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What happens in Ukraine should be none of our business, with one exception. The administration and Congress are repeating the same failed strategies of the past - focus on foreign adventures while people suffer in a terrible economy and the world is reduced to rubble.
Was the United States compelled to attack Afghanistan and Iraq by the events of September 11, 2001?
By Bob Burnett
Rebuilding The Liberal Brand If you watched the Super Bowl, you probably noticed a bland McDonald's commercial, "I'm lovin' it." It was part of their campaign to strengthen their brand. Too bad liberals didn't run a commercial because they need to rebuild their brand.
Leaders like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown are likely to keep resisting Wall Street's unwholesome influence on our democracy. With every day that passes, however, it's less likely that any major banker will be prosecuted for the major acts of fraud committed in their institutions. There's a lot of moral hazard going around these days.
By Glenn Greenwald
Exclusive Interview: Sami Al-Arian, Professor Who Defeated Controversial Terrorism Charges, Deported From U.S. 
Despite the personal harm he suffered and the intense surveillance to which he had been subjected since as early as 1993, the government ultimately failed to produce any evidence of Al-Arian's involvement in terrorist activities, instead relying at trial overwhelmingly on the pro-Palestinian writing and speaking he had done over the years.
Real unemployment is not 5.6 percent -- including those people who have given up looking for work or people who are working part time when they want to work full time -- it is over 11 percent. Youth unemployment -- something we almost never talk about in this country -- is a horrendous 17 percent, and African-American youth unemployment is over 30 percent. It is totally unacceptable.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP as it's more commonly known, is a public health disaster waiting to happen. If if the TPP goes through, real live breathing people (Doctors Without Borders estimates about half a billion of them) will effectively lose affordable access to the medicine they need to survive. And that's just one small provision.
Prance's President has two news plans, one about Islam, the other about Ukraine. They are linked, as this article shows.
By Alan Tonelson
(What's Left of) Our Economy: New Trade Data Wreck Case for TPP & Fast Track Congress should reject the President's proposed new deals, as well as his request for new fast track negotiating authority, and focus on devising a new trade strategy that will strengthen, not weaken, the recovery and job creation.
At least four videos now exist showing police initiated murders of unarmed, non-threatening civilians who committed no crime or were suspected of a victimless crime
Has the human soul been found by science? A controversial quantum theory of consciousness called "Orch OR" (which stands for "orchestrated objective reduction") recently had a review, and the scientists supporting this idea are claiming the recent discovery of quantum vibrations in "microtubules" inside brain neurons corroborates their beliefs. Professor Hameroff, and Sir Roger Penrose, mathematical physicist at the Mathematical Institute and Wadham College and University of Oxford, believe overall brain function derives from quantum level microtubule vibrations. The connection to space--time geometry also raises the intriguing possibility that "Orch OR" allows consciousness apart from the brain and body, distributed and entangled in space--time geometry. Consciousness, or its immediate precursor proto-consciousness, has been in the universe all along, perhaps from the Big Bang.
The Super Bowl is a spectacle like no other -- fireworks, celebrities, multi-million dollar ads, even sharks inexplicably on stage. What more could a fan want? Apparently they wanted for nothing because it was announced Super Bowl XLIX was the most watched Super Bowl in history. That's not all: More Americans watched Super Bowl XLIX, at 161.3 million, than actually voted in the last presidential election, at 129.2 million. For all its spectacle, a presidential election apparently can't compete with soft ball debates and a bouncing Katy Perry. It was also the most tweeted about Super Bowl, which means all those couch quarterbacks were letting the world know how they felt about every play. The 49.7/72 rating is four percent higher than last year's game (47.6/70 for Super Bowl XLVIII on FOX, in which the Seahawks defeated the Broncos 43-8) and is three percent higher than the prior record.
In a novel example of vocal learning, chimpanzees picked up what might be considered the equivalent of a Scottish brogue after they were moved from a Dutch zoo to Edinburgh. "It's the first time we've seen another primate species -- not humans -- change the structure of the call that they gave for a specific object by soclally learning it," University of York psychologist Katie Slocombe told NBC News. Slocombe and her colleagues reported the phenomenon Thursday in the journal Current Biology. The specific object in this case is an apple, one of the chimps' favorite foods. They typically give out a series of grunts when they see apples, or are eating apples. But chimps from the Beekse Bergen Safari Park in the Netherlands use high-pitched grunts, while chimps from the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland use a lower pitch.
Pope Francis will visit the U.S. Capitol and speak there on Sept. 24 as part of his trip to the United State, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Thursday. Boehner noted that Francis will become the first pope to make the visit, which promises to be a historic and well-attended appearance.
The only correct conclusion that any American can make is that every statement of the US government and its presstitute media is a blatant lie designed to serve a secret agenda that the American people would not support if they knew of its existence. Whenever Washington and its prostitute media speak, they lie.
Walmarts are everywhere. They take up tons of space. Superbowl space. They sell everything, they succeed where mom-and-pop businesses fail--and sometimes, they shut down. What happens when a huge edifice, parking lot, highway exit closes in a place? Well, in McAllen, Texas, They transformed it into the largest single-floor public library in America. So very sweet. They've also turned the space into a farmer's market and winter-time indoor shopping and eating. It's a real community use of a space. This has all taken place since 2012.
"Quantum theory doesn't just apply to physics - it's behind natural things like photosynthesis, homing pigeons and possibly consciousness itself. Because of the way we are taught science, it is tempting to divide the subject up into tight compartments. Physics is about how stuff behaves, while biology explains the living side of nature. But these labels and divisions are arbitrary and human-imposed. Quantum theory has no intention of staying confined in the box labelled physics. Indeed, we are discovering an increasing range of quantum processes -- like quantum tunnelling and entanglement -- cropping up in nature, where they might not have been expected before. One of the most dramatic and important biological processes that is likely to involve high-level quantum effects is photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into energy."
Light jogging may be most optimal for longevity: Too much strenuous jogging may be harmful -- ScienceDaily
Jogging may be best in small quantities according to a new study. The study, which tracked hours of jogging, frequency, and the individual's perception of pace, found that over the 12-year study strenuous joggers were as likely to die as sedentary non-joggers, while light joggers had the lowest rates of death.
exposing the hypocrisy of the "savagery" of burning alive a Jordanian pilot and the "savagery" of Shock and Awe
Two suburban Wisconsin lawmakers have unveiled an economic development plan for the lowest-income neighborhoods of Milwaukee, and their "solutions" for the Wisconsin communities hit hardest by deindustrialization come directly from a national right-wing playbook.
Article reports on federal investigation into various misdeeds committed by a federal prosecutor and ATF agent who were involved in an illicit affair.
Why does U.S. law prevent American military personal access to the truth?
Anthem, the nation's second-largest health insurer, has been hacked, exposing personal information about millions of its employees and customers. It may be one of the largest data breaches yet at a major insurance company, as the company and its affiliates cover one in nine Americans. Anthem offers insurance plans in 14 states and has some 69 million customers, the company says. Anthem provided no information on how many people might be affected.
Netanyahu believes he can use the US Congress to stymie any threat of an agreement between Washington and Tehran. His assumption is that the Congress is "Israeli-occupied territory," as a US observer once called it. Israel has enormous sway in Congress, but Netanyahu is already getting a lesson in the limits of his influence. The very rift he is fostering with Mr Obama is likely to rebound on him strategically.
Studies from 2008 and 2011, commissioned by the Pentagon and revealed by USA Today through a freedom of information request, suggest Putin has "an autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions" and may be Asperger syndrome. But the studies, which focused on videos of the Russian president, do not claim to make a diagnosis and are primarily the brainchild of one person, Brenda Connors of the US Naval War College (USNWC) in Newport, Rhode Island.
A still-classified section of the investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has taken on an almost mythic quality over the past 13 years -- 28 pages that examine crucial support given the hijackers and that by all accounts implicate prominent Saudis in financing terrorism. Now new claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level contact with officials of the Saudi government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought renewed attention to the inquiry's withheld findings, which lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the attacks have tried unsuccessfully to declassify.
Beyond the backlash Boehner has faced, the Netanyahu flap has presented a conundrum for Democrats who are eager to display their alliance with the Israeli leader but have serious concerns about the timing of his visit. The U.S. is in the midst of delicate talks with Iran over its nuclear program, and Democrats fear Netanyahu will undermine those talks by pushing for fresh sanctions against Iran. Some Democrats have considered boycotting the event altogether. "It was a very good idea," Boehner said of his invitation. "There is a message that the American people need to hear and I think he is the perfect person to deliver it."
While Republicans earn coverage for their assaults on Obamacare, they quietly support its lesser-known elements.
President Barack Obama wants Christians to know Islam is not the only religion that has inspired violence and terror. "Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," Obama said Wednesday. "And in our home country, slavery, and Jim Crow, all too often was justified in the name of Christ."
The President has intimated several legitimate reasons for vetoing the Republicans' gift to the Kochs, but now there is a damning indictment on the project courtesy of the Environmental Protection Agency. Republicans and the Koch brothers make no secret that next to taxes, there is no part of the federal government they despise more than the EPA, so it is a major slap in their faces that it was the agency they hate above all others that delivered the death knell of their 8 billion-dollar dream project. Americans should expect a renewed Koch Congress assault on the EPA for doing the job a Republican president created the agency for; to protect the environment and Americans' health and well-being.
Latest Articles
Universal health care in the U.S. v. the peculiar institution
The history of slavery in the U.S. is the root cause of the absence of universal health care in the country.
Wisconsin Farmers Union members overwhelmingly voted no on Organic Trade Association's (OTA) proposed organic check-off program, which would create a mandatory tax on farmers, food processors, distributors and retailers engaged in organic commerce, earmarked for research and promotion related to organics.
It's like the GOP is regressing into the racist attitudes of the Barry Goldwater days. It's almost as if these pasty white men don't even acknowledge the Civil Rights movement. Dr. King could deliver the same speeches today and they would be just as relevant as they were almost 50 years ago.
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Swedish auto magazine Vi Bilagare said its tests showed the Volvo S60, V70 and S80 models exposed drivers to 12 to 18 microtesla.
Under attack and exposed, the Kochs have gone on the offensive, with their minions singing paeans of praise for our "benevolent" overlords. Using the age-old tactic of what they say is the exact opposite of what they mean and do. They have long accused the Dems of "tax and spend", but it is they who do the spending (granted they do cut taxes of the 1%, but go on spending as though the money is there). We go into 2 illegal wars which cost dearly, yet they cut revenue. Great strategy...
Why Dogs Make The Perfect Babysitter - YouTube
Ideal babysitters for the job are always happy, caring, and willing to go the extra mile. But what about your dog? Check out this video to see if your four-legged friend fits the bill... [Note: A friend of mine said the ad at the beginning was the best part of the Superbowl, which I didn't care to see, but I'd trust my friend on this one (assuming this ad is the one given us by those likely wiser and older).]
Amy Pascal will step down as co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and head of the film studio, nearly three months after a massive hack hit the company and revealed embarrassing emails. During the hack, Pascal came under fire for racist remarks about President Obama's presumed choice in movies that surfaced in leaked emails. She apologized for "insensitive and inappropriate" comments in her emails that she called "not an accurate reflection of who I am." Pascal also faced criticism for green-lighting the film that may have inspired the hacking to begin with: "The Interview," which starred Seth Rogen and James Franco as bumbling journalists tasked with killing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Greece: On the Eve of the Prime Minister's Speech to the Parliament | Socialist Organizer (1) Greece: On the Eve of the Prime Minister's Speech to the Parliament -- by Dominique Ferre (2) A Series of Visits to Athens to Brandish Both the Carrot and the Stick -- by Dominique Ferre (3) Cancel the Debt! -- by Daniel Gluckstein
In a new push for peace, the leaders of France and Germany headed Thursday to Kiev and Moscow with a proposal to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine. The surprise move appeared aimed at heading off U.S. considerations of giving Ukraine lethal weapons, something Europeans fear could spark even wider hostilities. The flurry of high-level diplomacy comes as resurgent fighting in eastern Ukraine is threatening Europe's overall security. In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's aide welcomed the new European initiative and said the Kremlin was ready for a constructive discussion.
Please Watch This Short, Brilliant Video: What Matters Most Are Relationships- BY DIANE RAVITCH
IF YOU ARE CONFUSED ABOUT SCHOOL REFORM: This brilliant short video was created at the Albert Shanker Institute. RAVITCH SAYS: "I never seen or read anything that so succinctly and accurately identifies what matters most in schools-relationships matter; trust matters. Yet school reform focuses on the individual: the teacher as a solitary individual who must be trained, evaluated, given a reward or a punishment for his or her solitary activity: teaching.The video shows that schools are complex institutions, made up of interactions among many individuals and external groups, who influence one another: administrators, teachers, students, parents, community organizations, and others, you will understand how simple-minded it is to give a school a letter grade. The school is a social enterprise, in which many people work together. See the school as the complex social hub that it is, rather"
Preventing greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere
A novel class of materials that enable a safer, cheaper, and more energy-efficient process for removing greenhouse gas from power plant emissions has been developed by a multi-institution team of researchers. The approach could be an important advance in carbon capture and sequestration. [Vasectomies still head the list for reducing CO2 (and other!) emissions, imo. DG]
Scientists predict Earth-like planets around most stars
Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life, by applying a 200 year old idea to the thousands of exo-planets discovered by the Kepler space telescope. [Sounds like the Drake equation for predicting other life in the universe needs revision--or at least a re-crunching of numbers.] |
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