NewsTrust - Most Recent Stories

Edward Snowden Q and A: "The US Government Destroyed Any Possibility of a Fair Trial at Home"

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Glenn Greenwald - Jun. 17 (News Report) - The 29-year-old former NSA contractor and source of the Guardian's NSA files coverage will – with the help of Glenn Greenwald – take your questions today on why he revealed the NSA's top-secret surveillance of US citizens, the international storm that has ensued, and the uncertain future he now faces.

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If We Can't Stop Corporations from Hiding in Cayman Islands to Avoid Taxes, We All Need to Become Pirates

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paolo Cirio - Jun. 17 (Opinion) - As usual, G8 members will advance measures aimed at maintaining, rather than resolving, these contradictions. Their proposals will not contain any changes that might distress corporate interests. A mere 100 miles southeast of the summit, Dublin serves as a tax haven and a center of massive tax evasion for many of the wealthiest corporations.

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Major Push to End Sexual Assault Epidemic in Military Turned Back in Senate

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Adele M. Stan - Jun. 16 (News Report) - Levin made the decision Tuesday, replacing the provisions of Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement Act with a measure that simply requires that any command decision not to prosecute a sexual assault case be reviewed by a high-ranking officer. But as demonstrated in at least one recent case—the overturning of the sexual assault conviction of Air Force Lt. Col. James Wilkerson by Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin—the top brass often exhibit the same deference to defendants as commanders lower in rank. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has condemned Levin’s decision.

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How Predatory Reformers Are Destroying Education and Profiting at Our Children's Expense

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Michael Gecan - Jun. 16 (Special Report) - Local people, connected to their communities, built successful schools based in large part on this pragmatic principle. But today this principle is undercut by political demands for ever-shifting versions of reform, by market demands for efficiency, by smothering student debt loads, and by the mistaken priorities of colleges racing for prestige. The debate over improving education—in the Midwest and throughout the country—often seems hopeless, but it turns out that we have long known what to do and are now suffering from the abandonment of the good methods we once pioneered and practiced.

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Edward Snowden Had a Breaking Point, Where He Decided to Risk It All to Fix This Country -- What's Yours?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers - Jun. 16 (News Analysis) - Snowden sparked protest, lawsuits, criticism of the administration and US intelligence. His action shows the power that comes when someone inside the system break ranks and tells the truth. Successful movements depend on people breaking ranks: questioning, demurring, disobeying, defecting and withdrawing support. As Ken Butigan writes in Waging Nonviolence, the impact can start a metamorphosis for all of us:

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Everything Americans Think They Know About Drugs Is Wrong: A Scientist Explodes the Myths

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Kristen Gwynne - Jun. 16 (Interview) - There are multiple false conclusions. There is a belief, for example, that crack cocaine is so addictive it only took one hit to get hooked, and that it is impossible to use heroin without becoming addicted. There was another belief that methamphetamine users are cognitively impaired. All of these are myths that have have been perpetuated primarily by law enforcement, and law enforcement deals with a limited, select group of people—people who are, in many cases, behaving badly. But to generalize that to all drug users is not only shortsighted and naive, it’s also irresponsible. The impact of that irresponsible behavior has been borne primarily by black communities.

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Secret Trade Agreements Threaten to Undo Our Last Shreds of Food Safety

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Katherine Paul, Ronnie Cummins - Jun. 15 (Special Report) - Under two new trade agreements, currently in negotiation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could be powerless to shut down imports of unsafe food or food ingredients. And if it tries, multinational corporations will be able to sue the U.S. government for the loss of anticipated future profits. More frightening? Negotiations for both agreements are taking place behind closed doors

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The Dangers of Corporations Controlling National Secrets

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Thom Hartmann - Jun. 15 (Opinion) - corporations, by and large, are accountable only to profits.They’re opaque, and don't give a damn about “We the People,” except for the people who run them. There once was a time, before Reagan put us on a privatization binge, when our national security was run by our government and answerable to “We the People.”

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The Latest Outrageous Waste of Money for the Pentagon's Playthings

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Medea Benjamin, James Marc Leas - Jun. 15 (News Report) - Is the Vermont Air National Guard being used for corrupt purposes having nothing to do with its military mission? The answer is yes. Big time. And for big money. In the article, “Those who 'Fudged' Should not be Allowed to Judge” we described how military brass fudged their own scoring process to get Senator Leahy’s home state of Vermont on the list as the “preferred alternative” for basing the F-35.

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How the Transition Movement Is Spreading to Towns Across America

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Jessica Stites - Jun. 15 (Special Report) - “Until now, there’s been the things you can do at home on your own—changing your lightbulbs and sharing your lofts and things—and then there’s everything else that someone else is meant to do: the sort of mythical ‘they,’” says Hopkins. “Transition is what’s in the middle, what you can do with the people on your street.”

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The Shocking Amount of Wealth and Power Held by 0.001% of the World Population

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Andrew Gavin Marshall - Jun. 13 (Special Report) - The global elite are of course not defined by their wealth alone, but through the institutional, ideological and individual connections and networks in which they wield their influence. The most obvious example of these types of institutions are the multinational banks and corporations which dominate the global economy. In the first scientific study of its kind, Swiss researchers analyzed the relationship between 43,000 transnational corporations and “identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.”

