from YES! Magazine:


Don’t Let the Apocalypse Get You Down
The climate crisis is spinning out of control, and the gap between the rich and poor continues grow unabated. It’s time to let the radical uncertainty of this moment enlarge our sense of possibility.

by Sarah van Gelder
posted May 22, 2013


Is YES! Magazine going all apocalyptic? No, we haven’t run out of hope, and we aren’t giving up on transformation. To the contrary, the precariousness of our future is inspiring us to get radical­—to look for change that goes to the roots of our culture.

We humans are in an untenable moment. The window we have to take on the climate crisis is small. The poor and middle class are getting poorer. Species around the world are dying, and along with them the web of life. And many of the change strategies of the past are stymied; marches on Washington get ignored, and the federal government is largely captured by big-money interests.

So for this issue of YES! we asked how change can happen—and how it is happening now. What strategies are imaginative and powerful enough to meet the opportunities and the dangers of this moment?

We didn’t find any one-size-fits-all answers. But we did find approaches to change that blend the best of new and old, and we found shifts in attitude that suggest new openings:

........(snip)........

* There is growing willingness to name corporate rule and global capitalism as key problems, and to look to decentralized, place-based economies as the answer. While capitalism is viewed more favorably among all Americans than socialism, the reverse is true among those under 29, African Americans and Hispanics, and those making less than $30,000 a year, according to a Pew poll. And more Americans have a favorable view of socialism than of the Tea Party. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/love-and-the-apocalypse/how-to-act-powerfully

The Corporate Dictatorship of PBS and NPR

Wednesday, 22 May 2013 14:53
By The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed


PBS is blowing it, and their decision not to air a documentary on the Koch brothers is pretty horrifying proof of it.

But it wasn't always this way. On November 7, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Public Broadcasting Act.

The act set up public broadcasting in the United States, by establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which led to the creation of the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, and National Public Radio.

After signing the act into law, Johnson said that, “It announces to the world that our Nation wants more than just material wealth; our Nation wants more than a 'chicken in every pot.' We in America have an appetite for excellence, too. While we work every day to produce new goods and to create new wealth, we want most of all to enrich man's spirit. That is the purpose of this act.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16538-the-corporate-dictatorship-of-pbs-and-npr

from truthdig:


Another Memorial Day in This Endless War

Posted on May 22, 2013
By Amy Goodman


In a remarkable but little-noticed oversight hearing last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee looked at “The Law of Armed Conflict, the Use of Military Force, and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.” The 2001 AUMF is the act passed by Congress on Sept. 14, three days after the al-Qaida attacks on the United States.

Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, opened his questioning of the military officials before him by stating: “Gentlemen, I’ve only been here five months, but this is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing that I’ve been to since I’ve been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today.”

King’s statement followed the questioning by longtime South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who recently pushed to have the Boston bombing suspect—a U.S. citizen accused of a violent crime on U.S. soil—named an “enemy combatant,” denying him his constitutional rights. Graham enjoyed unanimous agreement from the panelists to his series of questions:

“Do you agree with me that when it comes to international terrorism, we’re talking about a worldwide struggle?” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/another_memorial_day_in_this_endless_war_20130522/

from YES! Magazine:


Don’t Let the Apocalypse Get You Down
The climate crisis is spinning out of control, and the gap between the rich and poor continues grow unabated. It’s time to let the radical uncertainty of this moment enlarge our sense of possibility.

by Sarah van Gelder
posted May 22, 2013


Is YES! Magazine going all apocalyptic? No, we haven’t run out of hope, and we aren’t giving up on transformation. To the contrary, the precariousness of our future is inspiring us to get radical­—to look for change that goes to the roots of our culture.

We humans are in an untenable moment. The window we have to take on the climate crisis is small. The poor and middle class are getting poorer. Species around the world are dying, and along with them the web of life. And many of the change strategies of the past are stymied; marches on Washington get ignored, and the federal government is largely captured by big-money interests.

So for this issue of YES! we asked how change can happen—and how it is happening now. What strategies are imaginative and powerful enough to meet the opportunities and the dangers of this moment?

We didn’t find any one-size-fits-all answers. But we did find approaches to change that blend the best of new and old, and we found shifts in attitude that suggest new openings:

........(snip)........

* There is growing willingness to name corporate rule and global capitalism as key problems, and to look to decentralized, place-based economies as the answer. While capitalism is viewed more favorably among all Americans than socialism, the reverse is true among those under 29, African Americans and Hispanics, and those making less than $30,000 a year, according to a Pew poll. And more Americans have a favorable view of socialism than of the Tea Party. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/love-and-the-apocalypse/how-to-act-powerfully

Think Progress / By Aviva Shen

Average CEO Salary Reached A New Record High Of $9.7 Million In 2012
Skyrocketing executive salaries since deregulation in the 1980s helped the top 1 percent of Americans expand their share of income, even as worker pay has stagnated.

May 22, 2013 |


The average CEO salary broke records in 2011 at $9.6 million — and now, that record high has been topped by 2012 salaries, which averaged out to $9.7 million. Health care and media CEOs enjoyed the highest pay, while utility CEOs had the lowest at $7.5 million. Sixty percent of CEOs got a raise last year.

Though CEO pay dropped slightly after the financial crisis, it quickly rebounded to reach new heights in 2010, 2011, and now 2012. Simultaneously, the pay gap between CEOs and workers has also broken records, as the average CEO in 2012 earned 354 times more than the average worker.

During the recession, some companies changed their compensation formulas to incorporate more stock as a way to tie executives’ salaries to the company’s performance. As the stock market enjoys all-time highs, CEO pay has also soared. Yet the stock market’s rally has not been felt by most middle and low income families, as the housing market recovers in fits and starts. As a result, income inequality has been exacerbated in the first two years of the recovery.

