Prof. Michael Hudson, economist and author of 'Killing the Host- How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy', speaks to Ross Ashcroft about the difficult choice faced by Americans in the upcoming US elections.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Renegade Inc. provides its members with the content and connections that help navigate the ‘new normal’. Finding the people who are thinking differently about the world means we offer an alternative perspective on business, leadership, economics, education and the arts.
http://www.michaelparenti.org/ Michael Parenti discusses the history of imperialism, the forced maldevelopment of the third world, and the violence that is integral to it all. WARNING: Talk contains graphic descriptions of torture
In this episode of the Keiser Report from Washington DC, Max and Stacy discuss the threats to the global financial system posed by Deutsche Bank and all Italian banks. In the second half, Max interviews Rob Kirby of Kirby Analytics about Deutsche Bank’s massive derivatives book.
Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire joins us today to discuss his recent article on "Smart Power & The Human Rights Industrial Complex." Topics discussed include the NGO/State Dept/Pentagon/NATO nexus, the use of human rights as a perception management tool to demonise NATO enemies, and the complicity of the media in reporting these stories uncritically.
Author and professor Peter Linebaugh discusses his new book, "The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day." Then filmmaker Avi Lewis discusses worker-owned factories in Argentina, and Laura focuses on the intersectional feminism of 19th Century anarchist Lucy Parsons. Peter Linebaugh is professor emeritus at the University of Toledo, and the author of many books, including the Magna Carta Manifesto; Stop Thief, The Commons, Enclosures and Resistance, and his newest, The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day. Avi Lewis is a filmmaker known for The Take, co-directed by Naomi Klein, and This Changes Everything, a documentary on climate change and resistance, released in 2015. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/lau...
The proposed free trade agreement between the US and Europe (TTIP) causes concern about the European right to self-determination. The most controversial part of TTIP is ISDS: investor-state dispute settlement. ISDS will make it possible for companies to sue governments that damage their investments. But is this arbitrage system where a few investment lawyers decide over billions of taxpayers money a protection of our business interests, or a threat to our democracy?
On Saturday, October 10, tens of thousands of European citizens took to the streets, and more than 2.5 million signatures were offered to the European Commission. The source of this concern and protest is the free trade agreement TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) between the United States and the EU, which would create the world’s largest free-trade zone. According to the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade Lilianne Ploumen, TTIP could be realized as soon as 2016; the negotiations are well under way. If the EU ratifies the trade agreement, critics fear that the scales will tilt toward North-American standards and values with regard to (food) safety, workers’ and consumer rights. And that when it comes to important collective achievements and protection of its citizens, Europe will give up its right to self-determination.
The part of the trade agreement that’s questioned the most is ISDS, or investor-state dispute settlement, which can be used by companies to dispute a country’s laws and rules, if a company feels unfairly treated. This will enable multinationals to circumvent democratic decisions and existing national jurisdiction. In order to understand the potential consequences of this, VPRO Backlight traveled to Canada, which became one of the most sued countries in the world after it entered into a trade agreement with the US. American companies now summon the Canadian government to appear before an arbitration tribunal if they feel that Canadian rules aren't in compliance with the free trade agreement Nafta. Despite democratic decisions against fracking under Canada's most important river, the Saint Lawrence, the Canadian government was sued for millions of dollars by the oil and shale gas company Lone Pine.
Could this happen in the Netherlands as well? In spite of resistance, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp (VVD) doesn’t rule out the possibility of future fracking in the Netherlands. VPRO Backlight probed the opinions at an information meeting organized by the Dutch Oil and Gas Company in Saaksum, Groningen. The locals there seem more and more convinced that fossil fuels should stay where they are: underground. But then no profit would be made from them anymore. The question is if this could result in ISDS claims in the future. Or should we welcome ISDS? Because it’s also crucial for the position of the Netherlands as a world leader in legal and financial services. It will protect the tens of billions of Dutch foreign investments.
British Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang wonders what free trade really means in this day and age. Because there has long been a largely free movement of goods between the US and EU, with few tariff walls. So whose interest will the controversial TTIP and ISDS serve then? And in the service of whom or what is the law, when it comes to international investment arbitration? Isn't in the end, might right?
With: Steve Verheul (Canadian negotiator for the trade agreement between Canada and the EU), Gus van Harten (Canadian lawyer and ISDS expert), Nikos Lavranos (former negotiator for the Netherlands, currently ISDS investment consultant) and Ha-Joon
Director: Roland Duong Research: William de Bruijn Producers: Jolanda Segers, Bircan Unlu Commissioning editors: Marije Meerman, Doke Romeijn
Every drone flown by the U.S. military has inside a piece of the Democratic Republic of the Congo--a valuable mineral, of which the DRC has trillions of dollars worth buried underground.
For five centuries, the continent of Africa has been ravaged by the world's Empires for its vast untapped treasure. Today, the U.S. Empire is increasing it's military role through their massive command network, AFRICOM, carrying out several missions a day.
With the Congo being arguably the biggest prize for imperialist powers, Abby Martin is joined by Kambale Musavuli, spokesperson for Friends of the Congo, to look at Empire's role in their history and current catastrophe.
Humanity is on the verge of its darkest hour or its greatest moment.
The consequences of the technological revolution are about to hit hard: unemployment will spike as new technologies replace labor in the manufacturing, service, and professional sectors of an economy that is already struggling. The end of work as we know it will hit at the worst moment imaginable: as capitalism fosters permanent stagnation, when the labor market is in decrepit shape, with declining wages, expanding poverty, and scorching inequality. Only the dramatic democratization of our economy can address the existential challenges we now face. Yet, the US political process is so dominated by billionaires and corporate special interests, by corruption and monopoly, that it stymies not just democracy but progress.
The great challenge of these times is to ensure that the tremendous benefits of technological progress are employed to serve the whole of humanity, rather than to enrich the wealthy few. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols, authors of People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy, argue that the United States needs a new economy in which revolutionary technologies are applied to effectively address environmental and social problems and used to rejuvenate and extend democratic institutions. Based on intense reporting, rich historical analysis, and deep understanding of the technological and social changes that are unfolding, they propose a bold strategy for democratizing our digital destiny before it's too late and unleashing the real power of the Internet, and of humanity.
In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges continues his discussion with UMKC economics professor Michael Hudson on his new book Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy. Hedges and Hudson expose the liberal class’ allegiance to the predatory creditors on Wall Street and their indifference to real economic justice. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/day...
The Deep End episode 006 features an interview with author Joseph Plummer on his recent book "Tragedy and Hope 101: The Illusion of Justice, Freedom and Democracy" which summarizes Carroll Quigley's "The Anglo-American Establishment" and "Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time". You can get Joe's book at: http://joeplummer.com/tragedy-and-hop... Notes, References, and Links for this interview: https://www.tragedyandhope.com/the-de... To Learn more, search the History Blueprint as you digest this interview: https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/... To Purchase the History Blueprint: https://www.tragedyandhope.com/the-br...
In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews two veterans of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael Hanes and Rory Fanning. They lament the brutality of the American military presence, which they say creates the conditions for terrorism and fuels attacks in places like Brussels. They also speak out about the painful struggle of coping with PTSD, and the alienation faced by many soldiers when they come home. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/day...
