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US Elections Ranked Worst Among Western Democracies

March 24, 2016 Pippa Norris, www.theconversation.com , ,
By Pippa Norris for The Conversation - The world is currently transfixed by the spectacle of American elections. From New York, London and Paris to Beijing, Moscow, and Sydney there is endless heated debate in the news media and across dinner tables about the factors fueling the remarkable success of Donald Trump, speculation about a brokered convention shattering the old GOP, and the most likely outcome of a polarizing Trump-Clinton battle in the fall.

US Not In Top Ten Most Happiest, Is It Our Government?

March 19, 2016 Kelly Gerling, www.examiner.com , ,
By Kelly Gerling for the Washington Mental Health Examiner. For Americans to take the lead in the world in happiness, it will take a real political revolution. Americans can thank Bernie Sanders for making that phrase respectable. There is a relationship between having a modern constitutional design with proportional representation and happiness, that to achieve such a modern governmental design we need an advanced political consciousness, and that doing both of these is necessary to create a much wider policy debate, a greater variety of candidates and parties, and more political innovations. Let's not be victims of our 229-year-old political system. Instead, let's just grow up and become citizen-leaders, and change it to our liking.

GMA Found Guilty Of $11 Million Cover Up

March 13, 2016 Staff, www.sustainablepulse.com , ,
By Sustainable Pulse. Washington State - In a decision made public late Friday, a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association violated Washington campaign finance disclosure laws by shielding the identities of major corporate donors funding efforts to defeat a food labeling initiative in Washington. “This landmark case has been a long fight for accountability,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “This ruling sends an unequivocal message: Big money donors cannot evade Washington law and hide from public scrutiny. My office will hold you accountable.” The case, State v. Grocery Manufacturers Association, concerns GMA’s financing of a 2013 campaign against Initiative 522, which sought to require labeling of genetically engineered products. GMA, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, was the largest single donor to the “No on 522” political committee.

Duke Energy Versus Solar Energy

March 13, 2016 Alex Kotch, www.desmogblog.com , , ,
By Alex Kotch of DeSmog Blog. Around the nation, big utility companies are successfully lobbying lawmakers and regulators to restrict individual and corporate access to solar power, denying people significant savings on electricity bills and the opportunity to take part in the growing green energy economy. In third-party solar financing, a non-utility company installs solar panels on a customer’s property at little or no up-front cost, sometimes selling the solar energy back to the customer at rates typically lower than a utility would charge. Duke Energy, the largest utility in the U.S., has so far succeeded in keeping third-party solar illegal in North Carolina, but conservative and liberal factions alike are trying to change that, in different ways. At least four states—Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma and North Carolina—currently ban third-party sales of solar energy.

Blows To Hard-liners Opens New Era In Iran

March 6, 2016 Hamid Alizadeh, www.marxist.com ,
By Hamid Alizadeh in Marxist.com. Last Friday, Iranians went to the polls to vote in elections for the Iranian parliament (Majles) and the Assembly of Experts. 34 million people, 62 percent of the electorate, participated. Of course the elections were far from democratic by any measure. While no workers’ organisations or other real mass parties are allowed to exist, let alone run for elections, even the soft - Liberal leaning - wing of the established political set-up, the Reformists and Moderates, have been harassed to an extraordinary extent and all but 30 of their candidates were initially barred from running. It was only thanks to immense pressure and protests by the Reformist and Moderate factions that 200 of their candidates, mainly unknown people, were allowed to run. This also meant that many of the 290 seats were left uncontested, allowing Conservative factions, known as Principlist, shoo-in victories.

ResistAIM Defenders Form Human Chain To Halt Drilling

March 3, 2016 ResistAIM, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By ResistAIM. Buchanan, NY 02-29-16 - Today at 6 AM, 26 people took action to stop the AIM pipeline from being built in Westchester and Rockland by blocking access for over an hour to Spectra Energy's staging area for horizontal drilling under the Hudson River. Spectra Energy's Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project would involve drilling underneath the Hudson River in Verplanck, immediately south of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. The new high-pressure, 42-inch diameter pipeline would run within 10 5 feet of critical infrastructure for Indian Point , and would expose local communities to toxic emissions from compressor stations along the pipeline path. The group of activists and residents chose the site because it highlights the danger of the proposed pipeline, running underneath the Hudson River and adjacent to the troubled Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.

Taking Steps To A Renewable Future

February 19, 2016 The Sugar Shack Alliance, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
The Sugar Shack Alliance. Windsor, MA - The 4-day, 53-mile intergenerational walk will follow roads near the proposed route of the Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, from one proposed compressor station location in Windsor to a proposed compressor station in Northfield. Food and lodging will be provided. There will be evening events for the walkers and general public. We walk to increase public awareness of the negative impact of this pipeline and fracked gas everywhere. We walk to highlight the consequences of continued fossil fuel use and global climate change. We walk to build an unstoppable movement aiming towards a renewable future. Join with friends, family, and neighbors as we walk through ten towns in Western Massachusetts!

Energy Company Skirts The Law, Again

February 14, 2016 SCRAM, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Sullivan County Residents Against Millennium.Highland, NY - In 2012, the Sullivan County Town of Highland adopted new zoning ordinances that explicitly prohibit fracking and gas-related infrastructure projects, including compressor stations. Despite this clear expression of the community's will, the Millennium Pipeline Company has announced that it intends to build a large (22,400 horsepower) compressor station right in heart of this rural township that borders the Delaware River. Millennium can override Highland's local laws because a 2015 federal court decision determined that infrastructure projects licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) are free to ignore local laws and ordinances.

