Danny Schechter - Who Is Winning The War on Wall Street? Making It Personal Is One Way To Seize The Initiative.

By Danny Schechter

Author of The Crime Of Our Time 

Wall Street has become a battleground, defended by a battalion of New York Cops, and under surveillance around the clock. There’s a war under way after months of protests and assaults by the non-violent warriors of Occupy Wall Street.

So, who’s winning?

On the surface, despite major layoffs and economic setbacks, you would have to say that the epicenter of our financial markets is alive, if not well. The exchanges and banks remain open for business, even if their costs for security are up, and their long-term optimism is way down.

Attempts by occupiers and activists to “shut it down” have so far failed, but they have slowed it down and forced its defenders on the defensive. A sharp critique of out of control capitalism that was barely heard in the media before the movement began. It is now everywhere. The Movement has changed the national conversation.

The gluttons of greed are, at least temporarily, on the defensive.

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Mitchell J. Rabin - A Better World Newsletter

This Week's Radio & TV Shows - December 4, 2011

ABW on Progressive Radio Network A BETTER WORLD RADIO Listen Mondays6:00pm_EST Monday, December 5, 6pm EST: On today's show Mitchell will speak on health, stress and the various origins of stress. The mikes will be open to PRN/A Better World audience to call in and ask questions plus share their views as well. We will focus on the health of the person and the health of the nation, the individual and the collective. Health, said Werner Erhard, "is a function of participation". Are you participating in this society, in your life or have you 'dropped out'? Eating healthily, using your body rigorously & actively, sleeping and loving well are all part of a healthy lifestyle. However, if your heart & soul are not engaged in contributing to the world, in their own self-expression, you've only got part of the solution. Loving inside of living is a key to success. Listen in today and participate, as you listen to others do same on today's show. www.abetterworld.net/media

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Free From Harm - Uncle Robert, Why Don’t You Eat Cheese?

http://freefromharm.org/farm-animal-welfare/uncle-robert-why-dont-you-eat-cheese/

By Free From Harm | November 25, 2011

When my 8-year-old niece asked me why I don’t eat cheese during our preparation for Thanksgiving dinner, I hesitated, but then told her that some day I would explain to her why. Part of me believes it is best for her mother to decide when and how to explain this. My hope for her is that she becomes part of a generation that learns the truth and is not raised in ignorance, told stories about the mythical Old McDonald’s Farm and the Happy Cows, only to then learn the truth in adulthood and filled with regret for not knowing sooner! When we were growing up, the truth about dairy cows was kept hidden from us, and from my parents as well. All we knew is that milk came from cows.

If my child were to ask me this questions, I would simply wait until I felt he or she was mature enough to understand and explain it this way:

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Renee Parsons - Senate Approves Indefinite Detention

http://trueblueprogressivereport.blogspot.com/2011/12/senate-approves-indefinite-detention.html

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2011

By Renee Parsons – A True Blue Progressive

If Al Qaeda needed a recruitment tool for its dwindling numbers, its operatives simply needed to video tape the Senate’s recent consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1867).  

What should have been a serious discussion on the cost and moral authority of the President’s endless war policy stretching U.S. military tentacles around the globe morphed instead into a platform for endless harangues about American ‘traitors’ during WWII, inflamed passions about ‘terrorists’, bipartisan ravings in fear of Iran, redefining the Constitution and other war-mongering subjects.    

The grim reality is that with the country presumably on the edge of a cataclysmic deficit crisis, Senate Democrats who once might have been expected to support the Rule of Law, lined up on the side of a $690 billion appropriation for the Pentagon including $119 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with NO debate on military funding over the country’s favored People Programs or the Constitutionality of drone attacks.   

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Stephen Lendman - America Lurches Toward Full-Blown Tyranny

By Stephen Lendman/12-3-11

Join Stephen Lendman Thursdays @ 11:30am(ET) and Saturdays and Sundays @ 1pm(ET) for his great show "The Progressive Radio News Hour." 

Post-9/11, America's moved steadily toward eroding democracy entirely. Justification given is war on terror hokum. Incrementally, international, constitutional and statute laws have been trashed. Equity, justice and other democratic values long ago were abandoned to advance America's imperium. On May 26, the House voted to abolish freedom entirely - HR 1540, 322 - 96. On December 1, the Senate did likewise - S. 1867, 93 to 7. Both versions assure no one anywhere is now safe, including law-abiding US citizens.

