Click here to view this and past newsletters online. Please add "messenger@truthout.org" to your email contacts to ensure delivery.  Friday 08 June 2012 How Big Banks Run the World - at Your ExpenseGar Alperovitz, Truthout: "The recent Public Banking conference held in Philadelphia offered a message that is at once so simple - but also so bold - it is hard for most Americans to pause long enough to understand how profoundly their thinking had been corralled by the masters of finance ... To understand what has happened, however, you first have to take a minute to shake a few cobwebs out of your brain about 'money' - and how it is created and by whom and for whose benefit." Read the Article Approval Rating for Supreme Court Hits Just 44 Percent in New Poll Adam Liptak and Allison Kopicki, The New York Times News Service: "Just 44 percent of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing and three-quarters say the justices' decisions are sometimes influenced by their personal or political views, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News. The decline ... could reflect a sense that the court is more political, after the ideologically divided 5-to-4 decisions in Bush v. Gore, which determined the 2000 presidential election, and Citizens United, the 2010 decision allowing unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions." Read the Article Boehner Aide Received Bonus From Medical Device Lobby Group Before Overseeing Tax Repeal of Industry Lee Fang, Republic Report: "Yesterday, the House of Representatives moved to help save $30 million dollars for medical device companies while defunding programs designed to expand health coverage for ordinary Americans.... While much attention has been paid to the number of lawmakers and staff who sell out and become lobbyists, there's an equally problematic dynamic when lobbyists burrow into government, provide key giveaways to industry or special interests, then return to K Street with even higher salaries." Read the Article How Inequality Wrecks Everything We Care About Chuck Collins, Berrett-Koehler Publishers: "Inequality is wrecking the world. Not just poverty, which is destroying the lives of billions of people around the planet, but inequality - the accelerating gap between the 99 percent and the 1 percent. According to research in dozens of disciplines, the extreme disparities of wealth and power corrode our democratic system and public trust.... Inequalities were a major contributing factor to the 1929 and 2008 economic downturns. What follows is the case against inequality." Read the Excerpt Over Six Million Young Adults Insured Thanks to Obama's Health Care Steven Perlberg, ThinkProgress: "Even though much of the Affordable Care Act does not go into effect until 2014, conservatives insist the bill is making things worse for Americans. But a new study shows that one implemented provision of the ACA is already providing millions of young Americans with health insurance.... A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll also showed that about 71 percent of Americans view the provision favorably." Read the Article Guantanamo Scandal: The 40 Prisoners Still Held, but Cleared for Release at Least Five Years Ago Andy Worthington, Andy Worthington's Blog: "One of the greatest injustices at Guantanamo is that, of the 169 prisoners still held, over half - 87 in total - were cleared for release by President Obama's interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force. The Task Force involved around 60 career officials from various government departments and the intelligence agencies, who spent the first year of the Obama Presidency reviewing the cases of all the remaining prisoners in Guantanamo, to decide whether they should be tried, released, or, in some cases, held indefinitely without charge or trial." Read the Article TransCanada's Latest Extreme Energy Export Pipelines in the US and Canada Steve Horn, DeSmogBlog: "TransCanada was once in the limelight and targeted for its Keystone XL pipeline project. Now, with few eyes watching, it is pushing along two key pipeline projects that would bring two respective forms of what energy geopolitics scholar Michael Klare calls 'extreme energy' to lucrative export markets." Read the Article and Watch the Video On the News With Thom Hartmann: A Study Shows That America's Biggest Banks Would Need Another $500 Billion Bailout Should Our Economy Fail Again, and More In today's On the News segment: A new study shows that America's biggest banks would need another $500 billion bailout should our economy go into a tailspin again, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recall victory this week is reverberating around the country, a new scientific report warns of the possible extinction of our species within just a few generations, and more. Watch the Video and Read the Transcript Election Countdown 2012: Gov. Rick Scott Dares the DOJ to Sue Florida, and more Lambert Strether, Naked Capitalism: "In today's Election Countdown 2012 news: the Scott administration all but dares the Justice Department to sue Florida for allegedly violating voting rights laws, Christian organization Samaritan's Purse contributed $150,200 toward advertising in support of the North Carolina Marriage Amendment, dark money arrives in Nevada, and more." Read the Article Guiding You Through the Government's Foreclosure Compensation Maze Paul Kiel, ProPublica: "If you're a victim of banking abuses during the foreclosure crisis, the government says it'll make sure you receive compensation from your bank. It's a simple idea. But for victims, determining who's eligible, how to apply, and when you might get a check in the mail isn't simple at all. So we built a list of Frequently Asked Questions. It guides homeowners and other readers through the two separate government efforts: the National Mortgage Settlement and the Independent Foreclosure Review." Read the Article The Secret of Joy: Six Lessons From Quebec's "Maple Spring" Terrance Heath, Campaign for America's Future: "As it continues to grow, the Quebec student movement holds some lessons for the home of phenomena like the Occupy Movement and the Wisconsin movement that recently forced a historic gubernatorial recall elections. Here are six lessons from the Maple Spring." Read the Article Jobs Numbers Show Recession Far From Over Paul Jay, The Real News Network: "The U.S. Labor Department released statistics on the employment picture in the United States, and it doesn't look much better, in fact perhaps even a little worse.... Now joining us to talk about the significance of these numbers is Bob Pollin. He's the cofounder and co-director of the PERI institute in Amherst, Massachusetts, and an often-contributor to The Real News Network." Watch the Video and Read the Transcript Click here for more Truthout articles
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "With the continued erosion of civil liberties that began in the Bush years and has expanded in the Obama administration, it was hopeful that a federal judge struck down one of the most chilling laws in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA): the right of the government to suspend habeas corpus and indefinitely detain US citizens under military authority." Read the BuzzFlash Commentary Paul Krugman: Reagan Was a Keynesian Alberta Hit by Another Oil Pipeline Spill Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant Operators Find Pinhole-Size Coolant Leak How Sallie Mae Sold Out Students Stop the Secret White House Kill List Fareed Zakaria: Romney Is Wrong on Tax Cuts Case Closed: The Stimulus Worked Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
---------- Support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation by clicking here.
|
||||