How The Two Major Parties Helped Destroy Democracy

February 14, 2016 Frank Castro, www.truthout.org , , ,
By Frank Castro of the Hampton Institute for TruthOut. United States - Politics, at its barest, is a market characterized by power-and the struggle for how power will be distributed. As CrimethInc illustrated some time ago, in this market ideas function similar to currency. Delineated by ideas which can build capital enough for the acquisition of more power, and those which might unbind power, political parties are tethered to the same basic operating principles of any capitalist enterprise. They must solidify market share in the realm of ideas and grow, wherever and whenever possible, or go bankrupt. Incubated within this constant power play, self-preservation becomes the party's central priority; and it does not matter if the ideas which accomplish this outcome are beneficial to the electorate or detrimental, so long as it achieves the imperative to survive.

Leftist Network Calls For Unity Against Neoliberalism

February 14, 2016 Staff, www.telesurtv.net , , ,
By Staff of Telesur. Quito, Ecuador - Representatives of a newly-founded network promoting regional integration and sovereignty has called on countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to unite to confront the threat of neoliberalism in the region. The Parliamentary Network for Latin American and Caribbean Sovereignty and Unity, officially founded earlier this week at the CELAC Summit in Quito, Ecuador, by lawmakers from 17 countries in the region, stressed the importance of unity to protect progressive achievements in the face of a right-wing resurgence and the “threat of a neoliberal agenda” in the region. Ecuadorean National Assembly Chief Gabriela Rivadeneira presented the new Parliamentary Network’s manifesto on Thursday to the newly elected pro-tempore presidency of CELAC, Dominican President Danilo Medina.

EU: Left To Reclaim Democracy From ‘Technocrats’

February 14, 2016 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org , , ,
By Nadia Prupis for Commondreams. Berlin, Germany - Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Tuesday announced the launch of a pan-European progressive movement to "democratize" the continent and promote alternatives to austerity and authoritarianism. Along with pro-democracy allies from across the continent, Varoufakis—known for his candid rejection of European Union austerity politics during Greece's financial crisis—chose to announce the "Democracy in Europe Movement 2025" (Diem25) at the historic Volksbuehne theater, which is known as a landmark in German leftist activism. "We've chosen Berlin precisely because nothing can change in a progressive direction without the full participation of Germany in our European endeavors," he said during a press conference in the theater.

People Power Turned Tree Cutters Away; More Help Needed

February 10, 2016 Megan Holleran, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Megan Holleran of No Constitution Pipeline in PA. The Holleran family, friends and neighbors have been holding a constant presence on the Holleran property for over a week now to protect 100,000 of their trees from being cut down to make way for the Constitution Pipeline. Even though the pipeline has not been approved yet, the company is sending out tree cutters to clear the land. But, the Hollerans are doing everything they can to resist this irreparable harm. Today, they had a success and demonstrated the power of peaceful nonviolence. Here is their report from Facebook: On Wednesday morning at about 9:30am a tree cutting crew arrived on Three Lakes Road to access the Zeffer-Holloran property, where the Williams company’s proposed Constitution pipeline has seized land via eminent domain.

Military Is Obliterating Feminist, Democratic Leftists

February 7, 2016 Debbie Bookchin, www.thenation.com , , , ,
By Debbie Bookchin for The Nation. Turkey - Right now, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is undertaking a massive assault on Kurdish communities in southeastern Turkey in an effort to wipe out the only truly democratic movement in the Middle East. In December, he unleashed a force of 10,000 soldiers, armed with tanks and mortars, who have cut water and electricity supplies, imposed draconian curfews, and razed buildings; they are following shoot-to-kill orders against local residents who venture from their homes to seek food, first aid, or alternative shelter. Already more than 200 Kurdish defenders, and 198 civilians, including children, teenagers, and the elderly, have been murdered. In photos, the areas under siege look like war zones, comparable in destruction to Syria and Bosnia.

Clinton, Petraeus, Snowden And Manning: Tale Of Two Americas

February 6, 2016 Dr. Marsha Coleman Adebayo, www.heraldextra.com , , ,
By Dr. Marsha Coleman Adebayo for Black Agenda Report - The U.S. government does not hesitate to imprison those who leak its secrets – unless they are Hillary Clinton or some other Big Shot. “What is remarkable about American democracy is the consistent and perpetual benevolence of the ruling class towards its loyal disciples.” The privilege extends to killer cops, crooked investment bankers, and other slime. But “federal employees complaining of racism are eviscerated while their managers receive promotions.”

10th Annual Moral March On Raleigh HKonJ People’s Assembly

February 5, 2016 Staff, wwwhkonj.com , ,
By Staff of HKONJ - Our legislators are systematically seeking to abridge and suppress our vote and disrespect the rivers of blood which made our vote possible - we will mobilize like never before and cast ballots like never before. We will vote those who will pass just and moral policies that help the "least of these" and those who are most oppressed. The Moral March on Raleigh is part of a love and justice movement. We LOVE justice in Education; We LOVE Economic Sustainability, We LOVE Workers and Workers' Rights and Livable Wages...
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