The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Here is a viable alternative to the Keystone Pipeline that offers all its supposedly benefits and more and, has none of its downside.
Fixing old Water and Gas Pipelines Would Create far More Jobs Than Building Keystone XL
BRENDAN SMITH, KRISTEN SHEERAN and MAY BOEVE – Grist
Why we should give free money to everyone
“I am now convinced that the simplest approach… to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Research shows that just giving people a few hundreds or thousands of dollars can lift them out of poverty more effectively than welfare. Furthermore, giving everyone a basic poverty-level annual income could shift the whole dynamics of economics towards greater quality of life and sustainability. It is high time for more of us to seriously consider this approach, which has had support from across the political spectrum, from Nixon to Martin Luther King, Jr.; from neoliberal economists to Green Parties…
Dear friends,
Imagine what would happen if poor people were just given a sizable chunk of money to do with as they pleased – or even if every citizen were granted a basic poverty-level income with no strings attached.
It turns out that such wild ideas are not as far-fetched as they sound – and could have some potent transformational impact.
THE BRIEF MAINSTREAMING OF A WILD IDEA
Wave of US Municipal Bankruptcies Caused by Wall Street Predatory Interest Rates, NOT Pensions
The political establishment and the media have relentlessly promoted the myth that the crisis in Detroit and in cities across the US is a product of overgenerous spending on social services and benefits, with public employee pension liabilities cited as the main culprit.
In reality, the driving force behind the Detroit bankruptcy has been a predatory interest rate swap foisted on the city by Wall Street bankers, which was signed by former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2005.
Strategies for Sustainable Business Models for Open Educational Resources
Abstract
For several years, the importance of continuous education has been stressed by several governmental and non-governmental institutions (Janssen & Schuwer, 2012; Marshall & Casserly, 2006). Education is seen as important both for personal growth and empowerment for one’s personal wellbeing and for developing the professional capabilities needed in today’s society. In his 2011 State of the Union address President Obama put emphasis on the government’s ambitions to “out-innovate and out-educate” the rest of the world. Almost at the same time, at the Davos World Economic Forum (2011), the urgency of appropriate education was stressed, observing that the current lack of adequately educated people hinders prosperity and economic growth in the near future. The OECD is preparing a proposal to translate these intentions into a concrete policy.
Keywords: Open education resources; business model
The Crisis of the Middle Class and American Power
Editor's Note: The following Geopolitical Weekly originally ran in January 2013.
By George Friedman
When I wrote about the crisis of unemployment in Europe, I received a great deal of feedback. Europeans agreed that this is the core problem while Americans argued that the United States has the same problem, asserting that U.S. unemployment is twice as high as the government's official unemployment rate. My counterargument is that unemployment in the United States is not a problem in the same sense that it is in Europe because it does not pose a geopolitical threat. The United States does not face political disintegration from unemployment, whatever the number is. Europe might.
At the same time, I would agree that the United States faces a potentially significant but longer-term geopolitical problem deriving from economic trends. The threat to the United States is the persistent decline in the middle class' standard of living, a problem that is reshaping the social order that has been in place since World War II and that, if it continues, poses a threat to American power.
I am writing to pass along to you a story from Argentina which, in addition to the story itself, says much about the nature of Chinese engagement in the region, including how the Chinese approach to pursuing business and political objectives in the region differs from that of the US.
For me, the story below illustrates well the nuances, contradictions and complexity of Chinese engagement in the region: here, it is not the Chinese who are behaving badly, but rather, their partners. The Chinese are powerfully exercising influence, yet using informal channels and indirect pressures, rather than public conditions and demands. The Chinese are both attempting to “save face” for their partner, and yet also indirectly show their ire when they themselves ‘lose face.” And finally, a reminder that the dynamics of the China-Latin America engagement is a story of PEOPLE, and not just countries and faceless companies.
Continue reading “Evan Ellis: China Pulls Back from Argentina”
Important, this is.
India’s Efforts to Aid Poor Worry Drug Makers
New York Times, December 29, 2013
NEW DELHI — Alka Kudesia needs an expensive drug to treat her breast cancer, but refuses to tell her children for fear they will take out loans to buy the medicine and spend the rest of their lives in debt.
. . . . . . .
The skirmishing over Herceptin and other cancer medicines is part of a new and critical phase in a long-running struggle to make drugs affordable to the world’s poorest people, one that began in earnest more than a decade ago when advocates campaigned successfully to make AIDS medicines accessible to millions of Africans.
“Cancer is the next H.I.V./AIDS issue, and the fight has only begun,” said Shamnad Basheer, a professor of law at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata.
Continue reading “Yoda: India Slams Big Pharma for Affordable Drugs”
