politics for the 99%

Published on Mashable, by Matt Petronzio, Sept 11, 2014.

Birth control pills and traditional latex condoms have been among the most popular and effective methods of contraception for decades. But innovators think it’s time for an upgrade — not only to increase protection, but also to establish safe sex as a basic human right.

Health organizations and forward-thinking companies are making breakthroughs in the field of contraception, working to develop new products such as hormone-releasing microchips, radically redesigned condoms and even low-cost male birth control injections that could last up to 15 years.   Continue Reading…

Published on YahooNews, by Zach Campbell, Sara Miller Llana, Sept 7, 2014 - (Recommended: 10 Immigration myths debunked, on Christian Science Monitor, by Amy Taxin, July 12, 2014).

Two brothers from Senegal sought a better life in Europe. Only one of them made it. But their experiences highlight the pressure on European governments to fairly tackle illegal immigration … //

… Today, Yalou is part of Spain’s undocumented migrant class, working as a street seller in Bilbao. Ndiaye also works as a street seller, but in a market on the outskirts of Tangier, Morocco. They haven’t seen each other in years.   Continue Reading…

Published on The Washington Post, by Ishaan Tharoor, Sept 9, 2014 (beginning with 37 photos).

… In Indian-administered Kashmir, heavy monsoon rains led to surging floodwaters and the deaths of at least 175 people. Across the disputed border in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, the floods have claimed more than 60 lives, in addition to 131 in Punjab province. It is the mountainous region’s worst flooding in six decades, submerging hundreds of villages and prompting a crisis that has led to a brief thaw in ties between two bickering foes. // Continue Reading…

.Published on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Sept 9, 2014.

… To put it in crude terms, we see a split between readers who are primarily interested in social justice issues, and ones that are more interested in the more technical aspects of finance and economics. For instance, we’ve had members of Occupy Wall Street complain to us about the amount of non-finance discussion in comments, that from their perspective, it made the comments section (which we’ve regarded as one of the strong features of the site) unusable for hard core finance types … // Continue Reading…

• SIPC Insurance Scam from Fraud Street – Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, on USA Watchdog, by Greg Hunter, Sept 7, 2014;
• Video: nachdenKEN über: Geistige Generalmobilmachung, 34.07, von wwwKenMde am 1. Sept 2014 hochgeladen: Wollt Ihr den Globalen Krieg?
• Article: Federal Reserve: A Stunning Failure – James Corbett, on USA Watchdog, by Greg Hunter, Aug 27, 2014;
• Video: NATO’s broken promises bring world closer to global war, 5.25 min, uploaded by RT, Aug 27, 2014;
• Video: We Are Headed for Global War, Fukushima Update and More – James Corbett, 25.40 min, uploaded by Greg Hunter, Aug 26, 2014: James Corbett of The CorbettReport.com says it looks like we are headed towards global war …;
• Audio: Hang In Or Hang Up – Martin Armstrong, 48.01 min, uploaded by FSN Goldand Silver, July 26, 2014 … Website: Financial Survival Network FSN;

Continue Reading…

Interview with Sam Gindin, 26.59 min, on New Politics, by Lois Weiner, August 31, 2014 (also on YouTube, uploaded there by Stephen Shalom, August 31, 2014).

Sam Grindin:

• on JACOBIN, Reason in Revolt;
• on YORK University;
• on Verso Books;
• on Monthly Review;   Continue Reading…

Published on Al-Ahrm weekly online, by Reem Leila, Sept 4, 2014.

A recent court ruling by the Administrative Court refutes the European Court of Human Rights’ take on the niqab. On 1 July, the Kafr Al-Sheikh Administrative Court (AC), headed by Counselor Mohamed Abdel-Wahab Khafagi, issued a ruling that allows working women who wear the niqab (the face veil prescribed by Wahhabi and Salafi strands of Islam) the right to wear it in public and at their place of work. The ruling cancels an earlier decision by former minister of health Maha Al-Rabbat, who had banned the plaintiff, a nurse named Amal Mohamed Ibrahim, from wearing the niqab during work hours. According to the court ruling, the face veil is a matter of personal freedom provided that the employee otherwise abides by the work uniform.   Continue Reading…

… The Dynamic Reorganization of the Spanish Left – Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s e-bulletin no 1031, by Mario Candeias, Sept 3, 2014.

