Posts tagged politics
LIFE: 8 Activist Rappers Representing (VIDEO)
Oct 12th
(Immortal Technique visits #OWS)
Great piece over on AlterNet regarding 8 rappers currently active in the Occupy Wall Street movement and other progressive causes. In addition to Immortal Technique (featured in the above video), the post shines a spotlight on Talib Kweli, Big Boi, Bun B, Killer Mike, Sole and others who have come out recently to support everything from #OWS to Troy Davis and death penalty reform. Click through for excerpt and article link More >
LIFE: 6 New Weapons the Police and Military Use on Unarmed People
Aug 7th
Progressive activist Rania Khalek outlines some of the new weapons in the disturbing – and dangerous – “less-lethal” arms race. Microwave energy blasters, blinding laser beams, chemical agents, deafening sonic blasters and more. Not cool:
The US is at the forefront of an international arms development effort that includes a remarkable assortment of technologies, which look and sound like they belong in a Hollywood science fiction thriller. From microwave energy blasters and blinding laser beams, to chemical agents and deafening sonic blasters, these weapons are at the cutting edge of crowd control.
The Pentagon’s approved term for these weapons is “non-lethal” or “less-lethal” and they are intended for use against the unarmed. Designed to control crowds, clear streets, subdue and restrain individuals and secure borders, they are the 21st century’s version of the police baton, pepper spray and tear gas. As journalist Ando Arike puts it:
The result is what appears to be the first arms race in which the opponent is the general population.
Click through for more and full article link More >
LIFE: 8 Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance
Aug 6th
Read up and get fired up. We really do need to unite and take back this country, because no one is going to take care of it for us. If the U.S. youth took lessons from our counterparts in Europe, Africa the Middle East and elsewhere, perhaps the tide could really finally turn for working, everyday people here in America. Alternet has a great piece from Bruce E. Levine – a clinical psychologist and the author of Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite – outlining 8 ways the US power structure has managed to break the spirit of the American youth:
Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.
Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?” Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to having more money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security, even though they don’t believe it will be around to benefit them.
How exactly has American society subdued young Americans? Click through for more and full article link More >
LIFE: Keith Olbermann: The Four Great Hypocrisies of the Debt Deal (VIDEO)
Aug 3rd
Keith’s Special Comment covers the “four great hypocrisies” of the debt deal and the necessity of taking the governance of this nation back from politicians. Let’s go!
LIFE: U.S. Government Shuts Down 84,000 Websites, ‘By Mistake’
Feb 16th
The US Government has yet again shuttered several domain names this week. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security’s ICE office proudly announced that they had seized domains related to counterfeit goods and child pornography. What they failed to mention, however, is that one of the targeted domains belongs to a free DNS provider, and that 84,000 websites were wrongfully accused of links to child pornography crimes.
More at TorrentFreak
