http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental hourly 1 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://gmane.org/img/gmane-25t.png http://gmane.org http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45486 <pre>Beyond the Big, Bad Corporation by Tara Lohan AlterNet (May 21 2012) As our political system sputters, a wave of innovative thinking and bold experimentation is quietly sweeping away outmoded economic models. In New Economic Visions, a special five-part AlterNet series edited by economics editor Lynn Parramore in partnership with political economist Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, creative thinkers come together to explore the exciting ideas and projects that are shaping the philosophical and political vision of the movement that could take our economy back. In September 2011, two Appalachian women traveled to Delaware to deliver a petition to the state's Attorney General Beau Biden. Betty Harrah and Lorelei Scarbro represented thousands who believed that the business charter for coal-mining company Massey Energy should be repealed. The company, mostly operating in Appalachia but incorporated in Delaware, has violated the Clean Water Act 60,000 times. An investigation commissioned by the g</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-27T00:30:49 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45484 <pre>Beyond the Big, Bad Corporation by Tara Lohan AlterNet (May 21 2012) As our political system sputters, a wave of innovative thinking and bold experimentation is quietly sweeping away outmoded economic models. In New Economic Visions, a special five-part AlterNet series edited by economics editor Lynn Parramore in partnership with political economist Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, creative thinkers come together to explore the exciting ideas and projects that are shaping the philosophical and political vision of the movement that could take our economy back. In September 2011, two Appalachian women traveled to Delaware to deliver a petition to the state's Attorney General Beau Biden. Betty Harrah and Lorelei Scarbro represented thousands who believed that the business charter for coal-mining company Massey Energy should be repealed. The company, mostly operating in Appalachia but incorporated in Delaware, has violated the Clean Water Act 60,000 times. An investigation commissioned by the g</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-26T12:33:22 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45481 <pre>How billionaire backers pick America's candidates by Thomas Frank Harper's Magazine Essay (April 2012) While visiting Kansas City last December, I read a local newspaper story lamenting the gradual transformation of Missouri into a reliably Republican citadel - a red state, as we like to say. In the past, I read, Missouri had been different from its more partisan neighbors. It had been a "bellwether" state that "reflected national trends", rather than delivering votes for any particular party. But now all that was over, and I assumed the article would go on to mourn the death of judicious public reason - the tradition of giving rival arguments a hearing and testing them with that famous "Show Me" skepticism. I was wrong. Forget the death of open-mindedness. What was actually being mourned that day in the Kansas City Star was a possible loss of advertising revenue by the state's TV stations. If Missouri was no longer a battleground state, then the two parties and their various backers would no longer figh</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-26T01:41:47 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45475 <pre>http://climate-connections.org/2012/05/24/ge-apples-coming-to-canada-apples-that-wont-go-brown-coming-soon/ BY GLOBAL JUSTICE ECOLOGY PROJECT | MAY 24, 2012 GE Apples Coming to Canada? Apples that won't go brown coming soon? Note: A new movement against GMO foods, trees and other crops is emerging just in time to confront industry's attempts to shove more unlabeled engineered foods down our throats. What will be the impact of these GE apples on children? This is unknown. The GE industry doesn't test for the risks and the government rarely requires them to, which is why citizen vigilance is crucial. See the previous post about the town of Richmond, BC rejecting GMO foods and trees. -The GJEP Team Cross-Posted from the Toronto Sun, MAY 23, 2012 A new genetically engineered apple may be making its way to Canada. (Handout) Apples that won't go brown could be could be planted in Canada as early as 2014. Canadian biotech company Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc. has applied to the Canadian Food In</pre> Richard Menec 2012-05-25T00:58:39 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45474 <pre>by Damien Perrotin A Breton's perspective on the world The view from Brittany (March 10 2012) It is election time in France. Five weeks from now, we will elect our president for the next five years and unless he does something really stupid, the socialist pretender, Francois Hollande, will win in a landslide - albeit not necessarily with the insane margin polls predict. The most striking feature of this election, however, is not the unpopularity of the incumbent president but the similarity of their worldview. French Presidents are chosen in a two-round runoff election, with the candidates falling into four categories. First you have the two or three contenders, who have a realistic chance of being elected. Generally those are the candidate of the Socialist Party and whoever dominates the moderate right at that particular moment. This time it will be Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy. Then you have the outsiders who most probably won't make it to the second round, but might under the right circumsta</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-24T23:51:58 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45471 <pre>by John Michael Greer The Archdruid Report (May 16 2012) Over the last four months or so, as