What White People Can Do About the Killing of Black Men in America

Published on Huffington Post/The Blog, by Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, Aug 13, 2014.

… I spoke to Rev. Tony Lee who is an African-American pastor at Community of Hope AME Church in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Rev. Tony and I went to seminary together and he has been a colleague I trust to speak the truth to me about race in America. He called the recent deaths ‘disturbing but not surprising.’

« The reason people are responding so strongly is that these are examples of daily antagonisms felt by black people on the street. This is part of a wider school-to-prison pipeline and the ghettoization and de-humanization of black bodies. Social media gets the word out much quicker and people are responding to dead black men on the streets in LA, Ferguson and NYC by saying ‘wait, that is going on in our streets too.' »   Continuer la lecture de « What White People Can Do About the Killing of Black Men in America »

One Nation Under SWAT

Published on TomDispatch, by Matthew Harwood, Aug 14, 2014.

Think of it as a different kind of blowback. Even when you fight wars in countries thousands of miles distant, they still have an eerie way of making the long trip home.

Take the latest news from Bergen County, New Jersey, one of the richest counties in the country. Its sheriff’s department is getting two mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs — 15 tons of protective equipment — for a song from the Pentagon. And there’s nothing special in that. The Pentagon has handed out 600 of them for nothing since 2013, with plenty more to come. They’re surplus equipment, mostly from our recent wars, and perhaps they will indeed prove handy for a sheriff fretting about insurgent IEDs (roadside bombs) in New Jersey or elsewhere in the country. Continuer la lecture de « One Nation Under SWAT »

Cry for Argentina: Fiscal Mismanagement, Odious Debt or Pillage?

Published on Dissident Voice, by Ellen Hodgson Brown, August 12th, 2014.

Argentina has now taken the US to The Hague for blocking the country’s 2005 settlement with the bulk of its creditors. The issue underscores the need for an international mechanism for nations to go bankrupt. Better yet would be a sustainable global monetary scheme that avoids the need for sovereign bankruptcy. Continuer la lecture de « Cry for Argentina: Fiscal Mismanagement, Odious Debt or Pillage? »

The responsibility for ISIS doesn’t lie with the West

(my comment: not only, but I agree with the rest – Heidi) – Published on Left Foot Forward, by KUNWAR SHAHID, August 11, 2014.

While it would be ridiculous to allow the West the moral high ground, it is even more absurd for the Muslim world to transfer the responsibility for ISIS on to the West.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is emulating al Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Boko Haram and pretty much every single Sunni Islamist militant organisation in the world by taking up arms vying to establish a regional – and eventually global – caliphate.   Continuer la lecture de « The responsibility for ISIS doesn’t lie with the West »

Nanoelectronics meets biology: From new tools to electronic therapeutics

Press release: On the frontiers of cyborg science: … published on Nanotechnology Now, Aug 10, 2014.

Abstract: Nanoscale materials enable unique opportunities at the interface between the physical and life sciences, and the interfaces between nanoelectronic devices and cells, cell networks, and tissue makes possible communication between these systems at the length scale relevant to biological function. Continuer la lecture de « Nanoelectronics meets biology: From new tools to electronic therapeutics »

A Financial Casino Would Be a Step Up From What We Have

Published on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, August 10, 2014.

This is a terrific and very accessible interview with Boston College professor Ed Kane, who is a long-standing critic of the failure to rein in financial firms that feed at the taxpayer trough. At one point in the talk, Kane and his interviewer Marshall Auerback discuss how casinos are well aware of the fact that the house can lose and they monitor gamblers intensively to make sure that no one is engaging is sleight of hand. Thus if we treated our banking system like the financial casino that it has become, we’d be much better off than we are now. Continuer la lecture de « A Financial Casino Would Be a Step Up From What We Have »

Gluttons of Information: The Metadata Confusion in Oz

Published on Dissident Voice, by Binoy Kampmark, August 8, 2014.

It is sometimes hard to know whether those in power adopt a policy of confusion purposely, or through grand design. When it comes to the flawed policy of data retention on a mass scale, a burden that is bound to fall on telecommunications companies, the problem is most acute of all. What is to be kept? What falls within that broad term metadata? Continuer la lecture de « Gluttons of Information: The Metadata Confusion in Oz »

Pushing LBJ Into War: Robert S. McNamara and the Real Tonkin Gulf Deception

Published on Counterpunch, by GARETH PORTER, Aug 5, 2014.

