July 16, 2013

Corporate Citizenship a Dying Concept

from truthdig:


Corporate Citizenship a Dying Concept

Posted on Jul 15, 2013
By William Pfaff


One of the interesting questions that resulted from the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case in 2010, which assigned political personhood to corporations, is whether this corporate personhood carries responsibilities. It used to, in another age, but does it now?

The notion of the business corporation as a person was in the past a legal fiction useful in the formation of business enterprises but never before was thought to confer political rights and protections equivalent to those of human beings, as the Supreme Court has held, thereby turning American business into an unprecedentedly powerful political actor and unchecked financial contributor to electoral politics.

Certain responsibilities of “corporate citizenhood” were commonly spoken of in the past, between the Progressive Era (notably the Theodore Roosevelt presidency) and the events preceding the present global recession. Corporate responsibility was a major consideration following the Second World War period of national unity, until America’s seeming triumphal exit from the Cold War and the increasingly frenzied performance of Wall Street underwrote a second Gilded Age of false values, comparable to the original one (between the Ulysses Grant and Theodore Roosevelt presidencies) in its celebration of rampant greed and speculative finance.

The “Remapping Debate” organization in June published the results of an inquiry among 80 American multinational corporations. The question asked was whether as corporations they possessed citizen-like obligations to the American nation. Most refused to answer. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/corporate_citizenship_a_dying_concept_20130715/?ln

July 16, 2013

Robert Scheer: The Return of Lawrence Summers, Mr. Spectacular Failure

from truthdig:


The Return of Lawrence Summers, Mr. Spectacular Failure

Posted on Jul 15, 2013
By Robert Scheer


Tell me it’s a sick joke: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, the guy who tops the list of those responsible for sabotaging the world’s economy, is lobbying to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. But no, it makes perfect sense, since Summers has long succeeded spectacularly by failing.

Why should his miserable record in the Clinton and Obama administrations hold him back from future disastrous adventures at our expense? With Ben Bernanke set to step down in January, and Obama still in deep denial over the pain and damage his former top economic adviser Summers brought to tens of millions of Americans, this darling of Wall Street has yet another shot to savage the economy.

Summers was one of the key players during the Clinton years in creating the mortgage derivative bubble that ended up costing tens of millions of Americans their homes and life savings. This is the genius who, as Clinton’s Treasury secretary, supported the banking lobby’s successful effort to make the sale of unregulated bundles of mortgage securities and the phony insurance swaps that backed them perfectly legal and totally unmonitored. Those are the toxic bundles that the Federal Reserve is still unloading from the banks at a cost of trillions of dollars.

But back on July 30, 1998, when he was deputy Treasury secretary, Summers assured the Senate agriculture committee that the “thriving” derivatives market was the driving force of American prosperity and would be fatally hurt by any government regulation of the sort proposed by Brooksley Born, the stunningly prescient chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_return_of_lawrence_summers_mr_spectacular_failure_20130715/

July 15, 2013

Turf war: In the battle for our crops, superweeds are winning

from Grist:



Turf war: In the battle for our crops, superweeds are winning
By Tom Laskawy


Biotech crops, which represent almost all the corn, soy, and cotton grown in the U.S., have finally met their match. And it’s not (only) the millions of consumers demanding labels on food that contains genetically modified crops, or GMOs. As NPR reports, biotech’s super-nemesis is legions of weeds and bugs that have grown immune to the herbicides and pesticides that many of these crops require.

Generally speaking, GMO crops fall into two categories: Some are designed to be resistant to pesticides like Roundup, Monsanto’s all-purpose weed killer. This allows farmers to douse fields with Roundup, killing everything but the corn, soy, or cotton (most commonly) that they’re trying to grow. Other GMO crops actually exude chemicals such as Bt, a “natural” pesticide that kills many of the most damaging bugs.

The technology may or may not be deserving of the World Food Prize but it’s certainly been a huge business success. At least it has been — until the weeds and bugs that these crops are engineered to withstand find ways to kill the crops anyway.

