Valerie Tarico, - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: I have been following the demonic yoga trend in the Christian media for some time, and have done a couple of stories in SR. Each time I have looked into this it has gotten worse. Here's what I mean. I see this as an illustration of the Theocratic Right's obsession with self-mutilation and social flagellation. It is not a wellness oriented worldview.
Man balancing body in yoga position, side view.
Credit: Huffington Post
If yoga helps a Christian man to walk for the first time in thirty-three years, does his newfound strength come from God or the Devil? That is the question tearing apart an Evangelical church in Las Vegas.
In the New Testament gospel of Mark, Jesus tells a paralytic man to take up his bed and walk, and he does. In the Acts of the Apostles,Peter calls on the name of Jesus and does the same for a man who has been lame since birth:
Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. (Acts […]
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Clive Irving , - The Daily Beast
Stephan: The world of the 1% over-rides the world of the uber-peasants of the Hamptons. The first of many such stories I suspect as these worlds diverge. It not just the poor who are impacted by inequity. For those just outside the wall the difference is particularly galling.
A private helicopter
Credit: www.cnbc.com
The truly rich are different from you and me; they take a noisy helicopter to their weekend getaway. And it’s ruining the place for everyone.
For ordinary mortals, planning a trip in the U.S. has become an exercise in trying to choose the least miserable path. Airlines are shrinking seats and leg room, airports are choke points, not gateways, trains are moving museums of 20th century equipment (demonstrated tragically this week), roads and bridges are falling apart and Interstate tailbacks can stretch for miles.But if you’re rich enough you can skip all of this. These days the most valuable privilege for sale is to travel where you want to, how you want to, when you want to—and never share the experience with anyone you haven’t chosen.
Sometimes, though, the people lucky enough to enjoy this privilege make abrasive contact with those who don’t. And there is probably no place in the world where the collision of great wealth and the rest of humanity is […]
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Dave Johnson, - Nation of Change
Stephan: This report arguments the Stiglitz, Sanders, and Warren papers warning us about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Obama for whatever reason is defending the indefensible. It is a grave error with horrible consequences.
Credit: www.cwa-union.org
President Obama says progressives who warn that trade laws let corporations overrule U.S. law are “making this stuff up.” Two attacks on U.S. laws and regulations are underway right now, illustrating how the “corporate courts” provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would open our country up to attacks from foreign corporations.
“They’re making this stuff up.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, legal scholars and others have been sounding the alarm about the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions that have leaked to the public from the secret TPP negotiations. They are warning that the ISDS provisions, as the New York Times put it, “would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment ‘expectations’ and hurt their business, according to a classified document.”
President Obama says Warren and these others are being “dishonest.” In his speech at Nike the other day the president said, “Critics warn that parts of this deal would undermine American regulation – food safety, worker safety, even financial […]
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Evan McMurry, - The Raw Story/Alternet
Stephan: The fact that this article exists, that it could be written, and taken as a reasonable subject for commentary, is a klaxon braying alarm at the demise of American democracy. Think about this. We are having a conversation about how a handful of uber-rich men have taken over the political process. They run auditions, and no one thinks that's weird? I think the Founders would be appalled. This is not the United States they had in mind at all.
Seantor Ted Cruz by DonkeyHotey
Credit: Flickr
Whether it’s the Koch brothers or Soros on the left or Sheldon,” former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently said, “if you’re going to have an election process that radically favors billionaires and is discriminating against the middle class—which we now have—then billionaires are going to get a lot of attention.”
Those are, pun intended, rich words coming from a man whose 2012 candidacy was almost single-handedly bankrolled by a billionaire casino magnate. More than anybody, Gingrich profited from the new limitless heights of election spending, as $15 million turned Gingrich from a disgraced former speaker to a viable presidential contender, the first in four decades to win South Carolina without taking the White House.
The 2012 GOP race was marked by the presence of billionaires anointing candidates with their millions and gaining outsized influence over the outcome, duration, and policies of the GOP primary. The 2016 race, only a couple months old, looks to be following the same course. […]
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Justin McCarthy, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: Here is Gallup's latest report on the profile of the sense of satisfaction Americans have about their country. It is not good. Only one in four Americans — 26% — are satisfied with the direction of their country. This is not a happy statistic. Increasingly, I think the 2016 election could take a turn no one predicts. I don't take it as a given that Hillary Clinton will get the nomination. And the Republican Party is in a state of internecine war. It is all labile and at least potentially subject to major change. The key is what Millennials do, whether they vote. Whether Blacks and Hispanics prompted by events vote in numbers higher than usual.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After reaching a more than two-year high in early 2015, Americans’ satisfaction with the direction of the U.S. continues to fall. Twenty-six percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the nation in May, down slightly from 32% in January and February.
The latest data are from Gallup’s May 6-10 poll.
Satisfaction jumped nine points in January to 32%, a promising sign that Americans’ moods were improving after a year of lower figures throughout 2014, ranging between 20% and 27%. Since February, though, satisfaction has dipped only slightly each month, but these small drops have resulted in a six-point decline since the beginning of the year. Satisfaction remains below the 36% historical average for Gallup’s trend dating back to 1979.
The drop in Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going parallels the recent decline in economic confidence. Americans had a more positive outlook on the economy at the dawn of 2015, but these views, like satisfaction, have edged down in recent months.
Views of the nation’s direction have certainly been […]
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