Intercept: An Essential New Site by Greenwald, Scahill, and Company

Published on The Contrary Perspective, by blog owner, Feb 15, 2014.

In an age when many journalists are corporate-owned or are reduced by various pressures into stenographers for the powerful, it’s encouraging to hear of new journalistic ventures that promise to be critical of those in power. Glenn Greenwald, who’s established a reputation for outspoken journalism at Salon.com and The Guardian, and Jeremy Scahill, an investigative reporter and bestselling author of Blackwater as well as Dirty Wars, have established a new online magazine known as The Intercept (it’s available here: The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program).   Continuer la lecture de « Intercept: An Essential New Site by Greenwald, Scahill, and Company »

Venezuela: A Complex Psychological War

Published on ZNet, by Tamara Pearson, February 15, 2014.

… On top of this, we have the media constantly lying about what is going on here (in Venezuela) and about what the government does, as well as the verbal abuse towards Chavistas on social networks. Then, over the last few weeks, in some parts of Venezuela, the most violent sectors of the opposition have been active. Here in Merida it started off with a few “students” blocking the main road; burning tires and garbage on it, and throwing rocks at anyone who tried to get close. They had no placards. From last Friday those protests escalated, both in terms of violence, people involved, and roads closed. It has been hard to get to school, work, and the hospital, and the frustration, inconvenience, and fear that comes with these sorts of actions combines with the aforementioned economic insecurity. The cacerolas (pot banging protests) that started last night in my barrio and in a few others here and in other cities also cause anxiety.   Continuer la lecture de « Venezuela: A Complex Psychological War »

Online revolts can stop govt

Yesterday we defeated SOPA, today we battle NSA – Interview with Josh Levy, published on Russia Today RT, Feb 12, 2014.

Properly mobilized people can become a massive online force capable of blocking ‘dangerous bills’ and changing government policies, Josh Levy of the Free Press told RT. The participants of The Day We Fight Back campaign say their call to action is simple.

RT: What are the protesters trying to achieve? How exactly are they supposed to ‘fight back’?

  • Josh Levy: This day of action [Wednesday, February 11] is the next stop on the continuum of action that has taken place since Edward Snowden first revealed the extent of the NSA surveillance program back in June. It follows mass protests that took place in Washington DC in October, the huge online protest that took place in June after we’ve found out about all of these things. And what we have seen is that it has really changed the debate not only here in the US but around the world. And more and more people every day have turned away these programs and have tried to find the ways to stop them.   Continuer la lecture de « Online revolts can stop govt »

The side effects of the monetary paradigm

Published on Neues Geld.net, Interview Professor Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Berger, economist and philosopher, by Lars Schall, Translation into English by Lucy Streng, Feb 14, 2014 (Verbunden mit Ursachen der Finanzkrise).

Professor Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Berger is among the critics of an absolute basic prerequisite of today’s financial system: interest. In the following interview he reveals present conditions, risks and alternatives. “Interest is part of the system and it has side effects which therefore also belong to the system – terrible side effects.”  Continuer la lecture de « The side effects of the monetary paradigm »

Ursachen der Finanzkrise

Link: Die Schweiz sagt Fuck the EU.

Moving beyond the corporate vision of sustainability

Published on Intrepid Report, by Rajesh Makwana, February 12, 2014.

… The green economy vs. the greed economy:

Invariably, the big business lobby advocates for market-based solutions to environmental problems and the ‘greening’ of economic growth, and essentially works to safeguard opportunities for private sector investment and shareholder profit. But environmentalists and civil society organisations have long argued that there is something deeply misguided about putting corporate profits and market-based solutions at the forefront of our response to climate change and the wider environmental crisis. Continuer la lecture de « Moving beyond the corporate vision of sustainability »

Do over?

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Peter Radford, Feb 11, 2014.

You would have thought that, after all this time, economics would change. Or be changing. Or even be hinting at the possibility of changing. However, while there are a few encouraging signs, there is precious little sign of said motion inside the citadels that dominate the discipline. We still have a profession stuck in a most unprofessional rut, pursuing thinking that reflects not the world around it, but itself.   Continuer la lecture de « Do over? »

Tony Gosling

Ed Miliband: Labour will give parents power to oust headteachers

Proposed public service overhaul includes education hit squads to boost performance of failing schools or teachers – Published on The Guardian, by Patrick Wintour, Feb 9, 2014.

Parents are to be given a new power to call in a specialist team to boost the performance of failing schools or teachers, under a set of wide-ranging public service reform plans to be laid out on Monday by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband.

The improvement team, working separately from Ofsted, will have powers to set out school improvement plans, order greater collaboration between schools or even remove failing headteachers. The body would have powers to intervene with academies, free schools and community schools.  Continuer la lecture de « Ed Miliband: Labour will give parents power to oust headteachers »

To challenge global capitalism we must first understand it

… an interview with Leo Panitch – Published on red pepper, January 2014.

Globalisation and Imperialism: … //

  • … Is it really the case that other states have not also assumed the responsibility for promoting and protecting global capitalism?
  • That’s a good question, one that’s not fully resolved. The US is a new type of empire that only rules in conjunction with other states, especially G7 states. It’s not merely an imposition. It requires a lot of institutional coordination and interpenetration. That said, the Germans in particular have been recalcitrant in taking responsibility for ‘failure containment’ in light of financial volatility. Neither has Japan been very forthcoming. By contrast, the relationship between UK and US Treasury is particularly close in playing this failure containment role, although the UK accepts that the US is the senior partner, if for no other reason than it has greater capacity. Continuer la lecture de « To challenge global capitalism we must first understand it »