Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday 23 May 2015


Bold and Daring: The Way Progressive News Should Be
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 Daily Headlines
March Against Monsanto 2015 Open Thread
By Rob Kall
I'll be heading out soon to the March Against Monsanto in Chicago.
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Final Phase In Battle To Stop Rigged Corporate Trade
By Margaret Flowers
The debate on rigged corporate trade moves to the final phase -- the US House of Representatives. Right now opponents have the majority but an Obama Onslaught is expected. The movement against rigged corporate trade is going to have to escalate its campaign if we are going to hold the majority and stop fast track for the TPP and other rigged corporate trade agreements.
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Only in America? The False Dichotomy Between Movement Building and Electoral Politics
By Tom Gallagher
"Some day never comes." The time for both electoral politics and movement building is now.
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Let's Hear it for Prohibition: an Interim Way Out of the "Drug War" Mess, 2
By Steven Jonas
Under the "liberal" Gov. Mario Cuomo, New York State built more prison beds than have all the previous governors combined. The "liberal" Pres. Bill Clinton signed the 1994 "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act," introduced in the Senate by the "liberal" Joe Biden. That Act is now recognized as a major driver of mass incarceration, especially of minorities.
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 The 16 Core Progressive Policies, Really?
By David Swanson
What should the U.S. public budget be? Is nearly double the 2001 level too much military spending, too little, or just right? Who knows. Babones doesn't say.
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The Big Banks Are Corrupt -- And Getting Worse
By Richard (RJ) Eskow
In "deferred prosecution" agreements the Justice Department agrees not to prosecute a bank for crimes it has committed if it keeps a promise not to commit those crimes again. It was not clear whether this would lead to any real-world consequences for the bank, however.
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BP Makes Jokes While Wildlife Still Dies From Its Oil Spill
By Martha Rosenberg
or some reason BP thinks there's no hard feelings from its 2010 Gulf oil spill, the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
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Wahhabis go nuclear -- literally
By Pepe Escobar
The proverbial "former Pentagon official" has leaked to a Rupert Murdoch paper that the House of Saud is bound to buy a ready-made nuclear bomb from Pakistan. The choice of media already offers a clue; Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is one of News Corporation's leading shareholders.
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Amtrak's Spectrum Gap
By David Sirota
Amtrak had for years failed to acquire adequate rights to broadcast communications signals through the public airwaves. Without these so-called spectrum rights, Amtrak's trains could not communicate with the electronic brains of the safety system, preventing its use along key stretches of track.
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A Color Revolution for Macedonia
By Paul Craig Roberts
The National Endowment for Democracy was established in 1983. The official purpose is to promote democracy abroad. The real purpose was to create dissension in Soviet Eastern Europe. Today the NED uses our tax money to overthrow governments not aligned with Washington.
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Erroll Garner - "For Once in My Life"
By James Quandy
Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 -- January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard. Scott Yanow of Allmusic calls him "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso"
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Charles Bukowski: "Born Into This"
By James Quandy
Henry Charles Bukowski (born Heinrich Karl Bukowski; August 16, 1920 -- March 9, 1994) was a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer.
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If U.S. Military Spending Returned to 2001 Level
By David Swanson
The House of Representatives has headed out of town to memorialize wars without managing to achieve agreement with the Senate on reauthorizing some of the most abusive "temporary" measures of the PATRIOT Act. Three cheers for Congressional vacations!
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That Time When Bernie Sanders Tried To Debate Michele Bachmann On CNN & Her Comedy Of Errors
By Daily kos
It really was unfair pairing the two. Bernie Sanders knew what he was talking about, defended his positions, and asked pertinent questions, even while continuously being interrupted. When asked to declare her stance on cutting social security and raising the minimum wage, Michele Bachmann dodged and evaded like a boxer avoiding a punch.
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The Debacle That Bites Back: Here We Go Again
By John Grant
The drums of war are again beating as ISIS gains more control in Anbar Province and parts of Syria. Bombing to take back Ramadi from ISIS would be following George W. Bush's Iraq debacle with more of the same, and the result will be more of the same psychopathic reaction. It's time for a new approach.
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Write on, Berkeley right on!
By Bob Patterson
Is there anyone living in Berkeley who isn't a writer?
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Obama Takes Unexpected Setback On Trade Agenda As Fast Track Passes Senate
President Barack Obama's trade agenda suffered a setback Friday evening during a series of last-minute maneuvers in the Senate. While the upper chamber eventually passed a bill that would help Obama streamline a trade pact with 11 Pacific nations, the final product threw a wrench into the president's plans.
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Liquid Plutonium destined for your kid's Capt. Crunch, courtesy of NAFTA/TPP/ISDS?
By Jeanine Molloff
The critical core mechanism of the TPP is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement or ISDS. ISDS allows corporations the unilateral right to sue countries and claim unlimited taxpayer damages. ISDS is a kangaroo court with corporate attorneys serving as judge, jury and executioner.
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Isis 'Controls 50% of Syria' After Seizing Historic City of Palmyra
Islamic State is thought to be holding sway over half of Syria's landmass after its seizure of Palmyra, where it has reportedly begun massacring a rebellious tribe and faces no opposition to sacking the city's ancient ruins.
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Unlike Chavez, Chavistas Appealed to a Powerless US President Who Works for Investors in Genocide!
By Jay Janson
Chavez called Obama a clown, the US a "terrorist government," said intelligence showed that it plans to invade his country. Were Venezuelans petitioning a clown chief executive of a terrorist government planning to invade Venezuela? Though the intention of this petition surely was to bring world attention to US threats, it made Obama look important and helped a criminal war investing elite maintain it's nefarious anonymity.
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U.S. and Israel have worst inequality in the developed world
The U.S. and Israel have the worst inequality in the developed world, according to a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD found that the gap between rich and poor is at record levels in most of its 34 member countries. But the U.S. and Israel stood out from the pack. In the U.S., the richest 10% of the population earn 16.5 times the income of the poorest 10%. In Israel, the richest 10% earn 15 times that of the poorest. That compares with the average ratio of 9.6 times across the OECD. The income gap has been growing steadily in recent decades. In the 1980s, the rich made about 7 times as much as the poor. The report also reveals wealth inequality is even more extreme than income inequality. Data from 2012 shows that among 18 member nations, the top 10% of households controlled half of all wealth, while the bottom 40% owned just 3%.
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Who Will Save Israel?
By Uri Avnery
Israel is famously "the Only Democracy in the Middle East." That is practically its second official name. It is debatable how a state that dominates another people, depriving it of all human rights, not to mention citizenship, can be called a democracy. But Jewish Israelis have been used to this for 48 years, and just ignore this fact.
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 On the U.S. Killing of Two Children in Syria
By David Swanson
If a target of U.S. aggression can be alleged to have killed children, especially with the wrong kind of weapon, that is used as grounds for war. War is supposed to be the cure for that.
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Loretta Lynch: "I Am Very Concerned" For Americans If A Key Section Of The Patriot Act Expires
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she's "very concerned" about what could happen if section 215 of the Patriot Act, set to expire June 1, is not reauthorized by Congress. "My biggest fear is that we will lose important eyes on people who have made it clear that their mission is to harm American people here and abroad," Lynch said. Lynch said she's concerned the U.S. will lose valuable resources for tracking terrorists if the law expires.
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The TPP Must Be Defeated
By Bernie Sanders
Congress is now debating fast track legislation that will pave the way for the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) unfettered free trade agreement. At a time when our middle class is disappearing and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, this anti-worker legislation must be defeated. Here are four reasons why.
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 I Support Katie Roiphe's Moral Stand
By Thomas Farrell
Katie Roiphe (born in 1968), a professor at New York University, has taken a public stand in her article "Why Professors Should Never Have Affairs With Their Students" at Slate Magazine online. I support her stand by drawing on Walter J. Ong's characterization of the professor-student relationship as a fiduciary relationship. But I also discuss certain other matters she raises.
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 Latest Articles
 Best News Links from the Web
Senate Advances Fast-Track For Obama Trade Deals
"I sent a letter to the president of the United States asking how fast-track and the vast Trans-Pacific Partnership would impact the jobs and wages of American workers. A simple question. Would it increase or reduce manufacturing jobs and wages in the United States?" Sessions said before the vote. "Shouldn't we know that? Is that a question improper to be asked? He's refused to answer. I think the reason he's refused to answer is because the answer is not good."
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Israel Calls Off Palestinian Bus Segregation Plans
TEL AVIV--Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrapped a plan that would have barred Palestinians from Israeli public buses in the West Bank following a tide of criticism that it would be a moral embarrassment and would undermine the country's international standing. The policy, which was about to be implemented on Wednesday, was one of first decisions by Mr. Netanyahu's newly inaugurated conservative government. It would have required Palestinian day laborers returning home from jobs inside Israel to take separate buses after crossing back into the West Bank instead of the public transportation used by Jewish settlers who live in the territory. Opposition Israeli lawmakers criticized the defense ministry's plan as something akin to South African apartheid. Had the plan gone into effect on Wednesday, it would have coincided with a visit to the region by two high-profile international...
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Joe Lieberman Says Next President Will Be "Closer" to Israel
Former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, in an interview with JTA, surmised that the next U.S. administration would be friendlier with Israel than the current one. Lieberman predicted that if the 2016 presidential election were held today, a higher percentage of Jewish-Americans would vote Republican than in past races. But he noted that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the party's front-runner for the Democratic nod, could reverse that trend through vocal support of Israel.
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Jeb Bush: "not a shred of evidence" NSA violated rights
Jeb Bush (R) doesn't agree with critics of the National Security Agency's surveillance programs. "There's not a shred of evidence that anybody's civil liberties have been violated by it. Not a shred," Bush said Thursday in New Hampshire. Bush has previously spoken out in favor of NSA surveillance. In April, he offered rare praise for President Obama when he declared the surveillance was the "best part" of the Obama administration.
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Paul Krugman: Trade and Trust
One of the Obama administration's underrated virtues is its intellectual honesty. Yes, Republicans see deception and sinister ulterior motives everywhere, but they're just projecting. The truth is that, in the policy areas I follow, this White House has been remarkably clear and straightforward about what it's doing and why. Every area, that is, except one: international trade and investment. I don't know why the president has chosen to make the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership such a policy priority.
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First Batch of Hillary Clinton Emails Captures Concerns Over Libya
The State Department is expected to release the first batch of emails from Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email address in the coming days. The emails set for release, drawn from some 55,000 pages and focused on Libya, have already been turned over to the special House committee investigating the 2012 attacks on the United States outposts in Benghazi. The New York Times has obtained about a third of the 850 pages of emails. They capture the correspondence and concerns expressed among Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, and her advisers following the attacks, which claimed the lives of the American ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans.
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Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister: "This Land Is Ours"
Israel's new deputy foreign minister on Thursday delivered a defiant message to the international community, saying that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and citing religious texts to back her belief that it belongs to the Jewish people. The speech by Tzipi Hotovely illustrated the influence of hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government, and the challenges he will face as he tries to persuade the world that he is serious about pursuing peace with the Palestinians. Hotovely, 36, is among a generation of young hard-liners in Netanyahu's Likud Party who support West Bank settlement construction and oppose ceding captured land to the Palestinians. Since Netanyahu has a slim one-seat majority in parliament, these lawmakers could complicate any attempt to revive peace talks.
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Innovation Ohio: E-Schools Are Terrible Schools with Politically Powerful Sponsors: by Stephen Dyer at Diane Ravitch
CHARTERS IN OHIO,...KNOW THE REALITY BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR STATE! In a report on the powerful and profitable virtual charter school industry in Ohio, Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio documents the failure of these schools. 35,000 students are enrolled in E-schools. Not a single virtual charter school is rated A or B by the state. Most earn an F.Not a single virtual charter school is rated A or B by the state. The graduation rates at the state's nine virtual charters are abysmal. The worst-performing district in the state has a higher graduation rate than all the E-schools.Why does Ohio continue to fund these low-performing schools? Why are they never held accountable? Because the owners of the two biggest E-schools make generous campaign donations to important elected officials.
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No Debate Equals No Democracy: The Folly of Fast Track; by John Nichols
Senate cloture vote limits debate, restricts amendments and erects another barrier to honest discourse about trade policy. The decision on whether to surrender the authority of the US Congress to amend and potentially improve trade agreements goes to the very heart of whether the United States respects democracy. If members of the House and Senate cannot check and balance executive branch choices that will define the economic future of the country, then the ability of the American people to petition for the redress of economic and social grievances and to have those grievances addressed by their elected representatives is severely undermined. That is what is at stake with debates about whether to eliminate basic congressional oversight of trade deals, via the "fast track" Trade Promotion Authority that President Obama seeks.
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What ISIS Really Wants; By Graeme Wood, The Atlantic
The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here's what that means for its strategy--and for how to stop it.. In the past yea Obama has referred to ISIS, variously, as "not Islamic" and as al-Qaeda's "jayvee team," statements that reflected confusion about the group. Says Wood: "We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that changeand that it considers itself a harbinger of--and headline player in--the imminent end of the world." Orwell warned about Hitler's APPEAL: "I offer you a good time," , "I offer you struggle, danger, and death," and as a result a whole nation flung itself at his feet". Grasp this!
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Trade and Trust ; by Pul Krugman NYTimes.
the selling of the 12-nation Pacific Rim pact has the feel of a snow job. Officials have evaded the main concerns about the content of a potential deal; they've belittled and dismissed the critics; and they've made blithe assurances that turn out not to be true. The administration's main analytical defense of the trade deal came earlier this month, in a report from the Council of Economic Advisers. Strangely, however, the report didn't actually analyze the Pacific trade pact. Instead, it was a paean to the virtues of free trade, which was irrelevant to the question at hand.Instead of addressing real concerns, however, the Obama administration has been dismissive, trying to portray skeptics as uninformed hacks who don't understand the virtues of trade. But they're not: the skeptics have on balance been more right than wrong about issues
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