For most of the last five decades, it has been assumed that the Tonkin Gulf incident was a deception by Lyndon Johnson to justify war in Vietnam. But the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam on August 4, 1964 in retaliation for an alleged naval attack that never happened — and the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that followed was not a move by LBJ to get the American people to support a U.S. war in Vietnam.   Continuer la lecture de « Pushing LBJ Into War: Robert S. McNamara and the Real Tonkin Gulf Deception »

Why National Security Has Nothing to Do With Security

Published on TomDispatch, by Noam Chomsky, August 5, 2014.

… On August 7, 1945, a previous age was ending and a new one was dawning. In the nuclear era, city-busting weapons would be a dime a dozen and would spread from the superpowers to many other countries, including Great Britain, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. Targeted by the planet’s major nuclear arsenals would be the civilian inhabitants not just of single cities but of scores and scores of cities, even of the planet itself. On August 6th, 70 years ago, the possibility of the apocalypse passed out of the hands of God or the gods and into human hands, which meant a new kind of history had begun whose endpoint is unknowable, though we do know that even a “modest” exchange of nuclear weapons between India and Pakistan would not only devastate South Asia, but thanks to the phenomenon of nuclear winter also cause widespread famine on a planetary scale.   Continuer la lecture de « Why National Security Has Nothing to Do With Security »

Sick of this market-driven world? You should be

The self-serving con of neoliberalism s that it has eroded the human values the MARKET was supposed to emancipate – Published on The Guardian, by George Monbiot, Aug 5, 2014.

To be at peace with a troubled world: this is not a reasonable aim. It can be achieved only through a disavowal of what surrounds you. To be at peace with yourself within a troubled world: that, by contrast, is an honourable aspiration. This column is for those who feel at odds with life. It calls on you not to be ashamed.

I was prompted to write it by a remarkable book, just published in English, by a Belgian professor of psychoanalysis, Paul Verhaeghe.   Continuer la lecture de « Sick of this market-driven world? You should be »

50 US experts head to West Africa to contain outbreak of Ebola

Man tested for Ebola in NYC – Published on Russia Today RT, August 04, 2014.

A man in New York City was tested for Ebola after traveling to West Africa. The news comes shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it will send 50 staffers to the region over the next month to combat the deadly outbreak.

Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan performed tests on the male patient with high fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, the hospital said in a statement. He arrived in the emergency room Monday morning, and had previously traveled to one of the West African countries where Ebola has been reported.   Continuer la lecture de « 50 US experts head to West Africa to contain outbreak of Ebola »

Ukraine … questions and non-answers

EUROPE: Civilians die in latest Ukraine offensive, on Al Jazeera, August 3, 2014.

At least ten dead as government forces continue to close in on Donetsk, forcing rebel groups out of surrounding towns. At least ten civilians have been killed in new fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists around the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk in east Ukraine, local officials say.

Six people were killed in shelling and gunfire on the outskirts of Donetsk, Deputy Mayor Kostantyn Savinov said on Sunday, while city officials said three others were killed in shelling of Luhansk over the previous 24 hours. Officials in the frontline rebel base of Gorlivka reported one dead and 16 hurt in clashes there.   Continuer la lecture de « Ukraine … questions and non-answers »

Human trafficking is rampant in Canada

Published on ViceNews, by Angela Hennessy, July 31, 2014.

Last week, the Canadian government announced that the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) had removed 20 members of a massive human trafficking gang from Canada and deported them back to their native Hungary. The Domotor-Kolompar crime ring — headed by kingpin Fernec Domotor — was busted up in 2010 when a victim escaped and told authorities about the atrocities he and 18 others were enduring. The case is the largest known human trafficking ring in Canadian history, exposing a problem in Canada that reaches far beyond this Hungarian crime family.   Continuer la lecture de « Human trafficking is rampant in Canada »

The Orange Social Design Award: help us make our cities more liveable

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Marianne Wellershoff, July 30, 2014 (12 Photo in the Gallery).

Vegetables for all and second-hand treasures: Smart design doesn’t just look good — it also seeks to do good. That’s why we’re launching the Orange Social Design Award, to be bestowed on ideas that look great and improve life in the city

Ok, let’s assume you have a few things lying around your house that you no longer need but still might be useful to others. A table lamp, a vase or a book, for example. You could give them away to friends or sell them on Ebay. You might also consider throwing them away.   Continuer la lecture de « The Orange Social Design Award: help us make our cities more liveable »