It is no longer enough to win over civil society, occupy public spaces, take to the streets, carry out symbolic actions, prevent evictions, or to win plebiscites. In Spain movements for ‘real democracy’ are setting a course to capture institutions – albeit with the aim to recreate these institutions in a constitutive process in the interests of ‘real democracy’ … //

… Splintering or a Convergence of the Left? 2014: Continue Reading…

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Nikolaus Blome, Ralf Neukirch, Christian Reiermann, Mathieu von Rohr and Christoph Schult, Sept 3, 2014 (Photo Gallery).

The debate over Germany’s insistence on euro-zone austerity has flared anew as an ailing France continues to demand economic stimulus. The European Central Bank may now be siding with Paris, leaving Merkel looking increasingly alone … // Continue Reading…

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Gerald Traufetter and Matthias Schepp, Sept 2, 2014.

Igor Sechin, head of the oil giant Rosneft, is considered by many to be the second most powerful man in Russia. In an interview, he speaks with SPIEGEL about natural gas deliveries to Europe, the Ukraine crisis and the damage caused by economic sanctions … // Continue Reading…

Published on Stars and Stripes, Aug 30, 2014.

MAKHMUR, Iraq — It’s an Islamic State fighter’s worst fear: to be killed by a woman. In northern Iraq, where Kurdish forces are rapidly regaining territory held by the Islamic State, that’s becoming real risk for the extremists … // Continue Reading…

Published on SteveLendmanBlog, by Stephen Lendman, Sept 01, 2014.

Labor Day once had meaning. Workers had reason to celebrate hard won rights. No longer. More on this below. The day is commemorated on the first Monday of September. It’s been so since 1882. In June 1894, it became a federal holiday. It was when workers had few rights. Management controlled things. Labor was systematically exploited. Continue Reading…

Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s e-bulletin no. 1029, by Leo Panitch, Aug 31, 2014.

International attention has been diverted away from this year’s G20 meetings in Australia by the declaration from the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, at their meeting in Fortaleza Brazil this July, that they would launch a new “BRICS bank.”

Created by the U.S. Treasury in the wake of the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 1990s, the G20 was designed to get the major “emerging market” states to take responsibility alongside the G7 for the “new international financial architecture.” This was seen as providing legitimacy for the continuing central role of the U.S. in superintending a greatly expanded but increasingly volatile global capitalism … // Continue Reading…

2014-08-01: Worker’s alternatives;
2014-08-02: global de-dollarization – World Bank whistleblower – money laundering;
2014-08-03: The Orange Social Design Award: help us make our cities more liveable;
2014-08-04: Human trafficking is rampant in Canada;
2014-08-05: Ukraine … questions and non-answers;
2014-08-06: 50 US experts head to West Africa to contain outbreak of Ebola;
2014-08-07: Sick of this market-driven world? You should be;
2014-08-08: Why National Security Has Nothing to Do With Security;
2014-08-09: Pushing LBJ Into War: Robert S. McNamara and the Real Tonkin Gulf Deception;
2014-08-10: Gluttons of Information: The Metadata Confusion in Oz;
2014-08-11: A Financial Casino Would Be a Step Up From What We Have;
2014-08-12: Nanoelectronics meets biology: From new tools to electronic therapeutics;
2014-08-13: The responsibility for ISIS doesn’t lie with the West;
2014-08-14: Cry for Argentina: Fiscal Mismanagement, Odious Debt or Pillage?
2014-08-15: One Nation Under SWAT;
2014-08-16: What White People Can Do About the Killing of Black Men in America;
2014-08-17: Obama, Zuma and the Washington-Pretoria-Tel Aviv Relay;
2014-08-18: key-search: alternative development projects;
2014-08-19: What Do the World Bank and IMF Have to Do With the Ukraine Conflict?
2014-08-20: COMMENT: The second assassination of Mike Brown;
2014-08-21: The Islamic State;
2014-08-22: POVERTY;
2014-08-23: AGROFORESTRY;
2014-08-24: German NGO says TTIP will undermine global food security;
2014-08-25: Bank of America to Pay $16.65 Billion to Settle Mortgage Fraud Charges;
2014-08-26: Monetary policy in the US and EU after quantitative easing;
2014-08-27: GEOPOLITICS;
2014-08-28: Dozens of police departments suspended for losing US military-grade weaponry;
2014-08-29: We-commerce: The sharing economy’s uncertain path to changing the world;
2014-08-30: Ukraine and Russia: War, not Peace;
2014-08-31: Gabriel Kolko’s Unfinished Revolution.
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All articles sorted chronologically.

