Pete Seeger – Character, Personality, Intuition and Focus by Ralph Nader

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Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
January 31, 2014

After 94 years, on January 27, 2014, the world lost Pete Seeger. The world is the lesser for that loss. The accolades for this giant of folk songs and herald of all causes just, are pouring in from around the world. He is celebrated for regularly showing up at mass protests, for singing songs so transcendent (This Land is Your Land; We Shall Overcome; Where Have All the Flowers Gone) they are sung in many foreign languages all over the earth and for his mentoring and motivating of millions of people and children.

Pete Seeger overcame most of his doubters and adversaries. On his famous five string banjo, he inscribed the slogan, “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.”

So-called Opposition SNC has No Entity in Syria Talks by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
January 26, 2014

It’s a moot question why the Syrian government is even meeting members of the so-called opposition Syrian National Coalition?

Both parties met for the first time in a Geneva negotiating room at the weekend. It was the first such meeting in nearly three years of conflict in the Arab country, which has caused some 130,000 deaths and a third of the population to be displaced.

Fraud-ridden Banks Are Not L.A.’s Only Option by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
January 30, 2014

“Epic in scale, unprecedented in world history.” That is how William K. Black, professor of law and economics and former bank fraud investigator, describes the frauds in which JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has now been implicated. They involve more than a dozen felonies, including bid-rigging on municipal bond debt; colluding to rig interest rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars in mortgages, derivatives and other contracts; exposing investors to excessive risk; failing to disclose known risks, including those in the Bernie Madoff scandal; and engaging in multiple forms of mortgage fraud.

Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant Responds to Obama’s State of the Union Address

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SeattleChannel21 on Jan 28, 2014

Socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant responses to Obama’s State of the Union address tonight.

Anti-NATO Forces Retake Areas in Southern Libya by Abayomi Azikiwe

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by Abayomi Azikiwe
www.workers.org
January 29, 2014

Image by Jacob Anikulapo via Flickr

For nearly seven months in 2011, NATO planes — particularly from the U.S., France, Britain and Canada — carried out a massive bombing campaign in Libya intended to overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

After getting the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution imposing an arms embargo on Libya and then another authorizing a so-called “no-fly zone” in which only their planes could fly, the imperialists succeeded in having Gaddafi captured and brutally killed, opening the way for the establishment of a new regime that would further their interests in that oil-rich North African country.

Remembering Folk Legend and Activist Pete Seeger + Solidarity Forever + Which Side Are You On?

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TheRealNews on Jan 28, 2014

John Nichols: 94 year-old Pete Seeger’s music was stronger than the forces that sought to silence him.

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address + Transcript (1.28.14) + Ralph Nader’s State of The Union

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Propaganda Alert

WSJDigitalNetwork Jan. 28, 2014

Full coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union address, hosted by Wall Street Journal Washington bureau chief Jerry Seib.

State of the Unequal Union

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Editorial
socialistworker.org
January 28, 2014

Obama’s prime-time speech may sound good, but actions speak louder than words.

IF YOU’RE a regular reader of SocialistWorker.org, you’ve seen the statistics before about the growing divide between the super-rich and the rest of us. But on Tuesday, you’ll hear them from an unusual source: President Barack Obama, during his State of the Union speech.

#TPP Fast Track Targets Local Foods Efforts by Karen Hansen-Kuhn + Take Action!

Dandelion Salad

by Karen Hansen-Kuhn
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
January 28, 2014

Image by stopfasttrack via Flickr

Congress is quietly considering legislation that would speed the passage of two mega trade agreements, and seeks to specifically eliminate government programs that favor “localization.” The bill would give the Obama Administration what is known as “fast track” authority—meaning Congress would surrender its constitutional authority to shape trade agreements negotiated by the president and instead can only vote up or down on the deal.

If There’s Global Warming … Why Is It So Cold?

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yaleclimateforum on Jan 28, 2014

It’s that time of year, the perennial “It’s snowing so it can’t be warming” season – or, as scientists call it, “winter”. Depends on where you’re standing, actually — I stood on a frozen lake with Dr. Jeff Masters to discuss the current planetary changes, but at the same time, in Alaska, historic warm temperatures were unfolding, and across the west, the deepest drought in decades…

Edward Snowden: There’s no saving an intelligence community that believes it can lie to the public and the legislators + Transcript

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[Replaced video with a link as first one was removed. Feb. 1, 2014]

January 27, 2014

Snowden-Interview in English (Exclusive on German Television 01/26/2014)

Gar Alperovitz: What Might a New Economy Look Like?

Image via The Workers’ Party of Ireland

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TheRealNews on Jan 27, 2014

Mr. Alperovitz tells Paul Jay there are existing models that point to what a new economy and politics might look like.

Rick Rozoff: Ukraine: The Authorities vs Gangsters

by Rick Rozoff
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
January 27, 2014

Image by snamess via Flickr

John Robles
Voice of Russia
January 27, 2014

The situation in Ukraine is a fluid one and changing by the hour. Although it had appeared that there was a resolution to the protests that had broken out after the government of Ukraine had made the sovereign decision of sticking with Russia and saying no to closer European Union integration, excessive violence from the western backed opposition has spread like a wave throughout the country.

Gar Alperovitz: The Promise and Limitations of Worker Co-ops

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TheRealNews on Jan 26, 2014

Mr. Alperovitz tells Paul Jay, the experience of Spain’s Mondragon, the world’s largest workers’ co-op, shows that workers’ ownership can go to scale but on their own, co-ops will not transform society or the economy.

The Man From The North: Blowing Up The Armory by Rivera Sun

The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
January 26, 2014

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The Man From the North is a fictional writer in Rivera Sun’s novel, The Dandelion Insurrection. The novel takes place in the near future, in “a time that looms around the corner of today”, when a rising police state controlled by the corporate-political elite have plunged the nation into the grip of a hidden dictatorship. In spite of severe surveillance and repression, the Man From the North’s banned articles circulate through the American populace, reporting on resistance and fomenting nonviolent revolution.