THE HEADLINES

Chief Justice John Roberts (AP photo)

LIBERALS, DON’T GET TOO ENTHRALLED BY THE “ROBERTS COURT” IN THE WAKE OF ITS RULING ON OBAMACARE.

(Reader Supported News)

Bill Blum issues this warning, noting that the upholding of “Obamacare” in last week’s decision may have been a victory of sorts for health care “coverage” since it sustained the “individual mandate” on grounds that it is a “tax” which Congress has the power to levy. In decisively rejecting the validity of the act by virtue of the rights of Congress under the “interstate commerce” defnition of its jurisdiction, the Court appears ready to launch a broad assault on federal congressional powers that will return most political power to the states, where more conservative powers are holding sway. Look for states’ rights (which often amount to individual deprivations) to enjoy a resurgence of power under the Roberts court. (Think about the state-level legislation complicating a woman’s supposed “right to an abortion” for example.) This ominous new disposition to turn back decades of progressive political action is demonstrated in that element of the decision itself which rejected the mandatory requirement of states to extend Medicaid rolls.

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AMERICA THE POLLUTED: FROM BEACH TO STINKING BEACH.

(MotherJones)

Natural Resources Defense Council releases its findings of contamination samples from beaches—both sea and fresh water—across the United States. The results are anything but encouraging. Data from 2011 testings show little or no improvement in the levels of such contamination. Much of this pollution is described as stormwater run-off into bodies of water that include everything from dog poop on lawns to the residue of pesticides and herbicides used in agriculture and on lawns and public facilities like golf courses. ln other words, the “good life” in America is still sustaining a high level of pollution that makes the use of water recreationally a hazardous undertaking in many of the country’s waters.

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RE-STRUCTURING AND IN-SOURCING GO TOGETHER LIKE A HORSE AND CARRIAGE TO MAKE THE LABOR MARKET OF THE U.S. THAT OF A “THIRD WORLD COUNTRY.”

(World Socialist)

As pundits and politicos laud the “recovery” of the U.S. economy with new jobs creations, skeptics are noting that the jobs so created in the current “recovery” are largely jobs at wages below those which preceded the recession. Operations like the “re-structuring” of General Motors that created entry-level wages at half those of the “pre-structured” company are fuelling imitations from multinational corporations that scour the globe for locales with cheap labor policies. With China and other Asian countries largely out of the running for such low-income destinations, companies like AirBus and Google are finding locations in the U.S.A. just fine as places to find cheap labor in abundance.

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“YOU GUYS WERE USELESS.”

(UK Independent)

A lead investigator in the banking scandal involving former Barclays head Bob Diamond, so complains about the lack of government help in the official parliamentary investigation of the matter. PM David Cameron led the way on this obstructionism, refusing to allow a British equivalent of a special prosector to handle the case. It continued with government offices which refused to provide critical documents like e-mails, so the investigators were limited to such sources as regulators’ reports and what they were able literally to “read in the papers.” But the “investigation” continues.

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WITH ITS CRACKDOWN ON PILL MILLS, FLORIDA MAY BE LOSING SOME “TOURIST” INDUSTRY TO GEORGIA.

(Bradenton Herald)

Florida has been a favorite tourist destination for those seeking pain relief medications like oxycodin, as they have learned that pharmacists will accept their word for their pain and dispense them quantities of pills in exchange for quantities of cash, after which they can go back to places of origin like Ohio and sell them on the streets at great profit. Florida is now engaged in prosecutions of such pharmacies and much of this “tourist trade” is moving to Georgia, where anti-drug enforcement is still weak.

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