Christopher Obal used to be a Christian. He grew up in Queens, New York, and when he was 5 years old, his parents left Catholicism for a very different form of Christianity. While they didn’t claim a specific denomination, he said the churches they went to would probably be described as Pentecostal, evangelical and charismatic. “We attended churches where people …
The Choice Ahead: A Private Health-Insurance Monopoly or a Single Payer – ROBERT REICH
The Supreme Court’s recent blessing of Obamacare has precipitated a rush among the nation’s biggest health insurers to consolidate into two or three behemoths. The result will be good for their shareholders and executives, but bad for the rest of us – who will pay through the nose for the health insurance we need. We have another choice, but before …
Hillary Clinton Pledges to Defend Israeli Apartheid & Fight BDS Movement in Letter to Mega-Donor – KEVIN GOSZTOLA
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent a letter to media mogul Haim Saban, a mega-donor, assuring him that she would make countering the global Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel a priority. She invoked a recent terrorist attack against Jews in Paris to condemn BDS and specifically sought Saban’s advice on how to fight back. “I am writing …
Sanders Bullshit Meter Goes Off the Charts in Portland, Maine By Bruce K. Gagnon
I spent two hours yesterday holding a banner (joined by eight others with signs and a 2nd banner) outside the Bernie Sanders for President rally in Portland, Maine that reportedly drew about 9,000 people. It was an impressive crowd for someone who once claimed he was a ‘socialist’. People began lining up before 5:00 pm for the 7:00 event and …
Debt Slavery By John Scales Avery
At the moment, the issue of debt slavery is very topical because of the case of Greece; but it is an issue that has a far more general significance. Usury, the charging of interest on loans, has a history of being forbidden by several major religions, including not only the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but also the …
The Pope’s Letter: Neoliberalism and Fukushima By Mateo Pimentel
Japanese sociologist and Tokyo Metropolitan University professor, Shinji Miyadai argues that European nations progressed from the communal self-governance of food to the communal self-governance of energy after World War II. Miyadai compares Europe’s post-war developments with those of post-war Japan in his article entitled ‘Pitfalls of the Nuclear Power Reduction Movement’. His contention is simple: As opposed to Europe, Japan …
Thanks to Wall Street, America Has Growing Greek-Like Debt Bombs By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
From the $1.2 trillion instudent debt now on the backs of U.S. college students, a growing number of whom are turning to prostitution to keep up, to teetering Puerto Rico, the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama in 2011, Detroit’s bankruptcy in 2013, Wall Street was on hand to grease the skids or set the train wreck in motion.Greece has two things in …
Economic Growth and Poverty in the Third World. UN Millennium Development Goals Reveal Mixed Results By Abayomi Azikiwe
Declining oil and commodity prices impact states in Africa and the Middle East 2015 is the year that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were scheduled to reach certain objectives in the reduction of poverty and the improvement of living standards in so-called developing countries. In 2000 the United Nations drafted a program to achieve income increases, universal education, gender equality …
Fossil Fuel Funding Boycott Puts Spotlight on Clinton Campaign – Lauren McCauley
Progressive groups have a challenge for presidential hopefuls: Put your money where your mouth is on the climate, and swear off contributions from fossil fuel companies. To affirm their commitment to taking on the climate crisis and “standing up to the corrupting influence of fossil-fuel companies,” the campaign, launched on Monday by The Nation and 350 Action, is calling on 2016 presidential …
Big Pharma Promises Men Endless Youth With Drug That May Cause Clots, Heart Problems, Suicide By Martha Rosenberg
Recently, an editorial in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society cited “disease-mongering” of testosterone to men for conditions for which it is not approved. Increasingly low libido, obesity and other age-related changes are attributed to “Low T” or low testosterone. This spring, I interviewed a coauthor of the editorial, Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine and director of the New England …