Click here to view this and past newsletters online. Please add "messenger@truthout.org" to your email contacts to ensure delivery.  Saturday 12 May 2012 Water Is Where Everything Intersects - Water in the Global CommonsBeverly Bell, Other Worlds: "In case after case around the world, water is being turned into a good for sale and for profit. Driven by a different vision and by economic necessity, a global counter-trend is growing to assure that household water be free or cheap, accessible, and safe, and that the earth's water be kept pure and flowing. Marcela Olivera is a part of this movement." Read the Article JPMorgan Sought Loophole on Risky Trading Edward Wyatt, The New York Times News Service: "Soon after lawmakers finished work on the nation's new financial regulatory law, a team of JPMorgan Chase lobbyists descended on Washington. Their goal was to obtain special breaks that would allow banks to make big bets in their portfolios, including some of the types of trading that led to the $2 billion loss now rocking the bank. The rule was designed by Congress to limit the very kind of proprietary trading that JPMorgan was seeking." Read the Article Grant to Boost Use of Food Stamps at Farmers Markets Meghann Myers, McClatchy Newspapers: "Farmers markets are a popular source of reasonably priced fresh produce, but across the country many accept only cash or checks - a big problem for low-income shoppers using food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is trying to change that. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan this week announced a $4 million grant for states to help implement wireless technology that will allow more farmers markets to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps." Read the Article Of Illicit Appearance: The L.A. Riots/Rebellion as a Portent of Things to Come Lewis Gordon, Truthout: "In this article … we look critically at the political significance of the Los Angeles riots/rebellions of 1992 and their aftermaths. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, two revolutionary thinkers from the African Diaspora, we also offer these reflections as challenges to hegemonic (or dominant) ideas of law and order, reason and rationality, and offer the rallying cry, shared by continued voices of protest, for new concepts and commitments in the struggle for freedom and a more humane world." Read the Article 20 Years After the L.A. Riots, Revisiting the Rationality of Revolt Nigel Gibson, Truthout: "I asked a friend who lives in South Central to send me his thoughts about Los Angeles 20 years after the rebellion … ‘The rebellion did change the relationship between the cops and the Black / Brown community. They are not going to create another Rodney King situation. But the police use of deadly force has not ceased, just their attempt to cover up that relationship has taken on many different forms in an attempt to disrupt or derail any new form of organized rebellion,' [he said]." Read the Article Permaculture Visionary: "We Don't Need to Wait for Permission" to Transform Our Societies Brianne Goodspeed, Truthout: "Four years ago, a British educator and permaculturist named Rob Hopkins initiated what has since become one of the most rapidly evolving and far-reaching social experiments of our time. The Transition movement - which encourages people in cities and towns across the world to devise their own unique, local solutions to peak oil and climate change in the absence of meaningful government action - has developed a spirited and devoted following and garnered praise from the likes of Bill McKibben and Richard Heinberg." Read the Article Food Stamp Myth-Busting Dr. Carol Olander and Robert Weiner, Michigan Chronicle: "For over four decades, the Food Stamp Program, which Congress renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2008, has had bipartisan support as the nation's most important anti-hunger program. Even the far reaching welfare reform legislation of the mid 90's left it intact…. Those who hope to radically alter SNAP don't understand the program or the effect making significant cuts would have on millions of desperate Americans." Read the Article Bill to Ban Sustainability and Climate Change Action Fails in Arizona Maria Gallucci, InsideClimate News: "A high-profile bill in Arizona to abolish sustainability efforts died last week, yet its defeat isn't deterring lawmakers in three other states from still trying to pass related policies into law. The legislation seeks to outlaw states and their cities from endorsing or implementing the United Nations Agenda 21 principles of sustainable development. The list of 27 nonbinding principles, adopted by countries at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, is meant to guide policies to eradicate poverty and combat climate change, among other environmental threats." Read the Article Waiting for Copernicus: Moving Beyond Wall Street-Centric Economics John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus: "Putting Wall Street and financial speculators at the center of the universe had generated an economic supernova, and everyone seemed to get the message. Everyone except Big Money, which never received the obituary notice. After some minor tweaking of Wall Street practices, some bailouts of enterprises deemed too big to fail, and the injection of some stimulus spending to arrest the free fall, Washington continued with business as usual." Read the Article What Kind of Society Do Americans Want? Lawrence Davidson, To the Point Analysis: "This leads us to the question, just what sort of society do Americans want? Indeed, do they want a meaningful society at all? The fact is that, in terms of social conscience, the U.S. is still quite a primitive place. And this primitiveness is sustained by a philosophy of selfishness. Among other things, that prevailing philosophy is making an ever greater number of us unhealthy. Is this acceptable to most Americans? Is this the kind of society they want? The political practice since 1981 seems to answer, yes." Read the Article Click here for more Truthout articles
The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday, May 14th. Twelve Questions for Mitt Romney That Journalists Might Not Ask Hate-Mongers Sell Paper Targets Depicting Trayvon Martin Mitt Romney: All That Money and No Character Top GOP Pollster to GOP: Reverse on Gay Issues 10 Essential Facts About Liberty University Greece's Anti-Bailout Leftists Lead in Poll Fox "News" Attacks Feminists for Mother's Day (Video) Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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