2014: Millions of Americans COULD NOT Drink the Water.. What are we doing?

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/11/3600250/major-water-disasters-2014/

On January 9, more than 300,000 West Virginia residents were shocked to learn that seemingly overnight their water was declared undrinkable, unusable even, save for flushing the toilet. In the ensuing weeks and months they would discover that a chemical mixture used to clean coal, crude MCHM, had leaked from a neglected storage tank on the banks of the Elk River, just upstream from a major water intake facility.
Despite its proximity to the drinking water supply, very little is known about crude MCHM and its potential impact on humans and the environment. Mixed messages regarding the safety of the water perpetuated the sense of fear among residents, a feeling that lingers nearly a year later, according to Evan Hansen, principal at the Morgantown-based environmental consulting firm Downstream Strategies.

I think there are still people in the area that are not drinking the water.

“I think there are still people in the area that are not drinking the water,” Hansen said. “It is still a concern for some people.”

Half a year and millions of dollars later, another water disaster struck: A toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie contaminated the water for nearly 500,000 residents. Throughout the year, millions of Californians have continued to grapple with the new water-stressed reality accompanying the state’s historic, ongoing drought — one that has forced regulators to not only restrict water use but to scramble to prevent communities from running out of water.
The water disasters of 2014 both exposed additional threats to the nation’s water supply and have left significant unanswered questions about whether anything will be done to prevent these incidents, prolonged or acute, from happening again.

10 Reasons the TPP must be defeated.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/12/31/ten-reasons-why-tpp-must-be-defeated

10 Ways that TPP Would Hurt Working Families
1. TPP will allow corporations to outsource even more jobs overseas.
2. U.S. sovereignty will be undermined by giving corporations the right to challenge our laws before international tribunals.
3. Wages, benefits, and collective bargaining will be threatened.
4. Our ability to protect the environment will be undermined.
5. Food Safety Standards will be threatened.
The TPP would make it easier for countries like Vietnam to export contaminated fish and seafood into the U.S.
6. Buy America laws could come to an end.
7. Prescription drug prices will increase, access to life saving drugs will decrease, and the profits of drug companies will go up.
8. Wall Street would benefit at the expense of everyone else.
9. The TPP would reward authoritarian regimes like Vietnam that systematically violate human rights.
10. The TPP has no expiration date, making it virtually impossible to repeal.
 
  
   

2014: Worst Science Denials of the year

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/12/worst-science-denial-2014

Basically everything said by Donald Trump:
Unnecessary Ebola quarantines:
Lamar Smith's war on the National Science Foundation:Battles over Texas textbooks:
Bill Nye schools creationist Ken Ham; John Holdren schools Congress:
Senate overrun by climate deniers:
"I'm not a scientist": 
Anti-vaxxers are still a thing:

Contraception ≠ abortion:
   

50 Top Stories - 1 per state. Palin Brawl is #1 for Alaska.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2014/12/usa-todays-year-in-review-chose-50.html

Courtesy of USA Today:  

It was a birthday party gone bad, starring former governor Sarah Palin and her family. According to reports, the clan got into a big fight at a party in Anchorage, and Palin was even said to have screamed, "Don't you know who I am!?" In October, Radar Online and Extra unearthed what they say is the police recording from the scene. Listen for yourself. Palin eventually addressed the brawl on Facebook, pointing us to her daughter Bristol's version of what went down. Bristol said someone messed with her little sister.

That last part of course we all know is bullshit.

We know the true story and thanks to those police audio tapes so does anybody else willing to take the time to listen. 

2014: Clueless Rich People saying Horrible things on TV, What they said.

http://www.alternet.org/media/2014-was-banner-year-clueless-rich-people-saying-horrible-things-tv?akid=12633.294211.Z5RXaY&rd=1&src=newsletter1029524&t=13


Were people always this horrible, or is it just that we’re all newly allowing our bigotry to surface?
If 2013 was the year of leaning in, then 2014 has been the year of leaning the fuck out. And if, theoretically, a person were to only watch cable news this past year, he would probably think that America had regressed into something much uglier than previously imagined.
Behold: Here are the most offensive, cloistered, ignorant things said on cable this year.
Cable news on women
In October, a woman filmed herself walking around New York City for a day, during which time she was  catcalled over 100 times. The video went predictably viral and the media had a blast adding insult after insult to injury. In the clip below, “The Five’s” Bob Beckel contributed to the harassment conversation with the following lurid observation: “Damn, baby. You’re a piece of woman”:

10 of the worst Outrages in 2014

http://www.alternet.org/10-worst-gop-outrages-2014?akid=12633.294211.Z5RXaY&rd=1&src=newsletter1029524&t=9

1. Exploiting Police Deaths To Attack Democrats:
3. Promoting Bigotry Under Guise of Religious Freedom: Republicans in state legislatures nationwide promoted bills they claim were designed to advance “religious freedom” but were really about the right for businesses to use religion as a shield for refusing services to marginalized groups like gay Americans. In most states, these bills failed, but one did pass the Michigan House though it was not signed into law by the Senate.  

