NewsTrust - Social Change - Most Recent Stories

How the US Turned Three Pacifists Into 'Multiple Felony Saboteurs'

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Fran Quigley - May. 19 (News Report) - In just ten months, the United States managed to transform an 82 year-old Catholic nun and two pacifists from non-violent anti-nuclear peace protestors accused of misdemeanor trespassing into federal felons convicted of violent crimes of terrorism. Now in jail awaiting sentencing for their acts at an Oak Ridge, TN nuclear weapons production facility, their story should chill every person concerned about dissent in the US.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Popular Resistance Is Percolating Across the Country -- Inspiring Activism That the Corporate Media Always Ignores

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers - May. 18 (News Report) - The heart of the conflict faced in the United States is the inequity of an unfair economy supported by a corrupt two party system. This week there was a very creative protest in New York City against the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim of Mexico. He’s made his billions with the help of government allowing a monopoly on phone service resulting in Slim gouging the public.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Cancer-Stage Of Capitalism

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

talkradionews.com - By Thom Hartmann - May. 06 (Opinion) - Unregulated capitalism is cancer on our nation. Like tumors, greed has metastasized, strangling once-healthy parts of our economy, and our social safety net. A new piece on Alternet lists several ways this cancer capitalism has taken hold. For starters, the hoarding of wealth by the banksters and the 1% has diverted resources away from nutritional aid programs. Twenty people in our country collected a whopping $73 billion in investment income – all taxed at a lower rate than working Americans. Compare that with the fact that President Obama couldn’t even get $1 billion to improve childhood nutrition in our schools.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

5 Ways That Raw, Unregulated Capitalism Is Acting Like a Cancer on American Society

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paul Buchheit - May. 05 (Opinion) - The uncontrolled growth of investment wealth is diverting resources away from vital programs, effectively smothering them.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

We Decide How to Share Gains

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Stan Sorscher - May. 02 (Opinion) - Multinational employers steadily move work offshore, and lay off thousands of workers. We've cut funding for education; student debt is over a trillion dollars. We've terminated pensions, weakened unions, made work more contingent and more precarious. Wal-Mart cuts hours to avoid paying for health care. Some elected officials demonize teachers, and public employees, and turn public opinion against any regular worker daring to hope for a higher standard of living. Globally, workplace insecurity and inequality are at historic levels.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Resource Shock: How Resource Scarcity and Climate Change Could Produce a Global Explosion

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Michael T. Klare - Apr. 22 (Special Report) - Two nightmare scenarios -- a global scarcity of vital resources and the onset of extreme climate change -- are already beginning to converge and in the coming decades are likely to produce a tidal wave of unrest, rebellion, competition, and conflict.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Worker-Owned Cooperatives: Direct Democracy in Action

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By David Morgan - Apr. 19 (Special Report) - It’s our philosophy that cooperatives enable direct democracy and local control over the economy. As participants in the co-op movement, we help to turn flashpoints into lasting social change. Fortunately, the path to a community-controlled economy is well worn, and the adaptive responsive networks of the movement are buoying this energy. Over decades, these movement-based networks have quietly built support structures to transition us to a new economy. And with renewed demands for economic justice, they are springing to life.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Sandra Steingraber, Others Get 15 Days in Jail for Civil Disobedience Against Gas Co.

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Jon Queally - Apr. 19 (News Report) - Three upstate New York community members-cum-activists, charged with criminal trespass for blockading a gas company installation last month, were sentenced to 15 days in jail on Wednesday by a local judge in an upstate courthouse. Among those sentenced was university biology professor and author Sandra Steingraber, who delivered an impassioned statement ahead of the sentencing explaining why she was compelled to civil disobedience and why she would refuse to pay the fine levied by the judge.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Saving Our Ravaged Planet ... and Ourselves

