Michael Hudson - Reforming the U.S. Financial and Tax System

Restore America’s past prosperity and rescue the future from the financial grabbers By Prof. Michael Hudson

Global Research, November 19, 2011 http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27759

On November 3, 2011, Alan Minsky interviewed Economic Professor and Global Research author Michael Hudson on KPFK’s program, “Building a Powerful Movement in the United States” in preparation for an Occupy L.A. teach-in. To clarify my points I have edited and expanded my answers from the interview transcript. Alan Minsky: I am joined now by Michael Hudson. He is a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and also is president of the Institute for the Study of Long Term Economic Trends. Welcome to the show, Michael. Michael Hudson: Thank you very much. Alan Minsky: Michael Hudson is scheduled to address Occupy L.A. as part of a teach-in that includes William Black and Robert Scheer, who will be moderating the panel that Michael will be on this weekend. Michael, I’m familiar with your work and I know that you are a big-picture economic thinker. This is definitely a movement that is asking the big questions about how the global economy and the national economy should be re-organized. What would you say to the movement at large about how best to organize a high-tech modern industrial economy in a way that would produce more social and economic justice? America is being radicalized by coming to realize how radical Wall Street’s power grab is

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Rick Helle - How Mindfulness Can Overcome the Greed of the 1 Percent

by Tikkun Daily

by Rick Heller

http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2011/11/15/how-mindfulness-can-overcome-the-greed-of-the-1-percent/

I have led mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations at Occupy Boston. Meditation is, of course, valuable as a refuge from stress. Participating in an occupation, which may involve living outdoors under threat of possible arrest and police brutality, can certainly be stressful (I myself am only a day visitor to the Occupy Boston encampment). But I believe mindfulness can actually address the core problem that the Occupy movement confronts, i.e. the greed of the wealthiest 1 percent.

The thesis of my eBook, Occupy the Moment, is that greed is literally an addiction, a distortion of the brain systems that govern habits and rewards. The way to overcome greed is to “be in the moment” or to practice mindfulness.

In the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha identified inordinate desire as the fundamental source of human suffering. To overcome suffering, he identified a path that included mindfulness, the practice of focusing on the present moment with a friendly, nonjudgmental attitude.

Recent findings in neuroscience validate the Buddha’s claims. When we want something, the brain transmits a chemical called dopamine. When we get what we desire, internal opioids are released. The latter are substances chemically similar to morphine and heroin. So you can start to see how desires become literally addictive.

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Edward Miller - Enhanced US Military Presence in Australia Directed against China

By Edward Miller

Global Research, November 19, 2011 http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27747

Obama announces increased US military presence in Australia before South China Sea showdown Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US President Barack Obama have revived their predecessors’ cordial relations, announcing an historic agreement on 16 November to house 250 US Marines at the Robertson Barracks, close to Darwin. US troops posted in Australia will conduct joint exercises and training, and by 2016 their numbers are scheduled to have grown to 2500. Under the agreement American military aircraft will also make greater usage of the Tindall Air Force base (Northern WA), and have access to the Stirling naval base at Garden Island near Perth, WA. Not one to be outdone in militaristic gaff, Opposition leader Tony Abbott promised that a Coalition government led by him would establish a new joint facility on Australian soil to accompany the two existing joint facilities, Pine Gap (near Alice Springs, NT) and Kojarena (near Geraldton, WA). The following day in his speech to the Australian parliament in Canberra, Obama stressed the common bond and values the two nations shared: “Aussies and Americans have stood together, we have fought together, we have given lives together in every single major conflict of the past hundred years.” Looking to “end today’s wars”, he described a broader shift in US foreign policy “to make our presence and mission in Asia-Pacific a top priority...[allocating] the resources necessary to maintain a strong presence in the region.” While Obama identified broad areas of trade and cooperation with Asia Pacific nations, his commitment to positive relations with China was reserved by a promise to “speak candidly to Beijing over the importance of upholding international norms and respecting the universal human rights of the Chinese people.” He also took aim at China’s devalued currency, intellectual property standards and climate change policies.

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Henry Porter - Odd as it may seem, 2011 is proving to be a year of rebirth

Something deep and impressive is going on in the new generation who have an innate sense of justice and fairness

• 

  Henry Porter

  The Observer, Saturday 19 November 2011

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/20/henry-porter-optimistic-about-world

When New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, sent stormtrooper cops – equipped with batons, pepper spray and ear-splitting pain compliance devices – to sweep the Occupy protesters from Wall Street, he was attacked by the American TV commentator Keith Olbermann as "a smaller, more embarrassing version of the tinpot tyrants who have fallen around the globe this year".

That will have pricked Bloomberg's technocratic vanity, yet there he is, three months away from his 70th birthday and worth approximately $19.5bn, ordering his police chief, Ray Kelly, who has already hit 70 but is still, incidentally, a familiar figure on the Manhattan party circuit, to unleash a shocking level of force against young people who were simply agitating for a better economic system, more equity and transparency.

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James J. Gormley - Petition to Demand that the NDI Draft Guidance Be Withdrawn

Hi,

Let's call on Congress to demand that the FDA summarily withdraws the NDI Draft Guidance and goes on the record stating that the agency will not, now or ever, review, consider, surveil or engage in enforcement activities according to the re-interpretation of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) evident in its Guidance document but, instead, will honor the law that the American people gave to the FDA (via Congress) to uphold via regulation according to both the spirit, letter, and plain and intended meaning of DSHEA.

That's why I created a petition to The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate and President Barack Obama, which says:

"I hereby join with Citizens for Health (CFH) and its over 100,000 citizen supporters in calling on Congress to withhold funding appropriations for the FDA until the agency summarily withdraws its NDI Draft Guidance and goes on the record stating that the agency will not, now or ever, review, consider, surveil or engage in enforcement activities according to the re-interpretation of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) evident in the NDI Draft Guidance, but, instead, will honor the law that the American people gave to that agency to uphold via regulation according to both the spirit and letter of DSHEA."

Will you sign this petition and please send out far and wide? 

Please click below:

http://signon.org/sign/save-our-supplements-2?source=c.em.cp&r_by=1374912

Thanks! 

James J. Gormley

VP and Senior Policy Advisor

Citizens for Health

Phone: 202-695-2027

ScienceDaily - U.S. Population On Track to Getting Even Fatter

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111116132920.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2011) — In 2020, the vast majority of adults in America will be overweight or obese and more than half will suffer from diabetes or pre-diabetic conditions, according to projections presented by Northwestern Medicine researchers at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions on Nov. 16, in Orlando, Florida.

The AHA has set a target to help Americans improve their overall heart health by 20 percent in 2020. However, if current trends continue, Americans can expect only a modest improvement of six percent in overall cardiovascular health in 2020.

The implications of not increasing heart health by 20 percent by 2020 could be grave. Declining rates of sickness and death from cardiovascular disease may stall, and related health care costs, already projected to reach $1.1 trillion per year by 2030, could rise even further. That's according to study author Mark Huffman, M.D., assistant professor in preventive medicine and medicine-cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Representative of all Americans, the study is based on patterns found in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 1988 to 2008. The projected numbers on weight and diabetes, based on previous trends, follow.

• In 2020, 83 percent of men and 72 percent of women will be overweight or obese.

Currently, 72 percent of men and 63 percent of women are overweight or obese (people who are overweight have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 to 29kg/m2, people who are obese have a BMI of 30kg/m2 or greater).

• In 2020, 77 percent of men and 53 percent of women will have dysglycemia (either diabetes or pre-diabetes). Currently, 62 percent of men and 43 percent of women have dysglycemia.

"To increase overall heart health by 20 percent, American adults would need to rapidly reverse these unhealthy trends -- starting today," Huffman said. "In concert with individual choices, public health policies can be and should be effective tools to reduce smoking, increase access to healthy foods, and increase physical activity in daily life."

More people would need to improve health behaviors related to diet, physical activity, body weight and smoking and health factors, related to glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure.

"We've been dealing with the obesity trend for the past three decades, but the impact we project on blood sugar is a true shock," said Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., chair and associate professor of preventive medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine, a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and senior author of the study. "Those are some really scary numbers. When blood sugar goes up like that all of the complications of diabetes come into play."

Less than five percent of Americans currently are considered to have ideal cardiovascular health. The modest six percent improvement in cardiovascular health that is projected for 2020 means better cholesterol and blood pressure numbers for Americans and fewer smokers. Improvements in treatment and control of cholesterol and blood pressure with medication and declines in smoking would partially account for this small boost, but they wouldn't be enough to offset the weight and diabetes problems Americans face, Huffman said. Projected improvements in diet and physical activity also contribute to the six percent projection, but the absolute increase in Americans who consume ideal diets will remain less than two percent by 2020, if current trends continue.

"Since the 1960s cardiovascular disease death rates have substantially decreased, but if the weight and dysglycemia trends continue to increase, we are in danger of seeing a reversal of those gains," Huffman said.

Achieving a healthy weight through diet and physical activity is the best way most Americans can improve their cardiovascular health, but, as Huffman stressed, not smoking is the number one preventable cause of preventable death. Yet, one in five Americans still smoke.

ScienceDaily - Nanoparticles Used as Additives in Diesel Fuels Can Travel from Lungs to Liver

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111117141157.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2011) — Recent studies conducted at Marshall University have demonstrated that nanoparticles of cerium oxide -- common diesel fuel additives used to increase the fuel efficiency of automobile engines -- can travel from the lungs to the liver and that this process is associated with liver damage.

