BILL MOYERS and MICHAEL WINSHIP, - Truthout
Stephan: Here we see further examples of the corruption that is so rife in our government, and how whether Republican or Democratic Administration, it is the one constant.
At the end of a week that reminds us to be ever vigilant about the dangers of government overreaching its authority, whether by the long arm of the IRS or the Justice Department, we should pause to think about another threat – from too much private power obnoxiously intruding into public life.
All too often, instead of acting as a brake on runaway corporate power and greed, government becomes their enabler, undermining the very rules and regulations intended to keep us safe.
Think of inadequate inspections of food and the food-related infections which kill 3,000 Americans each year and make 48 million sick. A new study from Johns Hopkins shows elevated levels of arsenic – known to increase a person’s risk of cancer – in chicken meat. According to the university’s Center for a Livable Future, ‘Arsenic-based drugs have been used for decades to make poultry grow faster and improve the pigmentation of the meat. The drugs are also approved to treat and prevent parasites in poultry
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SÖREN HARDER, - Der Spiegel (Germany)
Stephan: I first did a story on this technology in 2009, and have kept an eye out for further developments. Here is the latest. It could be good news; we'll see what happens.
An American couple has found a surprising alternative to conventional asphalt motorways: solar road panels. In addition to providing electricity, saving oil and melting fresh snow, it could also prevent accidents.
A lot of thought is put into how much energy we use to drive from point A to B. But what if the road itself could generate energy? Julie and Scott Brusaw, a married couple from Sandpoint, Idaho, have taken on just such a concept, which they hope will make the auto transport of the future cleaner and safer.
The idea is as simple as it is ingenious. Wherever roads are laid, solar panels could go instead. They would generate electricity, which would in turn be fed into the grid. Thus, oil is conserved twice: Electric cars could be charged with the energy produced by the panels, and the panels would replace the use of asphalt, the production of which requires petroleum.
Moreover, Solar Roadways, as the Brusaws have dubbed their invention, are heated and equipped with integrated LED screens, which act not only as street markings, but can also show warnings directly on the road.
The Brusaws are aware that their vision cannot be realized in a day. They’ve decided to start […]
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Stephan: Finally, at least some people have had enough of Monsanto. It will be interesting to see if this movement grows; if enough people around the world are prepared to stand up and be counted. As much as I see this as good news, I am not convinced that enough people are going to act, particularly in the U.S.
Doing SR every day has taught me one very important lesson, and left me more than a little cynical about social movements. People like Inhofe, Bachmann, King, Rand Paul, and the rest of the Theocratic Right only get into office because people vote for them.
I hope this catches fire. We will see. I know from my own experiences in the Civil Rights Movement that only persistent civil disobedience makes change happen. I heard Martin Luther King say more than once. It takes five percent of the population. That's just under 16 million people in the U.S. Are you one of them?
LOS ANGELES — Protesters rallied in dozens of cities Saturday as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces, organizers said.
Organizers said ‘March Against Monsanto
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HANNAH LEVINTOVA, JAEAH LEE, and BRETT BROWNEL, - Mother Jones
Stephan: We like to tell ourselves lies about how fair and just our legal system is. In fact, we don't even rank in the top 10 any more. Our judiciary is increasingly influenced by the Non-geographical Corporate States and the Uber-rich who control them. There are two levels of justice in this country. It is the very unpleasant truth, few want to acknowledge.
Click through to see the charts that accompany this report. They will tell you the truth.
In January 1962, a man sitting in a Florida prison cell scrawled a note to the United States Supreme Court. He’d been charged with breaking into a pool hall, stealing some Cokes, beer, and change, and was handed a five-year sentence after he represented himself because he couldn’t pay for a lawyer. Clarence Earl Gideon’s penciled message eventually led to the high court’s historic 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright ruling, reaffirming the right to a criminal defense and requiring states to provide a defense attorney to those who can’t afford one.
Fifty years after the ruling, many legal advocates contend that the justice system is still failing the poor. Last week, the Supreme Court disappointed reformers when it refused to rule on a case involving a Louisiana man serving a life sentence after waiting five years in jail while the state came up with money to pay his court-appointed lawyer. (The federal system for defending the poor is relatively well resourced, though it’s also struggling with budget cuts. Several of the attorneys defending Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev face up to three weeks of sequester-mandated furloughs later this year.)
Just how bad is the state of public defense in America? The charts below […]
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STEVEN ROSENFELD, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: This report, and a growing number of others like it, are further examples of the Great Schism Trend. I personally, as all regular readers know, was not a supporter of Obamacare. I believe only a single-payer system not based on profit can actually produce a real healthcare system. What we have now is an illness profit system. But I agree that Obamacare is a more humane version, although still profit based.
Even the benefits it does offer are being denied, however, people who live in Red States. Increasingly I feel sorry for them. They have voted in men and women who aren't very bright in the first place, and who are driven by theology, ideology, and personal interest instead of the good of their state and the people who live in it. This is the home truth, one important to remember: these legislators and governors did not come to power through force, but through the ballot box.
Obamacare implementation is becoming the latest dividing line between blue- and red-state America, with Democrat-led states making progress to expand healthcare to the uninsured and the poor-and Republican-led states saying ‘screw you’ to millions of their most vulnerable and needy residents.
The latest sign of the Republican Party’s increasingly secessionist tendencies comes as Obamacare passed a major milestone in California, which late last week announced lower-than-expected healthcare premiums for its 5.3 million uninsured, less than many small businesses now pay in group plans.
‘Covered California’s Silver Plan
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