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Jim Hightower - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - Earth Day cometh — the 43rd year of this national focus on the state of our globe. So, how is Earth doing? Should we be weeping ... or cheering? Both.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Coming Crash: Our Addiction to Endless Growth on a Finite Planet [With Photo Slideshow]

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tara Lohan - Mar. 30 (Review) - If you want to understand how much energy costs, don't look at your electric bill; instead get a copy of the new book Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth. This massive coffeetable book contains hundreds of arresting images showing the effects of our energy choices, including oil spills, nuclear accidents, massive solar arrays, tar sands mines, fracking operations, transmission lines, and more. The photos are complemented by essays from leading writers like Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, Sandra Steingraber, Douglas Tompkins, Bill McKibben, Lester Brown and many others, which put into context our growing energy problems and what we can do about them.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

My doctor doesn't think I'm going to die today

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Kos - By JohnnyRook - Mar. 27 (Opinion) - news can depress. At times it depresses me but, more than anything else, it has filled my life with meaning. I have a mission. Before I die, I want to have some sense that this beautiful planet that has provided the context for my life, will have some chance of enduring. I want to die with hope, believing that my teenage son and his children and your children and their children will live in a world that is reasonably hospitable to human beings. I don't know how that can happen if people will not face the reality of what is taking place in the world. So, I continue to sound the alarm, even though I know that most of what I write is discounted as alarmist or simply ignored as too uncomfortable to deal with.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Hugo Chávez Dead: Transformed Venezuela & Survived U.S.-Backed Coup, Now Leaves Uncertainty Behind

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Elias Jaua, Henrique Capriles, Evo Morales, Dilma Rousseff, Ollanta Humala, Amy Goodman - Mar. 06 (News Report) - With the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez after a two-year fight with cancer, we host a roundtable discussion on a revolutionary leader whose democratic-socialist policies not only transformed his country, but helped steer the entire Latin American region away from U.S.-backed neoliberalism. We're joined by five guests: Miguel Tinker Salas, Pomona College professor and author of two books on Venezuela; Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger, a friend and adviser to Chávez; New York University professor and author Greg Grandin; Gregory Wilpert, founder of Venezuelanalysis.com; and Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy forum on Western Hemisphere affairs. We spend the hour on the life of Chávez, his legacy, and what may come next in Venezuela. [includes rush transcript - partial. More to come. Check back soon.]

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Fascism in the Church: Ex-Priest On "The Pope's War," Clergy Abuse and Quelling Liberation Theology

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Matthew Fox, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Feb. 28 (Interview) - we turn to a former Catholic priest who was silenced and expelled by the pope, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, in the 1980s. Matthew Fox chronicles his story in the book "The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved." Pope Benedict’s tenure was marked by several scandals, most notably his handling of the widening sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, including allegations that he ignored at least one case of abuse while serving as a cardinal. Documents show that in 1985 he delayed efforts to defrock a priest convicted of molesting children. "I’ll take the pope at his word here when he says he’s tired. I would be tired, too, if I left as much devastation in my wake as he has," Fox says. "I think that the Catholic Church as we know it, the structure of the Vatican, is passé. We’re moving beyond it. And it’s become a viper’s nest. It’s really sick, what’s going on, obviously — the cover-up of the pedophile priests."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Rebels Stand Alone

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Chrus Hedges - Feb. 26 (Not sure) - I was in the Swiss village of Begnins outside Geneva shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. I spent three days there with Axel von dem Bussche, a former Wehrmacht major, holder of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross for extreme battlefield bravery, three times wounded in World War II, and the last surviving member of the inner circle of German army officers who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Finding Their Voices

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

heifer.org - By Maggie Carroll - Feb. 26 (Special Report) - as I traveled for hours to a small village so that I could meet with several young girls about their lives and education system, the conversation with my sister suddenly meant so much more. Is education such an ingrained part of everyday life that I was satisfied with “fine” and “usual” as descriptive responses? Do we take school for granted in the Western world? Nearly the entire village greeted us