The data in the study by Dr. Eric R. Blough and his colleagues at Marshall's Center for Diagnostic Nanosystems indicate there is a dose-dependent increase in the concentration of cerium in the liver of animals that had been exposed to the nanoparticles, which are only about 1/40,000 times as large as the width of a human hair. These increases in cerium were associated with elevations of liver enzymes in the blood and histological evidence consistent with liver damage. The research was published in the October 13 issue of the peer-reviewed research journal International Journal of Nanomedicine.

Cerium oxide is widely used as a polishing agent for glass mirrors, television tubes and ophthalmic lenses. Cerium oxide nanoparticles are used in the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency and reduce particulate emissions. Some studies have found that cerium oxide nanoparticles may also be capable of acting as antioxidants, leading researchers to suggest these particles may also be useful for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease and radiation-induced tissue damage.

Blough, the center's director and an associate professor in the university's Department of Biological Sciences, said, "Given the ever-increasing use of nanomaterials in industry and in the products we buy, it is becoming increasingly important to understand if these substances may be harmful. To our knowledge, this is the first report to evaluate if inhaled cerium oxide nanoparticles exhibit toxic effects in the liver."

Dr. Siva K. Nalabotu, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. student in Blough's lab, said, "The potential effects of nanomaterials on the environment and cellular function is not yet well understood. Interest in nanotoxicity is rapidly growing.

"Our studies show that cerium oxide nanoparticles are capable of entering the liver from lungs through the circulation, where they show dose-dependent toxic effects on the liver. Our next step is to determine the mechanism of the toxicity."

The research was supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, grant DE-PS02-09ER09-01.

Drew Kaplan - Sugary drinks can boost women’s heart disease risk

Submitted by Drew Kaplan on November 15, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-sugar-heart-20111113,0,3997779.stor 

A new study shows a woman’s chance of getting heart disease greatly increases from just a couple of sugary drinks a day. Even those lucky enough to be able to eat and drink anything they want and not gain weight still are more likely to develop heart disease.

Two or more sugar-sweetened drinks a day have been associated with a larger waist and a higher risk of heart diseasein adult women, according to research released Sunday.

Women ages 45 to 84 who drank at least two sugar-sweetened drinks a day — such as soda or flavored waters with added sugar — were nearly four times as likely to develop high triglycerides as women who drank one or fewer of those beverages.

Two or more sugar-sweetened drinks a day also were linked to bigger waist size and a higher risk for Type 2 diabetes.

These risks were higher even when the women were of normal weight. So it’s not just obesity that is causing the increased risk of cardiovascular disease, said Christina Shay, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor at theUniversity of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The research was presented at the American Heart Assn.’s Scientific Sessions annual meeting, being held in Orlando, Fla.

“Most people assume that individuals who consume a lot of sugar-sweetened drinks have an increase in obesity, which in turn, increases their risk for heart disease and diabetes,” Shay said. “Although this does occur, this study showed that risk factors for heart disease and stroke developed even when the women didn’t gain weight.”

The study included women from a wide range of ethnic groups. They were followed for five years.

Women who drink sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages pay a higher price than men because women require fewer calories than men per day. Calories from a couple of sodas add up fast.

Still unknown is how sugar-sweetened beverages cause triglycerides and diabetes risk to rise in women who don’t gain weight.

The Telegraph - Meditation improves the immune system, research shows

Meditation improves the immune system, reduces blood pressure and even sharpens the mind, according to research.

The Telegraph, UK,  01 Nov 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8862275/Meditation-improves-the-immune-system-research-shows.html

The practice - an essential part of Buddhist and Indian Yoga traditions - has entered the mainstream as people try to find ways to combat stress and improve their quality of life.

Now new research suggests that mindfulness meditation can have benefits for health and performance, including improved immune function, reduced blood pressure and enhanced cognitive function.

The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, draws on existing scientific literature to attempt to explain the positive effects.

The goal of this work, according to author Britta Hazel, of Justus Liebig University and Harvard Medical School, is to "unveil the conceptual and mechanistic complexity of mindfulness, providing the big picture by arranging many findings like the pieces of a mosaic."

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Neve Gordon - Is Israel Preparing an Assault Against Iran?

Published on Friday, November 18, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/18-0

The IAEA report on Iran's alleged nuclear program was surrounded by a media frenzy in Israel supporting an attack.

by Neve Gordon

Skimming the newspapers as I rushed to get my children ready for school, I suddenly understood that Israel might actually be preparing for a military attack against Iran. "[United States Secretary of Defense Leon] Panetta Demanded Commitment to Coordinate Action in Iran" read one headline, and "A Bomb at Arm's Length" read another.

Feeding this hype were a series of military events that had been planned months in advance yet mysteriously coincided with the publication of the International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's efforts to produce a nuclear bomb. For four days straight all of the major television channels repeatedly showed images of Israel preparing for war.

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