Published on Zmagazine, by Eli Cook, Aug 24, 2014.

Gabriel Kolko, historian and socialist, died last month in his home in Amsterdam. He was 81.

When Kolko’s The Triumph of Conservatism appeared on the scene in 1963, it was not only a book of history but heresy. This was the era in which American liberalism reigned supreme, and social commentators such as Daniel Bell confidently assured the public that the formula for sustained economic prosperity and political freedom had been uncovered in the form of a capitalist system kept in check by a powerful and centralized regulatory government.   Continue Reading…

Published on The Economist, Aug 30, 2014 … and more on Google News-search (my comment: … and the whole blackmailed or otherwise dump elite is unable to stop this mess, as money, power and influences are more important than peoples – Heidi).

… All this came after Mr Poroshenko met Vladimir Putin, for the first time since June, in the margins of a summit in Minsk. The meeting began icily and achieved little. Russia’s interests—keeping Ukraine out of NATO—have not changed. Even if many Russians are ready to buy claims of soldiers “accidentally” crossing the border, the rest of the world is not. Yet Mr Putin still maintains that the war is a “domestic matter”, and calls for negotiations to include representatives of eastern regions. The Kremlin will prop up its rebel proxies to ensure they are not defeated, but has no desire for a full-scale invasion. “Military activities are an instrument for strengthening their political position ahead of negotiations,” says Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a journal … // Continue Reading…

Published on Tech Republic, by Lyndsey Gilpin, Aug 27, 2014.

Peer-to-peer collaboration is gaining ground and changing the economics of the future, but there are questions to answer and obstacles to overcome … //

… States of sharing:

• The sharing economy is here to stay. It is a small but rapidly expanding market that is transforming social, economic, and environmental practices.   Continue Reading…

Published on Russia Today RT, by Lucy Nicholson, Aug 27, 2014.

Close to 200 state and local police departments in the United States have been suspended for losing military-level equipment transferred to them by the Pentagon, a new investigation found …;

According to the media outlet Fusion, its independent investigation into the Pentagon’s “1033 program,” which equips state and local police departments across the US with excess military equipment, turned up an alarming trend: Not only did many law enforcement agencies fail to comply with the program’s guidelines, they routinely lost dangerous weaponry.   Continue Reading…

Mixed Links:

• Companies shrugging off sanctions and geopolitics for now, on CMCmarkets, by Michael Hewson, Aug 26, 2014;
• The rhetoric of bilateral talks, on Geopolitical Analysis, by K.N. Pandita, Aug 26, 2014;
• Iran displays Israeli drone downed near nuclear facility (VIDEO), on Russia Today RT, Aug 26, 2014;   Continue Reading…

… Monetary policy in the US and EU after quantitative easing, the case for asset based reserve requirements ABRR – Published on Real World Economics Review, issue no 68, by Thomas I. Palley, Aug 21, 2014.

