Mois : novembre 2014

US: Senate Republicans block landmark NSA surveillance reform bill

Published on The Guardian, by Spencer Ackerman in NY, Nov 19, 2014.

  • Senators, mostly Republicans warning of leaving the country exposed to terrorist threat, voted to beat back the USA Freedom Act
  • Failure to pass US surveillance reform bill could still curtail NSA powers
  • Nearly 18 months after Edward Snowden’s disclosures, the USA Freedom Act has died

… It was the denouement to over a year’s worth of political drama, characterized by shifting alliances and a reduction in ambitions for constraining the NSA, even in a post-Snowden Congress.   Continuer la lecture de « US: Senate Republicans block landmark NSA surveillance reform bill »

Does it pay for firms to invest in their workers’ wellbeing?

Published on VOXeu.org, by Alex Bryson, John Forth, Lucy Stokes, Nov 17, 2014.

It is generally agreed that firms can improve their employees’ wellbeing through improvements in job quality – but is it in their economic interests to do so? This column reports research showing that satisfied employees and higher productivity go together. Analysis of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey finds that employee job satisfaction is positively associated with workplace financial performance, labour productivity, and the quality of output and service … // Continuer la lecture de « Does it pay for firms to invest in their workers’ wellbeing? »

Putin's ARD Interview

in Texts, on Russia Today RT:

Revealed: how coalition has helped rich by hitting poor

Published on The Guardian, by Daniel Boffey, Nov 15, 2014: study shows gains for wealthier half of population, delivering a blow to George Osborne’s claims on fairness;

A landmark study of the coalition’s tax and welfare policies six months before the general election reveals how money has been transferred from the poorest to the better off, apparently refuting the chancellor of the exchequer’s claims that the country has been “all in it together”.

According to independent research to be published on Monday and seen by the Observer, George Osborne has been engaged in a significant transfer of income from the least well-off half of the population to the more affluent in the past four years. Those with the lowest incomes have been hit hardest.   Continuer la lecture de « Revealed: how coalition has helped rich by hitting poor »

How Is a Prison Like a War?

Published on Global Research.ca (first on War is a Crime), by David Swanson, Nov 13, 2014.

The similarities between mass incarceration and mass murder have been haunting me for a while, and I now find myself inspired by Maya Schenwar’s excellent new book Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better. This is one of three books everyone should read right away. The others are The New Jim Crow and Burning Down the House, the former with a focus on racism in incarceration, the latter with a focus on the incarceration of youth. Schenwar’s is an overview of incarceration in all its absurd and unfathomable evil — as well as being a spotlight leading away from this brutal institution.   Continuer la lecture de « How Is a Prison Like a War? »