Join us at Roosevelt House for a timely conversation about one of today’s most urgent policy questions – whether government spending is reckless wastefulness, as many argue, or whether the policy of draconian budget cuts has failed. In his acclaimed book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, Mark Blyth, professor of international political economy at Brown University, demonstrates how and why the global turn to austerity, the policy of reducing domestic wages and prices to restore competitiveness and balance the budget, hasn’t worked.
In conversation with Andrew J. Polsky, Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of political science at Hunter College, Professor Blyth will discuss recent examples of a policy that he shows has failed for a century. While it makes sense for any one state to try and cut its way to growth, Blyth argues, it simply cannot work when all states try it simultaneously: all we do is shrink the economy. In their discussion, professors Blyth and Polsky will examine why the arguments for austerity are tenuous and why austerity policy has almost always led to low growth and to increases in wealth and income inequality. They will also discuss how to counteract these trends with effective economic policies for the future.
Paul Krugman, in The New York Review of Books, wrote, “One of the especially good things in Mark Blyth’s Austerity is the way he traces the rise and fall of the idea of ‘expansionary austerity’, the proposition that cutting spending would actually lead to higher output. As Blyth documents, this idea ‘spread like wildfire.'”
"The truth about mobile phone and wireless radiation: what we know, what we need to find out, and what you can do now" Presented by Dr Devra Davis, Visiting Professor of Medicine at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, and Visiting Professor of Medicine at Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey.
The Lecture What are the health effects of mobile phones and wireless radiation? While Australia has led the world in safety standards, including compulsory seat-belt legislation, plain packaging on cigarettes, and product and food disclosure legislation, it falls behind in addressing the significant issues associated with mobile phone use. In this Dean’s Lecture, epidemiologist and electromagnetic radiation expert, Dr Devra Davis, will outline the evolution of the mobile phone and smartphone, and provide a background to the current 19 year old radiation safety standards (SAR), policy developments and international legislation. New global studies on the health consequences of mobile/wireless radiation will be presented, including children’s exposure and risks.
The Speaker Dr Devra Davis is an internationally recognised expert on electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and other wireless transmitting devices. She is currently the Visiting Professor of Medicine at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, and Visiting Professor of Medicine at Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey. Dr Davis was Founding Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute — the first institute of its kind in the world, to examine the environmental factors that contribute to the majority of cases of cancer.
In 2007, Dr Devra Davis founded nonprofit Environmental Health Trust to provide basic research and education about environmental health hazards. Dr Davis served as the President Clinton appointee to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board in the U.S.A. from 1994–1999, an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents and mitigates chemical accidents. As the former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, she has counseled leading officials in the United States, United Nations, European Environment Agency, Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization, and World Bank.
Dr Davis holds a B.S. in physiological psychology and an M.A. in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh, 1967. She completed a PhD in science studies at the University of Chicago as a Danforth Foundation Graduate Fellow, 1972 and a M.P.H. in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University as a Senior National Cancer Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow, 1982. She has authored more than 200 publications and has been published in Lancet and Journal of the American Medical Association as well as the Scientific American and the New York Times.
Dr Devra Davis is an internationally recognised expert on electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and other wireless transmitting devices.
Anuradha Mittal was one of 45 leading scholars, authors and activists who convened at The Great Hall of Cooper Union, New York City, on October 25-26, 2014, for the public presentation: "Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth." Speakers discussed the profound impacts—environmental, economic and social—of runaway technological expansionism and cyber immersion; the tendency to see technology as the savior for all problems. For more info, see http://ifg.org/techno-utopia/program/ .
Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights and agriculture issues. Recipient of several awards, Anuradha Mittal was named as the Most Valuable Thinker in 2008 by the Nation magazine.
Mittal has authored and edited numerous books and reports including (Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in the Global Land Grab; The Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor; Voices from Africa: African Farmers and Environmentalists Speak out Against a New Green Revolution; 2008 Food Price Crisis: Rethinking Food Security Policies; Going Gray in the Golden State: The Reality of Poverty Among Seniors in Oakland, California; Turning the Tide: Challenging the Right on Campus; Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation; America Needs Human Rights; and The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance. Her articles and opinion pieces have been published in widely circulated newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Bangkok Post, Houston Chronicle, and the Nation. Anuradha has addressed the Congress, the United Nations, given several hundred keynote addresses including invitational events from governments and universities, and has been interviewed on CNN, BBC World, CBC, ABC, Al-Jazeera, National Public Radio and Voice of America.
Ms. Mittal is on the board and advisory committees of several non profit organizations including the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), International Forum on Globalization, and is a member of the independent board of Ben & Jerry’s which focuses on providing leadership for Ben & Jerry’s social mission and brand integrity.
MP3 & SHOW NOTES: http://themindrenewed.com/interviews/... Our guest this week is Patrick M. Wood, editor of The August Forecast and The August Review, who joins us to discuss the foundation, ideology and ongoing power and influence of the globalist organisation The Trilateral Commission.
Co-author, with professor Antony Sutton, of the famous two-volume book "Trilaterals Over Washington", Patrick Wood explains how the Commission - an entirely private organisation founded by David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1973, and comprised of specially-invited elitist individuals - effectively hijacked the executive branch of the US government in order to steer US policy, and ultimately the world, towards a "New International Economic Order".
Borrowing heavily from the utopian Technocracy movement of the 1930s, that vision for World Order, he explains, is now being implemented at astonishing speed through the subversion of national sovereignty and the construction of a global infrastructure of control, seen most clearly in Agenda 21, the Smart Grid and the surveillance state.
Patrick Wood also shares with us how, through relating these distrubing developments to biblical prophecy, we can nevertheless live with hope and confidence in God, who is sovereign over all.
MP3 & SHOW NOTES: http://themindrenewed.com/interviews/... Atlas, the impressive brainchild of Boston Dynamics and icon of Industry 4.0, raises perhaps more concerns than it does hopes for the future. Will Atlas's cyber progeny and digital cousins bring to pass a brave new world of endless leisure for the masses, or will they usher in an age of mass unemployment, poverty, or worse?
We are joined once again by Patrick M. Wood, Editor-in-Chief of Technocracy News and Trends, who returns to the programme to discuss the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution—a highlight of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos—and to consider its role within the utopian vision of the neo-technocratic elites of today.
Patrick M. Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalisation policies since the late 1970s, when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession, and an American Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a biblical worldview and has deep historical insights into modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. A frequent speaker on radio shows around the U.S., Wood's current work centres in Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. As he says, the endgame is scientific dictatorship; we ignore it our peril.
Is the US president really serious about tackling corruption in the finance sector? Are the presidential candidates? Now they can prove it. Bank Whistleblowers United tell us how they can restore the rule of law to Wall Street and avoid the next financial crisis in 60 days without any new legislation. Plus: why a wave of tax amnesties is likely to sweep across the world (how does 1% tax and immunity from prosecution sound?) and what the very first transparency data on banks exposes about how they do business.
“it doesn’t matter what the rules are if you put people in charge who are committed to not enforcing the rules...not a single banking leader of the three fraud epidemics that drove the US financial crisis and much of the global financial crisis has been prosecuted for leading those fraud schemes, not one.”