this blog has sketched out the trajectory of empires in general, and then traced the intricate history of America's empire in particular, I've been avoiding a specific issue. That avoidance hasn't come from any lack of awareness on my part, and if it had been, comments and emails from readers asking when I was going to get around to discussing the issue would have taken care of that in short order. No, it's simply a natural reluctance to bring up a subject that has to be discussed sooner or later, but is guaranteed to generate far more heat than light. The subject? The role of protest movements in the decline and fall of the American empire. That's an issue sufficiently burdened with tangled emotions and unstated agendas that even finding a good starting place for the discussion is a challenge. Fortunately I have some assistance, courtesy of Owen Lloyd, who is involved with an organization called Deep Green Resis</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-24T13:24:13 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45466 <pre>The Big Picture by Jodie Griffin, Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Public Knowledge (May 12 2012) As Public Knowledge dives into the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) secret negotiation process and the details of its copyright provisions, it is useful to periodically step back and consider how the intellectual property chapter of the TPP fits into the framework of the TPP as a whole. The copyright provisions of the TPP, as based on the text proposed by the US {*} that was leaked in February 2011, would contradict the TPP’s overall goal of creating a seamless Pacific market and would chill innovation to the detriment of both consumers and businesses. {*} http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf The TPP generally is an ambitious effort to open trade and encourage investment among the countries that border the Pacific Ocean. That is why the TPP covers so many different areas of the economy, like agriculture, textiles, environmental protections, and intellectual prop</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-21T23:33:03 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45465 <pre>by Glyn Moody Computerworld UK Open Enterprise Blog (May 14 2012) A few weeks ago, I gave a talk at the Reykjavik Digital Freedoms Conference {1} with the title "Before and After SOPA". Much of it will be familiar to readers of this blog, since it was reviewing the events around the extraordinary anti-SOPA Internet Blackout Day on January 18, which has now emerged as a turning-point in Net activism, and exploring what might happen now. As usual, I've embedded my slides below, and they may also be viewed online {2} and downloaded {3}. The defeat, even if only temporary, of SOPA and PIPA was surely one key factor in the sudden upswelling of protests against ACTA, which until that point had seemed almost certain to be ratified in the EU. The actions against SOPA and ACTA have led to renewed analysis of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP), currently being negotiated behind closed doors in Dallas. It's too early to hope that a similar victory may result there, too, but it's certainly the case that mo</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-21T11:10:55 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45464 <pre>Neoliberal dragons, eurasian wet dreams, and robocop fantasies by Pepe Escobar Le Monde diplomatique (May 08 2012) Goldman Sachs - via economist Jim O'Neill - invented the concept of a rising new bloc on the planet: BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Some cynics couldn't help calling it the "Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept". Not really. Goldman now expects the BRICS countries to account for almost forty percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, and to include four of the world's top five economies. Soon, in fact, that acronym may have to expand to include Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea and, yes, nuclear Iran: BRIIICTSS? Despite its well-known problems as a nation under economic siege, Iran is also motoring along as part of the N-11, yet another distilled concept. (It stands for the next eleven emerging economies.) The multitrillion-dollar global question remains: Is the emergence of BRICS a signal that we have truly entered a new multipolar world? Yale's canny histo</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-21T01:12:38 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45462 <pre>Corporate criminals go free while the Justice Department targets those without expensive lawyers and lobbyists. by Leonard C Goodman In These Times (May 16 2012) On April 21, The New York Times reported that Wal-Mart de Mexico paid $24 million in bribes to local land use officials in exchange for allowing the company to build stores in virtually every corner of the country, and to make environmental objections vanish. Although its top executives apparently approved of and helped conceal the bribery scheme - in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - the chances that any of them will face criminal prosecution is remote. It's not that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) doesn't criminally prosecute people who pay bribes to avoid land-use restrictions on their property. Rather, the feds prefer to bring such cases against people who don't have access to corporate lobbyists - or even to private lawyers. According to Bureau of Justice statistics, just one in five felony defendants has private counsel. </pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-20T11:56:52 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45458 <pre>On the history of the US economy in decline by Noam Chomsky Le Monde diplomatique (May 18 2012) The Occupy movement has been an extremely exciting development. Unprecedented, in fact. There's never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations it has established can be sustained through a long, dark period ahead - because victory