Four Years After BP: Hunting for Oil Spills in Louisiana
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: As we approach the four-year anniversary of the disastrous BP oil rig explosion that caused massive pollution to the Gulf region, large numbers of smaller oil spills continue to be a problem.
The US Government: Paying to Undermine Internet Security, Not to Fix It
Julia Angwin, ProPublica: The United States spends more than $50 billion a year on spying and intelligence. But the Heartbleed bug reveals our neglect of internet security.
Arundhati Roy: Is India on a Totalitarian Path?
Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!: One of India’s most famous authors and fiercest critics, Arundhati Roy, is out with a new book, Capitalism: A Ghost Story, which dives into India’s transforming political landscape and makes the case that globalized capitalism has intensified the wealth divide, racism and environmental degradation.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
Markets Are the Problem (Not the Solution)
Michael D. Yates, Truthout: Underlying Abu Dhabi’s luxury island resort, Saadiyat Island, is an army of laborers who arrive heavily indebted, only to be brutally exploited by sponsoring employers, who confiscate their passports. Workers are not free to leave, even if they have not been paid.
Putting Heroin Users in Jail Won’t Help Louisiana’s Crime Rate
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Brennan Center for Justice: It is not draconian prison sentences for drug offenders that “win” the war on drugs, but addiction treatment. Unfortunately, some in Louisiana – the state with the nation’s highest incarceration rate – are still moving backward.
The Middle Class Is Not “Normal”
The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program: We have a choice in this country to either continue going down the road to oligarchy, the road we’ve been on since the Reagan years, or we can choose to go on the road to a more pluralistic society with working class people able to make it into the middle class. We can’t have both.
Post-Katrina: Will New Orleans Still Be New Orleans?
Maureen O’Hagan, Equal Voice: After Katrina, New Orleans authorities threw out the entire public education system. They knocked down public housing projects. They shuttered the longtime charity hospital. In many ways, it was a top-to-bottom re-imagining of the cityscape.
Taxes, the Rich, and Our Known Universe
Sam Pizzigati, Too Much: Pick a political phenomenon in the United States today. Somewhere in the shadows, if you dig deep enough, you’ll find a billionaire feverishly pulling levers to avoid paying higher taxes. Or some politician, just as fevered, working to remain in that billionaire’s good graces.
How to Criticize “Big Philanthropy” Effectively
Joanne Barkan, Dissent Magazine: When philanthropists enter the public policy fray, they – like everyone else – legitimately become fair game for criticism and opposition. Tax-exempt status shouldn’t create sacred cows.
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: Notorious white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller has been charged with killing three people at two Jewish community sites in Kansas. Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross, has openly railed against Jews and African Americans for decades.
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BuzzFlash
Oklahoma Prohibits Cities From Raising the Minimum Wage While Voting in Tax Credits for Investors
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: The minimum wage is not even enough to comfortably survive on, but Oklahoma is vowing to ensure that workers sacrifice increased pay to subsidize the wealthy.
Princeton Concludes What Kind of Government the United States Really Has, and It’s Not a Democracy
Prisons Are the New Gulags for the Mentally Ill
Here’s What Fracking Can Do to Your Health
Read the Article at Mother Jones
Maxim of the Oligarchy: The Affluence of the Few Supposes the Indigence of the Many
Tax Havens Leave US Filers $1,259 Tab Each, Report Says
Read the Article at Bloomberg News
Jim Hightower | NSA Spying Is Here to Stay
The Silencing of Occupy Wall Street Activist Cecily McMillan
