Michael Parenti: Making the World Safe for the Fortune 500, interviewed by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
February 3, 2013

Image by ˇBerd via Flickr

with Michael Parenti
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
www.michaelparenti.org
February 3, 2013

This week’s Soapbox features Michael Parenti.

Michael is an internationally known award-winning author and lecturer. He is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. His highly informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

The Paranoia of the Superrich and Superpowerful by Noam Chomsky

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Image by warpafx via Flickr

by Noam Chomsky
TomDispatch
February 3, 2013

[This piece is adapted from “Uprisings,” a chapter in Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire, Noam Chomsky’s new interview book with David Barsamian (with thanks to the publisher, Metropolitan Books).  The questions are Barsamian’s, the answers Chomsky’s.]

Does the United States still have the same level of control over the energy resources of the Middle East as it once had?

Sheldon Whitehouse: Time to Wake Up: Regional Effects of Climate Change

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Updated: Feb. 8, 2013

by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Jan. 25, 2013

Image by James Ennis via Flickr

I am here once again to talk about climate change.  Alarms are ringing, including the voices of the overwhelming majority of scientists, and indeed the voices of the overwhelming majority of Americans. But here in Congress, it is still time for us to wake up.

Climate change is not a problem that will go away; human activity is driving global change.  Climate change is not a problem that can wait; we see its effects all around us.  

Strategies of Containment — Kettled by the Thought Police by William T. Hathaway

by William T. Hathaway
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
January 26, 2013

Image by Bob Elderberry via Flickr

Many of us on the left have been kettled at demonstrations: surrounded by a wall of police, herded into a small area, and prevented from reaching our goal. The term is a translation of kesseln, the German military tactic of enclosing an enemy force within a tight cordon of troops and gradually wearing it down rather than attacking it directly.

The “Real” Recovery: Welcome to the Network of Global Corporate Control, Part 2 by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
andrewgavinmarshall
February 1, 2013

Image by A Syn via Flickr

The following is the second of a three-part series exclusive for Occupy.com.

Part 1: Meet the Global Corporate Supra-Government

How have your personal finances been since the global economic crisis began in 2008? Are you in debt? Unemployed? Struggling? Are you below the poverty line? Has your standard of living stagnated – or declined? Turns out, it doesn’t matter how the population is doing, because, we are told, we are in an “economic recovery,” or haven’t you heard?

Our War on Nature by Lesley Docksey

by Lesley Docksey
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Jan. 27, 2013

Image by Sam Dredge via Flickr

With the ‘global war on terror’ dominating the headlines, when Western interests headed by Western security and armed forces are sweeping across vast swathes of the Middle East and North Africa, people are losing sight of a threat that will affect everyone, rich or poor, regardless of their religion, status or nationality.  So caught up in its Crusade – and what else can we honestly call it when the countries we are invading, attacking with drones or interfering with behind the scenes are all entirely or partially Muslim – the West is blind to the crusade it should really be fighting, that of climate change and the destruction of the natural world upon which all humanity depends.

Serious News: In Low Supply From Mainstream Media by Ralph Nader

Image by oban B. via Flickr

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by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
Feb. 1, 2013

On January 30, 2013, an unusual front-page story appeared prominently in The Washington Post about a small D.C. charity called Martha’s Table that serves meals to 1,100 people a day, has early-childhood and after-school programs, and provides other community-enriching programs. Among its distinctions is a giant volunteer corps of, according to the Post, “10,000 school kids, poor people and the occasional president who chops vegetables and builds sandwiches.” Fascinating!

Breaking the Chains of Debt Peonage by Chris Hedges

See: Video + Q&A

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
February 4, 2013

Image by david_shankbone via Flickr

Chris Hedges gave this talk Saturday night in Brooklyn at the People’s Recovery Summit.

The corporate state has made it clear there will be no more Occupy encampments. The corporate state is seeking through the persistent harassment of activists and the passage of draconian laws such as Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act—and we will be in court next Wednesday to fight the Obama administration’s appeal of the Southern District Court of New York’s ruling declaring Section 1021 unconstitutional—to shut down all legitimate dissent. The corporate state is counting, most importantly, on its system of debt peonage to keep citizens—especially the 30 million people who make up the working poor—from joining our revolt.

[…]

via Truthdig