Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday 5 December 2014


 Daily Headlines

We saw all this unfold before our very eyes.The spark was the 9/11 attacks.It unleashed a cultural tidal wave of war fever in military circles,never-ending threats recited on TV,& other militarized responses that swamped the culture.We're still living with those reverberations:the military-industrial complex re-invented,siphoned billions for new arms & the growth of the data-centric national security state exposed by Snowden.

A Staten Island grand jury voted on Wednesday not to bring criminal charges in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after being placed in a chokehold by a white police officer.
The political crisis facing President Obama and the Democratic Party results from a profound loss of faith in the U.S. government, made worse by Obama's obsessive secrecy. But he could address both problems by opening the books on some key hidden chapters relevant to today, writes Robert Parry.

The best aspect of the sharing the work route is that state and local governments can take the initiative to improve both the work environment and employment prospects for their workers. They don't have to wait for action from Washington. That's a good thing, since those waiting for Washington to take steps to bring the economy back to full employment are likely to be waiting a long time.
Let the refugees die. Who cares? The main thing is that the war goes on -- in Syria, in Iraq, in Somalia, in Afghanistan, where the hell ever. Who cares? None of these nations matter. None of these people matter. Nor do the "folks at home." Barack Obama and David Cameron -- and all of their wanna-be successors -- know that their policies are simply creating more terrorists, more extremism, more violence, more repression.
Sanders said he is convinced, after visiting not just Iowa and New Hampshire but Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Carolina, Mississippi, California and other states, that "there is a real hunger in grassroots America for a fight against the greed of the billionaire class, which is wrecking havoc on our economic and political system."
As people express outrage over the grand jury decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown case, facts are emerging showing the inconsistencies in Wilson's version of what happenend in the fatal shooting incident.
While Mubarak and his cronies are immunized for their savage crimes, 188 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who participated in anti-Sisi protests that led to the deaths of 11 police officers, were handed death sentences today en masse.
By John Whitehead
America's Children: The Trials of Growing Up in a Police State
After a year dominated with news of police shootings of unarmed citizens (including children), SWAT team raids gone awry, photo ops of militarized police shouldering assault rifles while perched on top of armored vehicles, and reports on how police are using asset forfeiture laws to pad their pockets with luxury cars, cash and other expensive toys, I find myself asking: how do you prepare a child for life in a police state?
Democracy is dead in America.
The past 10 years paint a dramatic picture of climate-related changes at the top of the world. First there were massive forest fires that torched a record 4.2 million hectares of trees in the Yukon and Alaska in 2004.

'Asteroid Day' to Raise Awareness of Space Rock Threat
Humanity can dramatically reduce its frightening vulnerability to cataclysmic asteroid strikes with just a little extra funding and a little extra effort. That's the main message of "Asteroid Day," an educational campaign that launched today (Dec. 3) at a joint news conference held both here at the California Academy of Sciences and in London.
A Drug Might Heal Spinal Injuries
A scientist who chose to ignore the mainstream nearly 30 years ago has found a new way to regenerate nerves in the spinal cord, at least in animals. A scientist who chose to ignore the mainstream nearly 30 years ago has found a new way to regenerate nerves in the spinal cord, at least in animals. A drug that Jerry Silver, a professor of neuroscience at Case Western Reserve University, helped design has allowed paralyzed rats to regain bladder function and even walk.
By Shirley Braverman
California Pharmacists Become Health-Care Providers!
Pharmacists prescribing drugs and ordering tests enrich the scope of the Health-Care Teams in California and three other states.
Renaissance art erased Jesus Jewish heritage and identity. The book "Gospel Figures in Art" exemplifies this identity theft with over 300 images that convert Jesus,his family,and followers into later era Christians without a hint of any Jewish connection for these figures, who,in fact, were all dedicated practicing Jews. This article calls on the art world to finally redress the falsification of biblical history in artworks.

