January 30, 2012

Time - Are Companies More Powerful Than Countries?

Comment - It seems some at Davos are imagining a fascist, or China style, model for the world. China's totalitarian capitalism is to blame for this elite view, disrespecting Western democratic tradition. I find this article alarming as to what some in Davos are talking about.

Meanwhile, the top companies seem to exist in a world apart — they are booming, and their executives are prospering. If there is a meta theme to this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, it is that the world’s largest companies are moving on and moving ahead of governments and countries that they perceive to be inept and anemic. They are flying above them, operating in a space that is increasingly disconnected from local concerns, and the problems of their home markets. And if the conversations here are any indication, they may soon take over much of what government itself does.

snip

On that, at least, politicians would agree. In her keynote opening speech at Davos, Angela Merkel said that unless the eurozone crisis was solved, Europe risked becoming “just a nice place to take a vacation.” The same could be said of all rich countries. One thing that’s becoming clear at Davos is that the core idea of the Enlightenment — that capitalism and democracy go hand in hand to create the best society — is under fire. And the struggle to create a new model may well pit nation against nation, corporations against government, poor against rich. The world, it turns out, isn’t flat – and it’s becoming bumpier all the time.

Read more: http://business.time.com/2012/01/27/are-companies-more-powerful-than-countries/#1_undefined,0_#ixzz1kxLOuGWV

January 30, 2012

Tonight's Solidarity Marches for OWS

Yesterday, Occupy Oakland moved to convert a vacant building into a community center to provide education, medical, and housing services for the 99%. Police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and mass arrests. The state has compounded its policy of callous indifference with a ruthless display of violent repression. The Occupy movement will respond, as we have always responded: with an overwhelming show of collective resistance. Today, we take to the streets. Across the country, we will demonstrate our resolve to overcome repression and continue to build a better world grounded in love and solidarity for one another. All eyes on all Occupies.

SOLIDARITY SUNDAY starts at 7 p.m. EST, Sunday, January 29. Check your local Occupation for convergence points.

Be there.

NEW YORK
Washington Square Park 7PM

BOSTON
Copley Square 7PM

PHILADELPHIA
Love Park 7PM

Other places here: http://occupywallst.org/article/solidarity-sunday/

Livestream has live action happening now

http://livestream.com/globalrevolution

I love these guys.

January 30, 2012

Public Or Private: Keeping Google From Being 'Evil'

Google, whose unofficial corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil," mainly uses this data for targeted ads. But this past week, it announced changes to its privacy policy in order to merge user data across its various services: Gmail, YouTube, Google Calendar, Google+ and Google search. According to the company, it's so it can create "a beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google."

The changes go into effect March 1, and you can opt-out, but it means it will limit the usefulness of many of Google's services and even Android phones, which run on Google's operation system.

Google vs. Congress

Google's new policy is getting a lot of negative attention on Capitol Hill, in part, because the company now allows kids as young as 13 to sign up for its services. This means Google can, in theory, build a profile of you over several decades.

This worries Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a senior Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. He tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz that what he finds most objectionable is that users don't seem to have much say in all this.

NPR's staff did this story, read more: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146062607/public-or-private-keeping-google-from-being-evil

January 30, 2012

Solidarity Sunday | OccupyWallSt.org

Yesterday, Occupy Oakland moved to convert a vacant building into a community center to provide education, medical, and housing services for the 99%. Police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and mass arrests. The state has compounded its policy of callous indifference with a ruthless display of violent repression. The Occupy movement will respond, as we have always responded: with an overwhelming show of collective resistance. Today, we take to the streets. Across the country, we will demonstrate our resolve to overcome repression and continue to build a better world grounded in love and solidarity for one another. All eyes on all Occupies.

SOLIDARITY SUNDAY starts at 7 p.m. EST, Sunday, January 29. Check your local Occupation for convergence points.

Be there.

NEW YORK
Washington Square Park 7PM

BOSTON
Copley Square 7PM

PHILADELPHIA
Love Park 7PM

Other places here: http://occupywallst.org/article/solidarity-sunday/

January 29, 2012

Why the Republican race could be irrelevant

Republican presidential candidates have devoted months, if not years, of their lives to chasing their party’s nomination, they’ve raised and spent (along with their super PAC allies) tens of millions of dollars, and they’ve participated in more than a dozen debates – each of which has attracted a massive television audience.

But a startling new poll underscores what has got to be a maddening possibility for Republicans: It could all be for naught – and there may be nothing they can do about it. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey points to a measurable uptick in optimism about the country’s economic direction, and in the public’s assessment of President Obama’s performance.

By a 37 to 17 percent margin, respondents said they expect the economy to improve in the next year; back in October, they thought it would get worse by a 32-21 margin. And the number of Americans who believe the country is heading in the right direction now stands at 30 percent – hardly a huge number, but a clear jump from the 17 percent who said so in the fall. Overall, Obama’s approval rating is at 48 percent, the highest it’s been in an NBC/WSJ poll since June, when he was still basking in the afterglow of Osama bin Laden’s demise.

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/26/why_the_gop_race_could_be_irrelevant/

January 28, 2012

How Fox News Is Destroying the Republican Party

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters

Wannabe kingmaker Roger Ailes is facing an open revolt.

More and more despondent conservatives are expressing alarm over the unfolding Republican primary season and what they see as the party's dwindling chances of defeating President Obama in November. Spooked at the general elections prospects facing frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (especially Gingrich), members of the so-called Republican Establishment seem to want to reboot the election season and try their nominating luck again.

Sorry, it's too late.

Read more here: http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/9656-how-fox-news-is-destroying-the-republican-party

January 26, 2012

Occupy The Courts - A Conversation with Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges

January 24, 2012

Gallup: Gingrich leads Romney in national poll

Updated 2:20 p.m. ET

A new national poll shows Mitt Romney is in a free fall with Newt Gingrich now leading for the GOP presidential nomination.

Gingrich now has 31% support from registered Republican voters in the Gallup daily tracking poll, compared with 27% for the former Massachusetts governor.

The former House speaker now has completely erased a 23-point advantage Romney enjoyed earlier this month. Gingrich's standing reflects a surge last week, when he pulled in two strong debate performances and soundly defeated Romney in the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/01/newt-gingrich-mitt-romney-poll-gallup-/1

January 24, 2012

CNN Corporate Drone Says Tonight May Very Well Be President's Last SOTU Speech

CNN supports President Obama? Looks like they're manufacturing a defeat. Or is this just this one blond news model's opinion? She comes on 1-2pm, I don't watch CNN so I don't know her name.

January 22, 2012

It's socialism for the corporatocracy

Capitalism is for the little guy. But it's not real socialism, democratic socialism. It's authoritarian state socialism, the kind they demonize and can't distinguish from the good kind, the one for the common good. Stalin would admire the cable companies, Hitler would admire the power of propaganda from the big 3, CNN, Faux, and Msnbc. Yes, even us liberals are caged in from free ideas like Democratic Socialism. Only the bullies of the repug party get to taunt a whole ideology, they don't want us to call them out for the scum they are. Life is not fair in the 'land of the free' and 'home of the brave'. OWS is the best hope, maybe the last best hope.