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70 Cutie Baby Animals Bring You a Good Mood

Cuteness is usually characterized by some combination of infant-like physical traits, especially small body size with a disproportionately large head, large eyes, and round and softer body features. Infantile personality traits, such as playfulness, fragility, helplessness, curiosity, innocence, affectionate behavior, and a need to be nurtured are also generally considered cute.

To those who are living in the concrete jungle, we have collected the following cute animals, hoping they could bring you a good mood and maybe, remind you of the wild world.

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ScienceDaily - New Projection Shows Global Food Demand Doubling by 2050

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111121194043.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2011) — Global food demand could double by 2050, according to a new projection by David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology in the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences, and colleagues, including Jason Hill, assistant professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Producing that amount of food could significantly increase levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in the environment and cause the extinction of numerous species. But this can be avoided, the paper shows, if the high-yielding technologies of rich nations are adapted to work in poor nations, and if all nations use nitrogen fertilizers more efficiently.

"Agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions could double by 2050 if current trends in global food production continue," Tilman said. "Global agriculture already accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions." Much of these emissions come from land clearing, which also threatens species with extinction.

The article shows that if poor nations continue current practices, they will clear a land area larger than the United States (two and a half billion acres) by 2050. But if richer nations help poorer nations improve yields to achievable levels, that could be reduced to half a billion acres.

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William Robinson - Global Rebellion & The Coming Chaos?

Published on Friday, December 2, 2011 by Al Jazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111130121556567265.html

Global elites are confused, reactive, and sinking into a quagmire of their own making, says author.

by William I. Robinson

SANTA BARBARA, CA - As the crisis of global capitalism spirals out of control, the powers that be in the global system appear to be adrift and unable to proposal viable solutions. From the slaughter of dozens of young protesters by the army in Egypt to the brutal repression of the Occupy movement in the United States, and the water cannons brandished by the militarized police in Chile against students and workers, states and ruling classes are unable are to hold back the tide of worldwide popular rebellion and must resort to ever more generalized repression.

Simply put, the immense structural inequalities of the global political economy can no longer be contained through consensual mechanisms of social control. The ruling classes have lost legitimacy; we are witnessing a breakdown of ruling-class hegemony on a world scale.

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The European Union Times - Obama Issues Ron Paul “Kill Order” As Russia Prepares For War

The European Union Times - 2011-11-30

http://www.eutimes.net/2011/11/obama-issues-ron-paul-kill-order-as-russia-prepares-for-war/

The Federal Security Service (FSB) is reporting today that the “secret letter” sent to Prime Minister Putin by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda contains a warning that United States President Barack Obama has issued an executive-level “kill order” against US Congressman Ron Paul over fears this charismatic politician, who many believe could capture the Republican Presidential 2012 nomination, is about to expose to all Americans what can only be described as the largest mass theft in human history. The “kill order” is a metaphor for silencing down congressman Ron Paul in the mass media as if he doesn’t exist.

According to this report, Prime Minister Noda first became aware of this “kill order” after a private meeting with Obama at last weeks ASEAN Summit meeting in Indonesia when the American President expressed his “unconstrained joy” over the toppling of the Greek and Italian governments in bloodless coups by EU banksters who installed to run these countries unelected former Goldman Sachs executives.   

Not known to many Americans is that the giant global investment firm Goldman Sachs put Obama into office by being its top donor and after winning the Presidency put so many of its former executives into the US government it is known as the “Wall Street Cabinet.”

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Lynn Parramore - The Hidden Truth Behind the Shady Credit Agencies That Can Ruin Your Life

By Lynn Parramore, AlterNet

Posted on November 29, 2011, Printed on December 2, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153256/are_you_held_hostage_by_bad_credit_the_hidden_truth_behind_the_shady_credit_agencies_that_can_ruin_your_life

Remember the old idiom, “Don’t become a statistic”? Well, you already are.

The Minneapolis-based Fair Issac Corporation, popularly known as FICO, keeps close tabs on your credit files and uses a secret formula to reduce that information to a number that can powerfully impact your life. If you pay a bill late, they know about it. When you use your credit card, they see it. They even know if you are making inquiries to learn about your credit score.

There’s also a lot they don’t know. Some things, like your race or marital status, are prohibited by law from being considered in credit scoring. Other things, like your employment history, where you live, or how much you’ve saved, don’t fit into the algorithms FICO uses. Any normal person might suspect they are relevant to assessing the quality of your credit, but they won’t make a difference in your score.

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