Subways Are an NYPD Hotspot in de Blasio’s New York
Raven Rakia, Truthout: A boost in New York City’s subway arrests for minor violations such as dancing is putting the same people through the criminal justice system as did stop-and-frisk: young, black and Latino men.
George Lakoff | The Strict Father Is at the Core of Conservative Ideology and Values
George Lakoff, Truthout: In this excerpt from Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, George Lakoff explains how progressives can better express values that improve the common good – through political language that appeals to people’s better selves.
Community Corrections: Profiteering, Corruption and Widening the Net
Kay Whitlock, Critical Mass Progress: How is it that, as a society, we have endorsed the idea that people in prison or under the control of “community corrections” should be seen as commodities for private, for-profit services that often rely upon quotas guaranteed by federal or state law, or written into contracts?
San Francisco Homeless Advocates to Public Transit Police: “Stop Criminalizing Homelessness”
Andrew Klein, Truthout: San Francisco homeless advocates are challenging a policy, implemented in July 2014, authorizing the police force of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system to arrest individuals resting or sleeping against BART station walls.
G20 and Beyond: The Future Is Watching You
Niall McLaren, Truthout: The G20 summit meeting in Brisbane has two levels: the overt grandstanding and posturing that politicians love, and a deeper, far more sinister agenda.
The 2014 Midterm Elections, Incorporated
Ben Cohen, Truthout: In Washington, it doesn’t matter if you are a Republican, Democrat or independent: Money reigns supreme. During the last election, a number of global corporations contributed to both candidates in hotly contested Senate races. Corporations don’t really care who does their bidding.
Black Community Crisis: Police Violence in Brazil
Christen A. Smith, Truthout: November 20 is Brazil’s Black Consciousness Day. For a group of black mothers in Bahia, this year’s action will not be about traditional black political questions like affirmative action or identity politics, but about the crisis of lethal racial profiling by police.
PolitiFact Left the House Without Its Pants On
Thom Hartmann, The Thom Hartmann Program: “Talking about the Keystone pipeline and the Koch brothers earlier this month, I said that, ‘The Kochs stand to make around $100 billion if the government approves the Keystone XL pipeline’… In all of its fact-checking and flaw detection, PolitiFact’s PunditFact missed the point that I was trying to make.”
Wall Street Journal Reports: Bank of North Dakota Outperforms Wall Street
Ellen Brown, The Web of Debt Blog: The Bank of North Dakota’s public banking model is simply more profitable and efficient than the private model. Profits, rather than being siphoned into offshore tax havens, are recycled back into the bank, the state and the community.
The Outpost That Doesn’t Exist in the Country You Can’t Locate
Nick Turse, TomDispatch: The United States has for more than a decade poured copious amounts of money, time and effort into making Chad a stable regional counterterrorism partner, sending troops there, training and equipping its army and looking the other way when its military employed child soldiers.
An Embattled ALEC, Buoyed by Election Results, Lays Blueprint for 2015
Brendan Fischer, PR Watch: The midterm elections may have given the embattled American Legislative Exchange Council a new lease on life. With Republicans now in control of 68 out of 98 state legislative bodies, there are fewer impediments to the enactment of the corporate-friendly legislation that ALEC peddles.
This Will Make You Think Twice About Getting That Manicure
Michelle Chen, The Nation: The materials used in salon treatments like perms and manicures are as dangerous as any industrial chemical. However, unlike industrial workplaces where protective equipment is often the norm, regulation remains a gray area in salons.
BuzzFlash
Oil Company Tries to Shake Down California County for $1.2 Billion for Banning Fracking
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: When the votes are counted and public health and the earth’s future are “elected” over the toxic profits of one company, shouldn’t democracy prevail?
There Have Now Been More Than 90 School Shootings Since Sandy Hook
Ferguson and the “Us vs. Them” Illusion
How Police Use Military Tactics to Quash Dissent
Energy East: Big Oil’s New Keystone XL
Read the Article at The Huffington Post
Elizabeth Warren Torches GOP on Trickle-Down Economics
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo
“Electoral Integrity Project” Report Ranks US 26th Among World Democracies
Read the Article at The Brad Blog
Occupy Madison’s Village of Tiny Houses for the Homeless Officially Open
Read the Article at The Cap Times
Spirit In Action 