politics for the 99%

… new RT documentary exposes dirty oil secrets, ISIS’ cozy ties with Turkey – Published on RT, April 29, 2016.

Exclusive eye witness reports and documents, abandoned by retreating jihadists and found by RT Documentary crew members in a region liberated by Syrian Kurds, point to a commercial scale oil smuggling operations and the terror group’s cozy relations with Turkey … // Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice, by William Hawes, April 25, 2016.

We have all been told a lie. The lie that says democracy can be maintained only through voting, through purely representative, parliamentarian means. When the founding fathers set up the Constitution and Bill of Rights, they were wary of any truly popular, working and middle class control of the United States. Our government was to be run as a republic, designed by elites, for the elites.   Continue Reading…

Published on Five Thirty Eight, by Andrew Flowers, April 25, 2016.

Daniel Straub remembers the night he got hooked on basic income. He had invited Götz Werner, a billionaire owner of a German drugstore chain, to give an independent talk in Zurich, where Straub was working as a project manager for a think tank. He had read an article about the radical proposal to unconditionally guarantee citizens an income and spent a few years casually researching the idea. Continue Reading…

update April 27, 2016/09.25 MEZ: LIVE – MCIS Moscow Conference on international security forum discusses fight against terrorism, global defense issues, on RT, April 27, 2016.

… some related Links:

• 9/11 report: Obama administration ’set to release’ secret 28 pages, on The Independent.co.uk, by Andrew Buncombe, April 25, 2016: there is speculation the documents could raise questions about whether some Saudi officials supported the attacks;
• The Real Truth Behind The 28 Pages Psyop, 8.28 min, uploaded by WeAreChange, April 21, 2016 … with Luke Rudkowski;   Continue Reading…

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Peter Müller in Brussels, April 25, 2016.

The European Commission (its President Jean-Claude Juncker) had hoped not to provide fresh anti-EU ammunition to pro-Brexit voters ahead of Britain’s upcoming referendum. But SPIEGEL has learned that Brussels is planning to launch legal proceedings against the UK over its truck toll. Continue Reading…

… how much of the electoral process is illusory? – Published on truthout, by Candice Bernd, April 24, 2016.

The parallel Democracy Spring and Democracy Awakening mobilizations wrapped their week of sit-ins protesting the corrosive influence of money in politics and voter suppression at the US Capitol on Monday, tallying more than 1,400 arrests.   Continue Reading…

… even if 90% of people smoked weed instead of working – Published on Tech Insider, by Chris Weller, April 19, 2016.

The chief complaint people lodge at universal basic income — a form of income distribution that gives people money to cover basic needs regardless of whether they work or not — is that it’ll make them lazy.

Sam Altman doesn’t buy it.   Continue Reading…

Published on Counterpunch, by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, April 22, 2016.

Have you noticed that it is not only the presstitute media and the two establishment political parties that are beating up on Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump but also the progressive left.   Continue Reading…

Published on Political Violence @ a Glance, by Tijen Demirel-Pegg, April 20, 2016.

The killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York – and the subsequent failure to indict the police officers that killed them in 2014 – generated massive outrage across the United States. While large-scale protests were held in a number of cities, leaving pundits to wonder if Black Lives Matter was turning into a new civil rights movement, an unexpected event happened: two police officers were shot to death in New York on December 20, 2014, by a man who was allegedly outraged by the Brown and Garner cases. Continue Reading…

After Vote to Remove Brazil’s President, Key Opposition Figure Holds Meetings in Washington – Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin No. 1249, by Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Fishman, David Miranda, April 20, 2016.

Brazil’s lower House of Congress on Sunday voted to impeach the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, sending the removal process to the Senate. In an act of unintended though rich symbolism, the House member who pushed impeachment over the 342-vote threshold was Dep. Bruno Araújo, himself implicated by a document indicating he may have received illegal funds from the construction giant at the heart of the nation’s corruption scandal. Continue Reading…

Panama Papers show world’s tax progress, We ultimately want transparency – OECD’s Gurria, 5.51 min, uploaded by slithereen guard, Apr 16, 2016;

AUDIOS: Weekly Economic Update with Richard Wolff – the latest 5 issues:

• uploaded by slithreen guard: April 15, 2016, 46.44 min; April 8, 2016, 55.18 min; April 1, 2016, 55.54 min;
• uploaded by MNN NYC: March 23, 2016, 58.02 min; March 17, 2016, 58.03 min;   Continue Reading…

some random contributions uploaded by WES:

Warwick Economics Summit February 2016:

• Eyal Winter Interview, 12.12 min;
• Michael Møller Interview, 5.30 min;
• The Great Depression of the 1930s, Lessons for Today – Nick Crafts, 37.07 min;   Continue Reading…

Publishde on Dissident Voice, by Paul Craig Roberts, April 16, 2016.