4. Waging War On Voting Rights:
5. Holding Government Hostage to Deregulate Wall Street:
7. Defending An Extremist Who Squatted on Federal Property
8. Continuing to Deny Climate Change:
10. Trying To Prolong Our 50-Year Embargo on Cuba:   

Poverty: Everything you thought about poverty is wrong.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/kathryn-edin-poverty-research-fatherhood

A sociologist at Johns Hopkins University, Edin is one of the nation's preeminent poverty researchers. She has spent much of the past several decades studying some of the country's most dangerous, impoverished neighborhoods. But unlike academics who draw conclusions about poverty from the ivory tower, Edin has gotten up close and personal with the people she studies—and in the process has shattered many myths about the poor, rocking sociology and public-policy circles.

10 Poverty Myths, Busted

1. Absent dads are the problem. Sixty percent of low-income dads see at least one of their children daily.

2. Single moms are the problem. Only 9 percent of low-income, urban moms have been single throughout their child's first five years.

3. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.

Read the rest

For three years Edin lived with her family in a studio apartment smack in between the two crime scenes we just passed and a few blocks from one of the city's largest and most notorious public housing projects. Here she spent years doing intensive fieldwork for her latest book, coauthored with husband and Johns Hopkins colleague Tim Nelson, on low-income, unwed fathers. Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner City is a complicated portrait of a group of people all but ignored by statistics-driven social-science research—in large part because there's little ready-made data about them.

Stand by Me, A great version of the song, a must hear

http://www.trueactivist.com/this-is-the-only-version-of-stand-by-me-youll-ever-want-to-hear-again-its-that-good/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=ce&utm_campaign=ce

This is great.

Stephen Colbert Cracking Up

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/29/nypd-officer-speaks-truth/

If you like Colbert, you will like this.

An NYPD Officer who DID NOT turn his back speaks about Officers turning their backs

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/29/nypd-officer-speaks-truth/

For those of you who may not know, for years there have been suspicions that police officers abide by an unwritten rule called the Blue Code of Silence. The code, which many police officers vehemently deny exists, is an unwritten rule among the officers in the United States that says not to report another colleague’s errors, mistakes, or crimes. Whether this so-called “rule” exists is up for interpretation.
Adhyl Polanco, an officer with the New York City Police Department since 2005 and a major opponent of Stop and Frisk, sat down with Democracy Now! for an interview regarding the NYPD’s conduct with Mayor de Blasio, and broke the Blue Code of Silence by criticizing his colleagues.
Polanco said he wasn’t at the funeral as a police officer, but rather as a citizen of New York City paying his respects to a fallen officer, saying “we have lost a brother, we have lost a citizen.”
When asked what his reaction was when his fellow officers turned their backs on Bill de Blasio, saying it was “absolutely wrong:”

“Mayor de Blasio came to the police department, that had a lot of issues with before he got to this police department. Mayor de Blasio came with the attitude that “I can fix this police department.” But this police department has a culture that is going to make whoever tried to change that culture and life impossible, including the mayor. It’s absolutely wrong to turn their back on the mayor. It absolutely don’t show—this is not what we’re made of. This is—I was not taught—you know, this does not represent the police department. This does not represent how, when a family calls for peace and unity, you’re going to have a hundred officers doing the absolute opposite.”

Polanco dove into the reality that it is him, not union leader Patrick Lynch or white officers, who has to have the same conversation with his own son. The fact that a black police officer has to warn his son about the dangers they themselves can deliver is staggering. How many white officers, especially in New York City, say the same to their children? Not a lot, according to Polanco.

Kudos to this officer for speaking the truth and showing that the NYPD has the potential to clean up their act. We need more police officers like Adhyl Polanco!

