@dustcirclenews - HEADLINES: 50 Million Hungry Daily, Fast Food Living Wage, Debt-Free College Education, Espionage Act Abuse, Low-Wage America, Right-Wing Media vs. Science, Post-Constitution USA, Failing American Empire, more.

Join our watch: http://www.dustcircle.com

50 Million Go Hungry Each Day
http://www.alternet.org/food/moyers-50-million-go-hungry-each-day

Creating A Living Wage For Fast Food Workers Would Cost Pennies For Business And Consumers
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/08/04/creating-a-living-wage-for-fast-food-workers-would-cost-pennies-for-business-and-consumers/

FBI can remotely activate microphones in Android smartphones, source says
http://worldduh.com/2013/08/03/fbi-can-remotely-activate-microphones-in-android-smartphones-source-says/

‘We Are Slowly Dying’: Fast-Food Workers Strike for Wages, Rights and Dignity
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/we_are_slowly_dying_fast-food_workers_strike_for_wages_rights_20130803/

Violence will rise as climate changes, scientists predict
http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2013/08/violence-will-rise-as-climate-changes-scientists-predict.html

A Debt-Free College Education

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/08/06-8

Obama's Abuse of the Espionage Act is Modern-Day McCarthyism
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/08/06-14

The Surveillance State Is as Strong as Ever
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_surveillance_state_is_as_strong_as_ever_20130804/

5 Ways Right-Wing Media Make Their Fans Fear Science
http://www.alternet.org/5-ways-right-wing-media-make-their-fans-fear-science

5 Ways the War on Terror Has Changed Your Life
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/5-ways-war-terror-impacting-you

Talk About Police States
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35774.htm

Low-wage America
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08/07/pers-a07.html

Feds Accused Of Distributing Malware That De-Anonymizes Tor Users
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130805/12263024073/federal-government-distributing-malware-that-de-anonymizes-tor-users.shtml

It's Dangerous For Free Speech When We Confuse Leakers With Spies
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130802/14032124047/its-dangerous-free-speech-when-we-confuse-leakers-with-spies.shtml

Should Businesses Make Money From Poor People?
http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/should-businesses-make-money-from-poor-people

Washington Thinks You Are Stupid
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Washington-Thinks-You-Are-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-130806-33.html

Welcome To Post-Constitution America

http://www.countercurrents.org/buren070813.htm

Polls Keep Showing That Americans Are Fine with the Surveillance State
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/08/poll-after-poll-shows-americans-are-fine-surveillance-state/68038/

Is the United States a failing empire?
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/15143110-is-the-united-states-a-failing-empire

PRESIDENTIAL PARDON FOR BRADLEY MANNING | JILL STEIN INTERVIEW

@dustcirclenews - HEADLINES: US Agents' Impunity, Fired for Any Reason, 70 Military Rapes Daily, Tax Dollars Fuel Inequality, Armed March in DC, Medical Billing Confusion, Doomsday Preppers, Religion and Human Rights, Hawking Joins Israel Boycott, Anonymous Launches #OpUSA, Food Giants Hooking People, School Surveillance State, Guantanamo Hunger Strikes, DHS Whistleblower Labeled Terrorist, Israel Wants Religious War, more.

 http://www.dustcircle.com

"Over the Line" - 
US Agents Shooting Dead Innocent Mexicans Across the Border With Impunity

It's All Too Easy to Get Fired in America: In 49 of 50 States, You Can Be Fired for Any Reason
http://www.alternet.org/economy/we-work-whim-our-bosses-49-50-states-you-can-be-fired-any-reason

Pentagon survey: More than 70 military sexual assaults occur per day
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/07/pentagon-survey-more-than-70-military-sexual-assaults-occur-per-day/

11 Most Heartless GOP Ideas for Immigrants
http://www.alternet.org/11-most-heartless-gop-ideas-immigrants

How Your Tax Dollars Fund Bad, Low-Wage Jobs and Help Fuel Inequality
http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-your-tax-dollars-fund-bad-low-wage-jobs-and-help-fuel-inequality

Confronting the 1 percent directly
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/confronting-the-1-percent-directly/

Sexual Assaults and Nuclear Missiles: What's the Matter With the Military?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/military-sexual-assault_b_3244317.html

Armed march turns into massive civil disobedience event
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/349775

