- Here Are Four Charts That Explain What The Protesters Are Angry About
- Last week, we published a chart-essay that illustrates the extreme inequality that has developed in the US economy over the past 30 years.The charts explain what the Wall Street protesters are angry about. They also explain why the protesters' message is resonating with the country at large.
- ...here is an interview that Fox News filmed, but doesn’t want you to see. The segment was shot on Wednesday for Greta van Susteren‘s show, (though it looks like the same producer from this O’Reilly segment questioning Michael Moore‘s anti-capitalist agenda) though the decision was made to leave it on the cutting room floor. The reason should be obvious pretty quickly.
- ...when covering Occupy Wall Street, the press still refuses to accurately label the protests as what they are: a distinctly populist uprising.
- Keith reads the first national reading of the first collective statement of #OccupyWallStreet
- It’s unsurprising that establishment media outlets have been condescending, dismissive and scornful of the ongoing protests on Wall Street. Any entity that declares itself an adversary of prevailing institutional power is going to be viewed with hostility by establishment-serving institutions and their loyalists.
- Yesterday, Salon's Glenn Greenwald did a fairly masterful job filleting the myopic and condescending way CNN's new hire Erin Burnett chose to cover the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Greenwald is hardly alone in his criticism. The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik did much the same, saying, "Two of the fundamental attributes of good journalism are curiosity and a respect for the people on whom you report. Burnett got an "F" on both those counts with her Occupy Wall Street piece." Yesterday, I pointed to Jay Rosen, who highlighted short-lived tweets from CNN's Alison Kosik, documenting the fact that the failings Zurawik notes appear to be systemic at CNN.
- the Republicans are on cue bellowing "job-killing regulations" must be revoked or stopped aborning over at OSHA (protecting workers), EPA (protecting clean air and water), FDA (safer drugs and food), and NHTSA (making your vehicle safer)....The jobs these regulations may be "killing" are those that would have swelled the funeral industry, or some jobs in the healthcare and disability-care industry. On the other hand, by not being injured, workers stay on the job and do not drain the workers' compensation funds or hamper the operations of their employer.
About twenty years ago, Professor Nicholas Ashford of MIT came to Washington and testified before Congress in great detail about how and where safety regulations create jobs and make the economy more efficient in avoiding the costs of preventable injuries and disease.
- A new report is warning against a proposed tax holiday [pushed by the Republicans] on overseas profits that conservative corporate proponents say will boost the economy. [BUT] according to the Institute for Policy Studies, 10 major corporations fired workers right after enjoying a tax holiday in 2004-2005. Overall, 58 corporations cut more than 600,000 jobs after collectively saving some $64 billion in taxes. Overseas profits are currently taxed at the 35 percent corporate rate; a proposed measure in the Republican-controlled House would reduce that to a one-time rate of just over 5 percent.
- U.N. special envoy on climate change Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland and her 22-person international commission started warning countries to avert global warming in 1987. Twenty-five years later, the former Norwegian prime minister said the ongoing lack of international cooperation to curb carbon emissions and invest in clean energy threatens us all.
- Scientists have begun to predict the animals that may become extinct in the next century because of climate change.
- The physical changes from global warming are visible in the Arctic almost in real time — and they are a warning for those of us who live in more comfortable latitudes. As the polar expert Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has put it: "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic."That's bad news, since not only is the warming threat in the Arctic bad, it's almost certainly intensifying.
- Global emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, jumped 45% between 1990 and 2010, and reached an all-time high of 33 billion tons last year, the European Commission reports.
- This much is known: climate change exists, it is man-made, and it is causing many glaciers to melt across the Himalayas. ... Climate change is altering the face of the Himalayas but research seeking to confirm this is yet to catch up with the mountain communities sounding the alarm. After an 18-day trek with scientists, Suzanne Goldenberg finds the warning signs hard to ignore
- Across millions of acres, the pines of the northern and central Rockies are dying, just one among many types of forests that are showing signs of distress these days.From the mountainous Southwest deep into Texas, wildfires raced across parched landscapes this summer, burning millions more acres. In Colorado, at least 15 percent of that state’s spectacular aspen forests have gone into decline because of a lack of water.
The devastation extends worldwide. The great euphorbia trees of southern Africa are succumbing to heat and water stress. So are the Atlas cedars of northern Algeria. Fires fed by hot, dry weather are killing enormous stretches of Siberian forest. Eucalyptus trees are succumbing on a large scale to a heat blast in Australia, and the Amazon recently suffered two “once a century” droughts just five years apart, killing many large trees.
- Researchers have estimated that ocean waves could produce around the same amount of electricity for Japan as 36 nuclear reactors
- A new study that followed tens of thousands of men shows that consuming eggs considerably increases the risk of advanced prostate cancer.
- Animal rights group Compassion Over Killing was the first to uncover the alleged systematic slaughter of healthy dairy cows in California. The group turned to Seattle attorney Steve Berman, who filed the suit claiming more than half a million U.S. dairy cows were slaughtered over seven years to artificially reduce the supply of milk and drive up prices.
- The good news is that it's easy to feed your dog a healthy and wholesome vegan diet. While you could feed Fido homemade food or many of the great vegan foods that you make for yourself, there is a much easier and more convenient route that also ensures that he is on a sound nutritional diet.
- A Los Angeles meat company has announced a recall of several cases of their ground meat and ground meat products out of concern the meat is tainted with E. Coli bacteria.
- People have become increasingly aware that virtually all of the 10 billion land animals slaughtered in the U.S. each year for their meat, eggs and milk are terribly mistreated. In fact, routine farming practices are so abusive that they would warrant felony animal cruelty charges were they done to cats or dogs.As a result, huge numbers of compassionate people have joined the ranks of the vegetarians. Some, however, have looked instead to meat from animals treated less badly, which they call "humane meat." This raises three questions. First, is there such a thing as truly "humane meat"? Second, would consuming only humane meat satisfy the demands of ethical living? And third, do we, as individuals, have good reason to promote "humane meat" rather than vegetarianism?
....how many of us could spend an afternoon cutting animals' throats, or even watching it? And then ask yourself in what other areas of your life do you pay others to do things you find too repulsive? And how ethical is it to pay someone to do things that are wholly unnecessary and too atrocious to watch?
- A report from a group of chief physicians suggests that a plant-based diet could reduce the risk of developing most serious diseases.