We at Grist have been tracking the scourge of superweeds and superbugs for years now. And whatever the merits of a debate over pros and cons of biotech, the facts on the ground suggest the underdogspests are winning. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/food/turf-war-in-the-battle-for-our-crops-superweeds-are-winning/

July 15, 2013

Spilled K-Y Lube Leads To Evacuation Of Alabama Post Office

This certainly didn't make the mail come faster.

A post office in Guntersville, Ala. was evacuated Tuesday after some K-Y Intense Arousal gel leaked out of a package and spread throughout the post office at about 9 a.m., WAFF reported.

Not knowing what the slippery substance was, post office officials evacuated the place and called in hazmat teams. Two employees felt sick after coming into contact with the gel, according to AL.com. They were hospitalized, but are now in stable condition. Additionally, 12 - 15 other packages were contaminated with the material.

The gel was addressed to someone in the "entertainment" industry, according to the Associated Press. The recipient's name has not been released. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/spilled-lube-post-office-alabama_n_3598807.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=4157027b=facebook

July 15, 2013

Stork Terrorizes German Village

from Der Spiegel:




A marauding stork has been attacking cars and windows in a northern German village, doing a fair share of property damage in the process. A conservationist says the incidents highlight bigger problems for the species.

In traditional European folklore, storks symbolize fertility and good luck. But after this summer, residents of one northern German village are more likely to associate the large birds with bills from the auto repair shop.

According to local media reports, a male stork has been "patrolling" the streets of Bergholz, in the state of Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania, attacking cars and house windows. Mayor Ulrich Kersten told news agency DPA that at least four cars had been dented by the stork, causing an estimated €300 to €1,000 ($390 to $1,300) in damage, depending on the model.

"This stork sees his reflection in the sides of cars or windows and thinks it is a rival in his territory," says Helmut Eggers, head of the state's working group for the protection of the White Stork with the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). "It only follows that he would try to chase this rival away by pecking at him." ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/stork-terrorizes-german-village-of-bergholz-a-911179.html

July 15, 2013

Chris Hedges: Locking Out the Voices of Dissent

from truthdig:


Locking Out the Voices of Dissent

Posted on Jul 14, 2013
By Chris Hedges


NEW YORK—The security and surveillance state, after crushing the Occupy movement and eradicating its encampments, has mounted a relentless and largely clandestine campaign to deny public space to any group or movement that might spawn another popular uprising. The legal system has been grotesquely deformed in most cities to, in essence, shut public space to protesters, eradicating our right to free speech and peaceful assembly. The goal of the corporate state is to criminalize democratic, popular dissent before there is another popular eruption. The vast state surveillance system, detailed in Edward Snowden’s revelations to the British newspaper The Guardian, at the same time ensures that no action or protest can occur without the advanced knowledge of our internal security apparatus. This foreknowledge has allowed the internal security systems to proactively block activists from public spaces as well as carry out pre-emptive harassment, interrogation, intimidation, detention and arrests before protests can begin. There is a word for this type of political system—tyranny.

If the state is ultimately successful in preventing us from mobilizing in public spaces, then dissent will mutate from nonviolent mass protests to clandestine and perhaps violent acts of resistance. Some demonstrators have already been branded “domestic terrorists” under the law. The rear-guard effort by a handful of activists to protect our rights to be heard and peaceably assemble is perhaps the most crucial, though unseen, struggle we currently are engaged in with the corporate state. It is a struggle to salvage what is left of our civil society and our right to nonviolent resistance against corporate tyranny. This is why the New York City trial last week of members of Veterans for Peace, along with other activists, took on an importance that belied the simple trespassing charges against them.

The activists were arrested Oct. 7, 2012, while they were placing flowers in 11 vases and reading the names of the dead inscribed on the wall in New York’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza after the official closing time, 10 p.m. The defiance of the plaza’s official closing time—which appears to be enforced against political activists only—was spawned by a May 1, 2012, protest by Occupy Wall Street activists. The Occupy activists had attempted to hold a meeting in the plaza and been driven out by police. A number of Veterans for Peace activists, most of them veterans of the Vietnam War, formed a line in front of the advancing police that May night and refused to move. They were arrested.