William Black, Bank Whistleblowers United (serial whistleblower, former senior US regulator, white collar criminologist and Associate Professor of Law and Economics) www.neweconomicperspectives.org
In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews Michael Hudson, UMKC economics professor and author of Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy. In the first half of their conversation, Hedges and Hudson trace the history of classical economics and explore Marx’s interpretation of capitalism as exploitation. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/day...
Each musical work herein is owned by Professor Kliq and is used pursuant to a Creative Commons license. See below for a sourced list of all tracks.
In accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons license, the present work, “The Veneer of Justice in a Kingdom of Crime,” may be freely used, copied, and distributed so long as its source is attributed.
Introduction 1:45 Part 1 - Background 7:59 Part 2 - The Untouchables 15:30 Part 3 - The Cover-Up 25:20 Part 4 - The Criminal King 34:43 Honor Roll 44:40 _____________
Summary.
The criminal global banking cartel has effected a coup d’etat in the U.S. This is why the same criminal financial elite that saw 1000 of its members go to prison 20 years ago (after the S&L crisis) is now above the law.
To date, the question of why the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to prosecute even one too-big-to-fail bank for the pervasive criminal frauds that drove the multi-trillion-dollar economic meltdown of 2008 has been answered pretty much with shrugs.
By far the most insightful answer was provided by Martin Smith’s breathtaking Untouchables episode, which PBS Frontline aired in January 2013. See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/fil...
But even Smith’s answer—that the DOJ never truly investigated Wall Street crime due largely to the so-called collateral consequences doctrine—really explains how rather than why prosecutions have been scuttled.
In an effort to pick up where the Untouchables left off in early 2013, BestEvidence presents “The Veneer of Justice in a Kingdom of Crime.” In addition to analyzing events that have occurred since the Untouchables aired (including events caused by the Untouchables), and in an attempt to answer some of the deeply troubling issues raised by Martin Smith, “Veneer" examines certain implications the DOJ's pronouncements, since late 2012, that the rule of law is effectively dead (having been supplanted by the management of oversized global banks).
What follows is a brief American legal history of the executive branch's overthrow by criminal global banks, which is divided into four roughly chronological segments.
I. Background (March 2010 to December 2012)
Goldman Sachs’ legal defenses to fraud—and the DOJ’s adoption of those defenses—are summarized and exposed as false. The DOJ soon admits it refrains from prosecutions not based on any law, but on unspecified collateral effects that prosecutions allegedly would have.
II. Lessons From the Untouchables (January 2013)
Since it won't prosecute Wall Street, the DOJ doesn't even bother conducting investigations. The overriding factor is collateral consequences. Two potential sources for collateral consequences opinions emerge: government regulators and the very financial institutions that have been accused of crimes.
III. The DOJ’s Endless Lies to Conceal Its Master (February 2013 - April 2014)
The DOJ’s claim that government regulators provided opinions on collateral consequences is exposed as a lie. There never were any such regulators. Instead, the DOJ’s sources of collateral consequences opinions are—as the DOJ itself once admitted, before falsely backtracking—the very banks accused of crimes. The collateral consequences doctrine itself is next exposed as a sham, used by global banks to declare immunity from their own crimes—the act of a king.
IV. Presenting the True Sovereign Power in the Executive Branch
The one bank that’s on record as having gained access to a DOJ conference room—where, as the DOJ previously admitted, global banks asserted immunity from their own crimes—is revealed. The true chain of command in the DOJ is presented. ______________
Please support Professor Kliq, a young and wildly prolific musician with a vast range of cinematic music. If there’s anyone vying to pick up Ennio Morricone’s mantle, this is the guy. Don’t make him wait until he’s 87 years old for his reward! http://store.professorkliq.com
Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and US Imperialism
Deepa Kumar, Associate Professor of Media Studies at Rutgers University is a well-known author and media figure who has spoken at dozens of university and community forums on Islamophobia, Political Islam, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and women and Islam. Kumar has shared her expertise in media outlets that include Free Speech TV, the BBC, The New York Times, NPR and USA Today.
Kumar's work is driven by an active engagement with the key issues that characterize our era of neoliberalism and imperialism. Her first book, Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike (University of Illinois Press, 2007) is about the power of collective struggle in effectively challenging the priorities of neoliberalism. Her latest book, titled Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, examines ways in which the "Muslim enemy" has historically been mobilized to suit the goals of empire. Kumar has been active in various social movements for peace and justice and has written numerous articles in both scholarly journals and alternative media.
Thanks to The Willi Unsoeld Seminar Series and Evergreen State College
So, is anything in the financial sector actually fixed? Former top Wall Street banker Nomi Prins contends, “We have many trillions of dollars and government policy trying to basically cover up the holes in the entire financial system that could create another Lehman or multiple Lehmans. So, we have a white wash or a hole in the wall that’s been plastered over many, many, many times. The hole is still there. The danger is still there. The co-dependency is still there. The leverage is still there. . . .It all look like there has been this cosmetic shift supporting these banking institutions rather than supporting, from the bottom up, the economies of these countries. That has the effect of creating deterioration in any of the assets that these banks are still financing. . . . “Buying securities does not help people get jobs. It does not help industries to continue to innovate. It does absolutely nothing for spreading a foundation of solid economics throughout the population. All it does is make banks look better and cover these holes. Even with all that, holes continue to pop up and be visible, and that indicates a much larger problem. . . . People don’t have money. Even if the headline unemployment looks good, the reality is the jobs being created do not pay well. So, people don’t have any money.”
In closing, Prins paints a grim picture by saying, “When there is no artificial external buyer for debt, that’s when things will fall apart.”
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Nomi Prins, best-selling author of “All the Presidents’ Bankers.”
Morris Berman fields questions from Mexican university students. What used to be the American way of life? What is the "hustler" mentality? How will the American Empire transition? What does he think of people who deny the decline of American Empire? Why is the American Dream elusive or a lie? How should American leaders handle the decline of empire? Why is Donald Trump so popular? Why does he think Hillary Clinton will win the election? How does Dr. Berman define traditional Mexican culture? What happens to Mexicans who go to the USA? Where is US influence felt most in Mexican society? How can people engage in making change and fighting injustice? Comments on McFarland, USA.
About the Guest
Morris Berman is well known as an innovative cultural historian and social critic. He has taught at a number of universities in Europe and North America, and has held visiting endowed chairs at Incarnate Word College (San Antonio), the University of New Mexico, and Weber State University. During 1982-88 he was the Lansdowne Professor in the History of Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Berman won the Governor’s Writers Award for Washington State in 1990, the Rollo May Center Grant for Humanistic Studies in 1992, and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity (from the Media Ecology Association) in 2013.
He is the author of a trilogy on the evolution of human consciousness–-The Reenchantment of the World (1981), Coming to Our Senses (1989), and Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality (2000)–and in 2000 his Twilight of American Culture was named a “Notable Book” by the New York Times Book Review. Dr. Berman relocated to Mexico in 2006, and during 2008-9 was a Visiting Professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City.
Sponsored by The Nation Institute and The New School (http://www.newschool.edu), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and acclaimed author Chris Hedges sits down for a one-to-one interview with public intellectual, academic and activist Cornel West.
We are riding the crest of a revolutionary epic: from the historic referendum against austerity in Greece to #BlackLivesMatter and the Fight for $15. In his new book, Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges—who has long chronicled the malaise of a society in moral decline — investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. In what will be a timely and thought-provoking conversation, Cornel West will engage Hedges’ on his message that popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization and together discuss the moral imperative of revolt.
