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Bold and Daring: The Way Progressive News Should Be
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The
"debate" provoked by the Snowden documents might possibly, eventually,
expand the number of corporate-bought senators and representatives who
sit on the committees overseeing, in secret, the government's
all-pervasive spy programs. Why, we might even get a new secret court to
preside over the existing secret court that secretly approves the
apparat's operations.
By Andrew Schmookler
The Dog that Refuses to Bark: A Stunning Clue about the Problem with American Media What does it mean that two establishment authors, who finally say the obvious about something unusual, anti-democratic and destructive emerging on the political right, get ostracized by their friends in the mainstream media? This clue should be pushed to help expose part of the heart of darkness in America today.
The Affordable Care Act website was outsourced to Canada and does not work well. This article explores how it can be fixed.
What
will never be written about in the mainstream media is the elephant in
the room. The script is carefully designed to keep attention off the
real money, the ongoing bail-outs to the bank and financial services
industry.
Conservative
advocates funded by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and
David Koch have launched a massive campaign pressuring states to deny
health care coverage to lower income Americans through the Medicaid
expansion contained in the Affordable Care Act. Volunteers with the
conservative organization are distributing misleading flyers, attending
committee hearings, and intimidating constituents.
In the June 12, 2013 post titled, "This graph predicts the future. What does it tell you", we showed you this graph.
Did
the tea party learn its lesson in the debacle that technically ended
last night with votes in the Senate and House? Based on public
statements by the hard-core TP types who genuflect to falsely-claimed
values, the answer is "no way" and the group has shown little ability to
learn from its many past mistakes. But when all is said and done, the
biggest loser was America itself and those who call this nation home.
It
is an ultimate irony that institutions like the Post Office that
actually provide a necessary service for most Americans are starved for
funds while the National Security Agency seems to have plenty of cash to
build and operate its vast new spy center in Utah. A spy center that
will collect information on the American people. The priorities of
government are skewed and it is not just in congress.
McCutcheon
is another test case of the kind constructed by plutocrat-interest
types to topple the few walls still standing in the ruins of America's
election integrity. More important than the ultimate decision of the
case by the Supreme Court is the government's new argument to defend one
of those walls still standing: A plutocracy "run of, by, and for those"
few who buy its policies is a corrupt system by definition.
By Mike Rivage-Seul
The Prayers of Powerful Men and the Women Who Oppose Them -- like M. Benjamin, E. Warren, and A. Goodman (Sunday Homily) 
Our
readings today raise the issue of prayer, and what it means to "pray
always without ceasing." The widow in today's gospel "prays" by
confronting the power structure of her day in the name of justice. She
exemplifies the way women in Jesus' day and our own confront men in
power. They simply wear them down. That's the way of courageous,
hard-working activists today like Medea Benjamin, Elizabeth Warren and
Amy Goodman.
A
review of the new book about ground breaking artist Paula
Modersohn-Becker focusing on her life, her art, and her struggles as a
woman.
Paleoanthropologists
have uncovered the intact skull of an early Homo individual in Dmanisi,
Georgia. This find is forcing a change in perspective in the field of
paleoanthropology: human species diversity two million years ago was
much smaller than presumed thus far. However, diversity within the Homo
erectus, the first global species of human, was as great as in humans
today.
Humans
aren't the only species that knows how to carry on polite conversation.
Marmoset monkeys, too, will engage one another for up to 30 minutes at a
time in vocal turn-taking.
A
record of Neanderthal archaeology, thought to be long lost, has been
re-discovered by scientists working in the Channel island of Jersey.
President
Evo Morales issued a government decree on Oct. 7 which allows workers
to establish "social enterprises" in businesses that are bankrupt,
winding up, or unjustifiably closed or abandoned. These enterprises,
while private, will be operated by the workers and qualify for
government assistance. In his remarks to the audience of several hundred
union members and leaders, President Morales noted that employers often
attempt to blackmail workers with threats to shut down when faced with
demands for higher wages. "Now, if they threaten you in that way, the
firm may as well go bankrupt or close, because you will become the
owners. They will be new social enterprises," he said.