10 Big lies and the liars that told them. Interesting.

http://billmoyers.com/content/10-big-fat-lies-and-the-liars-who-told-them/10/
 

Investigative journalist Chuck Lewis joined Bill recently to discuss his new book, 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity, that looks at the history of government officials and media pundits speaking and repeating (and repeating and repeating) untruths to shape public opinion and policy.
The title of the book refers to the number of times President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials made false statements in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the book has a far greater scope, looking at how lies have shaped American policy over several decades.
Here are 10 notable whoppers that affected hundreds, thousands, and in some cases, millions of lives.

The Organized effort to unseat NY Mayor by the Police Union and Republicans

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/emails-and-racist-chats-show-how-cops-and-gop-are-teaming-undermine-de-blasio?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark


When hundreds of cops from around the country and as far away as Canada turned their backs on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio during the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, the NYPD officer shot to death alongside his partner Wenjian Liu by a deranged gunman, they fired the first salvo in a carefully coordinated political operation aimed at discrediting the liberal mayor and shattering the ongoing anti-police brutality protest movement.
AlterNet has obtained emails revealing plans to organize a series of anti-de Blasio protests around the city until the summer of 2015. Billed as a non-partisan movement in support of “the men and women of the NYPD,” the protests are being orchestrated by a cast of NYPD union bosses and local Republican activists allied with Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor who recently called on de Blasio to “say you’re sorry to [NYPD officers] for having created a false impression of them.” The first rally is planned to take place at Queens Borough Hall at noon on January 13. 

Joe Concannon, a failed Republican State Senate candidate and current president of the Tea Party-aligned Queens Village Republican Club, is the main organizer of the burgeoning anti-de Blasio protest effort. 


Officer Liu’s funeral on January 3 will present police with one more opportunity to admonish de Blasio. Then Operation All Out begins, with Republican operatives hoping to ride out of the political wilderness on the rising tide of cop rage. In an email to a supporter, Queens Village Republican Club president Joe Concannon referred to the planned wave of protests as “our plan to keep it in the news for the first half of 2015.”

2014 - Drug War Mayhem,

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/five-cases-2014-drug-war-mayhem?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Cases of people being killed or harmed because of raids in which there are no drugs or minor usage of drugs.

Retirement Crisis Coming: Mom and Dad will have to move in with their kids

http://www.alternet.org/books/americas-retirement-security-crisis-huge-and-quickly-approaching?page=0%2C1&akid=12627.294211.3ESHcB&rd=1&src=newsletter1029485&t=25

Unfortunately, fewer and fewer workers today feel confident in that ability. While no one thinks that a return to poorhouses and the mass insecurity in old age that preceded Social Security is around the corner, working-age Americans are increasingly worried about their ability to maintain their standards of living in retirement. Allianz Life Insurance Company reported, from its 2010 survey of 3,257 people, that “an overwhelming 92%” answered that they absolutely (44%) or somewhat (48%) believe that the nation faces a retirement income crisis, with “more than half (54%)” of persons ages 44 to 49 saying they are “totally unprepared” for retirement. In its 2013 retirement confidence survey of 1,003 workers, the Employee Benefit Research  Institute  (EBRI) found  that only “13 percent are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement,” the lowest ever reported in the twenty-three years of conducting this annual survey.

But recent events and trends render even the more accurate pyramid image misleading. Indeed, Peter Brady, an economist with the Investment Company Institute, suggests that “instead of a stool” most Americans “have a pogo stick:  Social Security” to negotiate their retirement years—which goes  a long way in explaining why working Americans are increasingly fearful. Although Social Security is much more stable than a pogo stick, the three-decade- long, billionaire-funded campaign to undermine confidence in the program may make the receipt of benefits feel less secure than it is. Moreover, though vital, the benefits by themselves are very modest. 

Westboro Baptist Church fellows are interviewed by Russell Brand - Very Good.

http://samuel-warde.com/2012/12/this-is-what-happens-when-russell-brand-interviews-westboro-baptist-church-leaders/

Comedian Russell Brand interviewed leaders from the Westboro Baptist Church . . . You won’t believe what happened next!
These two guys from the Westboro Baptist Church had no idea how to react to Russell Brand or his audience and the other guests just about drove them mad.