Location: The Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street, Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall Wednesday, October 14, 2015 at 6:30 pm
Als Ort der intellektuellen Innovation außerhalb des universitären Rahmens ermöglicht das Einstein Forum, Potsdam, den Austausch von Ideen über Fach- und geographische Grenzen hinweg. Damit bietet es der Öffentlichkeit die Möglichkeit, in einen offenen Dialog mit internationalen Denkern und Wissenschaftlern zu treten. Durch Vorträge, Workshops und Tagungen, an denen jedermann teilnehmen kann, erfüllt das Einstein Forum eine doppelte Funktion. Zum einen erlaubt es der Öffentlichkeit, in die Arbeit hervorragender zeitgenössischer Denker Einblick zu nehmen, und ermuntert diese gleichzeitig, traditionelle akademische Grenzen zu überschreiten. Indem es Möglichkeiten eröffnet, die sonst Eliten vorbehalten bleiben, zielt das Einstein Forum auf eine Demokratisierung des intellektuellen Prozesses selbst.
Am Montag, 21. Oktober 2013 war der Autor und Journalist Jeremy Scahill, New York, zu Gast. Gesprächsleitung: Prof. Dr. Bernd Greiner, Hamburg
In seinem neuen Buch Schmutzige Kriege: Amerikas geheime Kommandoaktionen erzählt Jeremy Scahill, wie es dazu kam, dass Mord zu einem zentralen Instrument der U.S.-Sicherheitspolitik geworden ist, und welche Konsequenzen diese Entscheidung hat -- für unzählige Menschen in den unterschiedlichsten Ländern und für die Zukunft der amerikanischen Demokratie. In Afghanistan und Pakistan, Jemen, Somalia und anderen Ländern interviewte Scahill CIA-Agenten, Söldner und Spezialkräfte der US-Army. Er begab sich tief in das von Al-Qaida gehaltene Territorium im Jemen, traf von der CIA protegierte Warlords in Mogadischu und sprach mit den zivilen Opfern der Einsätze amerikanischer Spezialkommandos und Drohnenattacken, die die Vereinigten Staaten lieber geheim halten wollen. In dieser bedrohlichen Geschichte von der Front der unerklärten Kriege dokumentiert Jeremy Scahill das neue Paradigma der amerikanischen Kriegsführung: Gekämpft wird überall, von Spezialkräften, die offiziell gar nicht existieren, aber weltweit unzählige Einsätze durchführen, die nie ans Licht der Öffentlichkeit geraten. Er zeigt, dass diese verdeckten amerikanischen Kriege, anstatt die USA -- und die Welt -- vor dem Terror zu schützen, dazu führen, dass der Terror wachsen und sich weiter ausbreiten wird.
Jeremy Scahill arbeitet für Zeitschriften wie The Nation und ist Korrespondent der Radio- und Fernsehshow Democracy Now! Als Reporter hat er aus dem Jugoslawienkrieg, Nigeria und dem Irak berichtet. Neben Schmutzige Kriege ist er Autor des internationalen Bestsellers Blackwater (2008), in dem er als einer der Ersten über die berühmt-berüchtigte Söldnerfirma berichtete. Bernd Greiner ist Historiker und Politologe. Er leitet den Arbeitsbereich "Theorie und Geschichte der Gewalt" am Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung. Zuletzt ist von ihm erschienen: 9/11. Der Tag, die Angst, die Folgen (2011).
Vortrag in englischer Sprache!
Eine Gemeinschaftsveranstaltung mit dem Verlag Antje Kunstmann
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong is a 1995 book by sociologist James W. Loewen. It critically examines twelve American history textbooks and concludes that textbook authors propagate factually false, Eurocentric, and mythologized views of history. In addition to critiquing the dominant historical themes presented in textbooks, Loewen presents a number of his own historical themes that he says are ignored by traditional history textbooks. A newly revised and updated hardcover edition was released on April 1, 2008. The New Press lists Lies My Teacher Told Me as its top all-time bestseller.
In Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen criticizes modern American history textbooks for containing incorrect information about people and events such as Christopher Columbus, the lies and inaccuracies in the history books regarding the dealings between the Europeans and the Native Americans, and their often deceptive and inaccurate teachings told about America's commerce in slavery. He further criticizes the texts for a tendency to avoid controversy and for their "bland" and simplistic style. He proposes that when American history textbooks elevate American historical figures to the status of heroes, they unintentionally give students the impression that these figures are superhumans who live in the irretrievable past. In other words, the history-as-myth method teaches students that America's greatest days have already passed. Loewen asserts that the muting of past clashes and tragedies makes history boring to students, especially groups excluded from the positive histories.
The twelve textbooks Loewen examined for the first edition are: The American Adventure (1975) American Adventures (1987) American History (1982) The American Pageant (1991) The American Tradition (1984) The American Way (1979) The Challenge of Freedom (1990) Discovering American History (1974) Land of Promise (1983) Life and Liberty (1984) Triumph of the American Nation (1986) The United States: A History of the Republic (1991) In the second edition, Loewen added six more books; including a newer edition of The American Pageant: The American Journey (2000) The American Pageant (2006) The Americans (2007) America: Pathways to the Present (2005) A History of the United States (2005) Holt American Nation (2003)
Lies my Teacher Told Me is the winner of the 1996 American Book Award,[3] the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and the Critics Choice Award of the American Educational Studies Association. Sundown Towns was named one of ten Distinguished Books of 2005 by the Gustavus Myers Foundation. Conservative activist David Horowitz has criticized some of Loewen's assertions for their partiality and inaccuracy, in particular questioning Loewen's claims about the relationship between American Indians and Columbus.
Lies My Teacher Told Me is mentioned in the novel Deadline by Chris Crutcher. Lies My Teacher Told Me is mentioned in the liner notes of the Rise Against album, The Sufferer & the Witness.
Cuba expert and member of the Venceremos Brigade, Kenneth Jones recently returned from trips to Cuba and Angola. Jones provides detailed information and insight into the history and current state of struggle by the government of Angola as it faces the U.S.-backed rebel forces and the American-supplied South African forces trying to overthrow the government. Interspersed with Jones comments are sections recorded from Cuban TV of three one-hour documentaries about the Cuban armed forces' participation in the defense of the Angolan government. Relevant portions of previous programs with former CIA case officer John R. Stockwell are also interwoven into the program. John ran* the Angolan program** for the CIA in the early 1970s.
* CIA Angola Task Force Commander 1975-1976 ** CIA Operation IA Feature
The American upper class describes the sociological concept pertaining to the "top layer" of society in the United States. This social class is most commonly described as consisting of those with great wealth and power and may also be referred to as the Capitalist Class or simply as The Rich. Persons of this class commonly have immense influence in the nation's political and economic institutions as well as public opinion.