On April 14 Syria held parliamentary elections at 7,000 polling stations, keeping the voting open an extra five hours to accommodate the massive turnout. All were allowed to vote, even displaced Syrians from the two provinces still terrorized by Washington and Israeli backed ISIS.   Continue Reading…

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Markus Brauck, Jörg Diehl, Dietmar Hipp, Isabell Hülsen, Hasnain Kazim, Alexander Kühn, Nils Minkmar, Martin U. Müller, Peter Müller, Ann-Katrin Nezik, René Pfister, Fidelius Schmid and Christoph Schult, April 15, 2016  (Photo Gallery).

With his insulting poem about Turkish President Erdogan, Jan Böhmermann has triggered an affair of state. Now, Chancellor Merkel has elected to allow legal proceedings against the German comedian. What, though, was Böhmermann’s intent?   Continue Reading…

one same report in four videos:

• 1): spoken in english, subtitled in serb/cro, 85.21 min, uploaded by TBU NEWS, Dec 13, 2015: THE BRUSSELS BUSINESS is a docu-thriller that dives into the grey zone underneath European democracy. An expedition into the world of the 15,000 lobbyists in the EU-capital, of the PR-conglomerates, think tanks and their all embracing networks of power and their close ties to the political elites;   Continue Reading…

Published on Counterpunch, by ELLEN BROWN, April 12, 2016.

The bombshell publication of the “Panama Papers,” leaked from a Panama law firm specializing in shell companies, has triggered both outrage and skepticism. In an April 3 article titled “Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak,” UK blogger Craig Murray writes that the whistleblower no doubt had good intentions; but he made the mistake of leaking his 11.5 million documents to the corporate-controlled Western media, which released only those few documents incriminating opponents of Western financial interests. Murray writes: … // Continue Reading…

Published on RT, April 12, 2016;

Hundreds of Americans, many of whom are elderly, marched in support of political reform in Washington, DC, taking part in a sit-in and risking arrest as they pushed for fairer elections. RT’s ‘Redacted Tonight’ host Lee Camp was one of those detained.   Continue Reading…

Published on Social Europe, by Philippe van Parijs, April 11, 2016.

… The idea of an unconditional basic income is in fashion. From Finland to Switzerland, from San Francisco to Seoul, people talk about it as they have never done. Twice before, basic income was the object of a real public debate, albeit briefly and limited to one country at a time. In both episodes, the centre left played a central role … // Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca (first on Moon of Alabama), April 4, 2016.

Graph: the scale of the leak

• Panama Papers/ICIJ (2016) = 2,6 TB = 2600 GB     Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice, by subMedia *, April 9, 2016 [with VIDEO, 20.59 min].

This week we take a look at the multiple converging flashpoints of resistance in France, which have combined into a popular movement that has inspired over a million peeps to take to the streets in a massive expression of collective rage.   Continue Reading…

Interview published on The New Politics TNP, by Jim Brash, April 7, 2016.

TNS: First question, why were you chosen to be Mimi Soltysik’s running mate?   Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice, by Graham Vanbergen, April 7, 2016.

… Since the Conservative government got their knees under the table, George Osborne has systematically gone about creating what is effectively a territorial tax system for companies and organisations thus ensuring that no UK-based multinational pays taxation in the UK on profits arising to it from outside the country. Of course, the organisation itself has to deliberately go about structuring itself to achieve that goal, but once done, they are shielded from the deliberately lethargic tax office (HMRC) … // Continue Reading…

Published on Socialist Worker.org, by Robert Reich, April 7, 2016.

What kind of change socialists should be fighting for? Danny Katch, author of Socialism… Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation, makes some proposals in his review of a book from a different part of the left: Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, by former Labor Secretary and Bernie Sanders supporter Robert Reich … // Continue Reading…

Published on RT, April 6, 2016.

Polls have opened on Wednesday in the Netherlands to see if the public wants to back an agreement to bring Ukraine closer to the EU. While many Dutch people support ordinary Ukrainians, a great number believe the proposed deal will not help them … // Continue Reading…

Relax and just listen on YouTube:

• What Are The Panama Papers? 2.47 min, uploaded by Test Tube News;
• The Panama Papers, Secrets Of The Super Rich, 43.36 min, uploaded by Journeyman Pictures;
• The Panama Papers, Victims of Offshore, 4.18 min, uploaded by ICIJ;   Continue Reading…