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Chinese Government Says They Will Choose Who The Next Dalai Lama Will Be

<p><a href="http://cdn11.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Dalai_Lama_and_Seattle_Mayor_Norm_Rice_1993.jpg"><img alt="Dalai_Lama_and_Seattle_Mayor_Norm_Rice,_1993" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40022" height="562" src="http://cdn11.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Dalai_Lama_and_Seattle_Mayor_Norm_Rice_1993.jpg" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>The government of China has been at odds with Tibetan Buddhists for many generations, and many years ago they sent the Dalai Lama into exile and have run a massive smear campaign against him ever since. Now they are claiming that they should be the ones to decide who the next Dalai Lama will be.</p>
<p>The Chinese government has been officially atheist since the reign of Mao and have been opposed to the spread of Buddhism within its borders. Their feud with the Dalai Lama is not purely philosophical though, they have many other political motivations as well, namely the fact that the government of China have been fighting with Tibetan Buddhists over the region of Tibet since before the 1950’s.</p>
<p>The area was traditionally fairly independent until the Chinese government under Mao began to take it over and assimilate the region into the country of China. Now, Buddhists have become a persecuted minority in Tibet, where they once lived in peace.</p>
<p>To add insult to injury, the Chinese government is now claiming that they have the authority to dictate who the next Dalai Lama will be.</p>
<p>Traditionally, it has been the responsibility of the High Lamas of the Gelugpa tradition and the Buddhist Tibetan government to decide who the next Dalai Lama will be. In theory, the new Dalai Lama is believed to be a reincarnation of the old one. However, since the Tibetan government has been taken over by China, they believe that they are the ones who should decide.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/chinese-government-says-they-will-decide-whom-dalai-lama-will-reincarnate-003778" target="_blank">This week, Norbu Dondup from the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China said that</a> “<em>no matter what the Dalai Lama says or does, he can’t deny to central government’s right to confirm the new incarnation.”</em></p>
<p>Later, during the 50th anniversary of the Chinese takeover of Tibet, <a href="http://time.com/3743742/dalai-lama-china-reincarnation-tibet-buddhism/" target="_blank">Zhu Weiqun of the Chinese government</a> said, “<em>The 14th Dalai Lama hasn’t shown a serious or respectful attitude on this issue. He sometimes says he will reincarnate as a foreigner in a place where he visits, sometimes to a woman. When someone gives him a bottle of honey, he would happily say he is going to become a bee in the next life.”</em></p>
<p>Considering that the Chinese government is officially atheist, opposed to Buddhism, and has no traditional connection to the selection of the Dalai Lama, their claim to this right makes absolutely no sense.</p>
<p><a href="http://time.com/3743742/dalai-lama-china-reincarnation-tibet-buddhism/" target="_blank">Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan Prime Minister</a> in exile responded to the announcement by saying “<em>It’s like Fidel Castro saying, ‘I will select the next Pope and all the Catholics should follow. That is ridiculous.”</em></p>
<p>In this video Dalai Lama speaks his mind about China, it’s people, his relations with China and what he feels about the culture of China.</p>
<p><span>[embedded content]</span></p>
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<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jgvibes" target="_blank">John Vibes</a> writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war.</p>
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activism knowledge news Chinese Government Says They Will Choose Who The Next Dalai Lama Will Be

The government of China has been at odds with Tibetan Buddhists for many generations, and many years ago they sent the Dalai Lama into exil...

Fed Up with the Fed: Stiglitz Says Reserve Must Worry About Inequality, Not Inflation

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<h2>Fed Up with the Fed: Stiglitz Says Reserve Must Worry About Inequality, Not Inflation</h2>
<span>Fed Up with the Fed: Stiglitz Says Reserve Must Worry About Inequality, Not Inflation</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span><a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org/" rel="nofollow">Project Syndicate</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/economicinequality4815.jpg?itok=zLBPu2Ya" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/economicinequality4815.jpg?itok=zLBPu2Ya" /></a>
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<p>At the end of every August, central bankers and financiers from around the world meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the U.S. Federal Reserve’s economic symposium. This year, the participants were greeted by a large group of mostly young people, including many African- and Hispanic Americans.</p>
<p>The group was not there so much to protest as to inform. They wanted the assembled policymakers to know that their decisions affect ordinary people, not just the financiers who are worried about what inflation does to the value of their bonds or what interest-rate hikes might do to their stock portfolios. And their green tee shirts were emblazoned with the message that for these Americans, there has been no recovery.</p>
<p>Even now, seven years after the global financial crisis triggered the Great Recession, “official” unemployment among African-Americans is more than 9%. According to a broader (and more appropriate) definition, which includes part-time employees seeking full-time jobs and marginally employed workers, the unemployment rate for the United States as a whole is 10.3%.</p>
<p>But, for African-Americans – especially the young – the rate is much higher. For example, for African-Americans aged 17-20 who have graduated high school but not enrolled in college, the unemployment rate is over 50%. The “jobs gap” – the difference between today’s employment and what it should be – is some three million.</p>
<p>With so many people out of work, downward pressure on wages is showing up in official statistics as well. So far this year, real wages for non-supervisory workers fell by nearly 0.5%. This is part of a long-term trend that explains why household incomes in the middle of the distribution are lower than they were a quarter-century ago.</p>
<p>Wage stagnation also helps to explain why statements from Fed officials that the economy has virtually returned to normal are met with derision. Perhaps that is true in the neighborhoods where the officials live. But, with the bulk of the increase in incomes since the U.S. “recovery” began going to the top 1% of earners, it is not true for most communities. The young people at Jackson Hole, representing a national movement called, naturally, “Fed Up,” could attest to that.</p>
<p>There is strong evidence that economies perform better with a tight labor market and, as the International Monetary Fund has shown, lower inequality (and the former typically leads to the latter). Of course, the financiers and corporate executives who pay $1,000 to attend the Jackson Hole meeting see things differently: Low wages mean high profits, and low interest rates mean high stock prices.</p>
<p>The Fed has a dual mandate – to promote full employment and price stability. It has been more than successful at the second, partly because it has been less than successful at the first. So why will policymakers be considering an interest-rate hike at the Fed’s September meeting?</p>
<p>The usual argument for raising interest rates is to dampen an overheating economy in which inflationary pressures have become too high. That is obviously not the case now. Indeed, given wage stagnation and the strong dollar, inflation is well below the Fed’s own 2% target, not to mention the 4% rate for which many economists (including the International Monetary Fund’s former chief economist, Olivier Blanchard) have argued.</p>
<p>Inflation hawks argue that the inflation dragon must be slayed before one sees the whites of its eyes: Fail to act now and it will burn you in a year or two. But, in the current circumstances, higher inflation would be good for the economy. There is essentially no risk that the economy would overheat so quickly that the Fed could not intervene in time to prevent excessive inflation. Whatever the unemployment rate at which inflationary pressures become significant – a key question for policymakers – we know that it is far lower than the rate today.</p>
<p>If the Fed focuses excessively on inflation, it worsens inequality, which in turn worsens overall economic performance. Wages falter during recessions; if the Fed then raises interest rates every time there is a sign of wage growth, workers’ share will be ratcheted down – never recovering what was lost in the downturn.</p>
<p>The argument for raising interest rates focuses not on the wellbeing of workers, but that of the financiers. The worry is that in a low-interest-rate environment, investors’ irrational “search for yield” fuels financial-sector distortions. In a well-functioning economy, one would have expected the low cost of capital to be the basis of healthy growth. In the U.S., workers are being asked to sacrifice their livelihoods and wellbeing to protect well-heeled financiers from the consequences of their own recklessness.</p>
<p>The Fed should simultaneously stimulate the economy and tame the financial markets. Good regulation means more than just preventing the banking sector from harming the rest of us (though the Fed didn’t do a very good job of that before the crisis). It also means adopting and enforcing rules that restrict the flow of funds into speculation and encourage the financial sector to play the constructive role in our economy that it should, by providing capital to establish new firms and enable successful companies to expand.</p>
<p>I often feel a great deal of sympathy for Fed officials, because they must make close calls in an environment of considerable uncertainty. But the call right now is not a close one. On the contrary, it is as close to a no-brainer as such decisions can be: Now is not the time to tighten credit and slow down the economy.</p>
<p><em>Joseph E Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and university professor at Columbia University, was chairman of president Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and served as senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/us-fed-interest-rate-hike-low-inflation-by-joseph-e--stiglitz-2015-09" rel="nofollow">Originally published by Project Syndicate</a></p>
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<p>Federal law enforcement officials will be routinely required to get a search warrant before using secretive and intrusive cellphone-tracking technology under a new DOJ policy announced last week.</p>
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<p>Despite his soaring rhetoric, the closer we get to the end of President Obama's presidency, the more obvious it is that a dangerous duality has ruled his policy circles – one favoring short-term interests over the very fate of the planet.</p>
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<p>The widening chasm between workers’ pay and productivity is “the central component of the wage stagnation story” in the U.S., according to an Economic Policy Institute report issued ahead of the Labor Day weekend.</p>
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<p>From the failure to create jobs to the inability to rescue the environment or provide adequate housing and education, the catastrophe of modern day capitalism is more and more evident by the day – and something's got to give.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 22 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>As the left-wing MP prepares to seize the reigns of his party, he is riding massive popularity on a mandate to reject austerity policies, make education free, re-nationalize the railways and energy companies, and rebuild universal healthcare.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 22 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and L.A.-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of small debts — from unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if families can’t pay.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 39 min</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"Today is a political prosecution," said Joshua Wong after his arrest last week. "My involvement in the Civic Square action is the best thing I have accomplished in the four years I've been involved in social student movements."</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 23 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week we've got a veritable shit ton happening on the Front Lines, so ready your calendars for the activist onslaught.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 55 min</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Issues of police brutality – like the July killing of Paul Castaway near Denver – are opening the public's eyes to the continuing struggles of Native Americans and other groups unfairly targeted by law enforcement.</p>
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<p>Liberals are celebrating the news that the federal deficit is $59 billion lower this year than last year and defending Obama's record in the process – but making an argument for decreased public investment is doing conservatives’ work for them.</p>
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<p>"Today is a political prosecution," said Joshua Wong after his arrest last week. "My involvement in the Civic Square action is the best thing I have accomplished in the four years I've been involved in social student movements."</p>
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<p>A DOJ report released Thursday denounces poor community-police relations, ineffective communication among law enforcement groups, police orders that infringed 1st Amendment rights, and military-style tactics that antagonized demonstrators.</p>
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<div><img src="http://www.occupy.com/article/fed-fed-stiglitz-says-reserve-must-worry-about-inequality-not-inflation" /></div>
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armageddon news revolution Fed Up with the Fed: Stiglitz Says Reserve Must Worry About Inequality, Not Inflation

Fed Up with the Fed: Stiglitz Says Reserve Must Worry About Inequality, Not Inflation Fed Up with the Fed: Stiglitz Says Reserve Must...

How To Feel Good About Global Poverty

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<h2>How To Feel Good About Global Poverty</h2>
<span>How To Feel Good About Global Poverty</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span>Fast Company</span></div>
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<p>Federal law enforcement officials will be routinely required to get a search warrant before using secretive and intrusive cellphone-tracking technology under a new DOJ policy announced last week.</p>
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<p>Despite his soaring rhetoric, the closer we get to the end of President Obama's presidency, the more obvious it is that a dangerous duality has ruled his policy circles – one favoring short-term interests over the very fate of the planet.</p>
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<p>The widening chasm between workers’ pay and productivity is “the central component of the wage stagnation story” in the U.S., according to an Economic Policy Institute report issued ahead of the Labor Day weekend.</p>
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<p>From the failure to create jobs to the inability to rescue the environment or provide adequate housing and education, the catastrophe of modern day capitalism is more and more evident by the day – and something's got to give.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 23 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>As the left-wing MP prepares to seize the reigns of his party, he is riding massive popularity on a mandate to reject austerity policies, make education free, re-nationalize the railways and energy companies, and rebuild universal healthcare.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 23 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and L.A.-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of small debts — from unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if families can’t pay.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 1 hour</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"Today is a political prosecution," said Joshua Wong after his arrest last week. "My involvement in the Civic Square action is the best thing I have accomplished in the four years I've been involved in social student movements."</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 50 sec</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week we've got a veritable shit ton happening on the Front Lines, so ready your calendars for the activist onslaught.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 1 hour</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>David Ige’s decisive and ambitious energy vision is making Hawaii into the world’s most important laboratory in the fight against climate change – revealing an unlikely partnership between local government and the U.S. military.</p>
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<p>This week we've got a veritable shit ton happening on the Front Lines, so ready your calendars for the activist onslaught.</p>
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<p>Issues of police brutality – like the July killing of Paul Castaway near Denver – are opening the public's eyes to the continuing struggles of Native Americans and other groups unfairly targeted by law enforcement.</p>
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<p>The popular, months-long protest movement led by ordinary people – which some have called the "Guatemalan Spring" – brought justice to the highest echelons of government.</p>
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<div><img src="http://www.occupy.com/article/how-feel-good-about-global-poverty" /></div>
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armageddon news revolution How To Feel Good About Global Poverty

How To Feel Good About Global Poverty How To Feel Good About Global Poverty This article originally appeared on Fast Company ...

Justice Department Places New Requirements On Cellphone Surveillance

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<h2>Justice Department Places New Requirements On Cellphone Surveillance</h2>
<span>Justice Department Places New Requirements On Cellphone Surveillance</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span>Associated Press</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/handley_copper2.web_850_594.jpg?itok=WzNRvRfQ" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/handley_copper2.web_850_594.jpg?itok=WzNRvRfQ" /></a>
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<p>Federal law enforcement officials will be routinely required to get a search warrant before using secretive and intrusive cellphone-tracking technology under a new Justice Department policy announced Thursday. The policy represents the first effort to create a uniform legal standard for federal authorities using equipment known as cell-site simulators, which tracks cellphones used by suspects. It comes amid concerns from privacy groups and lawmakers that the technology, which is now widely used by local police departments, is infringing on privacy rights and is being used without proper accountability.</p>
<p>"The policy is really designed to address our practices, and to really try to promote transparency and consistency and accountability — all while being mindful of the public's privacy interest," Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told reporters in announcing the policy change.</p>
<p>The policy applies only to federal agencies within the Justice Department and not, as some privacy advocates had hoped, to state and local law enforcement whose use of the equipment has stirred particular concern and scrutiny from local judges.</p>
<p>The technology — also known as a Stingray, a suitcase-sized device — can sweep up basic cellphone data from a neighborhood by tricking phones in the area to believe that it's a cell tower, allowing it to identify unique subscriber numbers. The data is then transmitted to the police, helping them determine the location of a phone without the user even making a call or sending a text message.</p>
<p>The equipment used by the Justice Department does not collect the content of communications. Even as federal law enforcement officials tout the technology as a vital tool to catch fugitives and kidnapping suspects, privacy groups have raised alarms about the secrecy surrounding its use and the collection of cellphone information of innocent bystanders who happen to be in a particular neighborhood or location.</p>
<p>In creating the new policy the Justice Department was mindful of those concerns and also sought to address inconsistent practices among different federal agencies and offices, Yates said.</p>
<p>"We understand that people have a concern about their private information, and particularly folks who are not the subjects or targets of investigations," Yates said.</p>
<p>The new policy requires a warrant in most cases, except for emergencies like an immediate national security threat, as well as unspecified "exceptional circumstances." The warrant applications are to set out how the technology will be used. In addition, authorities will be required to delete data that's been collected once they have the information they need, and are expected to provide training to employees.</p>
<p>The policy could act as a blueprint for state and local law enforcement agencies in developing their own regulations. But it's unclear how broad an impact Thursday's announcement will have, since it does not directly affect local police agencies unless they're working alongside federal authorities on a case or relying on their assistance.</p>
<p>Use of the technology has spread widely among local police departments, who have been largely mum about their use of the technology and hesitant to disclose details — often withholding materials or heavily censoring documents that they do provide.</p>
<p>Local departments have faced scrutiny from judges about how they deploy the equipment, though agencies have often insisted that non-disclosure agreements with the FBI limit what they can say.</p>
<p>The FBI has said that while specific capabilities of the equipment are considered sensitive, it did not intend for the agreements to prevent the police from disclosing to a court that the equipment was used in a particular case. Yates said she expected the FBI to revise any such agreements to be more transparent.</p>
<p>The American Civil Liberties Union called the policy a good first step, but expressed disappointment that it did not cover federal agencies outside the Justice Department or local police who use federal funds to purchase the surveillance equipment. It called on the Justice Department to close remaining loopholes, such as the one allowing for warrantless surveillance under undefined "exceptional circumstances."</p>
<p>"After decades of secrecy in which the government hid this surveillance technology from courts, defense lawyers, and the American public, we are happy to see that the Justice Department is now willing to openly discuss its policies," ACLU lawyer Nathan Freed Wessler said in a statement.</p>
<p>Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy group, praised the policy as an important step, though he said he suspected Justice Department attorneys saw "the writing on the wall" and recognized that judges would increasingly begin requiring warrants.</p>
<p>Though the policy does not require local police to follow the lead of federal agencies, "this is going to let the air out of state law enforcement's argument that a warrant shouldn't be required."</p>
<p>"We think that given the power of cell-site simulators and the sort of information that they can collect — not just from the target but from every innocent cellphone user in the area — a warrant based on probable cause is required by the Fourth Amendment," Cardozo said.</p>
<div><a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fe09c51a246f4da5bd7ad54df4d0e112/new-federal-requirements-cellphone-surveillance" rel="nofollow">Originally published by Associated Press</a></div>
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<p>Federal law enforcement officials will be routinely required to get a search warrant before using secretive and intrusive cellphone-tracking technology under a new DOJ policy announced last week.</p>
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<p>Despite his soaring rhetoric, the closer we get to the end of President Obama's presidency, the more obvious it is that a dangerous duality has ruled his policy circles – one favoring short-term interests over the very fate of the planet.</p>
</div>
</div>
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<p>The widening chasm between workers’ pay and productivity is “the central component of the wage stagnation story” in the U.S., according to an Economic Policy Institute report issued ahead of the Labor Day weekend.</p>
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<p>From the failure to create jobs to the inability to rescue the environment or provide adequate housing and education, the catastrophe of modern day capitalism is more and more evident by the day – and something's got to give.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>4 days 22 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>As the left-wing MP prepares to seize the reigns of his party, he is riding massive popularity on a mandate to reject austerity policies, make education free, re-nationalize the railways and energy companies, and rebuild universal healthcare.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 22 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and L.A.-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of small debts — from unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if families can’t pay.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 26 min</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"Today is a political prosecution," said Joshua Wong after his arrest last week. "My involvement in the Civic Square action is the best thing I have accomplished in the four years I've been involved in social student movements."</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 23 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week we've got a veritable shit ton happening on the Front Lines, so ready your calendars for the activist onslaught.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 41 min</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and L.A.-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of small debts — from unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if families can’t pay.</p>
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<p>The widening chasm between workers’ pay and productivity is “the central component of the wage stagnation story” in the U.S., according to an Economic Policy Institute report issued ahead of the Labor Day weekend.</p>
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<p>As the left-wing MP prepares to seize the reigns of his party, he is riding massive popularity on a mandate to reject austerity policies, make education free, re-nationalize the railways and energy companies, and rebuild universal healthcare.</p>
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<p>From the failure to create jobs to the inability to rescue the environment or provide adequate housing and education, the catastrophe of modern day capitalism is more and more evident by the day – and something's got to give.</p>
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<div><img src="http://www.occupy.com/article/justice-department-places-new-requirements-cellphone-surveillance" /></div>
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armageddon news revolution Justice Department Places New Requirements On Cellphone Surveillance

Justice Department Places New Requirements On Cellphone Surveillance Justice Department Places New Requirements On Cellphone Surveill...

In Alaska, Theatrics Of Obama's Climate Agenda Don't Measure Up To Promises – Or Reality

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<h2>In Alaska, Theatrics Of Obama's Climate Agenda Don't Measure Up To Promises – Or Reality</h2>
<span>In Alaska, Theatrics Of Obama's Climate Agenda Don't Measure Up To Promises – Or Reality</span> <a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/150821_barack_obama_climate_ap_1160.jpg?itok=bJ38T8n1" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/150821_barack_obama_climate_ap_1160.jpg?itok=bJ38T8n1" /></a>
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<p>Remember change you can believe in? In 2007, the climate crisis was at the top of Candidate Obama’s agenda along with closing Guantanamo Bay. But contrary to his soaring rhetoric, it seems there hasn't been much of a difference – for energy companies, at least – between the Obama and George W. Bush administrations.</p>
<p>In fact, the closer we get to the end of the Obama presidency the more obvious it becomes that a kind of duality has ruled American policy circles for the last seven years – a duality that has favored short term interests over the very fate of the planet. From fracking to the Keystone XL pipeline, his administration has been all in for Big Energy since day one, while almost always saying the opposite. During Obama’s time in office, the U.S. has become the world’s largest energy producer, helping push down prices in an already low-demand environment and roiling international markets in the process.</p>
<p>This hypocrisy became almost unbearable during the president's recent trip to one of the places most visibly affected by climate change: Alaska. The state has felt global warming in some severe ways – most notably, experiencing recently some of its worst summer wildfires in recorded history. According to <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/08/31/obama_trip_to_alaska_stark_difference_between_rhetoric_and_action_on_climate.html" rel="nofollow">Slate.com</a>, the fires are even burning through permafrost – frozen soil a couple of feet under the ground surface, which covers 70% of the state.</p>
<p>The permafrost itself is already receding with grave consequences for the unique Arctic environment. An <a href="http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/impacts-adaptation/alaska.html" rel="nofollow">alarming page</a> on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website explains that, while most Alaskans live in non-permafrost areas, the communities that do exist there – and the infrastructure such as roads and highways that are built on top of the permafrost, not to mention the forests and ecosystems that rely on it – are all at risk of literally collapsing due to rising temperatures. The region is one of the first to feel the day-to-day changes and effects of global warming, as temperatures have increased over 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 6 degrees in the winter over the past 50 years – a rate at least twice the U.S. national average.</p>
<p>In coastal areas, rising sea levels are already putting Alaskan people’s homes under water. Most of the communities dealing with the issue are indigenous; many of them live a subsistence existence, relying on the region's natural bounty of fish and wildlife. Several communities close to the water are <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/08/31/6_ways_climate_change_is_already_screwing_over_alaska/" rel="nofollow">expected to be lost</a> to rising waters by the end of the decade. Climate change has also been disastrous for polar bear, walrus and other mammals that rely on the disappearing sea ice to hunt for food.</p>
<p>Grandstanding in front of shrinking glaciers and filming an appearance on a reality TV show may be what passes for an "environmental stand" these days. But Democrats like Obama talk a good game while caving in to the same big fossil fuel interests as Republicans. It leaves citizens believing that progress is being made on environmental issues – a win-win for everyone involved, except every living thing on the planet.</p>
<p>Much was written in the media about permits the Obama administration gave to Royal Dutch Shell, which expedited its exploratory drilling in the Gulf of Alaska a couple of weeks before Obama’s trip. The <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/04/bi-polar-disorder-obamas-environmental-bait-and-switch-politics/" rel="nofollow">new drilling</a>, already delayed by weather, is supposed to take place 70 miles off the Alaskan coast in the Chukchi Sea, “a treacherous area characterized by extreme storms, likely to cause massive oil spills.”</p>
<p>Environmentalists were rightly incensed by the timing of the permits. But an even more destructive force, at least in the short term, had already been unleashed in the state a month earlier: the U.S. Navy. Missed among the breathless <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34131429" rel="nofollow">reports</a> about five Chinese military ships being spotted in international waters off the Alaskan coast during Obama’s visit, a recent naval exercise called “Northern Edge” occurred amidst salmon season in the Gulf of Alaska.</p>
<p>Salmon are a vital resource in Alaska – not only for professional fishermen in towns surrounding the gulf, including Kodiak and Cordova (which saw a number of protests over the naval exercise), but as <a href="http://www.eyakpreservationcouncil.org/" rel="nofollow">the major food source</a> for the Eyak people, an indigenous culture whose traditional lifestyle relies on salmon. In <a href="http://www.adn.com/article/20150516/cordova-fishermen-protest-navy-training-exercises-gulf-alaska" rel="nofollow">a letter</a> to Alaska Gov. Byron Mallot, the Eyak Preservation Council (EPC) explained that “the Gulf exercises would see massive increases from any conducted before, including a 6,500 percent increase in sonobuoys, a 200 percent increase in bombs and missiles, and the potential to leave more than 352,000 lbs. of expended and hazardous materials in the Gulf of Alaska.”</p>
<p>Live sonar, which has not been used in the Gulf before, is known to disrupt the migration patterns of whales and other marine mammals, but less is known about its effect on fish populations. As Emily Stolarcyk of the EPC said in <a href="http://www.adn.com/article/20150604/edge-planned-gulf-alaska-military-exercise-stirs-opposition-coastal-towns" rel="nofollow">an interview</a> with Alaska Dispatch News about the introduction of live sonar and its possible consequences: “It’s just a giant unknown. The Navy says, ‘Sonar doesn’t harm fish.’ Well, your own EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) says you don’t know.”</p>
<p>Trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership further show the Obama administration’s hypocrisy when it comes to addressing environmental issues. If enacted, the trade agreements will lead to a race to the bottom in terms of adherence to environmental protections, with a special tribunal of corporate lawyers able to fine sovereign nations for the corporate profits “lost” due to regulation. The pacts will put countries like the U.S. on similar footing with countries that have few laws protecting their air, water and species.</p>
<p>One of the most frustrating aspects of the Obama Presidency is this: just when it looks like he is pivoting in a progressive direction, he pulls the rug out from under his supporters. Healthcare reform, considered one of his principal achievements, involved little consideration of the successful, single payer systems already in place in most advanced economies, like Canada and the U.K. Instead, Obama used the plan instituted by his 2012 Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, in Massachusetts, which amounted to a cash grab for big insurance companies. Almost no change at all, and certainly not to believe in.</p>
<p>Despite his other environmental achievements – from increasing federal grants for renewable energy, to instituting stricter carbon-cutting rules for factories – Obama's green Alaska shuffle must be seen for what it is: more a performance of theater than an assertion of climate justice.</p>
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<p>Federal law enforcement officials will be routinely required to get a search warrant before using secretive and intrusive cellphone-tracking technology under a new DOJ policy announced last week.</p>
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<p>Despite his soaring rhetoric, the closer we get to the end of President Obama's presidency, the more obvious it is that a dangerous duality has ruled his policy circles – one favoring short-term interests over the very fate of the planet.</p>
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<p>The widening chasm between workers’ pay and productivity is “the central component of the wage stagnation story” in the U.S., according to an Economic Policy Institute report issued ahead of the Labor Day weekend.</p>
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<p>From the failure to create jobs to the inability to rescue the environment or provide adequate housing and education, the catastrophe of modern day capitalism is more and more evident by the day – and something's got to give.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 22 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>As the left-wing MP prepares to seize the reigns of his party, he is riding massive popularity on a mandate to reject austerity policies, make education free, re-nationalize the railways and energy companies, and rebuild universal healthcare.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 22 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and L.A.-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of small debts — from unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if families can’t pay.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 31 min</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"Today is a political prosecution," said Joshua Wong after his arrest last week. "My involvement in the Civic Square action is the best thing I have accomplished in the four years I've been involved in social student movements."</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 23 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week we've got a veritable shit ton happening on the Front Lines, so ready your calendars for the activist onslaught.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 47 min</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>The popular, months-long protest movement led by ordinary people – which some have called the "Guatemalan Spring" – brought justice to the highest echelons of government.</p>
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<p>The widening chasm between workers’ pay and productivity is “the central component of the wage stagnation story” in the U.S., according to an Economic Policy Institute report issued ahead of the Labor Day weekend.</p>
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<p>Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and L.A.-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of small debts — from unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if families can’t pay.</p>
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<p>"Today is a political prosecution," said Joshua Wong after his arrest last week. "My involvement in the Civic Square action is the best thing I have accomplished in the four years I've been involved in social student movements."</p>
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<div><img src="http://www.occupy.com/article/alaska-theatrics-obamas-climate-agenda-dont-measure-promises-%E2%80%93-or-reality" /></div>
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armageddon news revolution In Alaska, Theatrics Of Obama's Climate Agenda Don't Measure Up To Promises – Or Reality

In Alaska, Theatrics Of Obama's Climate Agenda Don't Measure Up To Promises – Or Reality In Alaska, Theatrics Of Obama's ...

Balloon Girl Reinvented For Banksy Video Showing Solidarity #WithSyria

<p>Since 2011, 83% of lights have gone out in Syria. A movement to turn them back on has gained international support, among them acclaimed artist Banksy</p>
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<p>In February last year, the UN called for an end to attacks on civilians in <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/10-reasons-why-a-diplomatic-solution-to-the-syria-crisis-is-extremely-unlikely/" target="_blank">Syria</a>, and more humanitarian aid for the millions in need. Since then, over 15,000 civilians have been killed, many of them children. Ten million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes. Three million <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/uruguays-humble-president-just-offered-to-house-100-syrian-refugee-children/" target="_blank">Syrian</a> children are no longer in school. Teachers are risking their lives to keep schools running; volunteer rescue workers are pulling people from bombed out buildings, and doctors are operating with only the light of their personal mobile phones to save the wounded.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn10.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/syria2.jpg"><img alt="syria2" class=" wp-image-39938 alignright" height="396" src="http://cdn10.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/syria2.jpg" width="396" /></a></p>
<p>As True Activist has recently <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/this-child-could-be-your-son-where-is-the-love-and-compassion-in-the-debate-about-europes-refugee-crisis/" target="_blank">reported</a>, refugees are being welcomed with open arms in <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/german-people-are-giving-so-much-to-migrants-the-police-had-to-ask-them-to-stop/" target="_blank">Germany</a> and <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/when-iceland-capped-its-syrian-refugees-at-50-10000-icelanders-responded-by-offering-up-their-homes/" target="_blank">Iceland</a> (but not so much in <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/despicable-british-tourists-complain-of-refugees-ruining-their-holidays-in-greece/" target="_blank">Britain</a>, to its shame). <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/how-to-solve-europes-migrant-crisis-according-to-politicians-lets-attack-their-boats/" target="_blank">Europe</a>‘s politicians have avoided discussing the fact that the worst humanitarian exodus since WW2 was created by warmongering imperialism, as we pointed out <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/this-child-could-be-your-son-where-is-the-love-and-compassion-in-the-debate-about-europes-refugee-crisis/" target="_blank">here</a>, and at the time of writing no agreements have been made between EU member states about what steps can be taken to ensure that <em>all</em> countries share the duty and the burden of re-homing these desperate families fairly. In short, the <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/how-america-reacted-miley-cyrus-vs-syria/" target="_blank">Syrian</a> crisis isn’t going to get any better anytime soon.</p>
<p>#WithSyria is a movement of over 130 organisations and people around the world standing in solidarity with those caught in this terrible conflict. Internationally acclaimed street artist Banksy lent his support to the #WithSyria movement by making this beautiful video last year. If you missed it the first time around, check it out and share it now- it has never been so crucial! The #WithSyria <a href="https://withsyria.com/" target="_blank">website</a> explains how something as simple as light can make a huge difference to this war-torn country:</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn10.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/syria3.png"><img alt="syria3" class=" wp-image-39937 alignleft" height="397" src="http://cdn10.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/syria3.png" width="397" /></a></p>
<p>“Satellite images show that 83% of the lights in <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/gab_gallery/stop-the-war-in-syria-send-this-video-to-congress/" target="_blank">Syria</a> have gone out since March 2011. Years of brutal conflict have plunged Syria’s people into the dark. Millions have been forced to flee their homes and many are struggling to access the food, water and shelter they need to survive. Meanwhile, highly publicized extreme violence by cross-border terrorist groups has spread fear and refocused the world’s attention on Syria. But it has also distracted from the daily suffering of ordinary Syrians and from the violations of international law and human rights committed by all sides. As the civilian death toll rises, and the repercussions of violence are felt thousands of miles away, it is clear that we must call on our governments to do more to drive away the darkness and help turn the lights back on.”</p>
<p>Kofi Annan, Former secretary-general of the UN, has said: “We’ve let the people of Syria down. While we are divided and pointing fingers and accusing each other, they are paying with their lives.” If you agree, please consider sharing this moving Banksy video and signing the petition <a href="https://withsyria.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
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activism knowledge news Balloon Girl Reinvented For Banksy Video Showing Solidarity #WithSyria

Since 2011, 83% of lights have gone out in Syria. A movement to turn them back on has gained international support, among them acclaimed art...