West Antarctic melt rate has tripled in last decade -- ScienceDaily
A comprehensive, 21-year analysis of the fastest-melting region of Antarctica has found that the melt rate of glaciers there has tripled during the last decade. The glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica are hemorrhaging ice faster than any other part of Antarctica and are the most significant Antarctic contributors to sea level rise. This study is the first to evaluate and reconcile observations from four different measurement techniques to produce an authoritative estimate of the amount and the rate of loss over the last two decades.
By Daniel Patrick Welch
Whitey to Whitey: Yes, it's us--y'all need to change, and that Right Soon
a searing look into Ferguson, police violence, and race in America from a blunt and intensely personal perspective. It is time to wake up. Our kids' lives depend on it, and they matter.
At the end of the day, the greatest neocon triumph is its continued grip over policy with Russia, which is the sole power in the world that can attack and destroy much of the United States. The confrontation with Moscow makes no sense as the only United States vital interest at stake is to maintain a good working relationship, but the tension continues to mount.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague is tiptoeing closer to a confrontation with the United States. The key issue is U.S. detention practices, and the alleged use of torture, in Afghanistan. A report just released by the office of the court's prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, for the first time explicitly names U.S. forces as potential culprits. The second George W. Bush administration and Barack Obama's administration have taken small but meaningful steps toward a productive working relationship. But if the court's interest in U.S. misdeeds in Afghanistan continues, that truce could end.
In delivering a vote of "no true bill," jurors determined there was not probable cause that a crime was committed by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was seen on a widely watched amateur video wrapping his arm around Eric Garner's neck as the 43-year-old yelled, "I can't breathe!" Garner, who had been stopped by Pantaleo and several other NYPD officers, including two sergeants, on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Median household income has fallen by nearly 8 percent since 2000, and, according to the US Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of overall income in the US than ever before. One of the reasons for that is because good jobs and good wages have disappeared.
To Counter Rise of Oligarchy, Sanders Pitches Progressive Economic Vision
In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced his vision for a progressive economic agenda that he says could restore shared prosperity, reinvigorate the middle class, and mitigate a host of social crises that stem from the current system that has created great wealth for a select few while systematically eroding the quality of life for the many.
Ukraine's energy authorities said on Wednesday that an accident at a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya in the south-east of the country posed no danger and the plant would return to normal operations on Dec. 5. "There is no threat ... there are no problems with the reactors," Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn, who took up his post in a new government only on Tuesday, told a briefing. Demchyshyn, said the accident which happened on Friday in one of the six blocs at Zaporizhzhya, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, had been caused by a short circuit in the power outlet system and was "in no way" linked to power production.

Ukraine's parliament approved the formation of a new government Tuesday, bringing an end to weeks of behind-the-scenes political wrangling following an October election that ushered in a group of pro-Western parties. With the backing of parliament now secured, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, 40, will continue in a position he has occupied since February. New Cabinet ministers include several figures who received Ukrainian citizenship by presidential decree, including Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, an American with experience working for the U.S. State Department.
McConnell told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council annual meeting, "By any objective standard the president got crushed in this election. So I've been perplexed by the reaction since the election, the sort of in your face dramatic move to the left. I don't know what we can expect in terms of reaching bipartisan agreement." This is the same Mitch McConnell who promised before the election that he would break Obama and force him to do the Republican Party's bidding. McConnell intended to accomplish this goal by using government shutdowns to force the president's hand.
Ukraine may lead to war with Russia. U.S. House Resolution in Congress 758 may be the legal basis for a future president seeking an authorization for war against Russia.
By Michael Roberts
Staten Island: New York's Copland
The Eric Garner Non-Indictment;The Whitest And Most Racist Borough Is An Ultra-Conservative Outpost And Bastion Of Reputed Mafioso
By David Swanson
Israel's Secret
Here in Virginia, U.S.A., I'm aware that the native people were murdered, driven out, and moved westward. But what if it had just happened a moment ago, historically speaking? What if my parents had been children or teenagers? What if my grandparents and their generation had conceived and executed the genocide?

 Latest Articles

For a capitalist economist, Thomas Piketty went far, but just so far. To where he didn't get in his critique of capitalism and its results is the subject of this column.

Breaking taboos, reaping dividends
Consider these statistics: Globally, 370,000 million children are married every day. By 2020, an additional 142 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday. Six million adolescent pregnancies occur in South Asia--90% of them inside marriage. Further, 34% of all unsafe abortions in the Asia-Pacific region happen to women below the age of 25.
Privatize Everything!
Somewhat satirical, disturbingly true forecast of the effort to privatize everything.

 Best News Links from the Web

An appeals court panel in New Orleans on Wednesday stayed the execution of a Texas man, in a case that has gained national attention as a test for issues surrounding the execution of the mentally ill. The decision postponed the execution saying the court needed time to consider the larger issues surrounding the case. The man, Scott Panetti, 56, was scheduled to be executed Wednesday in the 1992 slaying of his wife's parents with a deer rifle as his horrified wife and daughter looked on. Panetti represented himself at his subsequent trial, wearing a cowboy costume with a purple bandanna while trying to call more than 200 witnesses, including the pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus.