Boxing In The Bear by Bruce Gagnon

by Bruce Gagnon
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
March 4, 2014

I am learning so much from all this work going on now about Ukraine.  Statements, or even meanderings, have been trickling sporadically from the leadership of many peace groups in the US and then they’ve been very cautious.  Caution even from folks who know what is really going on.  The old ‘anti-reds’ hysteria from the past still lives here in the US of A.  But the up swell of interest and concern from every day grassroots activists is strong and they are seeing the bigger picture.

Medea Benjamin Detained, Jailed, Seriously Injured, then Deported from Egypt

Dandelion Salad

Image by UNARMED CIVILIAN via Flickr

democracynow on Mar 4, 2014

democracynow.org – U.S. peace activist Medea Benjamin was detained Monday at Cairo’s airport by Egyptian police without explanation. She says she was questioned, held overnight in an airport prison cell and then violently handcuffed by Egyptian officials, who dislocated her shoulder and broke her arm.

Ukraine: The Dangers of Dealing with Delusional Western Leaders + Putin Holds Aces, Obama Deuces by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
March 4, 2014

Fittingly, given the coincidence of the US cinema Oscars ceremony held at the weekend, American politicians and their Western allies were also starring in bravura performances of hypocrisy and double think with regard to their denunciations of Russia’s recent security response to chaos in Ukraine.

The Stone that Brings Down Goliath? Richmond and Eminent Domain by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
March 3, 2014

In a nearly $13 billion settlement with the US Justice Department in November 2013, JPMorganChase admitted that it, along with every other large US bank, had engaged in mortgage fraud as a routine business practice, sowing the seeds of the mortgage meltdown. JPMorgan and other megabanks have now been caught in over a dozen major frauds, including LIBOR-rigging and bid-rigging; yet no prominent banker has gone to jail. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of all mortgages nationally remain underwater (meaning the balance owed exceeds the current value of the home), sapping homeowners’ budgets, the housing market and the economy. Since the banks, the courts and the federal government have failed to give adequate relief to homeowners, some cities are taking matters into their own hands.