Many of these veterans came back to the plaza on a rainy, windy night in October to protest on the 11th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and again assert their right to carry out nonviolent protests in public spaces. They included Jay Wenk, an 86-year-old combat veteran of World War II who served with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army in Europe. When he was arrested Wenk was beating a gong in the downpour as the names of the dead were read. During the October protest 25 people were seized by police for refusing to leave the park after 10 p.m. Twelve went to trail last week. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Robert Mandelbaum on Friday found the dozen activists guilty. The judge, however, quickly threw out his own verdict, calling the case a “unique circumstance.” “Justice,” he said, “cries out for a dismissal.” His dismissal shuts down the possibility of an appeal. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/locking_out_the_voices_of_dissent_20130714/

July 15, 2013

Why Do Americans Live Lives So Short?

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:


Why Do Americans Live Lives So Short?
July 13, 2013

To protect our health, we’ve learned to have our ‘vital signs’ taken. But no visit to a doctor’s office can tell us the vital signs that determine where on earth people can expect to live the longest lives.

By Sam Pizzigati


Let’s talk life expectancy.

The stats first. They tell a clear story: Americans now live shorter lives than men and women in most of the rest of the developed world. And that gap is growing.

Back in 1990, shouts a new study published last week in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, the United States ranked just 20th on life expectancy among the world’s 34 industrial nations. The United States now ranks 27th — despite spending much more on health care than any other nation.

Americans, notes an editorial the journal ran to accompany the study, are losing ground globally “by every” health measure.

Why such poor performance? Media reports on last week’s new State of U.S. Health study hit all the usual suspects: poor diet, poor access to affordable health care, poor personal health habits, and just plain poverty. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/why-do-americans-live-lives-so-short/#sthash.oZ2VJ16f.dpuf

July 15, 2013

Chris Hedges: Locking Out the Voices of Dissent

from truthdig:


Locking Out the Voices of Dissent

Posted on Jul 14, 2013
By Chris Hedges


NEW YORK—The security and surveillance state, after crushing the Occupy movement and eradicating its encampments, has mounted a relentless and largely clandestine campaign to deny public space to any group or movement that might spawn another popular uprising. The legal system has been grotesquely deformed in most cities to, in essence, shut public space to protesters, eradicating our right to free speech and peaceful assembly. The goal of the corporate state is to criminalize democratic, popular dissent before there is another popular eruption. The vast state surveillance system, detailed in Edward Snowden’s revelations to the British newspaper The Guardian, at the same time ensures that no action or protest can occur without the advanced knowledge of our internal security apparatus. This foreknowledge has allowed the internal security systems to proactively block activists from public spaces as well as carry out pre-emptive harassment, interrogation, intimidation, detention and arrests before protests can begin. There is a word for this type of political system—tyranny.

If the state is ultimately successful in preventing us from mobilizing in public spaces, then dissent will mutate from nonviolent mass protests to clandestine and perhaps violent acts of resistance. Some demonstrators have already been branded “domestic terrorists” under the law. The rear-guard effort by a handful of activists to protect our rights to be heard and peaceably assemble is perhaps the most crucial, though unseen, struggle we currently are engaged in with the corporate state. It is a struggle to salvage what is left of our civil society and our right to nonviolent resistance against corporate tyranny. This is why the New York City trial last week of members of Veterans for Peace, along with other activists, took on an importance that belied the simple trespassing charges against them.

The activists were arrested Oct. 7, 2012, while they were placing flowers in 11 vases and reading the names of the dead inscribed on the wall in New York’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza after the official closing time, 10 p.m. The defiance of the plaza’s official closing time—which appears to be enforced against political activists only—was spawned by a May 1, 2012, protest by Occupy Wall Street activists. The Occupy activists had attempted to hold a meeting in the plaza and been driven out by police. A number of Veterans for Peace activists, most of them veterans of the Vietnam War, formed a line in front of the advancing police that May night and refused to move. They were arrested.

