November 14, 2014

David Sirota: Wall Street Takes Over More Statehouses

from truthdig:


Wall Street Takes Over More Statehouses

Posted on Nov 14, 2014
By David Sirota


No runoff will be needed to declare one unambiguous winner in this month’s gubernatorial elections: the financial services industry. From Illinois to Massachusetts, voters effectively placed more than $100 billion worth of public pension investments under the control of executives-turned-politicians whose firms profit by managing state pension money.

The elections played out as states and cities across the country debate the merits of shifting public pension money—the retirement savings for police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees—from plain vanilla investments such as index funds into higher-risk alternatives like hedge funds and private equity funds.

Critics argue that this course has often failed to boost returns enough to compensate for taxpayer-financed fees paid to the financial services companies that manage the money. Wall Street firms and executives have poured campaign contributions into states that have embraced the strategy, eager for expanded opportunities. The election results affirmed that this money was well spent: More public pension money will now likely be entrusted to the financial services industry.

In Illinois, Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn was defeated by Republican challenger Bruce Rauner, who made his fortune as an executive at a financial firm called GTCR, which rakes in fees from pension investments. Rauner—who retains an ownership stake in at least 15 separate GTCR entities, according to his financial disclosure forms—will now be fully in charge of his state’s pension system. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/wall_street_takes_over_more_statehouses_20141114

November 13, 2014

Dave Zirin: Kurt Busch, Ray Rice and How Sports Disseminates the Burdens of Racism

Kurt Busch, Ray Rice and How Sports Disseminates the Burdens of Racism

Wednesday, 12 November 2014 09:13
By Dave Zirin, The Nation | Op-Ed


Over the weekend, we learned that NASCAR star Kurt Busch was being investigated by police for assaulting his ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. Driscoll has requested both a restraining order and that the court compel Busch to seek counseling after he allegedly "accused her of 'having spies everywhere and having a camera on the bus to watch him' " and then "jumped up, grabbed her face and smashed her head three times against the wall next to the bed."

Busch's lawyer, Rusty Hardin—yes, the same Rusty Hardin who repped Roger Clemens in his steroid trial—accused Driscoll of a "complete fabrication by a woman who has refused to accept the end of a relationship." (The fact that Driscoll is a DC-based executive who runs a nonprofit for vets has not stopped Hardin from rehashing the same sexist clichés of a lying woman scorned, which tells its own story about the limits of "respectability" as a safeguard against sexism.)

Yet one thing did not happen after the news broke of the alleged assault: no one asked Peyton Manning for his thoughts. For that matter, no one asked Clayton Kershaw, Kevin Love or Sidney Crosby if they had any specific insight into how this could have happened. The absence of both that inquiry and any kind of broader uproar speaks volumes about one of the more pernicious aspects of racism in the sports world. This is the way in which the crimes of white athletes are seen as the moral failings of an individual, while the crimes of black athletes are processed by the media as a collective commentary on everyone who both happens to play sports and have black skin.

The video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée Janay and knocking her consciousness not only launched a national discussion about domestic abuse and the NFL's near-pathological serial cover-up of violence against women, but also a parallel discussion about violence against women in "the black community," as if black athletes—and black men in general—were uniquely predisposed to hurting the women in their lives. Despite the fact that there is not a legitimate domestic violence counselor or study on earth that argued violence against women is a "black problem," the media were undeterred. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/27398-kurt-busch-ray-rice-and-how-sports-disseminates-the-burdens-of-racism

November 13, 2014

Richard Wolff: The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Failures of Actually Existing Economic Systems

The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Failures of Actually Existing Economic Systems

Wednesday, 12 November 2014 10:21
By Richard D Wolff, Truthout | News Analysis


Hype went wild coming into last week's 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. "Freedom" had been achieved. The German Democratic Republic (GDR), or what Western media preferred to call communist East Germany, had been rejected. Its hated official spying on its people - the massive "Stasi" apparatus - could not continue. Liberty and prosperity would and did arrive as the country rejoined the "free world." The people had peacefully overthrown actually existing socialism and returned to capitalism. No one could miss that (officially hyped) interpretation of the fall of the Wall. Yet it is hardly the only one, although that was rarely admitted.