Many politicians, heirs to fortunes, top business executives, CEOs, successful venture capitalists and celebrities are considered members of this class. Some prominent and high-rung professionals may also be included if they attain great influence and wealth. The main distinguishing feature of this class, which is estimated to constitute roughly 1% of the population, is the source of income. While the vast majority of persons and households derive their income from salaries, those in the upper class derive their income from investments and capital gains. Estimates for the size of this group commonly vary from 1% to 2%, while some surveys have indicated that as many as 6% of Americans identify as "upper class." Sociologist Leonard Beeghley sees wealth as the only significant distinguishing feature of this class and, therefore, refers to this group simply as "the rich." " "The members of the tiny capitalist class at the top of the hierarchy have an influence on economy and society far beyond their numbers. They make investment decisions that open or close employment opportunities for millions of others. They contribute money to political parties, and they often own media enterprises that allow them influence over the thinking of other classes... The capitalist class strives to perpetuate itself: Assets, lifestyles, values and social networks... are all passed from one generation to the next." -Dennis Gilbert, The American Class Structure, 1998 "
Sociologists such as W. Lloyd Warner, William Thompson and Joseph Hickey recognize prestige differences between members of the upper class. Established families, prominent professionals and politicians may be deemed to have more prestige than some entertainment celebrities who in turn may have more prestige than the members of local elites. Yet, contemporary sociologists argue that all members of the upper class share such great wealth, influence and assets as their main source of income as to be recognized as members of the same social class. As great financial fortune is the main distinguishing feature of this class, sociologist Leonard Beeghley at the University of Florida identifies all "rich" households, those with incomes in the top 1% or so, as upper class.
Functional theorists in sociology and economics assert that the existence of social classes is necessary in order to distribute persons so that only the most qualified are able to acquire positions of power, and so that all persons fulfill their occupational duties to the greatest extent of their ability. Notably, this view does not address wealth, which plays an important role in allocating status and power.
In order to make sure that important and complex tasks are handled by qualified and motivated personnel, society offers incentives such as income and prestige. The more scarce qualified applicants are and the more essential the given task is, the larger the incentive will be. Income and prestige which are often used to tell a person's social class, are merely the incentives given to that person for meeting all qualifications to complete an important task that is of high standing in society due to its functional value. "It should be stressed... that a position does not bring power and prestige because it draws a high income. Rather, it draws a high income because it is functionally important and the available personnel is for one reason or another scarce. It is therefore superficial and erroneous to regard high income as the cause of a man's power and prestige, just as it is erroneous to think that a man's fever is the cause of his disease... The economic source of power and prestige is not income primarily, but the ownership of capital goods (including patents, good will, and professional reputation). Such ownership should be distinguished from the possession of consumers' goods, which is an index rather than a cause of social standing." -Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, Principles of Stratification. "
As mentioned above, income is one of the most prominent features of social class, but not necessarily one of its causes. In other words, income does not determine the status of an individual or household but rather reflects upon that status. Income and prestige are the incentives in order to fill all positions with the most qualified and motivated personnel possible.
During the period of U.S. combat involvement in the Vietnam War, there was considerable argument about progress among the Department of Defense under Robert McNamara, the CIA, and, to some extent, the intelligence staff of Military Assistance Command Vietnam. In general, the military was consistently more optimistic than the CIA. Sam Adams, a junior CIA analyst with responsibilities for estimating the actual damage to the enemy, eventually resigned from the CIA, after expressing concern to Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms with estimates that were changed for interagency and White House political reasons. Adams afterward wrote the book War of Numbers.
Things came to a head in the mid-1970s, around the time of Watergate. A dominant feature of political life during that period were the attempts of Congress to assert oversight of the U.S. Presidency and the executive branch of the U.S. government. Revelations about past CIA activities, such as assassinations and attempted assassinations of foreign leaders (most notably Fidel Castro and Rafael Trujillo) and illegal domestic spying on U.S. citizens, provided the opportunities to increase Congressional oversight of U.S. intelligence operations.[64]
Hastening the CIA's fall from grace were the burglary of the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic Party by ex-CIA agents, and President Richard Nixon's subsequent attempt to use the CIA to impede the FBI's investigation of the burglary. In the famous "smoking gun" recording that led to President Nixon's resignation, Nixon ordered his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, to tell the CIA that further investigation of Watergate would "open the whole can of worms" about the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.[65] In this way Nixon and Haldemann ensured that the CIA's No. 1 and No. 2 ranking officials, Richard Helms and Vernon Walters, communicated to FBI Director L. Patrick Gray that the FBI should not follow the money trail from the burglars to the Committee to Re-elect the President, as it would uncover CIA informants in Mexico. The FBI initially agreed to this due to a long-standing agreement between the FBI and CIA not to uncover each other's sources of information. Though within a couple of weeks the FBI demanded this request in writing, and when no such formal request came, the FBI resumed its investigation into the money trail. Nonetheless, when the smoking gun tapes were made public, damage to the public's perception of CIA's top officials, and thus to the CIA as a whole, could not be avoided.[66]
In 1973, then-Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) James R. Schlesinger commissioned reports -- known as the "Family Jewels" -- on illegal activities by the Agency. In December 1974, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the news of the "Family Jewels" (after it was leaked to him by DCI William Colby) in a front-page article in The New York Times, claiming that the CIA had assassinated foreign leaders, and had illegally conducted surveillance on some 7,000 U.S. citizens involved in the antiwar movement (Operation CHAOS).[64] The CIA had also experimented on people, who unknowingly took LSD (among other things).[64]
Congress responded to the disturbing charges in 1975, investigating the CIA in the Senate via the Church Committee, chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), and in the House of Representatives via the Pike Committee, chaired by Congressman Otis Pike (D-NY).[64] In addition, President Gerald Ford created the Rockefeller Commission,[64] and issued an executive order prohibiting the assassination of foreign leaders.
During the investigation, Schlesinger's successor as DCI, William Colby, testified before Congress on 32 occasions in 1975, including about the "Family Jewels".[67] Colby later stated that he believed that providing Congress with this information was the correct thing to do, and ultimately in the CIA's own interests.[68] As the CIA fell out of favor with the public, Ford assured Americans that his administration was not involved: "There are no people presently employed in the White House who have a relationship with the CIA of which I am personally unaware."[64]
Repercussions from the Iran-Contra affair arms smuggling scandal included the creation of the Intelligence Authorization Act in 1991. It defined covert operations as secret missions in geopolitical areas where the U.S. is neither openly nor apparently engaged. This also required an authorizing chain of command, including an official, presidential finding report and the informing of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, which, in emergencies, requires only "timely notification."
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, activist, and the best-selling author of several books including: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002) – a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction; Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009); Death of the Liberal Class (2010); the New York Times best seller, with cartoonist Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012); and his most recent publication, Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt (2015).
Hedges is currently a columnist for the progressive news and commentary website Truthdig. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times, where he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.
In 2002, Hedges was part of a group of eight reporters at The New York Times awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He also received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2002. Hedges has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey.
This lecture by Hedges was part of the Centre for the Study of the United States (CSUS) F. Ross Johnson-Connaught speaker series.
Which country is the second easiest in the world after Kenya to set up an anonymous shell company? We shine the spotlight on tax haven USA and the lawyers secretly filmed by Global Witness advising a fake corrupt African government Minister. Also: we discuss Google's tiny tax payment in the UK and how politicians are interfering with the independence of our tax authorities, and the rise of the unnoticed tax haven of Taiwan. Plus more scandal and unique analysis you won't find anywhere else.