• Abstract: This paper critiques the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) exit strategy which aims to deactivate excess liquidity via higher interest rates on reserves. That is equivalent to giving banks a tax cut at the public’s expense. It also risks domestic and international financial market turmoil. The paper proposes an alternative exit strategy based on ABRR which avoids the adverse fiscal and financial market impacts of higher interest rates. ABRR also increase the number of monetary policy instruments which can permanently improve policy. This is especially beneficial for euro zone countries. Furthermore, ABRR yield fiscal benefits via increased seignorage and can shrink a financial sector that is too large. Continue Reading…

Published on CorpWatch, by Pratap Chatterjee, Aug 21, 2014.

Bank of America has agreed to pay the government $9.65 billion to settle charges of misleading investors over mortgage lending in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis. The bank will also pay out an additional $7 billion to help borrowers and communities affected by the loans.

The settlement agreement was hammered out by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the attorney generals of six states – California, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Maryland. Similar large multi billion dollar settlements over mortgage related fraud have recently been reached with JP Morgan and Citigroup for$13 billion and $7 billion respectively.   Continue Reading…

Published on EurActiv, July 25, 2014.

.The German aid organisation Brot für die Welt warns that a planned EU-US free trade agreement known as TTIP will undermine local support for smallholders in developing countries and exacerbate the global food crisis. EurActiv Germany reports … //

… Support for regional food products under question: … //

… Local farmers disadvantaged:   Continue Reading…

Achieving food and nutritional security through family farming – Published on World Agroforestry Centre, by Kate Langford, August 20, 2014.

With the International Year of Family Farming taking place in 2013, renowned Indian agricultural scientist, M S Swaminathan looks at what is needed to support these most important of producers in achieving food as well as nutritional security, especially in India.

It is estimated there are around 500 million farming families in the world. The International Year of Family Farming “offers an opportunity for achieving a shift from food security to nutrition security,” says Swaminathan. “Family farms tend to be based on crop, livestock, fish, agroforestry and mixed farming systems” which means they lend themselves to being made both nutrition and environment sensitive.   Continue Reading…

• Child Poverty in the Wake of Economic Recovery, 23.33 min, uploaded by Carsey School of Public Policy, Aug 7, 2014;
• Van Jones: The Green Collar Economy, 59.30 min, uploaded by Othilia Bergqvist, July 31, 2014;
• Lecture Series: Michael M. Miller on Rethinking Poverty, 54.32 min, uploaded by Aquinas College, April 24, 2014;
• The Face of Poverty in Europe and Central Asia, 24.50 min, uploaded by World Bank, Feb 10, 2014;
• The Truth About Poverty, 31.15 min, uploaded by Stefan Molyneux, Jan 9, 2014;         Continue Reading…

• * (Inside) The Islamic State FULL, 42.31 min, uploaded by VICEnews, Aug 14, 2014;
• Der Islamische Staat und die Ästhetik des Wahnsinns, Die Welt, von Jan Küveler, 18. August 2014: erstmals zeigt eine TV-Reportage den Islamischen Staat (IS) von innen. Bester Laune planen seine Bürger die grausamsten Gräueltaten. Das Böse zeigt sich in seiner ganzen Unschuld. Das Erstaunlichste an der Reportage aus dem syrischen ar-Raqqa*, de facto Hauptstadt des Islamischen Staats (IS), die einem Reporter des Internetmagazins “Vice” sensationellerweise gelang, ist die Offenheit und Freundlichkeit der Menschen. Das Kind, das angibt, später einmal lieber Dschihadist als Selbstmordattentäter werden zu wollen, lächelt scheu-kokett. Sein Vater, genannt der Belgier, weil er dort lange lebte, bevor er nach ar-Raqqa kam, um einen Gebetstruck zu fahren, muss gerührt weinen, wenn er verspricht, die Ungläubigen in aller Welt auszurotten …;   Continue Reading…