Off Duty Black Police Officer Shot 28 times by White Officers. Jail for the Black Officer.

http://www.theeverlastinggopstoppers.com/2014/12/black-police-officer-howard-morgan-shot-28-times-white-police-officers-yet-hes-guilty/

Meet Howard Morgan.
He was a Chicago police officer for more than eight years, and was also a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for more than 13 years.  In his time as a Chicago police officer, he earned 13 commendations, according to FreeHowardMorgan.com.
None of that, however, was enough to protect him from being shot 28 times from members of his own former department.  Then, to rub further salt in those wounds, he was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to jail for 40 years.
To say the evidence in this case is lacking, is perhaps the understatement of the decade.
It all went down like this, depending upon whom you believe:
On his way home, Morgan was pulled over for an alleged traffic violation.  Then, after identifying himself as a police officer, he was forced from his vehicle and shot 21 times in the back and seven times in the front by four white police officers.
Three of four officers involved were also shot, but none had life-threatening wounds, The Chicago Sun-Times reported in a 2012 article.

A Boy writes to Santa saying he wants to be safe: President Obama writes him a letter. Great

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-answers-boys-letter-asking-santa-safety?CID=sm_FB

A middle school boy did not ask for things, he asked for safety.  I think it is wonderful that President Obama wrote a letter to him.

2014 Year in Review - Robert Reich

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=921193401226590&set=vb.142474049098533&type=2&theater

Never underestimate what we can accomplish together. Here's to you and yours for a great 2015.

Policies to change the money going to the wealthiest

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/28242-new-year-s-resolutions-ten-ways-to-combat-upward-redistribution-of-income

The big gainers in the last three decades (a.k.a. the 1%) like to pretend that their good fortune was simply the result of the natural workings of the market. This backdrop largely limits political debate in Washington. The main difference is that the conservatives want to keep all the money for themselves, while the liberals are willing to toss a few crumbs to the rest of the country in the form of food stamps, health care insurance, and other transfers.
While the crumbs are helpful, the serious among us have to be thinking about the unrigging of the economy so that all the money doesn't flow upward in the first place. Here are 10 ways in which we should be looking to change the structure of the market in 2015, so that all the money doesn't flow to the 1%.
In all of these areas changes will be difficult, since the 1% will use their wealth and power to ensure that the rules are not rewritten to benefit the bulk of the country. However this list should provide a useful set of market friendly policies that will both lead to more equality and more growth.

Rebuilding Your Life - Steps to follow. Good stuff.

http://themindunleashed.org/2014/12/begin-rebuilding-life-make-ridiculously-amazing.html

Luminita D. Saviuc, Purpose Fairy, Guest

“Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.” ~ Joseph Addison

What if one day you woke up and decided that you were tired of feeling tired and that you had enough of everything? Enough of stress and anxiety, enough of anger and resentment, enough of struggle, lack, pain and poverty, enough of tears, heartbreaks, self destructive thoughts, behaviors and relationships and enough of all that is negative and toxic? What if you decided that you wanted to change yourself and your life but didn’t know where exactly to start, what then?

There are many things you can do to begin rebuilding your life and make it ridiculously amazing and today I will share with you 12 things that are meant to help you do just that. Are you ready? Let’s begin:

1. Make a commitment to yourself

Big Things Obama did even with Republican Stonewalling.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-things-obama-achieved-in-2014

Immigration Reform
Progress on Climate Change (China is in)
Cuba and Iran relationships with the US improved

The war in Afghanistan is officially over. Than You President Obama The longest war the US ever fought.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/29/obama-ends-war-in-afghanistan/

This has been a stellar month for President Obama, and for America overall. With gas prices dropping and the stock market rising, the deficit shrinking and Obamacare working, Americans can sleep a little better knowing they are more secure than ever. However, yesterday saw something that should make every single citizen in this great nation sleep even better: with a ceremony in Kabul, President Obama welcomed a formal end of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan. This comes to us from Honolulu, where President Obama is currently on his Christmas vacation. Contrary to Republican belief, the President can be very effective while out of Washington.
How weird it is that Bush started a war while he was on vacation in Texas, and Obama ends a war while on vacation in Hawaii.
After 13 long, tumultuous years, 2,200 dead Americans, and a country brought to its knees in financial disaster, the longest war America has fought is over. From a peak of over 140,000 troops which have been stationed since 2010, the U.S. and NATO plan to leave just 13,500 behind.

Get Rid of Teachers? The real problem is keeping them in teaching.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2014/12/03/the-problem-isnt-getting-rid-of-teachers-its-keeping-them/

Judging by the tenor of the education debate in recent weeks, it would be easy to assume that the biggest challenge facing school leaders is how to get rid of bad teachers. But any problems caused by teacher tenure pale in comparison with the difficulty in getting teachers to stay.
I wrote earlier this week about how a belief in removing poor teachers as a way to improve schools was misplaced.  My post was a response to the debate prompted by an article in Time magazine about tech entrepreneurs who want to make it easier to fire bad teachers.
While it may excite conservative commentators, this proposal is doomed to fail, not least because firing teachers requires finding replacements, and there is no guarantee they will be any better, if they exist at all.
But there is another side to this debate, and that is the difficulty of keeping teachers in the classroom. Not just good teachers, but any teachers.
I was reminded of this by a comment on my post from a teacher in his 25^th year in education. He highlighted the need to “attract and keep good people,” adding that in this semester alone three teachers had resigned at his middle school.
Teacher retention is a problem familiar to school leaders across education systems. In the U.S. an estimated 40-50% of teachers leave within the first five years and the attrition rates of first year teachers have increased by about a third in the last two decades.

Teachers were never the problem. Poverty is the problem impacting students.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/15849/teachers_were_never_the_problem

a little-noticed study released last week provides yet more confirmation that neither the “education crisis” meme or the “evil teachers' union” narrative is accurate.  
Before looking at that study, consider some of the ways we already know that the dominant storyline about education is, indeed, baseless propaganda.
As I've reported before, we know that American public school students from wealthy districts generate some of the best test scores in the world. This proves that the education system's problems are not universal–the crisis is isolated primarily in the parts of the system that operate in high poverty areas. It also proves that while the structure of the traditional public school system is hardly perfect, it is not the big problem in America’s K-12 education system. If it was the problem, then traditional public schools in rich neighborhoods would not perform as well as they do.
Similarly, we know that many of the high-performing public schools in America's wealthy locales are unionized. We also know that one of the best school systems in the world—Finland's—is fully unionized. These facts prove that teachers' unions are not the root cause of the education problem, either. After all, if unions were the problem, then unionized public schools in wealthy areas and Finland would be failing.
So what is the problem? That brings us to the new study from the Southern Education Foundation. Cross-referencing and education data, researchers found that that a majority of all public school students in one third of America's states now come from low-income families. 

New Data shows School Reformers are Full of It. (Reform is about Money, Money, Money.)

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/03/instead_of_a_war_on_teachers_how_about_one_on_poverty/

In the great American debate over education, the education and technology corporations, bankrolled politicians and activist-profiteers who collectively comprise the so-called “reform” movement base their arguments on one central premise: that America should expect public schools to produce world-class academic achievement regardless of the negative forces bearing down on a school’s particular students. In recent days, though, the faults in that premise are being exposed by unavoidable reality.
Before getting to the big news, let’s review the dominant fairy tale: As embodied by New York City’s major education announcement this weekend, the “reform” fantasy pretends that a lack of teacher “accountability” is the major education problem and somehow wholly writes family economics out of the story (amazingly, this fantasy persists even in a place like the Big Apple where economic inequality is particularly crushing). That key — and deliberate — omission serves myriad political interests.
For education, technology and charter school companies and the Wall Streeters who back them, it lets them cite troubled public schools to argue that the current public education system is flawed, and to then argue that education can be improved if taxpayer money is funneled away from the public school system’s priorities (hiring teachers, training teachers, reducing class size, etc.) and into the private sector (replacing teachers with computers, replacing public schools with privately run charter schools, etc.). Likewise, for conservative politicians and activist-profiteers disproportionately bankrolled by these and other monied interests, the “reform” argument gives them a way to both talk about fixing education and to bash organized labor, all without having to mention an economic status quo that monied interests benefit from and thus do not want changed.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that many “reformers’” policies have spectacularly failed, prompted massive scandals and/or offered no actual proof of success, an elite media that typically amplifies — rather than challenges — power and money loyally casts “reformers’” systematic pillaging of public education as laudable courage (the most recent example of this is Time magazine’s cover cheering on wildly unpopular Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel after he cited budget austerity to justify the largest mass school closing in American history — all while he is also proposing to spend $100 million of taxpayer dollars on a new private sports stadium).
In other words, elite media organizations (which, in many cases, have their own vested financial interest in education “reform”) go out of their way to portray the anti-public-education movement as heroic rather than what it really is: just another get-rich-quick scheme shrouded in the veneer of altruism.

