President Obama’s proposed budget is causing all sorts of political commotion for including as its centerpiece a focus on reducing deficits that is based largely on sweeping cuts to Social Security. Crafted as a compromise to lure Republican support, the president’s proposals has instead inflamed progressives for targeting Americans who rely on safety net programs [...]
“MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT” BRINGS IMMUNITY TO REGULATION OF FOOD TO YOUR DINNER TABLE. It was done quietly last week, an obscure provision slipped into a congressional spending bill, the passage and presidential signing of which averted a government shutdown. The so-named provision allows Monsanto and other corporate food processors exemption from federal regulation by [...]
THE FACTS BE DAMNED, THE U.S. AND ISRAEL MAINTAIN THAT IRAN IS A MAJOR THREAT TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES. Numerous independent reports and even one by the U.S. Intelligence Agency have established that Iran is nowhere near a “red line” of nuclear development that could represent any kind of serious threat to other nations. [...]
HEY CHUCK, WELCOME TO AN AFGHAN DEBACLE. This is Bill Van Auken’s description of the first trip to Afghanistan of the newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel. To say that the inauguration of Hagel’s relations to his Afghan partner in the “war on terrorism” was inauspicious would be putting it much [...]
ARE ELDERLY AMERICANS THE “PICTURE OF AFFLUENCE?” Thatfflu is the picture drawn in a new Pew Research study of the “net worth” of American households. The average net worth of seniors of $170,500 seems “affluent” only by contrast with the almost non-existent amount of $ 3,700 for those under 35. With many older people now [...]
IN 25 U.S. STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, A HOMELESS PERSON CAN LOSE HIS/HER CHILDREN BY THE ACT OF TRYING TO OBTAIN SOCIAL SERVICES TO HELP PROVIDE FOR THEM. As in so many ways that the homeless are “criminalized” rather than being provided for, these states make application for assistance actionable instances of “abuse [...]
The next Treasury secretary of the United States will be a long-time close confidante of President Obama, a man described as a “Washington insider” and veteran of the financial industry adept at cutting backroom deals, and an economic disciple of the men and ideologies that many blame for the deregulation of the nation;s financial markets [...]
DISASTER IN A TIME OF AUSTERITY: SANDY VICTIMS THROWN TO THE (LOAN) SHARKS. Victims of the superstorm devastation that struck New York and New Jersey are caught in bureaucratic red tape and the disposition of FEMA to administer any “relief” for victims through banks and other lending agencies with loan-shark level interest rates. With [...]
Congress was able to cobble together a temporary patch for the self-imposed fiscal cliff in a series of late-night votes featuring intra-party bickering and a widespread sense that the final deal was imperfect and nothing more than a painful necessity. Well over a year since the artificial deadline for the “cliff” was concocted by the [...]
THE ROAD TO ZERO WASTE MAY LEAD THROUGH THE FLANDERS REGION OF BELGIUM. By both citizen action and government enforcement, this Dutch-speaking section of Belgium is converting traditional Dutch cleanliness into a program of waste prevention and re-cycling through a multi-pronged movement to encourage source separation for garbage, massive private and corporate composting operations, [...]
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