Featuring: Eryn Schornick of Global Witness, Clark Gascoigne of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, John Christensen and Markus Meinzer of the Tax Justice Network, and the voices of some (now shamefaced) New York lawyers. @TheTaxcast is produced and presented by @Naomi_Fowler
"I regret to say this, I really do, we cannot trust the tax authorities any longer to act in the public interest, it is quite clear that as a result of of political lobbying and state capture that the politicians in many countries...can no longer be trusted to not interfere constantly with the supposedly independent tax authorities”
John Christensen, Tax Justice Network
“If I were corrupt foreign official I'd be looking to the United States...The rest of the world is leaping ahead of the United States in tax transparency stuff and the United States is continuing to go it alone.”
Clark Gascoigne, Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition
The United States is “so hostile to moving anywhere nearer full-fledged membership of international community and it’s geared towards US first, US interest alone and above everyone else's.”
Markus Meinzer, Tax Justice Network
You can read more abut the Global Witness undercover investigation here: www.globalwitness.org/shadyinc
http://www.positivemoney.org/ On Monday 7th September 2015, Positive Money hosted a high-level panel discussion, “Making Money Work”, with Lord Adair Turner, Professor Steve Keen (Kingston University) and Chris Giles (Financial Times) in Central Hall Westminster. It was the biggest event on monetary financing that has ever taken place.
The event was attended by around 200 people, including leading figures in finance and civil society. Those taking part included Richard Murphy, advisor to Jeremy Corbyn, Natalie Bennett, leader of Green Party, as well as ex-banker and economics commentator Frances Coppola.
Lord Turner gave a talk on how the monetary system works, the dangers of debt-fuelled growth and monetary financing as a new monetary policy tool that should be considered by governments and central banks.
After his presentation, Lord Turner was joined by Professor Steve Keen, Head of School of Economics, History and Politics at Kingston University, London and Chris Giles, Economics Editor of the Financial Times. The discussion was focused on the question “Can innovations in monetary policy promote long-term prosperity?”
Most of artwork that are included with these videos have been created by X22 Report and they are used as a representation of the subject matter. The representative artwork included with these videos shall not be construed as the actual events that are taking place.
Intro Music: YouTube Free Music Hey Sailor by Letter Box
Fair Use Notice: This video contains some copyrighted material whose use has not been authorized by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational, and/or criticism or commentary use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified, wants us to link to their web site, or wants us to add their photo.
The X22 Report is "one man's opinion". Anything that is said on the report is either opinion, criticism, information or commentary, If making any type of investment or legal decision it would be wise to contact or consult a professional before making that decision.
An excellent interview from the Extraenvironmentalist with Dr. Michael Huesemann, author of Techno-Fix, focusing on "technological optimism" and why technological solutions have failed to solve our long-term problems with resource scarcity and environmental degradation.
The Extraenvironmentalist by Seth Moser-Katz and Justin Ritchie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. I have not edited the show at all; it appears here exactly as it was podcast.
Jacques Ellul was a French theologian/sociologist & anarchist. He first became well-known to American readers when his book The Technological Society was published in English in 1964.
This book leveled a broad critique of technique, a term that means more than gadgets and machines -- as the English word technology means.
For Ellul, technique represented an entire way of life characterized by life fragmented so that efficiency ultimately rules over all ethical decisions.
Ellul warned that technique was having drastic effects on all aspects of modern life. His books, Anarchy and Christianity, The Politics of God and the Politics of Man are two examples of how his political and religious outlooks mutually reinforced one another.
Many Green Anarchists have cited Ellul's work on technique as influential on their thought.
J. Ellul, The Technological Society, Intro:
"The term technique, as I use it, does not mean machines, technology, or this or that procedure for attaining an end. In our technological society, technique is the totality of methods ralionally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity. Its characteristics are new; the technique of the present has no common measure with that of the past." (p. xxv)
"Capitalism did not create our world; the machine did. Painstaking studies designed to prove the contrary have buried the obvious beneath tons of print. And, if we do not wish to play the demagogue, we must point out the guilty party. 'The machine is antisocial', says Lewis Mumford. 'It tends, by reason of its progressive character, to the most acute forms of human exploitation.' The machine took its place in a social milieu that was not made for it, and for that reason created the inhuman society in which we live. Capitalism was therefore only one aspect of the deep disorder of the nineteenth century. To restore order, it was necessary to question all the bases of that society — its social and political structures, its art and its way of life, its commercial system." (p. 5)
In 1950, Ellul finished his manuscript La Technique ou l'enjeu du siecle (The Technological Society), his seminal analysis of the way technology shapes every aspect of society. As contemporary thinker, he was strongly influenced by Kierkegaard, Marx and Barth. After a live, in which he wrote close to fifty books, Ellul died in the summer of 1994, at the age of 82.
The team of ReRun Produkties visited Ellul in 1990. During five subsequent days, long interview sessions were held with him in his old mansion in Pessac. The Betrayal by Technology is one of the very few existing filmed recordings of Jacques Ellul speaking.
You might not want to pin your hopes on nanotechnology, genetic engineering, or miracle drugs, says Michael Huesemann, author of Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us Or the Environment. As much as we’d like to believe that technological innovation will let us magically continue our lifestyle and prevent social, economic, and environmental collapse, Huesemann shows that most technological solutions are ineffective—and, in the presence of continued economic growth, modern technology does not promote sustainability, but hastens collapse.
Bank conspiracy, collapse and the failure of the federal reserve is explored with Nomi Prins. ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ BANKERS, Prins’ new book, plus impending doom for the dollar and the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act is discussed, as we follow the money and debt in the banking industry to see who is really coming out on top, and who is most at risk in this economy, on Buzzsaw hosted by Sean Stone.
GUEST BIO: Nomi Prins is a political-finance expert, author and speaker. She is the author of six books including her latest, All the Presidents' Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power, the historical novel, Black Tuesday and other non-fiction books, It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street and Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America which predicted the 2008 crisis. She has appeared as a frequent commentator on international and national TV programs including for: CNN, BBC World, RtTV, Before becoming an author, Nomi worked on Wall Street as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, and Senior Managing Director running the international analytics group at Bear Stearns in London, as well as having held positions at Lehman Brothers and the Chase Manhattan Bank (JPM Chase). She is a Senior Fellow at the public policy think-tank, Demos.
Paul Mason, Economics Editor for Channel 4 News, presents the thesis from his latest book 'PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future' at St Paul's Cathedral for an event organised by St Paul's Institute and Penguin UK. Responses from Ann Pettifor (Director, PRIME) and Phillip Blond (Director, ResPublica), Chaired by Elizabeth Oldfield (Director, Theos) on 3rd November 2015.
For the first time, Foster and Kimberly are hosting live, interactive, online video events to engage the Thrive Movement in addressing key principles and strategies to inform the most leveraged solutions. Check out our new ThriveTogether initiative (www.thrivemovement.com/thrive-together-
enrollment) to learn more.
If you value what is presented in this movie, please go to http://www.thrivemovement.com/donations where you can support Thrive Movement by making a donation. You will also find more in-depth information on each of the subjects discussed in the movie, learn about Critical Mass initiatives supported by Thrive, and connect with others who are waking up and taking action.
Film Synopsis: THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream -- uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future.
In September 2015, Prabhat Patnaik spoke at the Inaugural Conference of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group (GERG) at the University of Manitoba.
