Monday, November 11th, 2013
Stephan: I hope this story is wrong, but I fear it may be correct. If true only massive citizen action can stop this.
What Cuts Are Being Proposed?
Obama is proposing, along with the support of Republicans and many Democrats, to change how annual increases in Social Security benefits are calculated. Obama wants to switch to a different formula, called Chained CPI. This switch would result in a benefit cut of $230 billion dollars over 10 years. All this is being done under the guise of ‘strengthening
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Sunday, November 10th, 2013
AVIVA STAHL, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: The dark side of American culture is prospering in so many ways. Here is yet another report on the American Gulag and the New American Slavery trends. Maybe little by little people are beginning to wake up about this... or maybe not.
Click through to see all the links that document this story.
Even if we already know the statistic, hearing it is pretty chilling: one out of every 100 Americans is behind bars, by far the highest incarceration rate in the world. Things get even more terrifying when we look at the impact of the criminal justice system on particular marginalized communities. One in three African-American males born today will likely spend some time on the inside. With terms like the prison-industrial complex and the school-to-prison pipeline now part of our daily political lexicon, we know that things are bad.
But exactly how bad are they? Here are 10 reasons why our criminal justice system is even more obscene than you thought.
1. Margin of error? A mere technicality to death penalty advocates.
In case you were on the lookout for new and novel government loopholes, here’s one: the ‘margin of error
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Sunday, November 10th, 2013
DANA LIEBELSON, - Mother Jones
Stephan: We are a surveillance state. It has not filtered through to the general public's consciousness, but it is true nonetheless. The level of surveillance in the United States is unparalleled in the history of the world. Here is the latest over-reach.
Internet privacy relies heavily on the ability of tech companies to hide user content-such as your emails and bank information-behind a secure wall. But the Department of Justice is waging an unprecedented battle in court to win the power to seize the keys of US companies whenever the US government wants. Edward Snowden has shown that the government is already doing a great job at getting companies to hand over information, breaking down weak doors, and scooping up unlocked material. But if the Justice Department succeeds in this case, it will be far easier for it to do so, and-poof!-there will no longer be any guarantee of internet privacy.
The case started this summer, when Lavabit-an alternative email provider that promised highly secure email-was handed a subpoena by the Department of Justice. The subpoena required that Lavabit supply the billing and subscriber information for one of its users, widely believed to be Edward Snowden. Lavabit supplied this information. Then, the government asked to install a device on Lavabit’s servers that would allow it to monitor all of the metadata (time and email addresses) of the individual’s account. But Lavabit encrypted all of this information, and the only way for the […]
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Sunday, November 10th, 2013
JOANNA M. FOSTER, - Think Progress
Stephan: There is little coverage of this, but the truth is heat kills.
If you live in Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York or New Jersey, you want to pay particular attention, because these states are going to experience the greatest change.
As Thanksgiving approaches and leaves and temperatures start to fall across the country, heat waves are probably the last thing on anyone’s mind. But ever since the Fifth Assessment Report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released in September, a group of researchers from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta have been using these latest projections to understand the rising human toll of a warmer future.
Their findings are sobering. Heat waves will kill about ten times more people in the Eastern United States in 45 years than they did at the turn of this century. In 2002-2004, an average of 187 people in the eastern third of the U.S. succumbed to heat waves. By 2057-2059, that number will rise to over 2,000. The study results were published online this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 660 people die nationwide from heat waves each year, making it the leading cause of weather-related mortality in the country. The CDC defines heat waves as ‘several days of temperatures greater than 90° F; warm, stagnant air masses; and consecutive nights with higher-than-usual minimum temperatures.
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Sunday, November 10th, 2013
Stephan: This is an excellent essay on what is wrong with neoliberal austerity economics. I don't think of Paul Krugman in left or right terms but, instead, on whether events have proven him correct, or not correct. Along with Joseph Stiglitz, his fellow Nobel Laureate, Krugman has been proven to be correct far more often than not. I agree with his assessment.
How long will it take us to understand that the entire neoliberal project – the puritanical mania for cutting taxes, cutting social services and cutting budget deficits that has dominated the Western world’s economy for more than 30 years – has been a disaster? And guess what, liberals: You don’t get to point the finger at Ronald Reagan, Maggie Thatcher and Milton Friedman and claim it was all their fault. The reformist center-left, whether it took the form of Bill Clinton and the ‘New Democrats,
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