politics for the 99%

(Cognitive behavioral therapy vs Intellectual self-defense) – Published on ZNet, by Mark Evans, Oct 24, 2014.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the psychological intervention of choice, for the treatment of depression and anxiety, by many mental health professionals today. The UK government has initiated the Improved Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme which focuses on the treatment of depression and anxiety using CBT. According to the Department of Health DH: The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme has one principal aim – to help primary care trusts (PCTs) implement National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. At present, only a quarter of the 6 million people in the UK with these conditions are in treatment, with debilitating effects on society … //

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Published on Spiegel Online International, by Michael Sauga, Oct 23, 2014 (Photo Gallery).

Six years after the Lehman disaster, the industrialized world is suffering from Japan Syndrome. Growth is minimal, another crash may be brewing and the gulf between rich and poor continues to widen. Can the global economy reinvent itself? … // Continue Reading…

Published on Russia Today RT, Oct 20, 2014.

Ebola-scared parents have sent a Maine teacher on mandatory leave after he visited Dallas where first victim of the virus in US died. In Mississippi parents pulled their kids out of school because of the principal’s trip to Zambia. The Portland Press Herald reports that a Maine teacher was placed on a 21-day paid leave of absence in light of parents’ concerns for their children’s health. Community members feared the teacher may have contracted Ebola while on a visit to Dallas for an educational seminar. Continue Reading…

Published on TomDispach, by Laura Poitras and Tom Engelhardt, Oct 19, 2014;

… Here’s a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! stat from our new age of national security. How many Americans have security clearances? The answer: 5.1 million, a figure that reflects the explosive growth of the national security state in the post-9/11 era. Imagine the kind of system needed just to vet that many people for access to our secret world (to the tune of billions of dollars). We’re talking here about the total population of Norway and significantly more people than you can find in Costa Rica, Ireland, or New Zealand. And yet it’s only about 1.6% of the American population, while on ever more matters, the unvetted 98.4% of us are meant to be left in the dark.   Continue Reading…

we have a wordwide media-cover on Kobani vs ISIS – but what about latest news on the rest of Kurdistan’s fight? – Nothing – only not specific general reports:

• on TIME: Turkey Will Help Iraqi Kurds Join Fight Against ISIS in Syria, by Naina Bajekal, Oct 20, 2014;
• on RUDAW: Kurdistan – ISIS probes Kurdistan frontier, by Rekar Aziz, Oct 20, 2014;
• on RUDAW: Kurdistan – Erbil broadcaster gives voice to people of ISIS-occupied Mosul, by Judit Neurink, Oct 20, 2014;
• on CNN: ISIS-Kurdish fight stirs trouble in Turkey, by Ivan Watson, Oct 20, 2014;

… but what about the other Kurdish cities under attack by ISIS?  Continue Reading…

Watch this Interview with Marta Harnecker and Gregory Wilpert, 27.12 min, published on Zvideo, Oct 20, 2014 - (first on TeleSUR englisch).

Related Links:

What is left of the left? Partisanship and the political economy of labour market reform: why has the social democratic party in Germany liberalised labout markets? on London School of Economics LSE /European Institute, by Patrick Lunz, July 2013, 58 pdf pages;   Continue Reading…

• Tory policies on higher education are hugely progressive, on The Guardian, by David Willetts, Oct 19, 2014;
• Right to die campaigner who starved herself said she had no alternative, on The Guardian, by PA, Oct 19, 2014: Jean Davies, 86, called five-week fast to end her life intolerable but said her children supported her right to choose to die. The DPP said the likelihood of healthcare professionals being prosecuted for assisting suicide depended on their specific and professional duty of care to the person in question;
• Banks set to defy European regulator on bonus rules, on The Telegraph, by James Titcomb, Oct 18, 2014: European Banking Authority’s request for banks to change policies related to ‘allowances’ expected to go unheeded this year; Continue Reading…

Published on ZNet (first on TeleSUR english), by Atilio Boron, October 18, 2014.

The landslide victory of Evo Morales has a very simple explanation: he won because his government has been, without a doubt, the best in the troubled history of Bolivia. “The best” means, of course, that he came through on the great promise, so many times unfulfilled, of all democracies: to guarantee the material and spiritual well being of the large national majorities, from that heterogeneous mass of oppressed plebeians, exploited and humiliated for centuries. It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that Evo represents a watershed moment for Bolivian history: there is a Bolivia before his government and one after, a distinct and better one that came after his arrival to thePalacio Quemado.   Continue Reading…

Quebec Government’s Love Affair with Big Oil – Published on The Bullet, Socialist Projet’s E-Bulletin no. 1048, by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Oct 17, 2014.

It’s an evening like any other. The first item on the Téléjournal is about the controversial Cacouna oil port project Then the spokesperson for TransCanada, the project’s sponsor, appears onscreen. His talking points aren’t particularly noteworthy, but his face is strangely familiar. I’ve seen it before, but where? For hours, the question nagged at me. Later that evening, it came to me in a flash: we had crossed paths during the summer of 2012 in Quebec, during negotiations between the student movement and the Jean Charest government … // Continue Reading…

Published on Russia Today RT, Oct 15, 2014.

European and US businesses are “categorically” against Russian sanctions because they act against their commercial interests, but can’t say so freely, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said. “I’m absolutely certain that European businesses are categorically against this because it’s contrary to their interests,” the Prime Minister said in an interview with CNBC aired Wednesday. “I’ve also talked with US business representatives. Naturally, they also say that they are opposed. They whisper: ‘Well, you know that this is the decision of the government and we have to comply, but we consider it completely destructive’,” he said. Continue Reading…

… a Project Camelot Interview – Published on Project Camelot’s Original Website, Tokyo/Japan, Feb 2008.

With internal links:

• to download three videos in different formats,
• his short-bio,   Continue Reading…

Published on AlJazeera, by Molly McCluskey, Oct 11, 2014:

Country’s youth apprenticeship programme is credited with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe. While nearly half of young people in some European countries cannot find work, a unique training programme in Switzerland has ensured jobs for nearly all who want one. More than 24 million people in the European Union are unemployed, and nearly 5.2 million of them are aged between 15-24 … // Continue Reading…

humanity tries to become concious of it’s place – videos with some analogy:

• Edward Snowden, The Virtual Interview – The New Yorker Festival, 68.03 min, uploaded by The New Yorker, Oct 11, 2014 … making conscious of what we really want, and how;
• The Borg Arc – Star Trek Voyager, 59.21 min, uploaded by Meoknet, Sept 11, 2014 … a compilation of scenes with the borg;
• Post-capitalism for a new economic system – Marc Luyckx Ghisi, 18.20 min, uploaded by Lilou Mace, June 26, 2014 … and for our reflexion another 112 videos uploaded by Lilou in autoplay;
• Exploring Consciousness – Graham Hancock, 94.36 min, uploaded by Maximum Truthseeker, Nov 22, 2013.

Links: Continue Reading…

Published on Zcomm, by Peter Maass and Laura Poitras, Oct, 12, 2014.

The National Security Agency has had agents in China, Germany, and South Korea working on programs that use “physical subversion” to infiltrate and compromise networks and devices, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

The documents, leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, also indicate that the agency has used “under cover” operatives to gain access to sensitive data and systems in the global communications industry, and that these secret agents may have even dealt with American firms. The documents describe a range of clandestine field activities that are among the agency’s “core secrets” when it comes to computer network attacks, details of which are apparently shared with only a small number of officials outside the NSA.   Continue Reading…

This is not Capitalism, this is Debtism, 1.33 min, uploaded by RT, Oct 6, 2014;

Noam Chomsky: Q&A Why you can not have a Capitalist Democracy, 17.46 min, uploaded by LeighaCohen, Oct 5, 2014;

Related Links:   Continue Reading…

Publishd on Evening Times, by Stewart Paterson, Oct 10, 2014.

NEXT week is Challenge Poverty Week and an opportunity to highlight the problems and seek achievable solutions. The problems are many and with poverty comes a load of related social issues that form a spiral of decline and a cycle of poverty. Poor health leads to a life expectancy of people born in the most deprived areas more than 10 years lower than those in the most affluent. In Glasgow it is characterised by 1.7 years off your life for every stop on the west to east train line from Jordanhill to Bridgeton.   Continue Reading…

Published on Spiegel Online International, a commentary by Christiane Hoffmann, Oct 8, 2014.

• Although there is always reason to celebrate the toppling of an autocrat, the outcome of the Iraq war and the rise of Islamic State have demonstrated in horrific terms that the alternative can be even worse.
• In mid-April 2003, German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger published a piece in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in which he celebrated the fall of Saddam Hussein. He wrote of his “deep,” even “triumphant” joy upon learning of the end of Iraq’s brutal dictatorship. The article was also full of derision and mockery for the skeptics who warned against the wisdom of US President George W. Bush’s invasion.   Continue Reading…

Published on Frontline.in, by VIJAY PRASHAD, October * 2014.

The fate of half a million people in Kobane hangs in the balance as Islamic State fighters try to capture the Syrian city. If they take Kobane, the Islamic State will have control over the entire length of the central span of the Turkish-Syrian border … //

… Why has Daesh put so much of its firepower and its fighters into the fight against the city of Kobane? Over the course of the past two years, Daesh has tried to capture as much territory as possible towards the Turkish border. Turkey has, despite its claim to close its border posts, been—for reasons to be explored below—lax with its border posts.   Continue Reading…

Published on New York Times, by BEN PROTESS and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG (and with Jenny Anderson and Matthew Goldstein), Oct 6, 2014.

The Justice Department is preparing a fresh round of attacks on the world’s biggest banks, again questioning Wall Street’s role in a broad array of financial markets … //

… The charges will most likely focus on traders and their bosses rather than chief executives. As a result, critics of the Justice Department might view the cases as little more than an exercise in public relations, a final push to shape the legacy of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who was blamed for a lack of criminal cases against Wall Street executives.   Continue Reading…

• Prof Franz Hörmann: about monney, 14.32 min, uploaded by g4m3p01, Feb 26, 2014;
• Graham Hancock: the War on Consciousness, 18.44 min, uploaded by Imagine Hypnotics, Sept 30, 2013; http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/04/11/ted-bans-graham-hancocks-talk-on-consciousness/
• Dr. Rupert Sheldrake: about his banned TED talk, 29.44 min, uploaded by revolutionloveevolve, April 3, 2013: about his banned TED talk on Skeptiko with Alex Tsakiris;
• Graham Hancock: about the Lifeboat Hour with Mike Ruppert, 57.51 min, uploaded by revolutionloveevolve, March 19, 2013 … about ‘The War on Consciousness’, psychedelics and the global awakening on the Lifeboat Hour with Michael C Ruppert;
• Nick Hanauer: Rich people don’t create jobs, 5.49 min, uploaded by Progression of History, May 17, 2012;

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Published on ZNet (first on ROARMAG), by  Antonis Broumas and Theodoros Karyotis, Oct 4, 2014.

… Left-Wing Bureaucracy and the State:

In theory, the communist left relates with the state in instrumental terms. The conquest of the bourgeois state is presented as a necessary evil on the road to workers’ power. This approach, however, is immersed — even on a purely theoretical level — in a series of contradictions. Even in its most sophisticated versions it fails to address the issue of the dialectic relation between the vanguard party bureaucracy and the autonomy of the world of labor, or the possibility of achieving a transition towards an egalitarian society, when there is such disparity between the means employed and the goals proposed.   Continue Reading…

Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin no. 1043, by Richard Fidler, Oct 3, 2014.

Superficially, the 55-45 victory of the No forces in Scotland’s referendum September 18 was a clear rejection of independence. The Yes forces won a majority only in the four poorest and most deprived of the nation’s 32 local divisions, although a class breakdown of the vote would show a majority of the working-class voted for independence.   Continue Reading…

Published on The Economist, Oct 4, 2014: The model of development through industrialisation is on its way out.

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS ago Shenzhen was a tiny fishing village just over the river from British Hong Kong. Its inhabitants, like most Chinese, lived in poverty. In 1978 the average income in America was about 21 times that in China. But in 1979 China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, chose Shenzhen as the country’s first special economic zone, free to experiment with market activity and trade with the outside world. Shenzhen quickly found itself at the leading edge of Chinese economic development, using the same model as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong itself had done at earlier stages.   Continue Reading…

Published on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Oct 2, 2014.

… Yves here. The word “collapse” may seem overwrought when applied to Europe, but cold-blooded, clear eyed colleagues who have good connections and have spent a bit of time there recently say things that are broadly similar to Ilargi’s take. Despite the conventional wisdom that the cost of a Eurozone breakup is catastrophically and thus will never take place, that confidence may prove to be the currency union’s undoing. Ideological rigidity about austerity is leading to policies that are crushing large swathes of the population. And Europe, unlike the US, had enough of a tradition of popular revolt that that uprisings, either on the street or in the ballot box, are real possibilities, as the sudden rise of the anti-EU right shows.   Continue Reading…

recently published articles: Continue Reading…