Patnaik is an Indian economist and political commentator who taught at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in the School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, from 1974 until his retirement in 2010.
He was the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Board of the Indian state of Kerala from June 2006 to May 2011 and in 2008 was part of a four-member high-power United Nations task force chaired by Josephy Stiglitz, to recommend reform measures for the global financial system.
A few years ago, those who warned us about the risks of technological unemployment were labelled as luddites, crazy, or techno-pessimists. Now some of the greatest economists agree that automation poses a serious threat to the economy, with jobs disappearing and inequality on the rise. Today, those proposing radically new ideas to deal with this problem are being called crazy and idealistic. Old ideologies are outdated in the face of exponential change; we need to embrace a more holistic and adaptive system. I believe experiments with unconditional basic income, coupled with the utilization of crypto currencies and blockchain-based technologies, will help us find the answers.’
Federico Pistono is a futurist, social entrepreneur, hacktivist, public speaker, founder and CEO of konoz – a startup that curates and organizes educational videos, whose mission is to become the largest online community for free learning in the world – and he's author of the best-selling book "Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and Be Happy", which has been translated into Spanish, German, and Italian. He lectures regularly at Universities and Fortune 500 companies about the future of humanity.
VPRO Backlight talks about the need for social security experiments to give people the opportunity to make the most of their own talents and qualities.
Featuring: Guy Standing (economist, UK), Matthias Gijsbertsen (alderman for Social Affairs, Groningen), Albert Wenger (venture investor, New York) and Michael Bohmeyer (IT entrepreneur, Germany).
Around the globe, experiments are conducted with alternatives for the existing social security system that has become stuck. People no longer believe in centrally organised long-term planning: change can only be brought about by bottom-up small-scale social experiments. Advocates of redistributing our prosperity and disconnecting work and income are fighting for this. In many places and using many different methods they are experimenting with handing out free money.
Michael Bohmeyer, a young German, has started a crowdfunding campaign for an unconditional basic income. With every 12,000 euros raised, one person gets an income of 1000 euros per month for a year. So far, eight people have been receiving this basic income. There are no obligations other than to submit themselves to research into how this effects their lives. In New York, Michael meets venture investor Albert Wenger who has been thinking about basic income for years. With his company he invested in many internet companies and with these investments he has helped young internet geniuses get well-paid jobs. But Wenger also sees that digitalisation has caused many people to their jobs. Embracing the development toward a basic income, he argues a new perspective on work.
British economist Guy Standing may be one of the greatest advocates of a thorough renewal of the social system. He has conducted basic income experiments in India and Namibia. He sees a growing economic class of flex workers and independent contractors with so little perspective that something needs to be done in order to prevent extensive social unrest. Earlier this year, Guy Standing was in Groningen on invitation by people from MIES (Association for Innovation of Economy and Society). Here, he had a conversation with Matthias Gijsbertsen, the alderman of Social Affairs of the city of Groningen. The alderman was inspired by the idea of a basic income and suggested to offer citizens of Groningen who are on social security the opportunity to earn extra money without lowering social security payments.
Since 1982, all inhabitants of Alaska have received yearly dividends from the revenues of the oil and gas industry without any obligation whatsoever.
On February 8 we will go Live from Berlin with an extraordinary episode of our political webshow TalkReal one day ahead of the launch of the new movement DiEM25 by Yanis Varoufakis.
WIth Yanis Varoufakis, Marisa Matias, Portuguese Presidential candidate for the Left, Sławomir Sierakowski, founder of Krytyka Polityczna and Valentina Orazzini, international representative of the Italian Trade Union Fiom Cgil Nazionale. The talk will be led and presented by Lorenzo Marsili (@l_marsili), director of European Alternatives.
Today, we feel trapped between a rock and a hard place. Squeezed between a failing and undemocratic European Union and equally failing and undemocratic national states.
But beyond sterile arguments over the benefits of an independent nation-state or of a united Europe, we think that what we should really be talking about is how to organise to transform both.
On the 9th of February, 2016, Yanis Varoufakis & Srecko Horvat launched a movement called Democracy in Europe Movement 25 (DiEM25) in Berlin at Volksbühne.
Due to limited financial resources, personnel and technical capacities, we plan to release the entire interview in a “mini-video” format. As a non-profit & volunteer based organization, this format provides us with sufficient time to coordinate our time outside of our occupational commitments and translate the content into multiple languages, subtitle & voice-synchronize it for people with hearing & visual impairment. Please assist us in the production and publishing process by donating: http://www.actvism.org/en/donate/
In this video, acTVism Munich interviews Yanis Varoufakis, a world renowned economist who was a former member of the Greek parliament. He gained immense popularity when he served as finance minister (27 January 2015 – 6 July 2015) for the Greek government, a post that he left shortly after he found out that Greek government made the decision to implement the austerity package of the Troika against the popular vote (OXI) of the Greek people . This interview focuses on the history of the global economic system, the transformations that it underwent after World War II and attempts to connect it to the current economic crisis that is sweeping throughout Europe and the globe.
- Is there such a thing as a "Greek-crisis"? - Are pensions, social security benefits & high-wages the reasons why we are facing an economic downturn or are there underlying factors involved? - What is the history of the global capitalist system and how is it affecting states and individuals today?
These questions are answered in this interview with Yanis Varoufakis.
Mike Lofgren, a congressional staff member for 28 years, joins Bill Moyers to talk about what he calls Washington's "Deep State," in which elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. "It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war," Lofgren tells Moyers.
We live in an era of upheaval with the word “revolution” on the tip of many a tongue. But what kind of revolution is it to be? Join us this week on the podcast as we scour the secret text of Emmanuel Goldstein and the scientific philosophy of Thomas Kuhn in search of the only revolution that matters: the revolution of the mind.
In the second installment of this two-part episode, Abby Martin continues her investigation of the hidden war on the U.S.-Mexico border, looking at the root causes of the epidemic of migrant deaths. The Empire Files documents an inflated, paramilitary Border Patrol, the devastating impacts of NAFTA, how the U.S. Empire benefits from immigrant labor and what can change the equation.
Featuring interviews with Todd Miller, author of 'Border Patrol Nation', and Araceli Rodriguez, mother of Jose Antonio, a 16-year-old boy murdered by Border Patrol. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/the...
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, activist, and the best-selling author of several books including: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002) – a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction; Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009); Death of the Liberal Class (2010); the New York Times best seller, with cartoonist Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012); and his most recent publication, Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt (2015).
Hedges is currently a columnist for the progressive news and commentary website Truthdig. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times, where he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.
In 2002, Hedges was part of a group of eight reporters at The New York Times awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He also received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2002. Hedges has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey.
This lecture by Hedges was part of the Centre for the Study of the United States (CSUS) F. Ross Johnson-Connaught speaker series.
Why Nature Matters, and Not (Always) in the Way You Might Think
Finance. Climate. Food. Work. How are the crises of the twenty-first century connected? In this talk, Jason W. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. Drawing on environmentalist, feminist, and Marxist thought, Moore offers a groundbreaking new synthesis: capitalism as a “world-ecology” of wealth, power, and nature. Capitalism’s greatest strength—and the source of its problems—is its capacity to create Cheap Natures: labor, food, energy, and raw materials. That capacity is now in question. Rethinking capitalism through the pulsing and renewing dialectic of humanity-in-nature, Moore takes readers on a journey from the rise of capitalism to the mosaic of crisis and limits today. He shows how thinking about humanity as part of nature is key to understanding our predicament, and to pursuing the politics of liberation and sustainability in the century ahead.