One Simple Move President Obama can make to help us regular folk (and put it to the 1%.)

http://www.alternet.org/lets-all-screw-1-percent-simple-move-obama-could-make-strengthen-rest-us?akid=12622.294211.WW3t0U&rd=1&src=newsletter1029412&t=6

 

 

“The economy” in the abstract is doing relatively well, with strong job growth, a booming stock market, and rising GDP. But the American people aren’t feeling it—and Democrats have paid a serious political price as a result—simply because the concrete, individual experience is quite different.  Raising the minimum wage is one way to get at the problem—but for a problem that big, it’s a limited line of attack. There are millions of Americans making well more than the minimum wage, yet still doing much worse than their similarly situated parents did a generation ago.
“So what’s changed since the 1960s and ’70s?” progressive billionare venture capitalist Nick Hanauer asked in Politico back in November. “Overtime pay, in part,” he answered: “Your parents got a lot of it, and you don’t. And it turns out that fair overtime standards are to the middle class what the minimum wage is to low-income workers: not everything, but an indispensable labor protection that is absolutely essential to creating a broad and thriving middle class.”
Although the details are a bit complicated, the bottom line is not: there’s a wage level below which everyone qualifies for mandatory time-and-a-half overtime, even if they’re on a salary, and that level has only been raised once since 1975, with the result that only 11 percent of salaried Americans are covered today, compared to over 65 percent of them in 1975.  If you make less than $23,660 a year as a salaried worker, you qualify for mandatory overtime—if not, you’re out of luck.  Only those hanging on to the lowest levels of the middle class have those protections anymore. Just adjusting the wage level for inflation since 1975—an act of restoration, not revolution—would be as significant an income increase for millions of middle-class Americans as a $10.10 or even $15 minimum wage is for low-wage workers.  It would cover an additional 6.1 million salaried workers (by one account) up to $970 per week, about $50,440 annually—the vast majority of those it was originally designed to protect, but who have slowly lost their protections since the 1970s.

3 Ways the GOP will sabotage the government and the economy in 2015

http://www.alternet.org/three-ways-gop-will-sabotage-government-and-economy-2015?akid=12622.294211.WW3t0U&rd=1&src=newsletter1029412&t=18

The Republicans will work hard until the Presidential elections to kill the economy and blame the Democrats.  (Obstruction worked this past November.)

• Gutting the IRS
• Cooking the Books
• Holding the Debt Ceiling Hostage (Again)

Best SNL skits for 2014

http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/12/salon-puts-together-their-choices-for-best-snl-skits-of-2014/

From Beyonce to Michael Sam to Twitter, Saturday Night Live covered it all. Salon put together their list of the 12 best SNL moments of 2014.

Best News Bloopers in 2014

http://cutepuppylove.me/2014/12/28/the-best-news-bloopers-of-2014/

As Mike Tyson says:  :F**K You.  There was a lot of swearing on these bloopers.

Schools for Sale - Diane Ravich and Bill Moyers

http://billmoyers.com/episode/public-schools-for-sale/

Full Show: Public Schools for Sale?

March 28, 2014

Public education is becoming big business as bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity investors are entering what they consider to be an “emerging market.” As Rupert Murdoch put it after purchasing an education technology company, “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the US alone.”
Education historian Diane Ravitch says the privatization of public education has to stop. As assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, she was an advocate of school choice and charter schools; under George W. Bush, she supported the No Child Left Behind initiative. But after careful investigation, she changed her mind, and has become, according to Salon, “the nation’s highest profile opponent” of charter-based education.

Arctic Ocean releasing Massive Amounts of Methane into the atmosphere

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/revealed-the-arctic-ocean-is-releasing-large-volumes-of-methane/

Researchers from Norway and Russia have found significant amount of the greenhouse gas methane is leaking from an area of the Arctic seabed off the northern coast of Siberia.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Researchers from Norway and Russia have found significant amount of the greenhouse gas methane is leaking from an area of the Arctic seabed off the northern coast of Siberia.
According to the team's report in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, the melting of permafrost on the seafloor of the Kara Sea is releasing previously-sequestered methane.
"The thawing of permafrost on the ocean floor is an ongoing process, likely to be exaggerated by the global warming of the world´s oceans," said study author Alexey Portnov at Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Climate and Environment (CAGE) at The Arctic University of Norway.

Princeton Study: US no longer an actual Democracy

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

A new study from Princeton spells bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists.

Asking "[w]ho really rules?" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argue that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.
Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.
TPM Interview: Scholar Behind Viral 'Oligarchy' Study Tells You What It Means

Abortion Complication Rate is LOWER THAN WISDOM TOOTH EXTRACTION, Time for the truth.

http://time.com/3623572/abortion-safe-complications/?s_src=ad_fb_dd-us_ca-testg3-all_av-evg-p3-h3-d3-im2-20141223&utm_medium=ad&utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=dd-us_ca-testg3-all_av-evg-p3-h3-d3-im2-20141223

People who get abortions are less likely to have complications than people who have their wisdom teeth removed, finds a new study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Researchers at University of California San Francisco wanted to understand, from a medical standpoint, the safety of abortions, so they analyzed 54,911 of them performed from 2009-2010 on women, as well as the health care services the women received in the six weeks following the abortion.
Of those abortions, only 2.1% resulted in a complication—considerably lower than the 7% complication rate for wisdom tooth removal and 9% rate for tonsillectomy, the authors point out. Major complications that required hospitalization, surgery or a blood transfusion occurred in only 0.23% of the women in the study—126 cases. That’s lower than the rate of major complications for colonoscopy, says study author Ushma Upadhyay, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF.
Fewer than 2% of abortions resulted in a minor complication.

Koch Brothers going for MORE Power. Buying the US Governement is not enough.

http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/12/koch-brothers-more-powerful-than-you-think/

Apparently the Koch brothers aren’t content with owning nearly every branch of government in the United States, so now they’re devising a plan that would give them even more power and influence over American politics.
Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins talks about this plan with attorney Howard Nations.

NYC Cops turn back on Mayor during Funeral - DISGRACEFUL. They insist on respect but will not respect their leader.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/27/nypd-cops-turn-backs-on-mayor-de-blasio-video/

In case we didn’t get their memo from last week, hundreds of NYPD cops turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio for the second time since Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were slain in their police car on Dec. 20.
NYPD first disrespected de Blasio this way when New York City’s Democratic mayor gave a press conference after the murders, as AI reports in an earlier post. Then, hundreds of NYPD did it again on Saturday, when De Blasio stepped up to the podium to deliver a eulogy at Ramos’ funeral at the Christ Tabernacle Church, Queens’ Glendale neighborhood.
AP reports that while NYPD officers inside the church politely gave a light round of applause before and after De Blasio’s speech, the cops gathered outside turned their backs when their mayor appeared on the giant screen TV, with no regard for the feelings of other mourners gathered in the vast crowd.
These cops may have been following up on an NYPD union leader’s  epic hissy fit, as described by AI on Dec. 14. Patrick Lynch from the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association railed at de Blasio’s supposed “lack of support” for NYPD and asked people to sign an outrageous petition banning him from police officers’ funerals. This in spite of the fact that it is a long-standing custom for the Mayor of New York City to honor NYPD’s fallen at their funerals.

These NYPD cops want their authority respected, but won’t respect de Blasio’s.

The Pope is talking about Climate Change - I like this Pope.

http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/12/gotta-love-this-pope-now-hes-taking-on-climate-change/

Finally, a religious leader talking about the wants and needs of the masses instead of the wealthy.  I like this Pope.

7 Habits of Chronically Unhappy People

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tamara-star/7-habit-of-chronically-unhappy-people_b_6174000.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

I often teach about happiness and what has become exceedingly clear is this: There are seven qualities chronically unhappy people have mastered.
According to Psychology Today, University of California researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky states: "40 percent of our capacity for happiness is within our power to change."
If this is true and it is, there's hope for us all. There are billions of people on our planet and clearly some are truly happy. The rest of us bounce back and forth between happiness and unhappiness depending on the day.
Throughout the years, I've learned there are certain traits and habits chronically unhappy people seem to have mastered. But before diving in with you, let me preface this and say: we all have bad days, even weeks when we fall down in all seven areas.
The difference between a happy and unhappy life is how often and how long we stay there.

Here are the 7 qualities of chronically unhappy people.

1. Your default belief is that life is hard.
2. You believe most people can't be trusted.
3. You concentrate on what's wrong in this world versus what's right.
4. You compare yourself to others and harbor jealousy.
5. You strive to control your life.
6 You consider your future with worry and fear.
7. You fill your conversations with gossip and complaints.     

