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By Sarah van Gelder
Can the Left and Right Unite to End Corporate Rule? An Interview with Ralph Nader and Daniel McCarthy 
Why do so many policies popular with Americans languish in Washington, D.C.? Why, for example, is there no action on a federal minimum wage boost, a breakup of too-big-to-fail banks, or a tax on carbon--all policies favored by a majority of the electorate?
The Founders of our republic fought a war against an aristocratic, oligarchic nation, and were very clear that they didn't want America to ever degenerate into aristocracy, oligarchy, or feudalism/fascism. We must uphold their vision of an egalitarian, democratic republic, and a "No Billionaires" tax would be a great start.
even as the US has projected its power worldwide through military might, its clever ideologues have managed to convince a large portion of their public that their ambitions for global hegemony are altruistic and benevolent. This dichotomy between the fictional discourse and the brutal reality of US imperialism, applied globally since 1945, is more blatant than George Orwell's worse fears expressed in "1984".
On Feb. 10th, MidAmerica Nazarene University's (MNU) chaplain Randy Beckum gave his morning sermon,saying "As you know two movies came out recently. Selma, the story of one of the 20th century most influential Christian leaders, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led a non-violent movement that changed the course of American History forever. And American Sniper, the story of the most deadly Navy SEAL sniper in American history. Selma has made 29-30 million so far. American Sniper made over 103 million in the first 4 days. Gives you an idea about who our heroes are. I don't think it is an under-statement to say that our culture is addicted to violence, guns, war, revenge and retaliation. Unfortunately, so are a lot of Christians."
Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgents have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, according to an audio message published Saturday on Boko Haram's Twitter account. In the recording, a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abu Bakr Shekau offers the group's support and says the militants will "hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity." The statement could not be immediately verified by The WorldPost. The SITE intelligence group, which monitors extremist websites, said Saturday that the recording was posted to the Nigerian group's social media accounts.
Greece had a gun to its head: a Feb. 28 deadline, after which its banks would have lost support from the European Central Bank (ECB), one of the "Troika" members that include the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission. Without ECB support, Greek banks might have gone under, forcing Athens to default on the debt and force it to exit from the Eurozone.
By Dave Johnson
Trade Deficit Drops To Enormous, Humongous Level In January Trade is supposed to be balanced. That is where the word "trade" comes from. But since the neo-liberal "free trade" pro-corporate ideology took hold in the late 1970s the US has consistently run a trade deficit every single year, and it just gets worse. This literally drains our economy, jobs, wages, factories, entire industries and our ability to make a living as a country.
By Rev. William E. Alberts, Ph.D
Rev. Franklin Graham: Apostle of Hatred - CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names 
If America is to protect itself by "countering violent extremism," as President Obama's recent summit intends, it must first hold accountable its own violent patriotic and Christocentric extremists. A violence-arouser to start with is Rev. Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham,
By Amy Fried, Ph.D.
Testimony to Maryland Legislature on Cannabis Legislation vis Americans for Safe Access The state of Maryland is considering joining Colorado, Washington state, Washington, D.C., and other states in updating their laws with respect to cannabis. While a medical marijuana law has already been passed in Maryland, this testimony stresses how a "recreational" law would be useful to patients, due to the fact that policy often lags behind science. SB 531 may be added to the list of laws mentioned.
We are currently witnessing the largest change to the Earth's electromagnetic environment that has ever taken place in human history.
A man who was laughed at so much while he was dancing that he stopped and hung his head in shame has been promised a boogie with a thousand women after being found by a Twitter campaign.
US public interest lawyer Steven Drucker's new book "Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public" is currently the Amazon #1 best seller in the "Science & Mathematics" category. Jane Goodall says of this meticulously documented account, "Without doubt, one of the most important books of the last 50 years. I shall urge everyone I know who cares about life on earth, and the future of their children, and children's children, to read it. . . . Steven Druker is a hero. He deserves at least a Nobel Prize."
A satirical take on bumpkins in the globalized world.
The Cost of Paying Attention; by By MATTHEW B. CRAWFORD, NYTimes
"Attention is a resource; a person has only so much of it. And yet we've auctioned off more and more of our public space to private commercial interests, with their constant demands on us to look at the products on display or simply absorb some bit of corporate messaging. Lately, our self-appointed disrupters have opened up a new frontier of capitalism, complete with its own frontier ethic: to boldly dig up and monetize every bit of private head space by appropriating our collective attention. In the process, we've sacrificed silence -- the condition of not being addressed. And just as clean air makes it possible to breathe, silence makes it possible to think.What if we saw attention in the same way that we saw air or water, as a valuable resource that we hold in common? Perhaps, if we could envision an "attentional commons," then we could figure out how to protect it."
If an Algorithm Wrote This, How Would You Even Know? - By SHELLEY PODOLNY, NYTimes
"a shocking amount of what we're reading is created not by humans, but by computer algorithms. We probably should have suspected that the information assaulting us 24/7 couldn't all have been created by people bent over their laptops."