Skyrocketing executive salaries since deregulation in the 1980s helped the top 1 percent of Americans expand their share of income, even as worker pay has stagnated. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/average-ceo-salary-reached-new-record-high-97-million-2012

Global Capital and the Nation State
Monday, May 20, 2013


As global capital becomes ever more powerful, giant corporations are holding governments and citizens up for ransom — eliciting subsidies and tax breaks from countries concerned about their nation’s “competitiveness” — while sheltering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions they can find. Major advanced countries — and their citizens — need a comprehensive tax agreement that won’t allow global corporations to get away with this.

Google, Amazon, Starbucks, every other major corporation, and every big Wall Street bank, are sheltering as much of their U.S. profits abroad as they can, while telling Washington that lower corporate taxes are necessary in order to keep the U.S. “competitive.”

Baloney. The fact is, global corporations have no allegiance to any country; their only objective is to make as much money as possible — and play off one country against another to keep their taxes down and subsidies up, thereby shifting more of the tax burden to ordinary people whose wages are already shrinking because companies are playing workers off against each other.

I’m in London for a few days, and all the talk here is about how Goldman Sachs just negotiated a sweetheart deal to settle a tax dispute with the British government; Google is manipulating its British sales to pay almost no taxes here by using its low-tax Ireland subsidiary (the chair of the Parliamentary committee investigating this has just called the do-no-evil firm “devious, calculating, and unethical”); Amazon has been found to route its British sales through a subsidiary in low-tax Luxembourg, and now receives more in subsidies from the British government than it pays here in taxes; Starbucks’ tax-avoidance strategy was so blatant British consumers began boycotting the firm until it reversed course. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/50890974932

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/american-citizens-drone-strikes_n_3321950.html


WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric Holder says four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009.

The attorney general said that in conducting U.S. counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and its associated forces, the government has targeted and killed one American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Holder says the U.S. is also aware of three other American citizens who have been killed in such counterterrorism operations over the same time period.

Global Capital and the Nation State
Monday, May 20, 2013


As global capital becomes ever more powerful, giant corporations are holding governments and citizens up for ransom — eliciting subsidies and tax breaks from countries concerned about their nation’s “competitiveness” — while sheltering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions they can find. Major advanced countries — and their citizens — need a comprehensive tax agreement that won’t allow global corporations to get away with this.

Google, Amazon, Starbucks, every other major corporation, and every big Wall Street bank, are sheltering as much of their U.S. profits abroad as they can, while telling Washington that lower corporate taxes are necessary in order to keep the U.S. “competitive.”

Baloney. The fact is, global corporations have no allegiance to any country; their only objective is to make as much money as possible — and play off one country against another to keep their taxes down and subsidies up, thereby shifting more of the tax burden to ordinary people whose wages are already shrinking because companies are playing workers off against each other.

I’m in London for a few days, and all the talk here is about how Goldman Sachs just negotiated a sweetheart deal to settle a tax dispute with the British government; Google is manipulating its British sales to pay almost no taxes here by using its low-tax Ireland subsidiary (the chair of the Parliamentary committee investigating this has just called the do-no-evil firm “devious, calculating, and unethical”); Amazon has been found to route its British sales through a subsidiary in low-tax Luxembourg, and now receives more in subsidies from the British government than it pays here in taxes; Starbucks’ tax-avoidance strategy was so blatant British consumers began boycotting the firm until it reversed course. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/50890974932

from the Freep:


A citizen-led measure would prohibit Michigan health insurance plans from covering elective abortion unless individuals or businesses buy a supplemental policy.

A group called No Taxes for Abortion Insurance soon plans to start gathering signatures for the proposal. If the Republican-led Legislature doesn't approve the measure within 40 days of being certified, it goes on the November 2014 ballot.

Right to Life of Michigan is forcing the issue after Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed similar legislation in December. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20130517/NEWS15/305170034/

from Consortium News:


Stuck in a Job at the End of the World
May 22, 2013

Very little sympathy is felt for Air Force personnel assigned to fire nuclear missiles that could end all life on the planet. But their grim, boring and existentially absurd job has eroded staff morale so much that their collapsing competence has added to the world’s risk, explains John LaForge.

By John LaForge


Some of the Air Force’s self-styled nuclear “missileers” — sitting at launch controls in Minot, North Dakota — recently earned a “D” on their intercontinental ballistic missile firing (ICBM) skills. More than 10 percent of the Minot Air Force Base’s 91st “Missile Wing” was declared incompetent and was stripped of launch-duty clearances.

The Air Force removed 17 of Minot’s 150 missile launch officers in April, over what commander Lt. Col. Jay Folds called “such rot” that, according to The AP on May 8, “even the willful violation of safety rules — including a possible compromise of launch codes — was tolerated.”

Air Force commanders told The AP they were concerned about an “attitude problem” among the ultimate bomb scare command. The Air Forces’ two-person crews work three-day shifts in underground Launch Control Centers and are supposed to be constantly at-the-ready to fire the 10 Minuteman IIIs under their control. Minot AFB is in charge of 150 ICBMs, 15 “flights” of 10 missiles each, with one launch control center for each flight.

Another 150 are on alert in Wyoming and 150 more out in Montana. All 450 of the relics are armed with a 300-kiloton “W-87” warhead. Three-hundred kilotons is a magnitude equal to 18 times the destruction that incinerated Hiroshima in 1945 killing 140,000 people. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/05/22/stuck-in-a-job-at-the-end-of-the-world/