …
What would you do if the Canadian university you attended was planning to enter into a partnership with a university in another country whose persecution of your people meant you couldn’t speak out publicly – in Canada – for fear of reprisals against you and your family?
What if, further, the proposed partnership included course delivery for a degree in public safety management inside a country conducting a nearly 50-year-long occupation in contravention of international law? An occupation in which basic freedoms – of movement, speech, and self-determination – were denied your people, and in which security forces routinely imprisoned, shot, …
When a federal court trashed its “net neutrality” compromise policy in January, the Federal Communications Commission assured us that the Internet we knew and depended on was safe. Most activists didn’t believe federal officials and this past week the FCC demonstrated how realistic our cynicism was.
The Commission announced last week that among its proposals on the Internet, due for full discussion on May 15, was one which would give access providers the right to sign special deals with content producers for connections that are faster and cleaner than the connections most websites use. It’s precisely the nightmare that court …
Just weeks before Tax Day, April 15, Governor Deval Patrick, Obama’s “close friend,” signed into law a bond bill that dispenses $177 million in Massachusetts State Taxes to the Pentagon for construction and “upgrades” of U.S. military bases in the state. That’s right, not federal taxes but state taxes.
On April 15, the federal govt. collected about $1 trillion in personal income taxes. The Pentagon will get $600 billion this year that we know of, and along with the CIA, NSA, the costs of overseas wars as in Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, the bill for …
Beginning Monday, April 28, Southern California truck drivers at the Long Beach and San Pedro ports, will go on a limited 2-day “exhibition” strike to protest what they see as a gross misclassification. Truckers as far away as Savannah, Georgia, are expected to join in the protest.
Needless to say, trucking companies are doing everything in their power to maintain their strangle-hold on these drivers. Classifying them as “independent contractors” rather than “employees,” works wholly in their favor, as it not only gives them near dictatorial powers, but prohibits drivers from seeking union representation.
Conversely, classifying them as “employees” opens up a …
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / April 27th, 2014
President Obama returns from East Asia empty-handed after Japan rejects bilateral agreement — but if the TPP moves forward, will it be in the interest of most Americans?
Like a spear thrusting into the Gulf of Mexico’s gut, the Isle de Jean Charles is turbulent with ruinous daily oil and gas accidents, rising sea levels, and tropical storms. Homes on the Isle de Jean Charles perch on delicate wooden stilts thirteen feet high, their paint peeling in the sun. A solitary road snakes down the spine of the shrinking island. Stained American flags billow slowly in the Gulf breeze, affixed to porches where one can catch the nasal tones of plaid-clad men bantering in Cajun French.
[The] self-alienation [of humanity] has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.
– Walter Benjamin (( “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 1936.))
At the end of last year, the Humanist Workers for Revolutionary Socialism (HWRS) published a provocative position paper which presents their analysis of the climate crisis: “Alienation, Climate Change, and the Future of Humanity.” Aside from discussing the very real threat which anthropogenic climate disruption poses to humanity and terrestrial nature generally considered, the HWRS in this essay …
Only the other day, Benjamin Netanyahu earned a small note of immortality when he said the peace talks were ended by the new arrangements between the Palestine Authority and Hamas: Netanyahu’s announcement bundled a record number of lies into one mouthful of words. There, of course, never was anything properly called peace talks with Israel. There has been only a long series of closed-door personal, and security-scrambled telephonic, exchanges with America’s superbly ineffectual John Kerry, exchanges in which the Palestinians played virtually no role and in which Mr. Netanyahu had absolutely no interest. Netanyahu was always setting an impossible set …
The Obama regime, wallowing in hubris and arrogance, has recklessly escalated the Ukrainian crisis into a crisis with Russia. Whether intentionally or stupidly, Washington’s propagandistic lies are driving the crisis to war. Unwilling to listen to any more of Washington’s senseless threats, Moscow no longer accepts telephone calls from Obama and US top officials.
The crisis in Ukraine originated with Washington’s overthrow of the elected democratic government and its replacement with Washington’s hand-chosen stooges. The stooges proceeded to act in word and deed against the populations in the former Russian territories that Soviet Communist Party leaders had attached to Ukraine. The …
I’ve written before on the subject of ‘false flag’ events (( “Friend or Foe“)); (( “Strange Things happen at Sea“)) – events which get their name from the early days of piracy on the high seas and naval warfare (often the same thing), when a ship could be attacked by another ship which had been able to get close enough to its victim by flying flags which lied about the real nature of the attacking ship. However, the subject is not confined to quirky historical anomalies, events which happened in the distant past but could not possibly …
As the Boston marathon gets underway, there is the unavoidable recall of the horrific bombing last year. It also leads to the inevitable question of why this country is plagued with violence.
Violence has been so much in the news lately that President Obama’s leading hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune ran an investigation on shootings in Chicago over a 36-hour period commencing on a Friday evening. The recorded incidents averaged a shocking one every hour. Over 36 people were shot leaving four dead and 33 wounded, some seriously.
The Illinois legislature has recently passed a concealed-carry law granting private individuals …
New FCC Rules Strike Down Net Neutrality, Opening Fast Lanes for Fees
by Democracy Now! / April 25th, 2014
Federal regulators have unveiled new rules that would effectively abandon net neutrality, the concept of a free and open Internet. The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission would allow Internet providers like Verizon or Comcast to charge media companies like Netflix or Amazon extra fees in order to receive preferential treatment, such as faster speeds for their content. If the new rules are voted on next month, the FCC will begin accepting public comments and issue final regulations by the end of summer. “What we’re really seeing here is the transformation of the Internet where the 1 percent get the …
If, perchance, you have the opportunity to read the long list of health benefits from eating an apple a day, then for sure you’ll have an apple on your table every morning. It is a remarkable fruit that helps with almost every organ, crack, and crevice throughout the human body by curbing cancer, Parkinsonism, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, gallstones, hemorrhoids, liver problems, cataracts, and it even helps whiten teeth (sounds like the polar opposite of fast-talk warnings on TV ads for medicine). Why eat anything else?
In the same vein, Apple, Inc., the global powerhouse, is following in the footsteps of its namesake …
Fighting a culture of racism, sexism, ageism, and other -ism's
by Paul Haeder / April 25th, 2014
Note: adjunct faculty and full-time historian, Harvey Whitney, short interview below story!
I’m telling you, this place is the most racist place I’ve ever been to. September 10, it was Latinos and Blacks. And then September 11 came, and it’s Muslims. It’s a list. I top the list.” — Vera, college student, in the film, If These Halls Could Talk.
“The belief is if one knows and accepts oneself one can do better – self-esteem and self-worth. Especially in an academic setting where there may been a history, family or negative educational experiences.” — David Browneagle, teacher, mentor, drummer, Spokane Tribe.
In recent years, a new kind of economy based on the age-old practice of sharing is flourishing across North America and Europe, and is now rapidly spreading in popularity throughout the Middle East and other world regions. Human beings may have shared since time immemorial, but information technology and peer-to-peer networks have given rise to an innovative trend in modern societies – the sharing economy, which enables people to ‘share’ various goods and services with their peers in everything from cars and bikes to food, office space, spare rooms, even time and expertise. Countless articles and reports have now …
Part 9 (but, by all means, see other 8 informative parts)
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / April 24th, 2014
TRNN’s Paul Jay interviews Edgardo Lander, a professor of social sciences at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and member of CLACSO and the Hemispheric Council of the Social Forum of the Americas, Chavez’s attempt to establish a participatory democracy that changed the structure of power and decision making.
