Chris Hedges Answers “Why Are We Not Calling This Fascism?”

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with Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 22, 2013

TheBigPictureRT – May 21, 2013

Chris Hedges, Truthdig, joins Thom Hartmann. The AP scandal is just the latest example of an ongoing – and often corporate backed – assault on our most basic democratic rights.

Rise Up or Die! by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
May 20, 2013

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Joe Sacco and I spent two years reporting from the poorest pockets of the United States for our book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.” We went into our nation’s impoverished “sacrifice zones”—the first areas forced to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace—to show what happens when unfettered corporate capitalism and ceaseless economic expansion no longer have external impediments. We wanted to illustrate what unrestrained corporate exploitation does to families, communities and the natural world.

Patriotic Yardsticks for Unpatriotic Giant Corporations by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
May 16, 2013

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Why are big, global U.S. corporations so unpatriotic? After all, they were created in the U.S.A., rose to immense profit because of the toil of American workers, are bailed out by American taxpayers whenever they’re in trouble, and are safeguarded abroad by the U.S. military.

Yet these corporate goliaths work their tax lawyers overtime to escape U.S. taxes. Many pay less than you do in federal income taxes. Imagine corporations, like General Electric, have not paid federal income taxes on U.S. profits for years.

TransCanada Seizes Land In Texas By Eminent Domain by Walter Brasch

Image by 350.org via Flickr

by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
May 19, 2013

Julia Trigg Crawford of Direct, Texas, is the manager of a 650-acre farm that her grandfather first bought in 1948. The farm produces mostly corn, wheat, and soy. On its north border is the Red River; to the west is the Bois d’Arc Creek.

TransCanada is an Alberta-based corporation that is building the controversial Keystone Pipeline that will carry bitumen—thicker, more corrosive and toxic, than crude oil—through 36-inch diameter pipes from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast, mostly to be exported. The $2.3 billion southern segment, about 485 miles from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast is nearly complete.

Noam Chomsky: Drones Are Murder Without Trial + We Live In A Plutocracy

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Dandelion Salad

with Noam Chomsky

Jason Liosatos on May 17, 2013

My interview with Noam Chomsky. We talk about ethical compromises, and government actions without vision or wisdom which is creating terrible consequences and feedback loops. We also talk about the Drone killings, the US terrorist manufacturing campaigns, the dangerous indoctrination and conditioning of soldiers and the public, Navy Seals killing Bin Laden who was only a suspect and the Polio vaccine horror in Pakistan, Sadistic Guantanamo torture, fear, and the great danger of our government and collective psychosis…and more.

Elizabeth Kucinich: The Pure Food Movement

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Dandelion Salad

breakingtheset on May 16, 2013

Abby Martin talks to wife of former US Rep. Dennis Kucinich and director of the Center for Food Safety, Elizabeth Kucinich, about the US Senate’s farm bill, the pure food movement, and the need to adopt better agricultural policies that will benefit American citizens.

Michael Hudson: What is Debt Deflation?

with Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
May 18, 2013

Image by The Eyes Of New York via Flickr

RussiaToday May 18, 2013

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert examine stories about those who, using spoof trades, bogus securities and fictitious capital, steal real wealth and income. They discuss how it is that every benchmark index is rigged and introduce the concept of the ‘bonus benchmark.’ In the second half, Max talks to Dr. Michael Hudson, author of The Bubble and Beyond, about debt and wage deflation and about the intersection of interest rates and wages going back to David Ricardo when wages were measured against the price of bread to today when they are measured against the price of debt.

Only You Can Prevent Fracking by Peter Rugh + Frack Fact by Walter Brasch

Dandelion Salad

Image by e izzo via Flickr

by Peter Rugh
SocialistWorker.org
First published at Waging Nonviolence, May 7, 2013
May 9, 2013

SMOKEY THE Bear thought he smelled a fire in the woods. But as he approached the clearing and saw a giant derrick jutting out into the sky, he realized that what his nose had picked up was the scent of hydrocarbons. It was another piece of evidence that the increasingly widespread method of oil and gas extraction known as fracking was poisoning the environment that he and his human friends depend on. He decided something must be done.

The Banking System In Short by Rudo de Ruijter

by Rudo de Ruijter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Independent researcher
www.courtfool.info
Netherlands
May 7, 2013

Today’s bank system adheres to a very simple principle. When you want to borrow money, you promise the banker you will pay him back and with that promise the banker creates a balance for you. You owe interest on it.

Because so few people know how the system works, nearly nobody sees how – in an almost mechanical way – banking with thin air parasites society like a cancer tumor and reduces people to cogs to appease its financial hunger.

Large Corporations Seek U.S.–European ‘Free Trade Agreement’ to Further Global Dominance by Andrew Gavin Marshall

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by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally posted at: AlterNet
May 12, 2013

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is the latest plan of conglomerates to strengthen their grip over the planet.

A corporate world order is emerging, and like any parasite, it is slowly killing off its host. Unfortunately, the “host” happens to be the planet, and all life upon and within it. So, while the extinction of the species will be the end result of passively accepting a corporate-driven world, on the other hand, it’s very profitable for those corporations and their shareholders.

Hold the front page! We need free media, not an Order of Mates by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
http://johnpilger.com
9 May 2013

Image by IsaacMao via Flickr

The other day, I stood outside the strangely silent building where I began life as a journalist. It is no longer the human warren that was Consolidated Press in Sydney, though ghosts still drink at the King’s Head pub nearby. As a cadet reporter, I might have walked on to the set of Lewis Milestone’s The Front Page. Men in red braces did shout, “Hold the front page”, and tilt back their felt hats and talk rapidly with a roll-your-own attached indefinitely to their lower lip. You could feel the presses rumbling beneath and smell the ink.

Mothers and Allies Challenge Wine Industrialist by Shepherd Bliss

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by Shepherd Bliss
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 9, 2013

Half a dozen mothers from small town and rural Sebastopol in Northern California quickly rallied hundreds of people to their side to challenge Sonoma County’s Paul Hobbs Winery. He wants to convert a 40-acre apple orchard into a vineyard that would use pesticides; it borders five schools on Watertrough Road, including Apple Blossom and Orchard View. Together they have around 700 children, as well as many teachers, staff, neighbors and wildlife.

If We Love Our Children, Why Are We Dooming Them? by Ed Ciaccio + The Campaign to Mislead the Public on Climate Change

by Ed Ciaccio
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 10, 2013

Image by ironmanixs via Flickr

Environmentalist/Climate Catastrophe activist Bill McKibben’s campaign and web site www.350.org has a very specific, vital mission:

“350 means climate safety. To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current level of 392 parts per million to below 350 ppm. But 350 is more than a number—it’s a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.”

Chris Hedges: The Celebration of the Military Goes Hand in Hand With The Corporate State

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with Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 10, 2013

fimssc on May 9, 2013

March 13, 2013

The Faculty of Information and Media Studies Undergraduate Students’ Council (FIMSSC) at The University of Western Ontario proudly presents Chris Hedges and his talk “Empire of Illusion”, the second event in the FIMS Undergraduate Speaker Series, sponsored in part by the FIMS Undergraduate Student Fund.

Law Day, the ABA and Addressing Reality by Ralph Nader

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Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
May 1, 2013

In case you did not know, May 1 is Law Day! Initiated by the American Bar Association (ABA), established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and made official by Congress in 1961, Law Day was seen as a counterweight to May Day which celebrates the workers of the world within socialist and communist countries.