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10 Dumbest Pundit Reactions to NSA Revelations

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Evan McMurry - Jun. 13 (News Analysis) - whistleblowing is grating the ears of the politicians and pundits who built the intelligence-gathering apparatus Snowden unveiled. These folks haven’t spent the past dozen years expanding the parameters of government surveillance just to have some ingrate let us all in on it, and their responses have ranged from calling Snowden a dimwit to calling for his head. From Fox News to the Wall Street Journal, here are the most cringe-inducing reactions.

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Obama Nominates America’s Biggest Walmart Cheerleader as His Chief Economic Adviser

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Stuart Parramore - Jun. 11 (News Report) - President Obama announced his intention to nominate Jason Furman to become the next chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. This is a big-time, highly influential post. So what kind of economist is Furman? One who thinks Walmart is the best thing since sliced bread.

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America's Most Anti-Democratic Institution: How the Imperial Presidency Threatens U.S. National Security

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Fred Branfman - Jun. 11 (Special Report) - The U.S. Executive justifies its mass murder, incarceration of the innocent, authoritarianism, secrecy, deceit, lawlessness, spying, and prosecution of whistleblowers, the press and activists on the claim that it is protecting U.S. "National Security."

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How Right-Wing Ideology Has Suckered Millions of Americans into Hating Their Own Government

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lawrence Davidson - Jun. 11 (Special Report) - Boortz’s view of the regulatory powers of the federal government is dangerously naive. He seems unaware that in the United States the ability to create and protect the civil liberties he supports comes from the legislative action of a strong federal government that then oversees the implementation of those laws against historically prejudiced, racist state and local governments.

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“Digital Blackwater”: Meet the Contractors Who Analyze Your Personal Data

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tim Shorrock - Jun. 10 (News Report) - Amid the torrent of stories about the shocking new revelations about the National Security Agency, few have bothered to ask a central question. Who’s actually doing the work of analyzing all the data, meta-data and personal information pouring into the agency from Verizon and nine key Internet Service Providers for its ever-expanding surveillance of American citizens?

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Edward Snowden, Saving Us From the United Stasi of America

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Daniel Ellsberg - Jun. 10 (Opinion) - In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an "executive coup" against the US constitution.

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Ronald Reagan's Secret, Genocidal Wars

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Noam Chomsky: - Jun. 09 (Special Report) - Most of the border crossers are from Central America. Many say they would rather be home, if the possibility of decent survival hadn’t been destroyed. Mayans such as this young mother are still fleeing from the wreckage of the genocidal assault on the indigenous population of the Guatemalan highlands 30 years ago.

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The Most Dishonest Words in American Politics: 'Right to Work'

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Wishnia - Jun. 09 (Opinion) - Both Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Dick DeVos, the heir to the multibillion-dollar Amway fortune who bankrolled the campaign for the law, stuck to the party line about “freedom.” Snyder said the law would give workers “the freedom to choose” and unions “an opportunity to be more responsible to their workers,” because instead of automatically collecting dues, they’d have to show workers “a value proposition.” “Absolute horseshit,” responds Ed Ott, former head of the New York City Central Labor Council.

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How the Chinese Exploited the Shady Relationship Between US Spymasters and Google

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - Jun. 09 (News Report) - In 2009, China hacked into Google to see which of its spies were known to the FBI by tracing secret FBI data requests. Two years later, China hacked into RSA, a company hired by defense contractors to encrypt their computers and stole detailed plans for major U.S. weapons systems

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The 4 Plagues: Getting a Handle on the Coming Apocalypse

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Don Hazen - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - There is an abundance of evidence that there are forces tearing apart the U.S. economy and society, causing increasing levels of fear, anxiety and trauma for large numbers of people. Many people are mystified as to the specific causes of their fears, with a mass media system that constantly broadcasts propaganda about how great America is and a new digital media system that may be exacerbating the problems for a society under immense and unprecedented duress.

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Important Facts About the Trial of Bradley Manning

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Alex Kane - Jun. 03 (News Report) - Manning was a source for WikiLeaks, which some have argued functions as a news organization. Regardless of whether WikiLeaks is a legitimate media outlet, the whistleblowing website did fuel major media outlets’ coverage for months and months. And the Manning trial has important implications for how the press does its job.

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4 Major Ways the Rich Pile On and Exploit the Rest of Us For More Money and Profit

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paul Buchheit - Jun. 03 (Special Report) - Charles Koch said, "I want my fair share -- and that's all of it." He's been getting his wish lately. In the first two years of the recovery, the richest 1% seemingly impossibly captured 121% of the income gains, while incomes for 99% of Americans declined, with the median household income dropping by 7.3 percent.

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Meet the Doctor Big Pharma Can't Shut Up

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tamara Straus - Jun. 03 (Special Report) - Healy is not the first psychiatrist to express boiling frustration with the pharmaceutical industry or to pen dire warnings about drug-based healthcare. He is joined by people like American psychiatrist Peter Breggin, who has written several books critical of “biological psychiatry,” and Irving Kirsch, who directs the Program in Placebo Studies at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical School and is best known for The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth. Healy is the author of such dire sounding titles as Pharmageddon and Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression

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The World's Richest 8% Earn Half of All Planetary Income

Tue, 28 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Eric Zuesse - May. 28 (Special Report) - "Global inequality is much greater than inequality within any individual country," because the stark inequality between countries adds to the inequality within any one of them, and because most people live in extremely poor countries.

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