In late February, a Baltimore-born, self-proclaimed freedom fighter named Matthew VanDyke beamed [2] into Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News show from Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region. A few days earlier, he had announced [3] on Facebook that he was in Iraq to “raise and train a Christian army to fight” ISIS and that he had formed a company called Sons of Liberty International (SOLI) …
Freedom Rider: Gentrification and the Death of Black Communities – Margaret Kimberley
“The inhabitants are pushed aside to make way for transplants who may come from the suburbs, another state or even from another country.” There is no city in this country where black people are safe from the current method of displacement known as gentrification. Washington, DC, once had a majority black population and was known as Chocolate City. Perhaps it …
Silicon Valley’s Eating Up Super Ritalin. I Got the Best of It. – Dan McCarthy
Nootropics, the new staple “brain enhancers” in Silicon Valley that purport to increase productivity and perception, exist in an unregulated legal gray area in the U.S. In Colombia, you can pick up even the shadiest kinds over the counter. I did just that. In the months before a recent trip to Colombia, off to visit an expat friend living there, …
How front groups posing as grassroots campaigns do the dirty work for Agribusiness – Martha Rosenberg
How did the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (Proposition 37), get defeated in 2012 despite the state’s high level of food awareness of activism? How did a ban on the sale of large soft drinks in New York City fail the same year despite such drinks’ complete lack of nutritional value and links to obesity? Welcome to the world of food …
Think Homelessness Can’t be Eradicated? These Communities Did It – Alex Pietrowski
The costs of homelessness is rarely discussed. We mostly hear statistics about the number of children living on the streets, the vast number of hungry individuals fed in soup kitchens, and the dangers that homeless families face during severe weather. As communities, we pull together by donating to food banks and participating in homeless outreach programs, even though government regulations …
What Major University Charges $71K a Year and Epitomizes Corporatism and Self-Dealing? – Michael Arria
A new report [3] released by members of New York University’s faculty shows that NYU gouges students to raise billions for real-estate transactions and compensation packages for its top executives. Concerned about the economic situation of many students, the professors spent an entire academic year interviewing people and researching the school’s finances. They discovered that NYU students pay the highest tuition in the …
Wall Street’s Fatal Flaw: Confusing “Disruptors” With “Corruptors” – Pam Martens
In the late 1990s, Salomon Smith Barney’s telecom analyst, Jack Grubman, was viewed by his powerful firm as a “disruptor.” He was throwing out the old rules on how a telecom analyst should interact with a company on which he was delivering research to the public and creating a new, innovative model. Instead of following the old rules and remaining …
Gary Null Show – 05.15.15
Joachim Hagopian (Hag-o-pian) has been a practicing clinical psychologist and counselor practicing in California for over 25 years, with an emphasis on disadvantaged youth, family abuse, the child welfare system and education. Joachim attended the US Military Academy at West Point through a Congressional appointment in the late 1960s. After clashing with the system he was railroaded out at the …
Ask Beatty – Elizabeth Massey – 05.11.15
Beatty talked about having attended a Moral Monday breakfast at Union Theological Seminary in New York City with guest speaker Reverend Doctor William, Director of the North Carolina NAACP. As a society, despite different party lines, we need to all get in touch with our moral selves personally and politically and not just on Monday’s. Her guest tonight was Elizabeth …
Our Nuke is Burning! – KARL GROSSMAN
In 1976, Robert Pollard, a rarity among U.S. government nuclear officials—honest and safety-committed—said of the Indian Point nuclear power station that it was “an accident waiting to happen.” Pollard had been project manager at Indian Point for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from which he resigned at that time charging the NRC “suppresses the existence of unresolved safety questions …