won't come quickly - it could prove a significant moment in American history. The fact that the Occupy movement is unprecedented is quite appropriate. After all, it's an unprecedented era and has been so since the 1970s, which marked a major turning point in American history. For centuries, since the country began, it had been a developing society, and not always in very pretty ways. That's another story, but the general progress was toward wealth, industrialization, development, and hope. There was a pretty constant expectation that it was going to go on like this. That was true even in very dark times. I'm just old enough to remember the Great Depre</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-20T00:17:57 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45457 <pre>Hello friends, We're thrilled to announce the availability of a limited number of scholarships for our upcoming Urban Permaculture &amp; Regenerative Leadership training in August. This is truly a training unlike any other. Permaculture Design &amp; Regenerative Leadership Course - Aug 11-19th Tuition co-pay with scholarship: $1000 (regular price: $3000!) -&gt; Discount code: AUGUSTSCHOLARSHIP (only valid for august course) -&gt; Link: http://www.commoncircle.com/pdc We're making ONLY TEN of these need-based scholarships available first-come-first-serve. Just sign up online, and if the system accepts your credit card information with the code, you're in. Want to know why you should join the program? Check out just some of the many reviews from participants of our programs: (http://commoncircle.com/reviews) This course was the BEST time I have had in the past 6 years" </pre> Vladislav Davidzon 2012-05-19T15:55:04 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45455 <pre>by Dmitry Orlov Club Orlov (May 15 2012) It was Andrew Lawrence, the inventor of the skyscraper index, who pointed out that the building of the world's tallest buildings is a good proxy for dating the onset of major economic downturns. His index has stood the test of time; the few times when it made an incorrect prediction can be adequately explained by exceptional circumstances, such as the onset of world wars. It is now being put to the test again, and we ignore its advice at our own peril. In "Skyscrapers and Business Cycles" Mark Thornton writes: The ability of the index to predict economic collapse is surprising. For example, the Panic of 1907 was presaged by the building of the Singer Building (completed in 1908) and the Metropolitan Life Building (completed in 1909). The skyscraper index also accurately predicted the Great Depression with the completion of 40 Wall Tower in 1929, the Chrysler Building in 1930, and the Empire State Building in 1931. The Petronas Towers were completed in Kua</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-19T10:11:48 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45454 <pre>by Barbara Ehrenreich TomDispatch (May 17 2012) Gordon Gekko, the infamously cutthroat capitalist and lead character in Oliver Stone's Wall Street, captured the heady years of the 1980s with a single, indelible line: Greed is good. Today, it is Edward Conard, a friend and former colleague of Mitt Romney's at the private equity firm Bain Capital, who has offered a new mantra for the one percent, a cri de coeur for the Gekkos of the twenty-first century: Inequality is good. In his new book Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong (2012), Conard argues that gaping income inequality is an indication of a healthy economy, not a sick one. The more unequal we are, Conard told the New York Times Magazine, the better off we all will be. Why? Because economies grow and thrive when smart people devise solutions to our thorniest problems by inventing or perfecting goods and services. Conard singled out a group of twentysomethings sitting at a Manhattan coffee shop one aftern</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-18T23:01:54 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45452 <pre>by Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch (May 13 2012) For TomDispatch Readers: Point of pride - the TomDispatch post a Sunday ago of the last words of Ecotopia author Ernest Callenbach, "Epistle to the Ecotopians", was chosen as a point of departure for a moving online column by the New York Times' Mark Bittman. In it, this website was termed "essential", a heartwarming word from an admirable columnist. In addition, a couple of reminders: we're always at the edge, financially speaking, and one good way to help keep us afloat, if you're already an Amazon customer, is to do your shopping via any TomDispatch book link - like this one for Ecotopia: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175541/ . As long as you arrive at Amazon via a TomDispatch link, we get a small cut of whatever you buy there at no cost to you. In addition, if you're in a generous mood, you can still get a signed, personalized copy of my book, The United States of Fear, in return for a contribution of $75 (or more). Just visit our donation page to chec</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-18T11:16:12 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45451 <pre>by John Feffer Foreign Policy in Focus (May 15 2012) Everybody loves Dexter. He's handsome. He's helpful. He works at the Miami Metro Police Department, and he's very good at his job as a blood-splatter analyst. Oh, did I mention that he moonlights as a serial killer? Don't worry: he only kills bad guys. That's part of the code that Dexter's adoptive father, himself a police officer, passed down to his son. As a child who had watched his mother die a horrendous death, Dexter couldn't overcome the murderous impulses that surged within him. His father, channeling those impulses in the only constructive way he could think of, created a better monster of his son's nature: a serial killer of serial killers. The other essential rule of Dexter's code: don't get caught. He is very precise in the way he dispatches his victims, and he will do almost anything to evade detection. Dexter works for the law, but his second job is most definitely above the law. During its six seasons on Showtime, the popular TV show Dex</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-17T23:12:08 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45450 <pre>Please read this? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Suzanne de Kuyper &lt;suzannedk&lt; at &gt;gmail.com&gt; Date: Thu, May 17, 2012 at 9:05 PM Subject: Fwd: [stopnato] Digest Number 4373 To: a-list&lt; at &gt;greenhouse.economics.utah.edu The NATO groups training together, meeting for exercises in countries the new troops have never been in, like Mongolia, is exciting! Sets of grown Boy Scouts meeting for a bivoac, a jovial beer with new friends and rifle practice. Later, fighting a real war, they will customarily drop enriched Uranium bombs on humans that do not look like them to show them their foreign lives, identities and futures are over. All those who do not protest NATO will be extinct sooner or later. Now is better. Suzanne ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: &lt;stopnato&lt; at &gt;yahoogroups.com&gt; Date: Tue, May 15, 2012 at 8:44 PM Subject: [stopnato] Digest Number 4373 To: stopnato&lt; at &gt;yahoogroups.com ** Stop NATO &lt;http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato;_ylc=X3oDMTJlazhmYTFjBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzE0ODI</pre> Suzanne de Kuyper 2012-05-17T19:05:45 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45449 <pre>by Dmitry Orlov Club Orlov (May 08 2012) En espanol: http://crashoil.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/gas-de-esquisto-la-perspectiva-desde.html The official shale gas story goes something like this: recent technological breakthroughs by US energy companies have made it possible to tap an abundant but previously inaccessible source of clean, environmentally friendly natural gas. This has enabled the US to become the world leader in natural gas production, overtaking Russia, and getting ready to end of Russia's gas monopoly in Europe. Moreover, this new shale gas is found in many parts of the world, and will, in due course, enable the majority of the world's countries to achieve independence from traditional gas producers. Consequently, the ability of those countries with the largest natural gas reserves - Russia and Iran - to control the market for natural gas will be reduced, along with their overall geopolitical influence. If this were the case, then we should expect the Kremlin, along with Gazprom, to be quakin</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-17T11:45:03 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45448 <pre>This ruling by Judge Katherine Forrest is the first major crack in the Obama Administration's attacks on the U.S. Constitution and civil liberties in this country. It's about time! - Mitchel &lt;http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/federal_court_enjoins_ndaa/singleton/&gt;http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/federal_court_enjoins_ndaa/singleton/ &lt;http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/federal_court_enjoins_ndaa/singleton/&gt;Federal court enjoins NDAA An Obama-appointed judge rules its indefinite detention provisions likely violate the 1st and 5th Amendments By &lt;http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/&gt;Glenn Greenwald A federal district judge today, the newly-appointed &lt;http://abovethelaw.com/2011/05/correction-ex-cravath-partner-nominated-to-s-d-n-y-is-pretty-stinking-rich/&gt;Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York, issued &lt;http://sdnyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/12-Civ.-00331-2012.05.16-Opinion-Granting-PI.pdf&gt;an amazing ruling: one which preliminarily enjoins enforcement of the highly </pre> Mitchel Cohen 2012-05-17T02:56:29 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45447 <pre>by Michael Hudson New Economic Perspectives (May 14 2012) Paul Krugman is widely appreciated for his New York Times columns criticizing Republican demands for fiscal austerity. He rightly argues that cutting back public spending will worsen the economic depression into which we are sinking. And despite his partisan Democratic Party politicking, he warned from the outset in 2009 that President Obama’s modest counter-cyclical spending program was not sufficiently bold to spur recovery. These are the themes of his new book, End This Depression Now (2012). In old-fashioned Keynesian style he believes that the solution to insufficient market demand is for the government to run larger budget deficits. It should start by giving revenue-sharing grants of $300 billion annually to states and localities whose budgets are being squeezed by the decline in property taxes and the general economic slowdown. All this is a good idea as far as it goes. But Mr Krugman stops there – as if that is all that is needed today</pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-17T01:09:41 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.politics.communism.environmental/45445 <pre>Vendor Arithmetic, Underhanded Capitalism by Professor John Kozy Global Research (May 03 2012) The world belongs to humanity, not this leader, that leader, kings or religious leaders ... Each country belongs essentially to their own people. -- Dalai Lama At times, something seemingly insignificant, when thought about deeply, reveals truths that the establishment seeks to keep hidden, the most important of which is the real purpose of a nation's existence. Most Americans, for instance, believe that America exists for their benefit and they expect the nation's institutions to serve their needs. But astute observers know that history proves otherwise even though the Constitution clearly states what the nation was established to do. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and </pre> Bill Totten 2012-05-16T11:00:45 Search the mailing list at Gmane query http://search.gmane.org/?group=$group=gmane.politics.communism.environmental