Noam Chomsky: Ecology, Ethics, Anarchism
Javier Sethness, Truthout: Noam Chomsky speaks with Truthout about how indigenous peoples are trying to save the world from anthropogenic climate disruption and the havoc being wrought by what he calls “really existing capitalist democracies.”
Nomi Prins | The Real Vice President of the United States Is Wall Street
Nomi Prins, Nation Books: In All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power, Wall Street journalist and former Goldman Sachs executive Nomi Prins writes a painstakingly researched history of the financial industry’s collusion with the White House to create a self-serving United States financial policy.
Joseph Stiglitz | Why Inequality Matters and What Can Be Done About It
Joseph Stiglitz, Next New Deal: In the past, when our country reached extremes of inequality, at the end of the 19th century, in the gilded age, or in the Roaring 20s, it pulled back from the brink…. We are now at one of these pivotal points in history. I hope we once again will make the right decisions.
Should GM Get the Death Penalty for 57 Cent Premeditated Murder?
The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program: Executives at General Motors have answered the age-old question of how much is a life worth. A life is worth 57 cents. That’s how much the faulty ignition switch piece that GM executives chose not to fix costs. The company recalled nearly 2.6 million vehicles because of this problem – which has caused the deaths of 13 people.
Facebook and the Future of Global Governance
Emanuel Pastreich, Truthout: Although Facebook is a for-profit organization that treats its users as potential advertisers and uses the information gathered from those users as a private commodity for sale to third parties, its users could transform Facebook – or some future avatar of Facebook – into a form of participatory democratic global governance.
Border Crossings Refocus Immigration Debate on Families
Victoria Law, Waging Nonviolence: In 2007, Elvira Arellano, a single mother from Mexico who made headlines after spending one year seeking sanctuary in Chicago’s churches, was deported. On March 18, she returned to the US as part of a mass border crossing organized by the Bring Them Home campaign.
Paul Krugman | Ignoring the Evidence and Waiting for Inflation
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: The budget deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product and the rate of growth of the monetary base in the US both exploded to unprecedented levels in recent years – yet inflation went nowhere and is, in fact, running below the Federal Reserve’s target.
Hijacking the American Plane of State: Old Scripts and Empty Stories Signal a New Age
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: If you want a news story that will glue eyes, then think of it this way: On September 12, 2001, the national security state entered the cockpit of the plane of state, hijacked it and steered it directly for the Bermuda Triangle – and here is the strangest thing of all: No one even noticed.
Ten Things Wrong With What Kids Learn In School
Marion Brady, The Washington Post: Educators have been handicapped for more than a century by a curriculum adopted to serve a too-narrow purpose – admission to college – and the failure to address that curriculum’s problems has made the institution vulnerable to destructive corporate manipulation.
Economic Update: Building Worker Co-Ops
Richard D. Wolff, Economic Update/Truthout: Updates on Supreme Court McCutcheon decision on campaign financing; global meaning of French municipal elections; special impacts on women of raising minimum wages; and corporations’ cash hoards cause unemployment and cut government services. Interview with Vanessa Bransburg, who supports and builds successful worker co-ops in Brooklyn, New York. Response to listener on scarcity and its economic effects.
UN Climate Panel Issues Dire Warning of Threat to Global Food Supply, Calls for Action and Adaption
Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its most dire warning yet about how greenhouse gases have driven up global temperatures and extreme weather, threatening sources of food and water.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
BuzzFlash
The Fight Against Being Commodified Must Never Stop; We Are Not Brands, We Are Humans With Souls
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: It is a struggle to resist the corporate effort to extract our souls and turn us into 24-hour marketing targets. However, to succumb is to sacrifice our humanity.
How Climate Change Will Kill Us in the Dumbest Possible Way
The Shocking Rise of Wealth Inequality: Is It Worse Than We Thought?
What If America Honored the Latent Genius of Every Student?
New Bill Would Force Obama Administration to Count Drone Deaths
Read the Article at The Huffington Post
I Stood Up to the Supreme Court. It Just Struck Down Democracy. What Now?
Read the Article at the Guardian UK
Charles P. Pierce | The Cri De Koch
The Perils of Private Welfare: Job-Based Benefits and American Inequality