Bio
Jason W. Moore is Associate Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, where he teaches world history and world-ecology. He is author of Capitalism in the Web of Life (Verso, 2015) and editor of Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism (PM Press, 2016). He writes frequently on the history of capitalism, environmental history, and social theory. Moore is presently completing Ecology and the Rise of Capitalism, an environmental history of the rise of capitalism, and with Raj Patel, Seven Cheap Things: A World-Ecological Manifesto – both with the University of California Press. He is coordinator of the World-Ecology Network (https://worldecologynetwork.wordpress...). Many of his essays can be found on his website: www.jasonwmoore.com.
Along the southern border of the United States is a graveyard, where hundreds upon hundreds of human remains are waiting to be found in the sand. They are teenagers, mothers and spouses walking the only path available to them—away from poverty and violence: towards their families, the only place safer and easier to eat. In Part 1 of this two-part series, Abby Martin reveals a catastrophe at the Empire's gates; not only a shockingly high body count, but a humanitarian crisis manufactured by the U.S. government. Sinister tactics, a for-profit prison pipeline, and a court system that looks more like a slave auction than a trial await those who survive. Join The Empire Files on-location to learn how Border Patrol has turned land into a weapon, to take the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/the...
To get his insight on the state of the US economy and the roots of Europe’s refugee crisis, Boom Bust correspondent Bianca Facchinei sat down with Paul Craig Roberts – chairman of the Institute for Political Economy and former assistant secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan.
Richest 1% own more than 88% - Simon Dixon discusses on Davos Report
In this edition of The Debate, Press TV has conducted an interview with Simon Dixon, the author of "Bank to the Future", from London, and the columnist of The Hill, Brent Budowsky, from Washington, to discuss Oxfam's report on the financial inequality across the world.
Dixon believes that the current gap between the rich and the poor is the direct result of “quantitative easing” policy adopted by central banks in different parts of the world to serve the interests of large corporations and big banks.
The quantitative easing policy has actually taken tax payers’ money, government assets, and enormous forms of wealth and put them into the hands of large corporations and banks, Dixon says, adding that it provides wealthy people in the world with easy access to cheap credit.
“The system is fixed. The game is rigged. It is in favor of the big banks, in favor of Wall Street firms, in favor of the super-wealthy and against the poor and against average folks in the middle class and workers,” Brent Budowsky says.
He also appreciates the approach of the US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders towards the issue of economic inequality, adding that people in the US and Europe should force their governments, whether through elections or forming social movements such as Occupy Wall Street, to change the current financial systems voluntarily and build a just and equal economy.
The war in Syria is an unparalleled crisis. It has gone far beyond an internal political struggle, and is marked by a complex array of forces that the U.S. Empire hopes to command: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and more. To simplify this web of enemies and friends, Abby Martin interviews Dr. Vijay Prashad, professor of International Studies at Trinity College and author of several books.
What's Scotland got to do with the plunder of Moldova? We take a look at the 'Wild West' of Scottish Limited Partnerships. Also, we discuss the tensions in the EU; is the net finally closing on multinational companies, the tax minimisation deals they've been getting from various European countries and the big four accountancy firms who advised them? Just how bad was the sell off of one of Colombia's most profitable power generation companies? And what's former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair got to do with it? And why's it been ignored outside Latin America? Also, we talk about the MEP who's dragging the European Commission through the courts to get access to papers they'd rather we didn't see. John Christensen will eat his hat if they DON'T reveal what MEP Fabio De Masi believes they will: 'systematic political backup for a tax avoidance cartel that costs taxpayers in the EU hundreds of billions of dollars annually.'
Featuring: The Tax Justice Network director John Christensen, Daria Kaleniuk of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Ukraine http://antac.org.ua/en/ Finance journalist and writer Ian Fraser www.ianfraser.org Richard Smith, finance journalist and blogger at Naked Capitalism www.nakedcapitalism.com
Produced and presented by @Naomi_Fowler for the Tax Justice Network. Also available on iTunes.
Professor Noam Chomsky presented a lecture 'Changing Contours of Global Order' a look at our drastically changing world, and the implications for domestic and world order on 4 November 2011.
This was a free public lecture and was Professor Chomsky's only public appearance in Melbourne, Australia.
Professor Chomsky was an invited guest of Deakin University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Plutocracy is the first documentary to comprehensively examine early American history through the lens of class. A multi-part series by filmmaker Scott Noble, Part I focuses on the the ways in which the American people have historically been divided on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex and skill level.
Plutocracy: Divide et Impera (Divide and Rule) includes sections on Mother Jones, the American Constitution; the Civil War draft riots; Reconstruction; Industrialization; the evolution of the police; the robber barons; early American labor unions; and major mid-to-late 19th Century labor events including the uprising of 1877, the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead strike and the New Orleans General Strike. The introduction examines the West Virginian coal wars of the early 20th Century, culminating in the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Part II (‘Solidarity Forever’) will cover the late 19th Century to the early twenties.
The filmmaker is currently seeking donations to complete the project. If you’d like to help, you can donate to their Patreon account.
The oil industry is a powerhouse with control over land, resources, politics and more. In this episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin uncovers big oil's strong-arm reach--its growth, its crimes, its power and its impunity.
Featuring interviews with two investigative journalists who have covered oil disasters on-the-ground--Antonia Juhasz, author of "Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill", and Greg Palast, author of "Vulture's Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pig, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores." http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/the...
This week:--- 'tis better to give than to receive – but who are you giving to and who's really receiving the gift? With the help of non-profit employee and activist, Anna Kaminski, we dive into the non-profit industry and peek behind that shiny charity veneer. Next up, from coast to coast, let's talk the fossil fuel industry – fracking, oil trains, export terminals oh my. Activists are making gains but they need your help in taking this fight up to the next level. But first, you have to lose it – a paradigm lost.
Eduardo Galeano: "El mundo se divide en indignos e indignados"
The Crime of Ecocide
http://www.pollyhiggins.com/
"... move away from property laws to trusteeship laws, so rather than I own, to I owe. I owe a duty of care to this planet."
12-year old Victoria Grant explains why Canada (her homeland) and most of the world, is in debt.
"How the Media Frames Political Issues" by Scott London
In The Emergence of American Political Issues (1977) McCombs and Shaw state that the most important effect of the mass media is "its ability to mentally order and organize our world for us. In short, the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about."[13] The presidential observer Theodore White corroborates this conclusion in The Making of a President (1972):
The power of the press in America is a primordial one. It sets the agenda of public discussion; and this sweeping political power is unrestrained by any law. It determines what people will talk and think about - an authority that in other nations is reserved for tyrants, priests, parties and mandarins.[14]
McCombs and Shaw also note that the media's tendency to structure voters' perceptions of political reality in effect constitutes a bias: "to a considerable degree the art of politics in a democracy is the art of determining which issue dimensions are of major interest to the public or can be made salient in order to win public support."[15] http://www.scottlondon.com/reports/frames.html