True enough, a repressive regime collapsed amid promises of liberty and prosperity. That happened across much of Eastern Europe. Yet liberty and prosperity mostly proved elusive to achieve or keep. Where freedom ushered capitalism back in, capitalism quickly took over and imposed its heavy burdens. Euphoria, like springtime, never lasted.

Reintegrating into European capitalism via German reunification has not been the blessing so many Germans imagined back in 1989. They gave up secure jobs, incomes and generous social services. Retrieving freedom cost them heavily. The capitalism they rejoined has serious economic problems that keep constricting job opportunities and security, social services and future prospects. Gains in some freedoms keep costing losses of others.

Official and other pro-capitalist enthusiasts marked the 25th anniversary with rather suspicious exaggerations. Perhaps they celebrated so loudly to drown out - like drunks with alcohol - their rising anxiety about what capitalist freedom keeps delivering.

.....(snip).....

One lesson to draw from the GDR's history is that if socialist societies are to be run by, of and for the people, then the people have to be in charge and that includes within the economy. Democracies (both capitalist and socialist) will remain merely formal when the economy continues to be run by small self-selecting minorities (in capitalism, major shareholders and the boards of directors they select, and in socialism, state officials). Those minorities will dominate until they are overthrown. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/27383-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-and-the-failures-of-actually-existing-economic-systems

November 13, 2014

The Questions John Roberts Has Never Answered

from truthdig:


The Questions John Roberts Has Never Answered

Posted on Nov 11, 2014
By Bill Blum


As the Supreme Court prepares to invalidate Obamacare’s federal tax subsidies in yet another assault on the social safety net, it’s a good time to review the promises Chief Justice John Roberts made at his September 2005 Senate confirmation hearing and re-examine the key questions he was never forced to answer.

Students of judicial history will recall that Roberts was initially nominated to take the place of retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and was tapped for the chief’s position only after the death of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Suddenly thrust into the national spotlight, Roberts declared in his now famous opening statement to the judiciary committee that he was “humbled” by his nomination. In keeping with that humility, he pledged that he would “decide every case based on the record, according to the rule of law, without fear or favor, to the best of my ability. And I will remember that it’s my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.”

Since that time, however, Roberts and his Republican brethren have acted more like Abner Doubleday redesigning the rules of the game, blazing a trail of conservative judicial activism unseen since the early 1930s. Among other decisions, the court under Roberts’ stewardship has recognized an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment; unleashed the power of corporations and the wealthy to spend limitless money on elections under the guise of free speech and the First Amendment; invoked the First Amendment rights of nonunion members to curb the right of public sector unions—the last bastion of organized labor in America—to collect dues and fees; and gutted the Voting Rights Act pursuant to a wholly novel interpretation of states’ rights under the 14th and 15th Amendments.

Although these decisions and many others have garnered much-warranted scrutiny from the mainstream media, Roberts has never been definitively linked to what many scholars consider the single worst and most activist high court ruling of the 21st century—the per curiam (unsigned) 5-4 judicial coup d’état delivered in Bush v. Gore, which halted a manual recount of the disputed Florida vote in the 2000 presidential election and handed victory to George W. Bush. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_questions_john_roberts_has_never_answered_20141111

November 13, 2014

Juan Cole: When will US admit Boots on Ground in Iraq (3000 Troops)?

By Juan Cole

President Obama’s announcement that he will send 1500 more troops to Iraq was made on a Friday, a day usually reserved in Washington for the release of bad or embarrassing news that officials hope won’t still be fresh enough for Monday’s newspapers and so will quietly sink.

