CIO HEROES!!
Edward Snowden!
Edward Snowden is an American hero who has significantly raised public awareness about the United States' government's threat to global freedom by using extreme and illegal measures of surveillance.
Work Harder … Earn More Money … Buy More Things … Keep Going
Posted in CAPITALISM, CONSUMERISM, GLOBALIZATION, RESOURCES
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The Story of Stuff
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A Recipe for Fascism
By Chris Hedges
TRUTHDIG
American politics, as the midterm elections demonstrated, have descended into the irrational. On one side stands a corrupt liberal class, bereft of ideas and unable to respond coherently to the collapse of the global economy, the dismantling of our manufacturing sector and the deadly assault on the ecosystem. On the other side stands a mass of increasingly bitter people whose alienation, desperation and rage fuel emotionally driven and incoherent political agendas. It is a recipe for fascism.
More than half of those identified in a poll by the Republican-leaning Rasmussen Reports as “mainstream Americans” now view the tea party favorably. The other half, still grounded in a reality-based world, is passive and apathetic. The liberal class wastes its energy imploring Barack Obama and the Democrats to promote sane measures including job creation programs, regulation as well as criminal proceedings against the financial industry, and an end to our permanent war economy. Those who view the tea party favorably want to tear the governmental edifice down, with the odd exception of the military and the security state, accelerating our plunge into a nation of masters and serfs. The corporate state, unchallenged, continues to turn everything, including human beings and the natural world, into commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse.
All sides of the political equation are lackeys for Wall Street. They sanction, through continued deregulation, massive corporate profits and the obscene compensation and bonuses for corporate managers. Most of that money—hundreds of billions of dollars—is funneled upward from the U.S. Treasury. The Sarah Palins and the Glenn Becks use hatred as a mobilizing passion to get the masses, fearful and angry, to call for their own enslavement as well as to deny uncomfortable truths, including global warming. Our dispossessed working class and beleaguered middle class are vulnerable to this manipulation because they can no longer bear the chaos and uncertainty that come with impoverishment, hopelessness and loss of control. They have retreated into a world of illusion, one peddled by right-wing demagogues, which offers a reassuring emotional consistency. This consistency appears to protect them from the turmoil in which they have been forced to live. The propaganda of a Palin or a Beck may insult common sense, but, for a growing number of Americans, common sense has lost its validity.
Posted in CAPITALISM, CONSUMERISM, DEMOCRACY, ECONOMY, GLOBALIZATION, GOVERNMENT, POLICY, RESOURCES
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Crises of Capitalism
In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane.
Posted in CAPITALISM, CONSUMERISM, ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT, POLICY, RESOURCES
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Supreme Court Justice Alito: My fundraising for conservative causes is ‘not important’
By Eric W. Dolan
THE RAW STORY
The Supreme Court is the final guardian of our liberties, and Judge Alito has shown that he lacks the dedication to that commitment
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. said his involvement with a conservative fundraiser was “not important” after being confronted by a Think Progress blogger Tuesday night.
At a fundraising event for the right-wing magazine American Spectator, Lee Fang of Think Progress asked Alito why he thought it was appropriate to attend such a highly political fundraiser.
“It’s not important that I’m here,” Alito reportedly told Fang.
“You also helped headline this same event two years ago, obviously helping to raise political money as the keynote,” Fang shot back, only to receive the same response from Alito before he walked away. “It’s not important.”
Posted in DEMOCRACY, GOVERNMENT, POLICY
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The Impossible Hamster
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SOLUTIONS: Universal Health Care Plans
As more and more people are losing their health insurance coverage due to unemployment or unaffordable health insurance premiums, alternatives are needed and wanted. Unfortunately very few exist. However, as this economic trend continues and if the handful of alternative programs that do exist prove successful, real health care reform is possible.
Healthy San Francisco
Healthy San Francisco is an innovative program designed to make health care services accessible and affordable to uninsured San Francisco residents. It is operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH).
Healthy San Francisco is not insurance, but a reinvention of the San Francisco health care safety net, that will enable and encourage residents to access primary and preventive care. It provides a Medical Home and primary physician to each program participant, allowing a greater focus on preventive care, as well as specialty care, urgent and emergency care, laboratory, inpatient hospitalization, radiology, and pharmaceuticals.
Oregon Health Plan
The Oregon Health Plan (OHP) provides health care coverage to low-income Oregonians through programs administered by the Division of Medical Assistance Programs (DMAP). Currently, more than 380,000 people each month receive health care coverage through the Oregon Health Plan.
Goals:
- Increase access to health care for low-income Oregonians.
- Improve the quality of health care and receipt of preventive services by low-income Oregonians, thereby improving their health.
- Contain health care costs.
Massachusetts Commonwealth Care
Commonwealth Care offers low-or-no-cost health insurance for people who qualify. It provides comprehensive benefits and a choice of health plans.
Healthy Howard (Howard County, Maryland)
“Healthy Howard is a community-based initiative aimed at improving health for those who live, work, learn and play in our county. It uses accreditation programs to facilitate the advancement of “healthy” policies in important, everyday institutions such as restaurants, schools, and workplaces. The goal is to build a model public health community where residents are surrounded by a range of clean, safe, and healthy activities, products, and environments. As counties across the nation continue to see chronic disease rates rise in both children and adults, comprehensive efforts like Healthy Howard are needed to tackle the obstacles in our social environment that stand in between individuals and healthy choices.”
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Californians – Stay informed of SB840, “The California Universal Healthcare Act” (authored by Sheila Kuehl), a state-level single payer bill that has passed in the California State Legislature twice (in 2006 and 2008), but vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger both times. Senator Mark Leno will reintroduce the bill in January 2011.
For More Information on Single Payer Health Insurance movements across the country, click HERE.
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New Ways Bankers Are Spying on You
By Karen Blumenthal
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Big Banker is watching you—more closely than ever.
With lenders still skittish about making new loans, credit bureaus and others are hawking services that help banks probe deeply into your financial closet. The new offerings include ways to look at your rent and utility payments, figure out your income, gauge your home’s value and even rate your banking habits based on details like whether your direct deposits have stopped.
All of this could influence your financial freedom—not to mention the number of junk-mail solicitations you receive.
Ken Lin, CEO of Credit Karma, a credit-score information website, knew he had a good credit score. But when he recently applied for a new credit card, he was rejected: The lender had flagged him as a higher credit risk because the value of his California home had declined and his mortgage principal wasn’t declining—giving away that he has an interest-only mortgage.
“It’s a lot more than just your credit score today,” he says.
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