Stephen Walt - The End of the American Era

By Stephen M. Walt

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29521.htm

October 26, 2011 "The National Interest" --  THE UNITED States has been the dominant world power since 1945, and U.S. leaders have long sought to preserve that privileged position. They understood, as did most Americans, that primacy brought important benefits. It made other states less likely to threaten America or its vital interests directly. By dampening great-power competition and giving Washington the capacity to shape regional balances of power, primacy contributed to a more tranquil international environment. That tranquility fostered global prosperity; investors and traders operate with greater confidence when there is less danger of war. Primacy also gave the United States the ability to work for positive ends: promoting human rights and slowing the spread of weapons of mass destruction. It may be lonely at the top, but Americans have found the view compelling.

When a state stands alone at the pinnacle of power, however, there is nowhere to go but down. And so Americans have repeatedly worried about the possibility of decline—even when the prospect was remote. Back in 1950, National Security Council Report 68 warned that Soviet acquisition of atomic weapons heralded an irreversible shift in geopolitical momentum in Moscow’s favor. A few years later, Sputnik’s launch led many to fear that Soviet premier Nikita S. Khrushchev’s pledge to “bury” Western capitalism might just come true. President John F. Kennedy reportedly believed the USSR would eventually be wealthier than the United States, and Richard Nixon famously opined that America was becoming a “pitiful, helpless giant.” Over the next decade or so, defeat in Indochina and persistent economic problems led prominent academics to produce books with titles like America as an Ordinary Country and After Hegemony.1 Far-fetched concerns about Soviet dominance helped propel Ronald Reagan to the presidency and were used to justify a major military buildup in the early 1980s. The fear of imminent decline, it seems, has been with us ever since the United States reached the zenith of global power.

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PR Newswire - Scandal Exposed in Major Study of Autism and Mercury

PR Newswire – Tue, Oct 25, 2011

http://news.yahoo.com/scandal-exposed-major-study-autism-mercury-121810030.html

To: BUSINESS, HEALTH AND MEDICAL EDITORS

Contact: Brian Hooker, CoMeD, +1-509-366-2269, brian@dream-big.us, or Robert Reeves, +1-859-226-0700, robertereeves1@gmail.com

SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD) exposes communications between Centers for Disease Control (CDC) personnel and vaccine researchers revealing U.S. officials apparently colluded in covering-up the decline in Denmark's autism rates following the removal of mercury from vaccines.

Documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that CDC officials were aware of Danish data indicating a connection between removing Thimerosal (49.55% mercury) and a decline in autism rates. Despite this knowledge, these officials allowed a 2003 article to be published in Pediatrics that excluded this information, misrepresented the decline as an increase, and led to the mistaken conclusion that Thimerosal in vaccines does not cause autism.

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Nation of Change - Bank Transfer Day: A Guide to Closing Your Account

Nation of Change, October 27, 2011 http://www.nationofchange.org/bank-transfer-day-guide-closing-your-account-1319713820 Bank Transfer Day is gaining some serious steam. Although it's not technically affiliated with Occupy, it's being embraced by the movement and is the first specific call to action since the Occupy protests began. The description and goal of Bank Transfer Day is straightforward: If you currently have checking and savings accounts (deposit accounts) with a big bank, the organizers encourage you to remove all of your funds, close your accounts, and place your money in a new deposit account with a not-for-profit credit union. The organizers ask that you do this by November 5. And since November 5 is a Saturday, you should definitely do it before November 5 since many big banks aren't open on weekends. So if you currently have a deposit account with a big bank and you want to participate in Bank Transfer Day, read the following steps. It's a field guide that will help you accomplish this meaningful task of shifting your money from corporations that serve the 1% and put it with an organization that cares about the remaining 99%. Bank Transfer Day can significantly impact the way banks are able to make a profit. In simplest terms, banks rely on our deposit account balances to make loans that net substantial profits. Without our deposits, banks can't make loans. And if banks can't make loans, they're going to take notice. And they're surely going to freak out.

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International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis - 7 billion people are not the issue - human development is what counts

Public release date: 27-Oct-2011

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/iifa-7bp102711.php
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis 

As the global media speculate on the number of people likely to inhabit the planet on Oct. 31 an international team of population and development experts argue that it is not simply the number of people that matters but more so their distribution by age, education, health status and location that is most relevant to local and global sustainability.

Any realistic attempt to achieve sustainable development must focus primarily on the human wellbeing and be founded on an understanding of the inherent differences in people in terms of their differential impact on the environment and their vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are often closely associated with age, gender, lack of education, and poverty.

These are some of the messages formulated by twenty of the world's leading experts in population, development and environment who met at IIASA in Austria in September 2011, with the objective of defining the critical elements of the interactions between the human population and sustainable development. The Laxenburg Declaration on Population and Development, as prepared by the Expert Panel, describes the following five actions as necessary to address sustainable development, achieve a 'green economy' and adapt to environmental change:

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Damian Carrington - Map Reveals Stark Divide in Who Caused Climate Change and Who's Being Hit

Published on Friday, October 28, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/10/28-0

by Damian Carrington

When the world's nations convene in Durban in November in the latest attempt to inch towards a global deal to tackle climate change, one fundamental principle will, as ever, underlie the negotiations.

Is is the contention that while rich, industrialised nations caused climate change through past carbon emissions, it is the developing world that is bearing the brunt. It follows from that, developing nations say, that the rich nations must therefore pay to enable the developing nations to both develop cleanly and adapt to the impacts of global warming.

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Jeff Madrick - The Occupy Wall Street Victory: Filling a Hole in Democracy

Thursday 27 October 2011

by: Jeff Madrick, TripleCrisis | Op-Ed

http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-wall-street-victory-filling-hole-democracy/1319730391

The general scorn for the Occupy Wall Street movement (OWS), now spread to hundreds of cities in the U.S., reveals a lot about Wall Street, the press, and the state of economics. I was invited to speak there early in their campaign and found the people eager to learn, courteous and hell-bent for justice, not revenge.

The scorn has subsided somewhat as the movement grows and has withstood the threat of police and Michael Bloomberg’s demand that they should clear out of the park they occupy because the owners of the park wanted to clean it. It is called Zuccotti Park because it is privately owned by the Zuccotti family with the proviso that it is made available to the public at all times. Now it has become available to all America, and arguably all the world.

The unions joined in and this week, OWS has yet another clear victory. President Obama will announce some kind of student loan relief plan [4]. He is also proposing a more aggressive mortgage refinancing [5] scheme for under-water homeowners. This too may be partly the result of OWS.

The attempt to minimize OWS, or at the least deride them, goes on, however. The press was initially very skeptical and is now more respectful. Still, they wonder what these (mostly) young people really want. The Right calls them a mob [6] so as to distinguish them, I suppose, from gun-toting Tea Partiers. The most reprehensible bit of demagoguery I saw was an ad on a major TV network posted by an international issues lobbying organization with shots of anti-Semitic signs. There are in fact almost no such signs at Zuccotti.

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Ida Hartmann - Corporate Crimes In the Cereal Aisle: How Companies Are Fooling You Into Thinking Their Products Are Healthy

By Ida Hartmann, AlterNet

Posted on October 26, 2011, Printed on October 28, 2011

http://www.alternet.org/story/152878/corporate_crimes_in_the_cereal_aisle%3A_how_companies_are_fooling_you_into_thinking_their_products_are_healthy

A trip to the supermarket is an adventure into a tempting and treacherous jungle. The insatiable hunger for a ready-made breakfast that nourishes our bodies and our social conscience has made our morning bowls of cereal a hiding place for corporate charlatans. A new report, Cereal Crimes, by the Cornucopia Institute discloses the toxic truth about “natural” products and unmasks corporate faces like Kellogg’s hiding behind supposedly “family-run” businesses such as Kashi.