That these troops will be sent with Iraqi soldiers to al-Anbar Province belies the administration’s repeated denial that it will put boots on the ground. There will soon be 3000 US troops in Iraq. They will be at the scene of battles, embedded with Iraqi units (apparently in the hope that the Iraqi troops will be too embarrassed to run away en masse again in front of foreign guests).

The growing size of the US contingent is not the only news. The US is reestablishing a “command” in Iraq, which administration officials view as necessary to rebuild, or more frankly to build, an Iraqi army. Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (in office 2006-2014) appears to have installed so many corrupt and incompetent officers, on the grounds they were loyal to him, that the institution may as well not exist. Half of enlisted men are said to be ghosts, who don’t show up to their postings because they can bribe their commanding officer into letting them be absent.

If there are US troops on the front lines in al-Anbar, where ISIL has been expanding its reach in recent months, then unfortunately there are likely to be US casualties. These are boots on the ground, even if there are not combat platoons going into battle by themselves. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.juancole.com/2014/11/boots-ground-troops.html

November 11, 2014

Dean Baker: "We instead get the elite media and politicians shoving TPP and TTIP down our throats"

Dean Baker | Election Results Indicate Huge Mandate for New Trade Pacts

Monday, 10 November 2014 10:13
By Dean Baker, Truthout | Op-Ed


Apparently that is how the DC-insider crowd saw the elections last week. The elite media were filled with news and opinion pieces on how the election opened the door for the approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP). According to the purveyors of elite opinion this is one of the key areas on which the Republicans in Congress and President Obama can agree.

That assessment is striking since few, if any, of the winning candidates in last week's election made a point of running on their support of these agreements. Nor did President Obama highlight his work on these pacts in his re-election campaign. In fact, the last thing most voters probably remember President Obama saying about trade was his pledge to renegotiate NAFTA when he was running for president the first time, back in 2008.

The turn of the leadership of both parties and the centers of elite opinion to these trade deals shows the incredible contempt they have for the general public and the political process. We just completed lengthy and expensive campaigns where they had ample opportunity to push the case for these deals. Instead we got panicky commercials highlighting everything from the Ebola threat to ISIS beheadings.

But in the view of our political leaders that stuff was just for the kids. Now that we have the election out of the way, the adults are prepared to return to real business.

Let's just be clear what these trade deals are about. They have nothing to do with "free trade," in spite of the fact that the media routinely use that term to help sell TPP and TTIP. The formal trade barriers in the form of tariffs and quotas are already very low. This means that the traditional argument of gains from trade does not apply. These pacts are about putting in place a set of pro-business rules and regulations that would never pass through the normal political process. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/27337-election-results-indicate-huge-mandate-for-new-trade-pacts

November 11, 2014

Land, Co-ops, Compost: A Local Food Economy Emerges in Boston's Poorest Neighborhoods

from YES! Magazine:


Land, Co-ops, Compost: A Local Food Economy Emerges in Boston's Poorest Neighborhoods
From kitchens that buy and sell locally grown food, to a waste co-op that will return compost to the land, new enterprises are building an integrated food network. It's about local people keeping the wealth of their land at home.

by Penn Loh
posted Nov 07, 2014


When Glynn Lloyd couldn’t source enough locally grown produce, he decided to grow his own.

Since 1994, Lloyd has run City Fresh Foods, a catering company based in Roxbury—one of Boston's lowest-income neighborhoods. He wanted his business to use locally produced food, but at that time it was hard to come by. So in 2009 Lloyd helped found City Growers, one of Boston's first for-profit farming ventures.

Today, City Growers is part of an emerging network of urban food enterprises in Roxbury and neighboring Dorchester. From a community land trust that preserves land for growing, to kitchens and retailers who buy and sell locally grown food, to a new waste management co-op that will return compost to the land, a crop of new businesses and nonprofits are building an integrated food economy. It's about local people keeping the wealth of their land and labor in the community.

“We don’t need big corporations like Walmart to come in and save us," Lloyd said. "We have homegrown solutions right here.”

