politics for the 99%

Published on Spiegel Online International, Interview with Reiner Klingholz, by Maximilian Popp, June 5, 2014 (Translated from the German by Charles Hawley):
In recent years, Germany has begun attracting large numbers of highly qualified immigrants. Demographics expert Reiner Klingholz says that the development could be vital to the country’s future, despite ongoing problems with integration … //

… SPIEGEL: Why do children and grandchildren of Turkish immigrants have such a difficult time in school and on the labor market?   Continue Reading…

uploaded on YouTube by StormCloudsGathering:

The Psychology of Power, Part 1, 37.23 min, Jan 7, 2014;

Snowden, The NSA and a Crime of High Treason, 4.54 min, June 3, 2014 … //
… and 78 more videos in autoplay: The divide that separates the ruling class from from the people who actually keep society functioning keeps getting wider and wider. Nothing illustrates this fact quite like the “debate” over the NSA’s mass surveillance and Edward Snowden’s role in exposing it.
Sources and full transcript here.

Published on Intrepid Report, by Ellen Brown, June 4, 2014.

Funding infrastructure through bonds doubles the price or worse. Costs can be cut in half by funding through the state’s own bank.

“The numbers are big. There is sticker shock,” said Jason Peltier, deputy manager of the Westlands Water District, describing Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to build two massive water tunnels through the California Delta. “But consider your other scenarios. How much more groundwater can we pump?”   Continue Reading…

Global Power Project: Part 4 of 4 Part Series – Published on Dissident Voice, by Andrew Gavin Marshall, June 1, 2014.
(Read Part 1 here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here).

… At the 1992 International Monetary Conference in Toronto, there was a general consensus among private bankers and public officials that, as a result of enormous over-lending to Latin America and developing countries throughout the previous debt-crisis decade, the task of financing “the transformation of the former Soviet Union to a market economy” could not be left to bank loans alone. Hilmar Kopper, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, told the conference attendees that commercial banks would only engage in large-scale financing if there were “government-guaranteed credits” and “an agreement on the old debt,” implying that the banks would essentially need the guarantee of a government bailout scheme if things got bad.   Continue Reading…

Published on Roarmag.org, by Joris Leverink, May 29, 2014.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the Gezi uprising, a small group of textile workers explores a radical alternative: occupy, resist, produce!

Diren!Kazova, reads the sign above a small shop and cultural center in Istanbul’s busy Sisli neighborhood. Inside, the floor is made of cobblestones, giving the visitor the impression of arriving at a type of indoor street market. Slogans like ’1st of May!’, ‘Resist Kazova!’ and ‘Long Live the Revolution!’ are written on the stones, scattered across the room. From the walls hang racks full of sweaters, hundreds of them. At first glance they appear to be just ordinary sweaters. That is, until one learns the story behind them. Then suddenly the sweaters turn into symbols of resistance, signs of defiance, and the materialized hope for a more equal society, a more just economy — yes, for a better world even … // Continue Reading…

… see article We’ve had more than enough revelations … and the American Majority has spoken, published on Intrepid Report, by Sibel Edmonds, May 30, 2014.

They say we need more revelations. I say we have had more than enough revelations on synthetic wars, atrocities, surveillance and torture. They wonder when the majority of Americans are going to speak up. And I say: The American Majority has already spoken—loud and clear.   Continue Reading…

Published on Russia Today RT, May 31, 2014.

Deprived of their basic needs, the four Saudi royal princesses kept in 13-year isolation by their father, King Abdullah, have surpassed 60 days without food.

The monarch’s daughters fell out of their father’s favor for speaking out against the ill treatment of women in the Gulf kingdom. It is also believed that the king was angry at the girls’ mother for not giving him a son.   Continue Reading…

2014-05-01: World Food & Water: How Agribusiness Keeps Us “Betting on Famine”;
2014-05-02: Little Love for Sanctions: Ukraine Crisis A Tightrope Walk for German Businesses;
2014-05-03: Secretive Airborne Police Surveillance in California;
2014-05-04: Walk off the Earth;
2014-05-05: Deride and Conquer: Dismantling the USPS (United States postal system);
2014-05-06: Africa’s number one economy, for wealth evaporation;
2014-05-07: Latin American nations under assault in massive Obama campaign of aggression;
2014-05-07: Gabriele Krone-Schmalz;
2014-05-08: The Affordable Care Act: The Human Rights Violation for Liberals;
2014-05-09: ‘Walking While Woman’ and the Fight to Stop Violent Policing of Gender Identity – Report;
2014-05-10: India: Modi’s BJP a ‘grave danger’ to women and minorities;
2014-05-11: Russia: The Russians are coming … again … and they’re still ten feet tall;
2014-05-12: Egypt: Legitimising the poll;
2014-05-13: Kiev – Putin – Rebel’s POLL – Western Medias and Sanctions;
2014-05-14: On the Meaning of Restoring Indigenous Self-Determination;
2014-05-15: UN-marked strike helicopter ‘used by Kiev against militia’ sparks scandal;
2014-05-15: Ukraine: Update;
2014-05-16: How the International Monetary Conference Helped Fuel the 1980s Debt Crisis;
2014-05-17: Top Catholic Bishop Says Church Should Consider Accepting Gays;
2014-05-18: Egypt: Ambiguous economic map;
2014-05-19: Thousands across Europe rally against EU policies;
2014-05-20: Net Neutrality: So … Now What?
2014-05-21: Are Public Banks Unconstitutional? No. Are Private Banks? Maybe;
2014-05-22: Japan Fukushima operator starts diverting groundwater to sea;
2014-05-23: Self-Determination as Anti-Extractivism: How Indigenous Resistance Challenges IR;
2014-05-24: US: Why Medicare pays so much for psychiatric drugs;
2014-05-25: WikiLeaks statement on the mass recording of Afghan telephone calls by the NSA;
2014-05-26: Institutionalized Education: A Quasi-Anarchist’s Perspective;
2014-05-27: The New “Water Barons”: Wall Street Mega-Banks are Buying up the World’s Water;
2014-05-28: Interview with Alex Pentland: Can We Use Big Data to Make Society Better? – part 1;
2014-05-29: Europe and Ukraine: A tale of two elections;
2014-05-30: The Gates Foundation in India: A Primer;
2014-05-31: Poverty in Europe.

Poverty in the European Union on the increase, on Real-World Economcs Review Blog, by merijknibbe. May 29, 2014 … people at risk of poverty or social exclusion … According to Deirdre McCloskey, poverty (and growth) is a much more important problem than inequality …;

680,000 Greek Children at Risk of Living in Poverty, on Greek Reporter, by Nikoleta Kalmouki, May 29, 2014;   Continue Reading…

Published on Aspects of India’s Economy/Vol 57, by Sandhya Srinivasan, May 2014.

… What are BMGF’s objectives?

Key elements of the BMGF strategy(5) – as described on the Foundation website – are as follows:     Continue Reading…

Published on Russia Today RT, May 27, 2014.

Circumstances surrounding the European and Ukrainian elections were far from being a mere coincidence.

The regime changers in Kiev decided to hold a presidential election on May 25, the same day as European Parliament elections, in order to demonstrate their desire to follow a European-centric foreign policy.   Continue Reading…

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Spiegel staff, May 26, 2014.

In a SPIEGEL interview, American data scientist Alex Pentland discusses how data streams can be used to determine the laws of human interaction. He argues the information can be used to help forge better societies.

Alex Pentland, 62, heads the Human Dynamics Lab at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is considered one of the world’s leading data scientists. In his new book, Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread — The Lessons from a New Science, he argues that human communication behaviors follow the rules of mathematics. Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca (first on Market Oracle), by Jo-Shing Yang, May 22, 2014.

A disturbing trend in the water sector is accelerating worldwide. The new “water barons” — the Wall Street banks and elitist multibillionaires — are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace. Continue Reading…

Published on Contrary Perspective, by Anonymous, May 2014 (the author teaches at the collegiate level and prefers to remain anonymous).

Everyone knows that one has to go to school to receive a formal education and formal credentials. But schools are also social institutions. As institutions, schools often stand in the way of education. A competitive education driven by credentials is often responsible for lowering the self-esteem of both students and teachers as a consequence of grading and various other evaluation processes.   Continue Reading…

Published on ZNet (first on Wikileaks.org), by Julian Assange, May 23, 2014 (Links posted in our pages Civil Liberties, Politics/Gov, Repression, SourceZ, US).

The National Security Agency has been recording and storing nearly all the domestic (and international) phone calls from two or more target countries as of 2013. Both the Washington Post and The Intercept (based in the US and published by eBay chairman Pierre Omidyar) have censored the name of one of the victim states, which the latter publication refers to as country “X”.     Continue Reading…

Published on Intrepid Report, by Martha Rosenberg, May 23, 2014.

“Never mind” said the Obama administration in March after its proposal to limit automatic Medicare coverage of pricey depression and psychiatric drugs was met with a Pharma funded backlash. It apparently wasn’t worth it as “patients” on the Hill yelled “You’re going to limit WHAT?” and won.   Continue Reading…

Published on E-International Relations, by MANUELA LAVINAS PICQ, MAY 21, 2014.

Indigeneity is an unusual way to think about International Relations (IR). Most studies of world politics ignore Indigenous perspectives, which are rarely treated as relevant to thinking about the international (Shaw 2008; Beier 2009). Yet Indigenous peoples are engaging in world politics with a dynamism and creativity that defies the silences of our discipline (Morgan 2011). In Latin America, Indigenous politics has gained international legitimacy, influencing policy for over two decades (Cott 2008; Madrid 2012).   Continue Reading…

Published on Humanitarian News (first in AidNews.org), May 21, 2014.

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said Wednesday it has begun a bypass system that diverts groundwater into the sea in a bid to reduce the volume of contaminated water.
The move is an attempt to stop tonnes of unpolluted groundwater flowing under the battered plant and mixing with water already there and laced with radioactive isotopes.
Dealing with the huge — and growing — amount of water at the tsunami-damaged plant is proving to be one of the biggest challenges for Tokyo Electric Power co. (TEPCO), as it looks to clean up the mess after the worst nuclear disaster in a generation.   Continue Reading…

Published on OpEdNews, by Ellen Brown, May 19, 2014.

The movement to break away from Wall Street and form publicly-owned banks continues to gain momentum. But enthusiasts are deterred by claims that a state-owned bank would violate constitutional prohibitions against “lending the credit of the state.”   Continue Reading…

Published on FreePress.net/blog/take action, by Candace Clement, May 16, 2014.

On Thursday, the FCC released its proposal on how it intends to protect Net Neutrality in the wake of a January court case that tossed out the agency’s rules.

And, just as we feared, the rules pay lip service to the idea of the open Internet while proposing solutions that would create a two-tiered Internet with fast lanes for those who can afford it — and dirt roads for the rest of us. Continue Reading…

… with Videos – Published on Russia Today RT, May 18, 2014.

Thousands of activists took to the streets of Germany and Spain on Saturday to protest the EU’s policies as the union prepares for parliamentary elections at the end of May.

In Germany, the EU’s powerhouse, people participated in a day of anti-Brussels protests in Hamburg and the capital Berlin.   Continue Reading…

Published on Al-Aham weekly online, by Sherine Abdel-Razek, May 15, 2014.

The presidential poll will take place before a backdrop of economic woes. The budget deficit has ballooned. There is a deep-rooted energy crisis and foreign investors continue to give Egypt the cold shoulder. Unemployment and inflation are compounding already high levels of poverty in a country whose population — emboldened by two revolutions — is unlikely to shy away from taking to the streets.

So what are the candidates promising on the economic front?   Continue Reading…

Published on ThinkProgress, by Jack Jenkins, May 15, 2014.

… Nunzio Galantino, the secretary-general of the Italian bishops’ conference (CEI) and bishop of the southern diocese of Cassano all’Jonio, reportedly told a Florence-based newspaper on Tuesday that Italian church leaders should embrace the more liberal path paved by Pope Francis and pay closer attention to progressive religious arguments.   Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice (first on Global Power Project, see below), Part 2/4, by Andrew Gavin Marshall, May 14, 2014.

… What Fueled the Debt Crisis?

The 1980s debt crisis erupted when Mexico announced in 1982 that it could no longer service its debts to Western, and primarily American, banks. This resulted in a crisis that quickly spread across Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia. The oil price rises of the 1970s had led to a surge in revenues for oil-producing nations, which had invested their surplus oil wealth in Western banks that then lent the money to poor, developing nations requiring oil in order to finance their industrialization. Continue Reading…

Donetsk self-defense forces give Kiev troops 24 hours to withdraw, on Russia Today RT, May 15, 2014;

Videos uploaded on YouTube by RT:

• South-East Ukraine: Crisis Diary (Unique Documentary Shot by Ordinary People), 25.18 min, May 3, 2014;
• Europe will now think twice before following Washington’s orders, 24.50 min, with Ex-CIA Officer Ray McGovern, April 14, 2014;
• NATO expansion to Ukraine will be grievous mistake for US – last US ambassador to USSR, 23.32 min, April 13, 2014.