By Robert Weiner
Will Lynch Carry on Holder's Legacy? As Attorney General Designee Loretta Lynch prepares to move from final Senate approval to serving as the Nation's Attorney General, the question is whether Congress will allow her, the country's first African American woman Attorney General, to continue Holder's enormous legacy.
International, womens, day, life, gender, sex, statistics, homelessness,
A security lockdown at the White House triggered by a loud bang just as President Barack Obama was due to leave was caused by a souvenir truck catching fire in a nearby street, the Secret Service said on Saturday. The security alert happened just moments before Obama and his family had been due to board a helicopter from the presidential mansion's South Lawn for Andrews Air Force Base. Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said the fire had been contained and a vehicle near the White House was investigated and cleared after a bomb-sniffing dog detected something on it. Obama and his family left the White House by motorcade instead of helicopter an hour later and boarded Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base. The Obamas are traveling to Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a civil rights march.
The Libertarian Delusion; Robert Kuttner
The free-market fantasy violates both the reality of big events like the financial collapse, and the lived experience of most Americans.The stubborn appeal of the libertarian idea persists, despite mountains of evidence that the free market is neither efficient, nor fair, nor free from periodic catastrophe. In an Adam Smith world, the interplay of supply and demand yields a price that signals producers what to make and investors where to put their capital. The more that government interferes with this sublime discipline, the more bureaucrats deflect the market from its true path.
For average working people, there is no such thing as a middle class in "natural" capitalism. Wealth accumulates at the very top among the elites, not among everyday working people. Inequality is the default option, just as it was in Medieval Europe under feudalism. Inequality is now at a record high, and the richest 3 percent of the population now controls more than half of all wealth.
Greenland passes tipping points, positive feedback accelerates. Humans headed for egress...
It has been only a matter of time but things are happening faster than most anticipated. Greenland Reels: Climate Disrupting Feedbacks Have Begun
In their golden palaces, the Saudis fear. They fear the Iranians. They fear the Shia. They fear Isis and al-Qaeda. They fear the Muslim Brotherhood. They fear American betrayal and Israeli plots. They even fear the "power" of tiny Qatar. They fear their own Shia population. They fear themselves. For where else will the revolution start in Sunni Muslim Saudi but within its own royal family?No wonder US Secretary of State John Kerry rushed from his nuclear talks to Riyadh on Thursday to assure the Saudi royal family that despite the cozy arrangement he is working on with Tehran, the US would not take its eye off Iran's "destabilizing actions" in Iraq and elsewhere.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) denounced the Affordable Care Act and its health insurance exchanges on Saturday, calling instead for a "market-oriented" alternative in line with what many in his party support. "We've created a monstrosity of consolidating power in Washington, D.C., suppressing wages, making it uncertain for investment. In fact, the greatest job suppressor in the so-called recovery that we've gone through is Obamacare. And I think replacing Obamacare with a market-oriented approach -- that is, where local and state input starts to drive the policies away from this top-down system -- is something I think we ought to be doing," Bush said at the Iowa Ag Summit, a forum on agriculture issues that also drew several other would-be presidential hopefuls.
Dana Siegelman, daughter of former Gov. Don Siegelman, plans to try to talk to President Barack Obama about her father's case on Saturday in Selma. The president is coming to Alabama for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the voting rights march. Dana Siegelman has been one of the most active advocates for her father, who claims his prosecution on corruption charges was orchestrated by Republicans seeking to end his political career. Siegelman is serving a six-and-a-half year sentence and is at the federal prison in Oakdale, La. He is scheduled for release in August 2017, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
A former head of the Mossad who served for two years under Benjamin Netanyahu launched a bitter assault on the prime minister Friday, saying Netanyahu knowingly misled Congress in parts of his speech on Tuesday, while also claiming that the prime minister came close to attacking Iran some four years ago despite the united opposition of the security services. Dagan, who led the Mossad for over eight years from August 2002, also warned that Netanyahu's policies on the Palestinians risked turning Israel into an apartheid state.
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Obamacare supporters were cheered Wednesday by Justice Anthony Kennedy's tough grilling of the lead attorney in the latest lawsuit -- and the law's opponents came away nervous. That doesn't mean the suspense is over and Kennedy will be the deciding vote to save the law. There's still enough uncertainty about the outcome of King v. Burwell to guarantee that the survival of Obamacare will be in doubt until the Supreme Court rules at the end of June.
During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing, Alaska Representative Don Young (R), suggested that wolves could cure the homeless problem in some congressional districts. Congressman Young uttered the bizarre remark during an exchange with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. Chastising members of Congress who support protecting wolves, Young lashed out: How many of you have got wolves in your district? None. None. Not one. They haven't got a damn wolf in their whole district. I'd like to introduce them in your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn't have a homeless problem anymore."
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