Taking Back the Land

Growing local food starts with the land, and the current flourishing of food initiatives would not have been possible without residents fighting to control their land and development in the 1980s. Today, the Dudley neighborhood, which sits between Roxbury and Dorchester, has a 10,000-square-foot community greenhouse that has become a hub for the local food economy. But it sits on land that could have just as easily been occupied by a hotel or office building. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/commonomics/boston-s-emerging-food-economy

November 11, 2014

Land, Co-ops, Compost: A Local Food Economy Emerges in Boston's Poorest Neighborhoods

from YES! Magazine:


Land, Co-ops, Compost: A Local Food Economy Emerges in Boston's Poorest Neighborhoods
From kitchens that buy and sell locally grown food, to a waste co-op that will return compost to the land, new enterprises are building an integrated food network. It's about local people keeping the wealth of their land at home.

by Penn Loh
posted Nov 07, 2014


When Glynn Lloyd couldn’t source enough locally grown produce, he decided to grow his own.

Since 1994, Lloyd has run City Fresh Foods, a catering company based in Roxbury—one of Boston's lowest-income neighborhoods. He wanted his business to use locally produced food, but at that time it was hard to come by. So in 2009 Lloyd helped found City Growers, one of Boston's first for-profit farming ventures.

Today, City Growers is part of an emerging network of urban food enterprises in Roxbury and neighboring Dorchester. From a community land trust that preserves land for growing, to kitchens and retailers who buy and sell locally grown food, to a new waste management co-op that will return compost to the land, a crop of new businesses and nonprofits are building an integrated food economy. It's about local people keeping the wealth of their land and labor in the community.

“We don’t need big corporations like Walmart to come in and save us," Lloyd said. "We have homegrown solutions right here.”

Taking Back the Land

Growing local food starts with the land, and the current flourishing of food initiatives would not have been possible without residents fighting to control their land and development in the 1980s. Today, the Dudley neighborhood, which sits between Roxbury and Dorchester, has a 10,000-square-foot community greenhouse that has become a hub for the local food economy. But it sits on land that could have just as easily been occupied by a hotel or office building. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/commonomics/boston-s-emerging-food-economy

November 11, 2014

Four Months into Iraq War 3.0, the Cracks Are Showing -- on the Battlefield and at the Pentagon

from TomDispatch:


What Could Possibly Go Right?
Four Months into Iraq War 3.0, the Cracks Are Showing -- on the Battlefield and at the Pentagon

By Peter Van Buren


Karl von Clausewitz, the famed Prussian military thinker, is best known for his aphorism “War is the continuation of state policy by other means.” But what happens to a war in the absence of coherent state policy?

Actually, we now know. Washington’s Iraq War 3.0, Operation Inherent Resolve, is what happens. In its early stages, I asked sarcastically, “What could possibly go wrong?” As the mission enters its fourth month, the answer to that question is already grimly clear: just about everything. It may be time to ask, in all seriousness: What could possibly go right?

Knowing Right from Wrong

The latest American war was launched as a humanitarian mission. The goal of its first bombing runs was to save the Yazidis, a group few Americans had heard of until then, from genocide at the hands of the Islamic State (IS). Within weeks, however, a full-scale bombing campaign was underway against IS across Iraq and Syria with its own “coalition of the willing” and 1,600 U.S. military personnel on the ground. Slippery slope? It was Teflon-coated. Think of what transpired as several years of early Vietnam-era escalation compressed into a semester.

And in that time, what’s gone right? Short answer: Almost nothing. Squint really, really hard and maybe the “good news” is that IS has not yet taken control of much of the rest of Iraq and Syria, and that Baghdad hasn’t been lost. These possibilities, however, were unlikely even without U.S. intervention. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175920/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_iraq_and_the_battle_of_the_potomac/#more

November 10, 2014

Katrina vanden Heuvel on Interviewing Edward Snowden (pt. 1 of 2)

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Published on Nov 7, 2014
Marc Steiner talks to Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, who recently interviewed Edward Snowden in Moscow