3 Ways Sequestration is Taking a Toll on Struggling Americans
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/viewvideo/76142

Confused By Medical Billing? Government Survey Reveals Dark Secret Of Healthcare Costs
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/09/confused-by-medical-billing-government-survey-reveals-dark-secret-of-healthcare-costs-video/

‘Doomsday Preppers’ Are Prepared To Take Up Arms Against The Government
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/08/doomsday-preppers-are-prepared-to-take-up-arms-against-the-government-video/

Religion and Human Rights
http://hcco.org/node/255

Accessible porn reduces rape and prostitution
http://human-stupidity.com/stupid-dogma/child-porn-witch-hunt/accessible-porn-reduces-rape-and-prostitution

Indispensable Guide: Where to Shop to Avoid Buying from Businesses that Endanger Workers
http://www.alternet.org/indispensable-guide-where-shop-avoid-buying-businesses-endanger-workers

President Obama, Don’t Let the CIA Control the Torture Narrative
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/08-1

Professor Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel in solidarity with Palestinians
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/professor-stephen-hawking-joins-academic-boycott-of-israel-in-solidarity-with-palestinians/

The U.S. Government Is Monitoring All Phone Calls, All Emails And All Internet Activity
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-u-s-government-is-monitoring-all-phone-calls-all-emails-and-all-internet-activity_052013

Anonymous Hackers Launch #OpUSA against US Banking and Government Agencies
http://thehackernews.com/2013/05/anonymous-hackers-launch-opusa-against.html

How Food Giants Are Hooking People
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/07/how-food-giants-are-hooking-people-video/

America and Israel: Imperial Partners in Crime
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34845.htm

The Fight Against the Total Surveillance State in Our Schools
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/viewvideo/76127

Neither Admit Nor Deny: Big Business Allowed To Pay Millions to Avoid Jail
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/06-0

Guantanamo Hunger Strike Forces Debate About Detention
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2013/05/06

7 Ways the Sequester Is Actually Increasing Gov't Spending
http://www.alternet.org/7-ways-sequester-actually-increasing-govt-spending

DHS Whistleblower Labeled Domestic Terrorist (Censored from 60 Minutes)
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/dhs-whistleblower-labeled-domestic-terrorist-censored-from-60-minutes_052013

Understanding Obama And Other People Who Kill
http://www.countercurrents.org/burrowes070513.htm

Secularism as Political and Social Movement: Denying Church Authority Over State
http://atheism.about.com/od/secularismseparation/a/Politics.htm?nl=1

Why America May Be the Last Empire
http://www.alternet.org/why-america-may-be-last-empire

Anonymous op to close Guantanamo: detailed report here
http://darkernet.in/anonymous-op-to-close-guantanamo-detailed-report-here/

Warren Buffett signs $2 billion check in support of Israeli apartheid
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david/warren-buffett-signs-2-billion-check-support-israeli-apartheid

Former FBI Agent Says All Phone Calls In U.S. Are Recorded By Government
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/former-fbi-agent-says-all-phone-calls-us-are-recorded-government

How Much Money is There on Earth?
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/viewvideo/76128

Ministry of Endowments: Israel wants to ignite a religious war
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/ministry-of-endowments-israel-wants-to-ignite-a-religious-war/

@dustcirclenews - 11 Free DOCUMENTARIES: Advances in Neuroscience, Inside the Saudi Kingdom, Voyager Journey to the Stars, On-Body Police Cams, Soda Pop, Madagascar Sex and Survival, 3D Printed Guns, Keys to Crowdfunding Success, Guns in the Sun, Surviving the Cold, A Drug Addict Male Prostitute

The Video-related content I send out will have a link to the website so you can view the videos, instead of seeing just a list: http://www.dustcircle.com

WAKING THE BRAIN: ADVANCES IN NEUROSCIENCE
In the summer of 2010 Rohan Pais, an amateur long-distance cyclist, was training for a charity ride. His bike collided with a car and he was thrown into a cornfield. His injuries were so severe, that the emergency room doctors told his wife he wasn’t going to make it.


INSIDE THE SAUDI KINGDOM
Lionel Mill’s film has unique access to Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsen, one of the rulers of the rich, powerful and secretive Saudi royal family.


VOYAGER JOURNEY TO THE STARS
The film examines the great promise of the Voyager mission and where it will lead us in our grand ambition to move out beyond our home planet. The two Voyager spacecraft are part of an ancient quest to push beyond our boundaries… to see what lies beyond the horizon. Now tens of billions of kilometers from Earth, two spacecraft are streaking out into the void. What will we learn about the Galaxy, the Universe, and ourselves from Voyager’s epic Journey to the stars?


FIRST PERSON SHOOTER: ON-BODY POLICE CAMS
Stun-gun company Taser want to make ‘Cops’ on steroids, but who does it serve? The Verge goes in-depth with Taser and the Mesa Police Department, one of the many law agencies testing this new technology.


OBSESSIVES: SODA POP
John Nese is the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lovers destination.


SEX AND SURVIVAL IN MADAGASCAR
Using undercover filming, this powerful investigation exposes a booming child sex trade. In the hub of Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries, prostitution is seen as an unavoidable means of survival.


CLICK, PRINT, GUN – 3D PRINTED GUNS
This is a story about the rapid evolution of a technology that has forced the American legal system to play catch up. Cody Wilson, a 24 year old University of Texas Law student, is an advocate for the open source production of firearms using 3D printing technology. This makes him a highly controversial figure on both sides of the gun control issue. MOTHERBOARD sat down with Cody in Austin, Texas to talk about the constitution, the legal system, and to watch him make and test-fire a 3D-printed gun.


KEYS TO CROWDFUNDING SUCCESS: PITCH, PROACTIVE, AUDIENCE
Get insights how to setup your crowdfunding campaign to reach your goals. Valuable tips from somebody who definately knows this business very well: Danae Ringelmann co-founded Indiegogo to democratize fundraising. She brings entertainment industry and finance expertise, and serves as an Advisor to The Conversation.


GUNS IN THE SUN – FLORIDA, USA
Weeks before the almost unfathomable mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, Rocco Castoro visited Florida to dive headfirst into its byzantine firearms laws and discover why his home state was the first in the nation to issue over one million concealed weapons permits. Through interviews and time on the range with veterans, law enforcement officials, and gun-store owners, VICE digs deep into the gun debate and uncovers many troubling revelations along the way. Oh, we also use a Craigslist-like site to arrange for the purchase of a handgun at 10 PM in the parking lot of a big-box hardware store. And it’s all 100-percent legal. Welcome to Florida.


SURVIVING THE COLD
Valery Malkov made the headlines when he fell out of a train in Siberia in -40 degrees Celsius wearing practically nothing, then ran 30 minutes to the next station and lived to tell the tale. The film explores the way the human body reacts and adapts to cold and meets frost enthusiasts who willingly subject themselves to extreme temperatures.


BRIAN ON THE BOULEVARD – A DRUG ADDICT MALE PROSTITUTE
Just one camera, no lights and shooting on the fly, ‘Brian On The Boulevard’ captures the story of a heroin addict and male prostitute on the streets of Los Angeles. Brian offers a no holds barred and painfully honest account of his life. He discusses his family’s rejection, the loss of his brother, the possibility of contracting AIDS, and the thin line between death from addiction and redemption through rehab.

21.Feb.2013 - HEADLINES: Feds Buy 2-Billion Rounds of Ammo, Arrested for Your Politics, Civil Disobedience, America Not the Greatest, Exceptionalism, Human Misery Profiting, Homeless Shelter Abuses, Retail Apocalypse, Israeli Occupation Prisons, more.

Feds Buy 2 Billion Rounds of Ammunition

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/feds-buy-2-billion-rounds-of-ammunition_022013

Arrested for Your Politics in America? It's Already Happening
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/arrested-your-politics-america-its-already-happening

Civil Disobedience: The Only "Weapon" We Have Remaining?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Civil-Disobedience-The-On-by-Camillo-Mac-Bica-130217-620.html

How Can Anyone Still Believe That America Is the Greatest Country on Earth?
http://www.alternet.org/glenn-greenwald-how-can-anyone-still-believe-america-greatest-country-earth

The Premises And Purposes Of American Exceptionalism

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Premises-And-Purposes-by-Glenn-Greenwald-130218-15.html

Profiting From Human Misery

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/02/18

I Went Undercover at a Homeless Shelter -- You Wouldn't Believe the Shocking Abuses I Found There

http://www.alternet.org/i-went-undercover-homeless-shelter-you-wouldnt-believe-shocking-abuses-i-found-there

Retail Apocalypse: Why Are Major Retail Chains All Over America Collapsing?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34003.htm

Thousands Protest 'Israeli Occupation Prisons' as Hunger Strikers Press On

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/18-6

Large study links excessive TV in childhood to criminal behavior in adults
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/18/large-study-links-excessive-tv-in-childhood-to-criminal-behavior-in-adults/

Sounding the global warming alarm
http://socialistworker.org/2013/02/19/sounding-the-global-warming-alarm

Voting Rights Act In The Supreme Court’s Crosshairs
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/02/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-section-5.php

Minimum Wage: Who Decided That Hard-Working Americans Should Fall Behind?
http://www.alternet.org/economy/minimum-wage-who-decided-hard-working-americans-should-fall-behind

Are Atheists the New Campus Crusaders?
http://www.alternet.org/belief/are-atheists-new-campus-crusaders

Bad Arguments against Marriage Equality
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2013/02/bad-arguments-against-marriage-equality/

NDAA: Pre-emptive Prosecution Coming to a Town Near You
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34039.htm

Crowdfunding The Push For A Federal Anti-SLAPP Law To Protect Free Speech
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130220/02221522035/crowdfunding-push-federal-anti-slapp-law-to-protect-free-speech.shtml

Will Obama Confiscate Guns and Gold?
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/will-obama-confiscate-guns-and-gold_022013

A Free Falling Economy Makes Bartering Go Boom
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/a-free-falling-economy-makes-bartering-go-boom_022013

Mike Bloomberg Will Leave the Homeless Worse Off Than He Found Them
http://gawker.com/5985591/mike-bloomberg-will-leave-the-homeless-worse-off-than-he-found-them

13.Feb.2013 - DOCUMENTARIES: Networked Society, Supersize Me, Bad Behavior Online, Clean Technology Future, Food Speculator

Life in a Networked Society

Technologies enable people to interact, innovate and share information in totally new ways. People are empowered, business is liberated and the society is more transparent. But how to take advantage of all this? And what does it take to become a networked society?

Supersize Me – Morgan Spurlock vs McDonald’s Fastfood

While examining the influence of the fast food industry, Morgan Spurlock personally explores the consequences on his health of a diet of solely McDonald’s food for one month.
Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock’s film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003 during which he ate only McDonald’s food. The film documents this lifestyle’s drastic effect on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry’s corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.
Spurlock dined at McDonald’s restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain’s menu at least once. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.92 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment.
As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment using a vegan diet supervised by his future wife, a chef who specializes in gourmet vegan dishes.
The reason for Spurlock’s investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. society, which the Surgeon General has declared “epidemic,” and the corresponding lawsuit brought against McDonald’s on behalf of two overweight girls, who, it was alleged, became obese as a result of eating McDonald’s food.
The documentary was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Bad Behavior Online: Bullying, Trolling and Free Speech

The internet is a powerful tool for communication, but it can sometimes be a double-edged sword. As most of us have seen or experienced, the internet can bring out the worst behavior in people, highlighting some of the cruelest and most hurtful aspects of humanity. Issues such as bullying online and trolling have garnered a lot of attention recently, prompting questions about who does, and should, regulate the internet, and what free speech means online.

The Clean Technology Future

What if we could live in a clean world?A world in which energy would be 100% renewable, water no longer polluted, transportation truly green and production methods clean and regenerative? There will be such a world. This documentary explores the unprecedented possibilities of a new industrial revolution: Cleantech.
Signs of a new future are visible everywhere, from China to the US and from Europe to Thailand. Green mobility powered by sustainable energy, clean drinking water for all thanks to nanotechnology, dyeing textiles using recycled CO2. All of this is possible and is happening successfully now! Working together with Cleantech-founder Nick Parker, this film shows what our world will be like in the decades to come. The film team travels the world in search of a clean future.

The Food Speculator

The film examines the global commodities futures markets and aims to understand the role of speculation on food prices.
Assuming the role of a speculator, director Kees Brouwer tries to find out whether he is merely taking advantage of the opportunity offered to investors by the food scarcity, or that, through this abstract world of financial products, he is drastically interfering in poor people’s lives.
Increasing food prices are increasingly causing unrest in the world. It was no coincidence that when the Arab Spring first began Tunisian protesters attacked the order police with baguettes. Is there just not enough food for so many people, or are the price increases caused by speculators, looking for quick profits? Backlight tries to find an answer by doing a little food speculation of its own. A quest that leads us to places including the streets of Tunisia and the Chicago Stock Exchange.

25.Dec.2012 - Democracy Doomed? NRA Suggests Police State, Global Persecution of Nonbelievers, Uncover-ed Religion, Old Views of Evolution, Get Rid of Electoral College? Unraveling the Welfare State 1+2, Sabotage of Democracy, Ditching Fossil Fuels, War on Christmas? and more.

Is Democracy Doomed? New Report Shows Tectonic Shifts in Campaign Spending

In a short period of time since the passage of Citizens United, the political funding landscape has dramatically changed.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/democracy-doomed-new-report-shows-tectonic-shifts-campaign-spending

NRA Suggests a Police State
f one follows the "logic" of the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre, the United States should become an armed camp with armored-up police carrying high-powered weapons stationed at virtually every location where children might congregate and where a crazy person might show up with a semi-automatic assault rifle.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/416-gun-control-/15198-nra-suggests-a-police-state

For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall

Low-income strivers face uphill climbs, especially at Ball High School, where a third of the girls’ class failed to graduate on schedule. But by the time the triplets donned mortarboards in the class of 2008, their story seemed to validate the promise of education as the great equalizer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html

Self-Compassion is More Important to Success than Self-Esteem

Being proud of your work and showing some self-esteem and confidence will get you a long way in life, but at the office, sometimes it's the ability to forgive yourself and learn from your mistakes that's more valuable than pure ego. Self-compassion can help you learn and grow, which is key to succeeding in any career.

http://lifehacker.com/5970594/self+compassion-is-more-important-to-success-than-self+esteem

Obama Backed FSA/Al Qaeda Terrorists Using Chemical Weapons in Syria

Militants fighting against the Syrian government have used chemical weapons against the army in Daraya near the capital, Damascus, military sources say.

http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/mena/313630-obama-backed-fsa-al-qaeda-terrorists-using-chemical-weapons-in-syria

Sacred Mysteries : Life After Death, Ancient Texts & the Vril

New Reports Reveal Global Persecution of Nonbelievers

According to Egypt News Daily, the prosecution first sought to charge him in connection with disseminating Innocence of Muslims but when this accusation was proven false, they revised their strategy to target the content of Saber’s video blog. Though sentenced to three years and released on bail he was subsequently locked up due to a clerical error before being released on December 17.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/6704/new_reports_reveal_global_persecution_of_nonbelievers

Undercover-ed Religion: 13 Stories That Went Missing in 2012

Storm and flood, bad bishops, nones on the bus, vegan leather queens, God’s mom: in this list Peter Laarman plots the angles that were largely invisible in mainstream religion coverage this past year—and likely in our own. A road map for 2013—and a sign to us that there might be more important things to focus on this year than the launch of our signature fragrance, RD’s Apocalypse-Begone (subtle notes of ash, hints of ocean breeze, a wisp of sulphur...). 

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/6680/undercover_ed_religion__13_stories_that_went_missing_in_2012

Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon, on the Struggle to Win, and Now Protect, Voting Rights in U.S.

DOWNLOAD:  VIDEOAUDIOGET CD/DVDMORE FORMATS

Biden: If Obama Comes for my Beretta, He's Got a Problem

The hidden size of nonbelievers

The people who are nonbelievers in any religion sometimes feel like a small minority. But this is purely a local illusion. When it comes to religions, different ones dominate different parts of the world. But when it comes to nonbelievers, we are all pretty much the same everywhere. We are the true uniters, not dividers, our shared unbelief uniting us across nations, races, and ethnicities.

http://machineslikeus.com/news/hidden-size-nonbelievers

New data challenge old views about evolution of early life

A research team led by biogeochemists at the University of California, Riverside has tested a popular hypothesis in paleo-ocean chemistry, and proved it false

http://machineslikeus.com/news/new-data-challenge-old-views-about-evolution-early-life

Question: Get Rid of Electoral College?

Unraveling the Welfare State

hat do you think the use of technocratic governments in Europe says about European democracy? There are two problems with it. First of all it shouldn’t happen, at least if anybody believes in democracy. Secondly, the policies that they’re following are just driving Europe into deeper and deeper problems. The idea of imposing austerity during a recession makes no sense whatsoever. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15193-unraveling-the-welfare-state

Unraveling the Welfare State (Part Two)
urope should have agreed to Palestine's observer status at the United Nations being upgraded, but they were, as you know, split on this. The US, of course, was strongly opposed. The reasons are very explicit and it's worth looking at them. They were discussed again in the New York Times last week where, of course, the newspaper took the same position as Washington almost reflexively. There are two problems, they say.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15209-unraveling-the-welfare-state-part-2

The GOP's Sabotage of Democracy

eally, what is to be done about this Republican Party? What force can change it—can stop Republicans from being ideological saboteurs and convert at least a workable minority of them into people interested in governing rather than sabotage? With the failed Plan B vote, we have reached the undeniable crisis point. Actually we’ve been at a crisis point for years, but this is really the all-upper-case Undeniable Crisis Point. They are a direct threat to the economy, which could slip back into recession next year if the government doesn’t, well, govern.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/15192-the-gops-sabotage-of-democracy

How a Country With One of the World's Largest Economies Is Ditching Fossil Fuels

The country is headed for 80 percent renewable energy and has complete buy-in from all political parties.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/how-country-one-worlds-largest-economies-ditching-fossil-fuels

There Really Is a War on Christmas -- It's Being Fought by Brave Atheists in the Heartland

There is a growing contingent of atheists from the American heartland who live surrounded by the faithful.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/there-really-war-christmas-its-being-fought-brave-atheists-heartland

The 7 Worst Things About McDonald's

Forcing employees to work on Christmas without overtime pay is just the beginning.

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/7-worst-things-about-mcdonalds

The Spy State Tightens its Grip

Americans are paying an ever-increasing price, both in dollars and the loss of personal privacy, to maintain the spy state.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/spy-state-tightens-its-grip

Human Rights Watch: Israel’s justifications for killing journalists are "evidence of war crimes"

Bank Rate Fixing Scandals Reveal the Rotten Heart of Capitalism

his is the year the consensus changed. Around the world, policy-makers, regulators and bankers recognised that the legacy of the 20-year credit boom up to 2008 is more corrosive than all but a few realised at the time. The bankers - and the theorists who justified their actions - made a millennial mistake. Navigating a way out of the mess was never likely to be easy, but it is made harder still by not recognising the magnitude of the disaster and the necessary radicalism involved if things are to be put right.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/304-justice/15211-bank-rate-fixing-scandals-reveal-the-rotten-heart-of-capitalism

Sneaky Apps that Track Cellphones

A perversion of smartphone technology called "stalking apps" - precise, secretive trackings of the movements of cellphone users - is increasingly a matter of national concern, particularly for domestic abuse victims. No less threatening is the routine monitoring of children's locales and phone habits for commercial purposes while parents are kept in the dark. Stealth apps even stoop to cyber-leering through the now notorious app called Girls Around Me, which allows men to search out women, unbeknown to them, by cross-matching GPS technology with information and photo sites like Facebook.

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/183-183/15212-sneaky-apps-that-track-cellphones

Lieberman would have ‘some really serious questions’ to ask Hagel ‘not just about Israel’ but about (Israel’s enemy du jour) Iran

Will the Internet End Up Controlled by Big Business and Politicians?

t's all about control. Of course, nobody uses that particular term. The talk is always about "governance" or "regulation", but really it's about control. Ever since the internet burst into public consciousness in 1993, the big question has been whether the most disruptive communications technology since print would be captured by the established power structures - nation states and giant corporations - that dominate our world and shape its development. And since then, virtually every newsworthy event in the evolution of the network has really just been another skirmish in the ongoing war to control the internet.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/15206-will-the-internet-end-up-controlled-by-big-business-and-politicians

Atheists vs. Christians: Inside One of America's Bitterest Nativity Scene Battles

Santa Monica is ground zero in the fault lines between Christian tradition, separation of church and state, and the First Amendment.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/atheists-vs-christians-inside-one-americas-bitterest-nativity-scene-battles
Michael Moore: 3 Reasons America Is Falling Apart -- And How We Can Save Ourselves

This holiday season, it is important to reflect on the root causes of America's slide.

http://www.alternet.org/michael-moore-3-reasons-america-falling-apart-and-how-we-can-save-ourselves

13.Dec.2012 - U.S. Officials Guilty of War Crimes, Indefinite Detention is Treason, Why We Torture, Feds Reading Your Emails, Right-to-Work is Anti-Labor, This is What Democracy Looks Like, Mindless American Support for Israel, Government War on Small Business, 7 Ways the Military Wastes our Money, National Security Bosses

More Than Thirty Top U.S. Officials Guilty of War Crimes

More than 30 top U.S. officials, including presidents G.W. Bush and Obama, are guilty of war crimes or crimes against peace and humanity “legally akin to those perpetrated by the former Nazi regime in Germany,” the distinguished American international law authority Francis Boyle charges.

http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/violence/259038-more-than-thirty-top-us-officials-guilty-of-war-crimes

U.S. Rakes Up Nearly $300 Billion Deficit In First Two Months Of Fiscal 2013

http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/money/260389-us-rakes-up-nearly-s300-billion-deficit-in-first-two-months-of-fiscal-2013

Stop Israeli Home Demolishing! Boycott Israel!

According to the American website “If Americans Knew,” the number of Israeli homes demolished by Palestinians since 1967 is zero, whereas the number of Palestinian homes demolished by Israelis within the same period is 24,813. This is equivalent to 82% of the homes in Westerville, Ohio, where I live, being wiped out.
http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/mena/260420-stop-israeli-home-demolishing-boycott-israel

Indefinite Detention of US Citizens without Trial is Treason

Why We Torture

Habeas corpus has been abandoned for the outcasts of the new order in both the US and the UK, secret courts have been created to hear secret evidence, guilt has been inferred by association, torture and rendition nakedly justified (in the UK our government's lawyers continue to argue positively for the right to use the product of both) and vital international conventions consolidated in the aftermath of the Second World War - the Geneva Convention, the Refugee Convention, the Torture Convention - have been deliberately avoided or ignored.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33302.htm

A Plan to Stop the Feds From Reading Your Emails

Four lawmakers are trying to put a stop to warrantless spying.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/warrantless-wiretapping-fisa-authorization-reform-bill

Reich on Why Right-to-Work Legislation is Anti-Labor: ‘As Labor Unions Have Declined, Wages Have Declined in Tandem’

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Thousands of protestors braved the frigid temperatures and took to the streets today in Michigan over the Republican plan to -- yet again -- weaken unions, trample workers rights and further subjugate the middle class. Despite this significant public opposition, Michigan lawmakers passed the "right to work" law that will make their corporate masters happy.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/This-Is-What-Democracy-Loo-by-Kathy-Malloy-121211-381.html

Mindless American Support For Israel May Be Cracking

The legacy of the Zionist revolutionaries who once enraptured the parlors of Europe and America with talk of a Jewish homeland as a moral beacon in a benighted region has instead bequeathed to the Jewish world and the West a highly militarized dependency -- a state that has achieved great feats of cultural and economic development but has failed to build strong enough institutions to balance its military zeitgeist with imaginative or engaging diplomacy.
 
- Patrick Tyler, from Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country -- and Why They Can't Make Peace

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mindless-American-Support-by-John-Grant-121212-658.html

Thousands Protest Michigan’s Anti-Union Law, But Deep Pockets of Right-Wing Backers Prevail

DOWNLOAD:  VIDEOAUDIOGET CD/DVDMORE FORMATS

Government war on small business

The perils of no being "too big to fail"

Michigan GOP Push Through Elite-Backed Law

7 Shocking Ways the Military Wastes Our Money

Hint: none of them have anything to do with national defense.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/8-shocking-ways-military-wastes-our-money

National Security Bosses Still Claiming It Would Violate National Security To Tell You If They Violate Your Privacy

Via Julian Sanchez we learn that Senator Ron Wyden has released some updated responsesfrom our national intelligence bosses concerning the questions that Wyden (and a few other Senators) have been asking for years. It's been pretty clear that a "secret" interpretation under the FISA Amendments Act (related to the Patriot Act) has meant that the NSA is scooping up tons of American communications, even as its mandate is that it only cover foreign intelligence—and Wyden has been pushing for more information. 

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121210/13172621339/national-security-bosses-still-claiming-it-would-violate-national-security-to-tell-you-if-they-violate-your-privacy.shtml