Many of these veterans came back to the plaza on a rainy, windy night in October to protest on the 11th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and again assert their right to carry out nonviolent protests in public spaces. They included Jay Wenk, an 86-year-old combat veteran of World War II who served with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army in Europe. When he was arrested Wenk was beating a gong in the downpour as the names of the dead were read. During the October protest 25 people were seized by police for refusing to leave the park after 10 p.m. Twelve went to trail last week. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Robert Mandelbaum on Friday found the dozen activists guilty. The judge, however, quickly threw out his own verdict, calling the case a “unique circumstance.” “Justice,” he said, “cries out for a dismissal.” His dismissal shuts down the possibility of an appeal. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/locking_out_the_voices_of_dissent_20130714/

July 14, 2013

The Nation: White Supremacy Acquits George Zimmerman

White Supremacy Acquits George Zimmerman
Aura Bogado on July 14, 2013 - 12:05 AM ET


(The Nation) A jury has found George Zimmerman not guilty of all charges in connection to death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But while the verdict came as a surprise to some people, it makes perfect sense to others. This verdict is a crystal-clear illustration of the way white supremacy operates in America.

Throughout the trial, the media repeatedly referred to an “all-woman jury” in that Seminole County courtroom, adding that most of them were mothers. That is true—but so is that five of the six jurors were white, and that is profoundly significant for cases like this one. We also know that the lone juror of color was seen apparently wiping a tear during the prosecution’s rebuttal yesterday. But that tear didn’t ultimately convince her or the white people on that jury that Zimmerman was guilty of anything. Not guilty. Not after stalking, shooting and killing a black child, a child that the defense insultingly argued was “armed with concrete.”

In the last few days, Latinos in particular have spoken up again about Zimmerman’s race, and the “white Hispanic” label especially, largely responding to social media users and mass media pundits who employed the term. Watching Zimmerman in the defense seat, his sister in the courtroom, and his mother on the stand, one can’t deny the skin color that informs their experience. They are not white. Yet Zimmerman’s apparent ideology—one that is suspicious of black men in his neighborhood, the “assholes who always get away—” is one that adheres to white supremacy. It was replicated in the courtroom by his defense, whose team tore away at Rachel Jeantel, questioning the young woman as if she was taking a Jim Crow–era literacy test. A defense that, during closing, cited slave-owning rapist Thomas Jefferson, played an animation for the jury based on erroneous assumptions, made racially coded accusations about Trayvon Martin emerging “out of the darkness,” and had the audacity to compare the case of the killing of an unarmed black teenager to siblings arguing over which one stole a cookie.

When Zimmerman was acquitted today, it wasn’t because he’s a so-called white Hispanic. He’s not. It’s because he abides by the logic of white supremacy, and was supported by a defense team—and a swath of society—that supports the lingering idea that some black men must occasionally be killed with impunity in order to keep society-at-large safe. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/175260/white-supremacy-acquits-george-zimmerman#ixzz2Z22ghvvb

July 14, 2013

GMO Domino Effect

from In These Times:


GMO Domino Effect
Four states to go, and a cascade of food labeling laws will take effect.

BY Jessica Corbett


In June, legislators in Connecticut took a bite out of the secrecy surrounding genetically modified foods.

Connecticut is the first state to pass legislation that requires food manufacturers to label products containing genetically modified ingredients. But the historic legislation, pushed forward by consumer and environmental advocacy groups such as GMO Free CT, comes with a caveat. Before the new law can take effect, four other states, including at least one that borders Connecticut, must pass a similar bill, and a combination of northeastern states with a total population of 20 million must also approve GMO labeling legislation.

This “safety-in numbers” approach is an attempt to minimize the potential for lawsuits from food manufacturers. Until now, industry has successfully thwarted most attempts by the “right to know” movement, which emphasizes that the health risks
 of GMOs are still unclear and that consumers have the right to choose safe food, to pass labeling laws. In Vermont, the threat of a lawsuit from Monsanto halted passage of a similar law in spring 2012. And during the November 2012 elections, California voters rejected Proposition 37, a ballot initiative that would have required GMO labeling, after Monsanto and other biotech companies spent approximately $50 million on advertising against the initiative.

This time around, the push for labeling laws could bear more fruit: Maine has already followed in Connecticut’s wake and approved its own labeling law (as in Connecticut, the Maine law is contingent on other nearby states passing their own bills), and 25 other states—including all of the northeastern states—have introduced legislation to require labeling or prohibit the production of genetically engineered foods, according to the Center for Food Safety. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15225/gmo_domino_effect/