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Growing Kindness

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

heifer.org - By Austin Bailey - Feb. 26 (Special Report) - The tree teaches us that giving is the path to happiness; the shame is that she didn’t teach this lesson to the boy. I think The Giving Tree was meant as a cautionary tale, a reminder that children arrive with a sense of entitlement, and that it’s our job—as parents, teachers, neighbors, etc.—to foster a sense of responsibility, too. Research backs up that theory.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

40 Percent of Americans Now Make Less than 1968 Minimum Wage

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

nationofchange.org - By Dave Johnson - Feb. 22 (Special Report) - The minimum wage would be $16.50 an hour — $33,000 a year — if it had kept up with the growth of productivity since 1968. To put the effect of this a different way, 40% of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Good Trade Policy: Three 'Thought Experiments'

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Stan Sorscher - Feb. 22 (Opinion) - what if -- and here is the third thought experiment -- we could write trade agreements that protect investor rights and help grow trade AND protect the environment, AND honor human rights and labor rights, and raise living standards. A balanced global agreement will produce prosperity and redeem the promise of globalization. Senator Merkley from Oregon recently outlined two reasonable trade practices that would raise living standards, promote democracy and preserve the environment. It's not hard to come up with more.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Equal Opportunity, Our National Myth

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Joseph Stiglitz - Feb. 18 (Opinion) - The gap between aspiration and reality could hardly be wider. Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country. Study after study has exposed the myth that America is a land of opportunity. This is especially tragic: While Americans may differ on the desirability of equality of outcomes, there is near-universal consensus that inequality of opportunity is indefensible.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Has America Become an Authoritarian State?

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Henry A. Giroux - Jan. 26 (Opinion) - What is missing in the current debates dominating Washington politics is the recognition that the real issues at stake are neither the debt ceiling nor the state of the economy, however important, but a powerful and poisonous form of authoritarianism that poses a threat to the very idea of democracy and the institutions, public values, formative cultures and public spheres that nourish it.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The responsibility of privilege

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Aljazeera - By Noam Chomsky - Jan. 25 (Interview) - (video)

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

What’s behind the explosion of native activism? Young people

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Globe and Mail - By Joe Friesen - Jan. 22 (Special Report) - Erica Lee is a 22-year-old Cree woman raised by a single mother in a rough part of town. She’s the first of her family to finish high school, the first to go to university and, as an organizer of the Idle No More movement, she represents a sea change in Canadian life and politics.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Myth of Human Progress

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Chris Hedges - Jan. 21 (News Analysis) - those we love, including our children, are almost certainly doomed to insecurity, misery and suffering within a few decades, if not a few years, is much harder to acquire. To emotionally accept impending disaster, to attain the gut-level understanding that the power elite will not respond rationally to the devastation of the ecosystem, is as difficult to accept as our own mortality. The most daunting existential struggle of our time is to ingest this awful truth—intellectually and emotionally—and continue to resist the forces that are destroying us.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Take Action on Filibuster Reform

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Bill Moyers - Jan. 18 (Opinion) - hope of resurrecting the Senate's noble purpose by reforming the filibuster is being championed by a diverse group of organizations and activists, including The Democratic Initiative and Fix the Senate Now. They want to take the filibuster, which can now be easily and quietly activated, and restore its original, public use (Think Mr. Smith or Mr. Sanders). Time is not on their side, however. Unless the Senate reforms the filibuster at the beginning of the new 113th Congress - that's as soon as next Tuesday, January 22 - the minority wrecking crew remains in charge for the next two years.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Twilight of the Pale Patriarchs

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Hal Crowther - Jan. 18 (Opinion) - After Mitt Romney collected 75% of the white male vote and lost, I fancied that I could hear a strangled snarl and imagine that the bloodthirsty, near immortal thing with the stake in its chest was the white patriarchy — the high-testosterone, low-melanin monopoly that has misguided and misruled this country, and this violent Western civilization, throughout recorded history and long before.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer