Category: News

Financing the Global Sharing Economy – STWR – Share The World’s Resources

A report by Share The World’s Resources demonstrates how governments could mobilize over $2.8 trillion each year to bolster the global sharing economy and prevent life-threatening deprivation, reverse austerity measures and mitigate the human impacts of climate change.

Humanity is facing a global emergency. Extreme poverty and climate-related disasters are taking the lives of over 40,000 people every single day and severely affecting many millions of others. At the same time, dramatic cutbacks in public spending on social welfare and essential services are making it increasingly difficult for many families to meet their basic needs, even in the richest nations.

For more on this story, visit: Financing the Global Sharing Economy – STWR – Share The World’s Resources.

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Georgia Prepares for ‘Another Grotesque and Unjust Execution’ | Common Dreams

The state of Georgia is set to execute Warren Hill, a mentally disabled, African-American man, on Tuesday.

The state’s last execution was that of Troy Davis, prompting Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, to write that “the world community is again watching Georgia with great concern as it prepares to carry out another grotesque and unjust execution.”

 

Hill was given a death sentence after killing a fellow inmate while already serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend.

 

Hill is reported to have an IQ of 70, and The Guardian reports that

All medical specialists who have examined Hill now agree that he is “mentally retarded” – the designation of intellectual disability still widely used in the US – and should be protected under the supreme court ban. In an important break in the case, three forensic psychiatrists who had previously testified that Hill did not meet the legal criteria for “mental retardation”, and was thus eligible for execution, have in recent days announced that they now believe their opinion was wrong.

For more on this story, visit: Georgia Prepares for ‘Another Grotesque and Unjust Execution’ | Common Dreams.

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Wenonah Hauter: Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America

The Executive Director of Food and Water Watch tells GRITtv’s Laura Flanders why voting with our forks won’t beat food company consolidation and why we need new federal anti-trust regulation and a stronger democracy too. Hauter’s book, Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America, is just out from The New Press.

For more on this story, visit: Wenonah Hauter: Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America | Common Dreams.

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Nobel laureate censures US, EU at Davos over equality-busting policies | RT

Noted American economist Joseph Stiglitz admonished US economic policies as fueling inequality at the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday. Meanwhile the Nobel laureate said European leaders had no “sense of what they need to do and will do.”

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US economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.(AFP Photo / Josep Lago)

Stiglitz noted the fact that a full quarter of American wealth is owned by the richest one per cent of the country’s population.

The point was meant to illustrate growing inequality in the US, fabled to be an equal-opportunity society – but where the wealthy have seen their fortunes double since 1980 while wages have flatlined and housing and education prices have gone through the roof.

He pointed out that median US income has been roughly the same for two decades despite rising costs.

“America likes to think of itself as a land of equality and opportunity, the so-called American dream is very deep to our sense of identity,” Stiglitz, who served as the chief economist of the World Bank from 1997 to 2000, said in an interview with the BBC on the sidelines of the conference. “The stats show otherwise, the US has one of the worst opportunity rates of any of the advanced economies.”

For more on this story, visit: Nobel laureate censures US, EU at Davos over equality-busting policies — RT.

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Nine out of 10 Americans back Obama gun regulations – poll | RT

A customer looks over a Glock 29 10mm hand gun at the Guns-R-Us gun shop in Phoenix, Arizona (Reuters/Ralph D. Freso)

A sweeping majority of citizens support Obama’s initiative to install new gun laws in the US, a new Gallup poll reveals. Two thirds go as far as supporting restrictions likely to usher heated debate between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

 

­A ban is a major point of division between Democrats and Republicans which is likely to usher heated confrontation in Congress.

When given a chance to have their say on each of nine key proposals, made by US president Barack Obama, most respondents supported all nine. Interestingly, none of the participants knew they had actually been walked through the presidential proposals.

For more on this story, visit: Nine out of 10 Americans back Obama gun regulations – poll — RT.

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Obama to the Left? Most of this country is numb to the power of rhetoric!

If there was one consistent media message about the Obama inauguration ceremony, it was the idea that he was announcing a clear shift to the left. But coverage failed to provide much background on the president’s actual policies, which would have challenged that impression.

The inclusion of climate change was treated as a particularly big deal, given that inaugural addresses seldom dwell on policy. “Speech Gives Climate Goals Center Stage” read one headline in the next day’s New York Times (1/22/13). But that story, and much of the media commentary on his climate comments, failed to even mention the Keystone XL pipeline, currently under State Department review.

It is hard to fathom how meaningful action on climate change would be possible if Keystone were approved, but the White House has not spoken out in opposition to the pipeline (Nation.com, 1/22/13). Leaving out Obama’s most important upcoming climate policy decision when covering his climate agenda is a media failure.

For more on this story, visit: Obama to the Left? — FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.

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Living on Earth: New York Times to Close Its Environmental Desk

Some people read ideological motives into this decision to close the environmental desk, and I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think this is one element of a much bigger picture, and the bigger picture is that newsrooms are contracting. It’s a fact. When newsrooms contract, specialized coverage often suffers. And it’s not just environmental coverage that suffers. Science coverage is suffering, health coverage, some specialized business coverage…all of that specialized storytelling is at risk. It’s a real danger to democracy, I really feel that it is. So this is just one element of a much bigger story.

For more on this story, visit: Living on Earth: New York Times to Close Its Environmental Desk.

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The Cancer Cash Cycle: The Causes of Cancer and Ill Health. GMOs seem to play a role.

Prior to undertaking his recent study into the health impacts of GMOs and incurring the wrath of the GMO sector for his findings, Gilles-Eric Seralini, professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen in France, said it was absurd that only three months of testing allowed GM corn to be approved in over a dozen nations. Upon reviewing Monsanto’s raw data, he and his team found, among other problems, liver damage and physiological changes into a pre-diabetic condition among the rats which had eaten Monsanto’s GM corn. And that’s just from three months of eating such food. His new study was over a two year period.

The incidence of cancer is escalating and is expected to double by 2050, and it’s a global issue.

… The incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has increased by nearly 100 per cent in the US over the last few decades, and brain cancer by about 80 to 90 per cent. Breast cancer has gone up by about 60 to 65 per cent. Testicular cancer – particularly in men between the ages of 28 and 35 – has gone up by nearly 300 percent.

For more on this story, visit: The Cancer Cash Cycle: The Causes of Cancer and Ill Health | Global Research.

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Hightower Lowdown | Five ways we can make government work for We the People in 2013

We’ve been churning out Lowdowns each month for nearly 13 years now, and while we offer a lot of information in our four pages, we often hear back from readers that they especially appreciate the smallest feature we include in each issue: The Do Something section. Lowdowners tend to be doers. You don’t merely want to stew over the economic, political, and cultural outrages that afflict our society, but to connect with others to take action, or at least to find more information about possible fixes.

For more on this story, visit: Hightower Lowdown | Five ways we can make government work for We the People in 2013.

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Time Warner Cable Dumps Current TV Faster Than You Can Say ‘Al-Jazeera America’

Cable giant pulls channel just hours after announcement of acquisition

Following news on Wednesday that Qatari-based Al-Jazeera would acquire Current TV in the United States, cable giant Time Warner Cable dumped the channel.

Just hours after the announcement, subscribers to TWC found only this message when they switched to what was Current: “This channel is no longer available on Time Warner Cable.”

For more on this story, visit: Time Warner Cable Dumps Current TV Faster Than You Can Say ‘Al-Jazeera America’ | Common Dreams.

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Jacob Devaney: Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement

What started as a murmur in early October from First Nations People in Canada in response to Bill C45 has become a movement that echoes the sentiments of people all over the world, a battle cry of love for the planet, “Idle No More.” At first glance it might appear that this movement is isolated and doesn’t effect you if you are not native or if you don’t live in Canada, yet it does. It may appear that this resistance is not related to The Occupy Movement, The Arab Spring, The Unify Movement, Anonymous, or any of the other popular uprisings sparked by social unrest, but it is.

At its very core, all of these movements have very common threads and are born from common issues facing people everywhere. Those who represent financial interests that value money over life itself, that are devoid of basic respect for human decency, and for nature have dictated the future for too long and people everywhere are standing up to say, “No more.” This non-violent social uprising is viral in the minds and hearts of everyone across the planet determined to bring healing to our troubled communities, our planet, and the corruption that is eroding the highest places of governments around the world.

For more on this story, visit: Jacob Devaney: Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement.

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National Rifle Association vows to fight arms trade treaty at U.N.

(Reuters) – The leading U.S. pro-gun group, the National Rifle Association, has vowed to fight a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global arms trade and dismissed suggestions that a recent U.S. school shooting bolstered the case for such a pact.

The U.N. General Assembly voted on Monday to restart negotiations in mid-March on the first international treaty to regulate conventional arms trade after a drafting conference in July collapsed because the U.S. and other nations wanted more time. Washington supported Monday’s U.N. vote.

For more on this story, visit: National Rifle Association vows to fight arms trade treaty at U.N. | Reuters.

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Do-Nothing Congress to Get Pay Raise

Looking for a job where being unproductive and ineffective won’t hurt your chances of getting a raise? Try being a member of Congress!

Despite getting less done than any previous Congress since the 1940s, President Obama issued an executive order Thursday that would give pay raises to every member of the House and Senate, as well as federal workers, beginning March 27, 2013. This marks the first pay increase for Congress in more than three years.

For more on this story, visit: Do-Nothing Congress to Get Pay Raise – Truthdig.

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Rwanda’s Rampaging Rebel Force | NYTimes.com

So how do you get away with arming a rebel force that attacks U.N. peacekeepers, rapes women and recruits children? You need powerful friends, and Rwanda has had one. Born from the guilt of the Clinton administration’s inaction in the face of the Rwandan genocide, and a recognition of Rwanda’s relatively efficient use of development aid, the United States has proven to be one of Kigali’s staunchest allies. When the interim report of the U.N. experts came out in June, it was widely alleged that the United States delayed its publication, arguing that Rwanda, which had been uncooperative, should be given time to respond. The Obama administration suspended $200,000 worth of military aid, but only under a legislative requirement, all the while undermining efforts at the United Nations to denounce Rwanda’s role in the crisis.

Despite supporting a brutal rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda is about to take a seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Few countries dare challenge the Security Council the way Rwanda does; even fewer get away with it. Yet on Tuesday, despite backing an abusive rebel group that has attacked U.N. peacekeepers in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda will take a two-year seat on the council. At the famous horseshoe table, Rwanda will get to make life-and-death decisions on the future of countries in crisis, including the very neighbor it is accused of destabilizing.

Philippe Bolopion is United Nations director for Human Rights Watch.

For more on this story, visit: Rwanda’s Rampaging Rebel Force – NYTimes.com.

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The Great Divide: global income inequality and its cost

Surging income inequality has turned the United States into one of the most divided developed economies on the planet.

The US is leading a global trend that economists warn has dire consequences.

For our special report on “The Great Divide,” GlobalPost journeyed from Brazil to Thailand, and back home to Fairfield County, Connecticut and Selma, Alabama, to get at the “ground truth” of global income inequality and its cost.

In cities around the world, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening.

And in each of these cities, that growing inequality comes with a cost.

The greatest cost is the political and economic instability that accompanies vast disparities of wealth, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told GlobalPost, using the United States as an example.

“We are paying a very high economic price for this inequality – our economy is less productive and efficient,” Stiglitz said. “We are also paying a price in terms of our politics and our society — inequality is undermining our democracy and our basic values.”

Continue reading “The Great Divide: global income inequality and its cost” →

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The P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2012 | FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

They’re back: The P.U.-litzers, FAIR’s annual rundown of some of the stinkiest moments in American journalism.

As usual, there were more contenders than we could possibly consider. So think of this as just a sampling of the bias, spin and misinformation that we noted over the course of the year.

–Factchecking the Dark Arts Award: Alex Altman, Time

–CEOs Know Best Award: CBS Evening News

–Factchecking Your Friends Award: David Gergen, CNN

–Half-Baked by the Heat Award: George Will, ABC

–Killing Their Four-Year-Old Girls to Save Ours Award: Joe Klein, Time

–Hunky Wonk Award: Michael Crowley, Time  -Anonymous Smears Award: Scott Shane, New York Times

–A Game That Needs Changing Award: PBS

–Strange Problems in Distant Lands Award: New York Times

–Fake News Award: New York Post

–Apocalypse Non Award: Gloria Borger, CNN

–Asked and Answered Award: David Gregory, NBC

For more on this story, visit: The P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2012 — FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.

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Map: Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood?

Poynter reports:

The Journal News honored victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting on its front page Christmas Day with memorial candles that named the 26 students and staff killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. The paper chose a less lyrical approach last weekend

The map indicates the addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties. Each dot represents an individual permit holder licensed to own a handgun — a pistol or revolver. The data does not include owners of long guns — rifles or shotguns — which can be purchased without a permit. Being included in this map does not mean the individual at a specific location owns a weapon, just that they are licensed to do so.

For more on this story, visit: Map: Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood? | The Journal News | LoHud.com | lohud.com.

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