When these breakfast barons forage for profit, we eaters are the prey. But what are the laws of this jungle? And how do we avoid being ripped off by products that are hazardous for our health and our environment? Let’s have a look at some of these corporations’ sneaky strategies.

First, there is intentional confusion. With so many different kinds of cereal lining the shelves, figuring out which is the best requires detective work. Many make claims about health, boasting “no trans fats,” “gluten-free,” and “a boost of omega three.” Others play to environmental concerns declaring “earthy harmony,” “nature in balance,” and “sustainable soils.” With the legion of labels, separating wheat from chaff seems impossible, but the report offers one rule of thumb: Don’t confuse organic with “natural.”

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Nomi Prins - 10 Reasons Bank of America Is the Most Hated Bank in America

By Nomi Prins, TruthOut.org

Posted on October 27, 2011, Printed on October 28, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152887/10_reasons_bank_of_america_is_the_most_hated_bank_in_america

There is no shortage of hatred for the biggest banks. Indeed, the Occupy Wall Street movement is leading a national revolution against these byzantine, powerful Goliaths for the economic devastation they have caused. This makes it difficult to choose the worst of the bunch. That said, a strong case can be made that Bank of America deserves the title of the nation's most despised bank.

Here are ten reasons to take your money out of Bank of America - and park it at a credit union or community bank near you. (And yes, that may be near impossible if you have a mortgage with them, as refinancing away from any big bank nowadays is a nightmare.)

1. B of A rejects the right of customers to protest. When two Occupy Santa Cruz protesters in California marched into a local Bank of America to close their accounts, the response was, "You cannot be a protester and a customer at the same time," followed by a threat to call the police if the women didn't leave. (The attending officer  later reiterated the bank manager's message.) Meanwhile, the fact that Bank of America charges a fee for closing an account prompted Rep. Brad Miller (D-North Carolina), who resides in Bank of America's headquarters state, to introduce a bill to protect customers from such fees.

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Terradaily.com - Nuclear pollution of sea from Fukushima was world's biggest

by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Oct 27, 2011

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Nuclear_pollution_of_sea_from_Fukushima_was_worlds_biggest_999.html

France's nuclear monitor said on Thursday that the amount of caesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea ever seen.

But, confirming previous assessments, it said caesium levels had been hugely diluted by ocean currents and, except for near-shore species, posed no discernible threat.

From March 21 to mid-July, 27.1 peta becquerels of caesium 137 entered the sea, the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) said.

One peta becquerel is a million billion bequerels, or 10 to the power of 15

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Matt Taibbi - Rick Perry, The Best Little Whore In Texas

The Texas governor has one driving passion: selling off government to the highest bidder - by: Matt Taibbi

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rick-perry-the-best-little-whore-in-texas-20111026

Early morning in a nearly filled corporate ballroom at the Cobb Energy Centre, a second-tier event stadium on the outskirts of Atlanta. It's late September, and a local conservative think tank is hosting a get-together with Rick Perry, whose front-runner comet at the time is still just slightly visible in the bottom of the sky. I've put away five cups of coffee trying to stay awake through a series of monotonous speeches about Georgia highway and port reform, waiting for my chance to lay eyes on the Next Big Thing in person.

By the time Perry shows up, I'm jazzed and ready for history. You always want to remember the first time you see the possible next president in person. But as every young person knows, the first time is not always a pleasant experience. Perry lumbers onstage looking exceedingly well-groomed, but also ashen and exhausted, like a funeral director with a hangover.

In a voice so subdued and halting that I think he must be sick, he launches into his speech, which consists of the following elements: a halfhearted football joke about Texas A&M that would have embarrassed a true fan like George W. Bush, worn bromides about liberals creating a nanny state, a few lines about jobs in Texas, and a promise to repeal "as much of Obamacare as I can" on his first day in the White House.

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