Catégorie : Politics

Published on Russia Today RT, by Lucy Nicholson, Aug 27, 2014.

Close to 200 state and local police departments in the United States have been suspended for losing military-level equipment transferred to them by the Pentagon, a new investigation found …;

According to the media outlet Fusion, its independent investigation into the Pentagon’s “1033 program,” which equips state and local police departments across the US with excess military equipment, turned up an alarming trend: Not only did many law enforcement agencies fail to comply with the program’s guidelines, they routinely lost dangerous weaponry.   Continuer la lecture de « Dozens of police departments suspended for losing US military-grade weaponry »

Mixed Links:

• Companies shrugging off sanctions and geopolitics for now, on CMCmarkets, by Michael Hewson, Aug 26, 2014;
• The rhetoric of bilateral talks, on Geopolitical Analysis, by K.N. Pandita, Aug 26, 2014;
• Iran displays Israeli drone downed near nuclear facility (VIDEO), on Russia Today RT, Aug 26, 2014;   Continuer la lecture de « GEOPOLITICS »

… Monetary policy in the US and EU after quantitative easing, the case for asset based reserve requirements ABRR – Published on Real World Economics Review, issue no 68, by Thomas I. Palley, Aug 21, 2014.

• Abstract: This paper critiques the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) exit strategy which aims to deactivate excess liquidity via higher interest rates on reserves. That is equivalent to giving banks a tax cut at the public’s expense. It also risks domestic and international financial market turmoil. The paper proposes an alternative exit strategy based on ABRR which avoids the adverse fiscal and financial market impacts of higher interest rates. ABRR also increase the number of monetary policy instruments which can permanently improve policy. This is especially beneficial for euro zone countries. Furthermore, ABRR yield fiscal benefits via increased seignorage and can shrink a financial sector that is too large. Continuer la lecture de « Monetary policy in the US and EU after quantitative easing »

Published on CorpWatch, by Pratap Chatterjee, Aug 21, 2014.

Bank of America has agreed to pay the government $9.65 billion to settle charges of misleading investors over mortgage lending in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis. The bank will also pay out an additional $7 billion to help borrowers and communities affected by the loans.

The settlement agreement was hammered out by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the attorney generals of six states – California, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Maryland. Similar large multi billion dollar settlements over mortgage related fraud have recently been reached with JP Morgan and Citigroup for$13 billion and $7 billion respectively.   Continuer la lecture de « Bank of America to Pay $16.65 Billion to Settle Mortgage Fraud Charges »

Published on EurActiv, July 25, 2014.

.The German aid organisation Brot für die Welt warns that a planned EU-US free trade agreement known as TTIP will undermine local support for smallholders in developing countries and exacerbate the global food crisis. EurActiv Germany reports … //

… Support for regional food products under question: … //

… Local farmers disadvantaged:   Continuer la lecture de « German NGO says TTIP will undermine global food security »

Achieving food and nutritional security through family farming – Published on World Agroforestry Centre, by Kate Langford, August 20, 2014.

With the International Year of Family Farming taking place in 2013, renowned Indian agricultural scientist, M S Swaminathan looks at what is needed to support these most important of producers in achieving food as well as nutritional security, especially in India.

It is estimated there are around 500 million farming families in the world. The International Year of Family Farming “offers an opportunity for achieving a shift from food security to nutrition security,” says Swaminathan. “Family farms tend to be based on crop, livestock, fish, agroforestry and mixed farming systems” which means they lend themselves to being made both nutrition and environment sensitive.   Continuer la lecture de « AGROFORESTRY »

• Child Poverty in the Wake of Economic Recovery, 23.33 min, uploaded by Carsey School of Public Policy, Aug 7, 2014;
• Van Jones: The Green Collar Economy, 59.30 min, uploaded by Othilia Bergqvist, July 31, 2014;
• Lecture Series: Michael M. Miller on Rethinking Poverty, 54.32 min, uploaded by Aquinas College, April 24, 2014;
• The Face of Poverty in Europe and Central Asia, 24.50 min, uploaded by World Bank, Feb 10, 2014;
• The Truth About Poverty, 31.15 min, uploaded by Stefan Molyneux, Jan 9, 2014;         Continuer la lecture de « POVERTY »

• * (Inside) The Islamic State FULL, 42.31 min, uploaded by VICEnews, Aug 14, 2014;
• Der Islamische Staat und die Ästhetik des Wahnsinns, Die Welt, von Jan Küveler, 18. August 2014: erstmals zeigt eine TV-Reportage den Islamischen Staat (IS) von innen. Bester Laune planen seine Bürger die grausamsten Gräueltaten. Das Böse zeigt sich in seiner ganzen Unschuld. Das Erstaunlichste an der Reportage aus dem syrischen ar-Raqqa*, de facto Hauptstadt des Islamischen Staats (IS), die einem Reporter des Internetmagazins « Vice » sensationellerweise gelang, ist die Offenheit und Freundlichkeit der Menschen. Das Kind, das angibt, später einmal lieber Dschihadist als Selbstmordattentäter werden zu wollen, lächelt scheu-kokett. Sein Vater, genannt der Belgier, weil er dort lange lebte, bevor er nach ar-Raqqa kam, um einen Gebetstruck zu fahren, muss gerührt weinen, wenn er verspricht, die Ungläubigen in aller Welt auszurotten …;   Continuer la lecture de « The Islamic State »

Published on Socialist Worker.org, by ELIZABETH SCHULTE, August 19, 2014.

The unarmed Black teen killed in Ferguson, Mo., has suffered a political and media smear campaign, reports Elizabeth Schulte – like so many other victims of police … //

… Oh, and the Ferguson police had some surveillance video to release–something you know all too well if you’ve had the misfortune of tuning in even briefly to cable TV news over the past several days.   Continuer la lecture de « COMMENT: The second assassination of Mike Brown »

Published on truthout, by Frédéric Mousseau, Aug 17, 2014.

Mostly unreported as the Ukraine conflict captures headlines, international financing has played a significant role in the current conflict in Ukraine. In late 2013, conflict between pro-European Union (EU) and pro-Russian Ukrainians escalated to violent levels, leading to the departure of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 and prompting the greatest East-West confrontation since the Cold War.   Continuer la lecture de « What Do the World Bank and IMF Have to Do With the Ukraine Conflict? »

Land resources Management – rural and urban development projects, 1.43 min, uploaded by Mrtv English Channel, Aug 15, 2014:

A workshop on land resources management for rural and urban development projects was held in Nay Pyi Taw, yesterday. President U Thein Sein gave a speech, saying that the government will be able to settle landless people on newly-developed plots in accordance with urban and rural development plans after identifying the real landless people.   Continuer la lecture de « key-search: alternative development projects »

Published on ZNet (also on counterpunch, and on Pretoria News), by Patrick Bond, Aug 15, 2014.

What, ultimately, was the importance of the Africa-US leadership summit at the White House last week? It came at a very decisive moment for geopolitical relations in the axis linking Washington, Pretoria and Tel Aviv. And surprising US-China economic connections were also revealed, potentially reaching deep into Africa. Mega-corporations of both US and African parentage revelled in the attention and repeated blasts of public subsidies, with deals alleged to have reached $37 billion over the three days.     Continuer la lecture de « Obama, Zuma and the Washington-Pretoria-Tel Aviv Relay »

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 »

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 »

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? »