Rise Up or Die! by Chris Hedges

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

Image by cool revolution via Flickr

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.

David Swanson: Are we in favor of killer flying robots over our homes and schools, or are we not?

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

with David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
http://warisacrime.org
May 19, 2013

TheRealNews May 19, 2013

David Swanson: Activists succeeding in turning public opinion against drone strikes; other forms of actions on the rise.

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

Image by Canucklibrarian via Flickr

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

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

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.

“Astoundingly Disturbing”: Obama Administration Claims Power to Wage Endless War Across the Globe

Dandelion Salad

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

democracynow on May 17, 2013

http://www.democracynow.org – A Pentagon official predicted Thursday the war against al-Qaeda and its affiliates could last up to 20 more years. The comment came during a Senate hearing revisiting the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF, enacted by Congress days after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. At the hearing, Pentagon officials claimed the AUMF gives the president power to wage endless war anywhere in the world, including in Syria, Yemen and the Congo.

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.

Cannibalizing Syria: The West to Blame by Finian Cunningham

Warning

This article may contain language depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be read by a mature audience.

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
May 15, 2013

The latest shocking video to emerge from Syria – showing a militant commander carving out the internal organs of a dead regime soldier and proceeding to eat them in front of the camera – has prompted a telling reaction from the Western corporate-controlled news media.

Chris Hedges: Monitoring of AP Phones a “Terrifying” Step in State Assault on Press Freedom + Transcript

with Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 15, 2013

Image by scriptingnews via Flickr

democracynow on May 15, 2013

http://www.democracynow.org – The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins us to discuss what could mark the most significant government intrusion on freedom of the press in decades. The Justice Department has acknowledged seizing the work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 reporters and editors at the Associated Press.

Cornel West: Obama is a War Criminal + Julian Assange: What Makes Us Civil is Education

Image by Abode of Chaos via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

ignoredvoices on May 9, 2013

Influential philosopher and historian West is disappointed with Obama.

Dear President Obama: “By What Authority?” by Bruce Fein and Ralph Nader + Barack Obama’s Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Yemen

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
May 13, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

As a former lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, you know that the federal government, including the Office of the President, does not enjoy limitless powers.  As President, your powers are limited to those conferred either by the Constitution or federal statutes. 

Murder Is Our National Sport by Chris Hedges

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

by Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
May 13, 2013

Murder is our national sport. We murder tens of thousands with our industrial killing machines in Afghanistan and Iraq. We murder thousands more from the skies over Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen with our pilotless drones. We murder each other with reckless abandon. And, as if we were not drenched in enough human blood, we murder prisoners—most of them poor people of color who have been locked up for more than a decade. The United States believes in regeneration through violence. We have carried out blood baths on foreign soil and on our own land for generations in the vain quest of a better world. And the worse it gets, the deeper our empire sinks under the weight of its own decay and depravity, the more we kill.

US Driven By Nazi War Machine by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
May 11, 2013

The annual VE Day – victory in Europe – celebrations held this month see, as usual, Western governments indulging in self-glory and moral superiority for their supposed defeat of German fascism. However, the official history books do not tell of the secret pact that Western governments and Washington in particular formed with the remnants of the Nazi war machine.

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.