Here's a different way to think about biting an apple
The
World Bank estimates that 80 percent of Peru's logging exports are
illegally harvested, a problem compounded by bribery and obstacles to
prosecution. It is a pattern seen in other parts of the world, including
the far east of Russia, where environmentalists have documented the
rampant illegal logging of oak and other kinds of wood bound for the
United States and elsewhere.
By Louallen Miller
Climate Change: First They Came For ... A thoroughly referenced reminder, based on Martin Niemoller's unforgettable quotation, of the causes and consequences of climate change and why we must take action before it's too late.
New Brunswick, Uniforms, the brotherhood of man and the interaction of individuals and institutions.
By Raymond Lotta
Nicholas Kristof's Ode to Imperialism...What Kind of World Is He Celebrating? What Kind of World Can Emancipate Humanity Raymond Lotta responds to a recent article by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof titled "A Way of Life Is Ending. Thank Goodness," which paints a picture of Third World countries undergoing great positive changes due to the work of Western aid and philanthropic agencies and economic growth. Lotta criticizes Kristof's article as an outrageous, deceitful, and morally bankrupt ode to imperialism.
This
can't be emphasized enough. Several TV anchors and a number of op/ed
columnists have claimed that Iran has nuclear weapons or is working on
developing them. This is where proof should be demanded. If you believe
this myth, more than likely invented by Mossad or Israeli Americans,
then it's your responsibility to prove it.
The
U.S. Navy is being rocked by a bribery scandal that federal
investigators say has reached high into the officer corps and exposed a
massive overbilling scheme run by an Asian defense contractor that
provided prostitutes and other kickbacks. Among those arrested on
corruption charges are a senior agent for the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service and a Navy commander who escaped Cambodia's
"killing fields" as a child only to make a triumphant return to the
country decades later as the skipper of a U.S. destroyer. The
investigation has also ensnared a Navy captain who was relieved of his
ship's command this month in Japan.
Walmart
appears to struggle at times to find ways to lower itself in the
estimation of the world from stripping people of benefits to firing sick
employees to arbitrary treatment of employees to destroying history to
alleged bribery to reporting families to police for innocent pictures.
Not long ago, the store fired an elderly greeter"
Sen.
Ted Cruz is blaming his fellow Senate Republicans for opposing a
movement in the House to defund ObamaCare, which ultimately caused
Republicans to win few concessions in the deal to reopen the government
and raise the nation's debt ceiling. He refused to rule out the
possibility of interfering in Republican primary contests.
The
Atlantic Wire has created three maps of conservative feuds.
(Previously: 1, 2.) Each successive feud map has featured more fighters
in more intense fights. In this edition: a sprawling conflict between
the Tea Party and the GOP establishment, all swirling around Ted Cruz.
Cruz is like a Tea Party virus that finally penetrated the Washington
establishment. In ten months, he gave Republicans a shutdown they didn't
want, ruined their debt limit strategy, cratered their poll numbers,
and raised more than $1 million for his own campaign. As has been
extensively noted, many Republicans are not happy about this state of
affairs. Neither are big business donors.
By Stephen Pizzo
Missing Teeth How does a sane citizen explain the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, and his kind? Here's a hint. Latest Articles
A Message to President Obama Re Diet
Do we give enough thought re where our food comes from? Someone on the Catholic Vegetarian site thought not. Sadly, I disagree. By now we have all heard about the evils of factory farming and the horrors of slaughterhouses. However, George Carlin approaches diet from other ways which hopefully should make a lot of sense to those who are not concerned about animal suffering.
Republicans
and the Tea Partiers have a vested interest in keeping people ignorant
of scientific realities because this paves the way for them to remove
social safety nets by defunding or repealing the ACA. They believe that
by luring people to ignore scientific facts and promoting a certain
brand of religiosity, more people will come to expect God to take care
of their needs and not the government.
Connecting the Dots of Dysfunction
Connecting the dots of the recent display of government dysfunction did not result in a pretty picture.
Kansas
High Court strips law license from former AG Phill Kline for legal
malpractice during his years-long legal jihad against anti-abortion docs
in the state
What
follows in an effort to reconstruct at least the outline of a personal
nightmare inflicted by our government on a small business owner who had
done no wrong, even in the government's eyes -- at least until he
started taking his constitutional rights seriously.]
In
the long run, things do not look good for the Republican Party. Many
radical conservatives have come to see their moderate compatriots as
worse than any liberal Democrat. They see them as traitors to
principle--as politicians who ran scared in the face of the Obama's
"socialist" agenda. Under these circumstances most of the party's
energies might well be taken up with self-destructive infighting.
Ted Cruz as Mad Hatter (But Cruz Isn't Mad, He's a Sociopath)
Sociopaths make the Kool-Aid. The Crazies are the ones who drink it. Both are channels for the spreading of "brokenness" in America in our times.  Best News Links from the Web
Island of Safety Emerges on Kauai
Progress on your right to know: A coalition of individuals, professionals, and government leaders achieve passing a Kaua'i bill that requires large agricultural companies to disclose pesticide use and genetically modified crops, establishes buffer zones around publicly sensitive areas, and requires the completion of an environmental and health fact-finding study on the industry's impacts.
During
an Oct. 12 press conference in Kabul, U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry said that under the pending U.S.-Afghan security agreement, the
United States would retain exclusive jurisdiction over its service
members for any crimes they commit in Afghanistan. Kerry unfortunately
misstated U.S. law, policy and practice. The Washington Post awarded
Kerry "three Pinocchios" for statements containing "significant factual
errors and/or obvious contradictions."
A
team of scientists now report on a new method of rapidly identifying
different molecular species under a microscope. Their technique of
coherent Raman spectro-imaging with two laser frequency combs takes a
big step towards the holy grail of real-time label-free biomolecular
imaging.
JPMorgan
Chase and the Justice Department are moving closer to a $13 billion
settlement over the bank's mortgage practices, a record penalty that
would cap weeks of heated negotiating and underscore the extent of the
bank's legal woes. Until now, JPMorgan was offering about $11 billion in
total. And it was refusing to increase its offer until the Justice
Department dropped a parallel criminal investigation into the bank's
sale of troubled mortgage securities to investors.
A
United Nations investigation has so far identified 33 drone strikes
around the world that have resulted in civilian casualties and may have
violated international humanitarian law. The report by the UN's special
rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson QC, calls
on the US to declassify information about operations co-ordinated by
the CIA and clarify its positon on the legality of unmanned aerial
attacks.
Texas
Republican Senator Ted Cruz potentially violated ethics rules by
failing to publicly disclose his financial relationship with a
Caribbean-based holding company during the 2012 campaign, a review of
financial disclosure and company documents by TIME shows. In the filing,
Cruz, a former lawyer and magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law
School, lists a wide variety of assets held jointly with his wife,
including mutual funds and blue chip stocks totaling between $1.5
million and $4 million. Heidi Nelson Cruz is now an executive at Goldman
Sachs.
Back
in Washington, Kentucky's five-term senator, Mitch McConnell, was being
hailed for pulling the country from the brink. The minority leader
boasted to reporters about his ability to "step into the breach,"
cutting a deal with Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) that reopened
the government and headed off a fiscal crisis. But in the scenic
countryside southeast of Louisville, conservative voters gathered in a
meeting hall at the local farm bureau to slam his deal-making as a
betrayal -- and to consider the bid of McConnell's GOP primary
challenger, Matt Bevin, who pledged to be their voice in Washington.
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