11 Great Moments of Political Humor in 2014

http://www.alternet.org/culture/chris-rock-colbert-silverman-aamer-rahman-11-more-great-moments-political-comedy-year

Chris Rock, Colbert, Silverman, Aamer Rahman — 11 More Great Moments in Political Comedy This Year

Political humor gave us rare opportunities to laugh in an otherwise difficult year.

Bible Scripture - Written as if Conservative Republicans would write it.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/what-if-jesus-had-been-republican-0?akid=12621.294211.jVjiUQ&rd=1&src=newsletter1029378&t=12

This is not the Jesus I was taught in Sunday School as a child.  Did he chang with time?

. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.  4. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5. When Jesus saw this he grew angry, “Why did you wreck my roof?  Do you have any idea how much that cost to install?  Do you know how many tables and chairs I had to make in my carpentry shop to pay for that roof?  The reeds alone cost five talents.  I had them carted in from Bethany.”  6. The disciples had never seen Jesus so angry about his possessions.  He continued, “This house is my life.  And the roof is the best part.”  The disciples fell silent.   7. “It’s bad enough that you trash my private property, now you want me to heal you?” said Jesus, “And did you not see the stone walls around this house?”  “Yes,” said the man’s friends.  “Are these not the stone walls common to the towns and villages of Galilee?”  8. “No,” Jesus answered.  “This is a gated community.  How did you get in?”

IMAGINE, by John Lennon, as you have never heard it before.

http://bluenationreview.com/bet-youve-never-heard-john-lennons-imagine-like/?ref=00182

I, too, am a dreamer

Organ Farmers in the Philppines - cut poor folks kidneys out for profit.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28209-a-suitable-donor-harvesting-kidneys-in-the-philippines

Along the coast of Manila Bay in the Philippines, behind the grand Manila Hotel, there is a slum district called Baseco. Hidden by towering container yards and cargo ships, this shantytown had been virtually unknown until a few years ago when a television report broadcast nationwide put a red pin on the map of Manila.
Describing it as “a place where the people of damned souls (mga halang ang kaluluwa) sell their kidneys to survive,” Baseco brought to public attention the scandal of what is essentially a human organ farm.

35 Below Zero - Man falls through ice and survives 3 nights in cold.

http://www.adn.com/article/20141226/man-survives-fall-through-ice-three-days-outside-near-barrow


He managed to get out of the ocean and, after spending an indeterminate amount of time on the sea ice, made his way in frozen clothes about 1.5 miles inland to the closest thing to shelter he could find, a platform that is used in the spring, summer and fall to erect wall tents that house hunters, Brower said. There was no heat source and Johnson did not have the tools to start a fire, nor did he have any survival gear with him, she added.
Johnson crawled inside, or under, the platform and stayed there for three days. During that time, he was stalked by a wolverine. He emptied his gun trying to shoot the animal and wound up jabbing at it whenever it came close, Brower said.
“There were some foxes too but they didn’t bother him as much,” Brower said. “It was the wolverine that gave him some problems.”

Climate Scientists express their feelings about their work, life, frustrations and our environmental legacy.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/how-do-scientists-actually-feel-about-climate-change#.qc5kV5PQ3q

My overwhelming emotion is anger; anger that is fuelled not so much by ignorance, but by greed and profiteering at the expense of future generations.

Religion: Religions smart people problem. The shaky intellectual foundation of belief exposed.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/religions-smart-people-problem-shaky-intellectual-foundation-belief

Should you believe in a God? Not according to most academic philosophers. A comprehensive survey revealed that only  about 14 percent of English speaking professional philosophers are theists. As for what little religious belief remains among their colleagues, most professional philosophers regard it as a strange aberration among otherwise intelligent people. Among scientists the situation is much the same. Surveys of the members of the National Academy of Sciences, composed of the most prestigious scientists in the world, show that religious belief among them is practically nonexistent,  about 7 percent.
Now nothing definitely follows about the truth of a belief from what the majority of philosophers or scientists think. But such facts might cause believers discomfort. There has been a dramatic change in the last few centuries in the proportion of believers among the highly educated in the Western world. In the European Middle Ages belief in a God was ubiquitous, while today it is rare among the intelligentsia. This change occurred primarily because of the rise of modern science and a consensus among philosophers that arguments for the existence of gods, souls, afterlife and the like were unconvincing. Still, despite the view of professional philosophers and world-class scientists, religious beliefs have a universal appeal. What explains this?

Paul Krugman: 4 reasons to be Cheerful as 2014 ends.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/paul-krugman-4-surprising-reasons-be-cheerful-close-2014

Reasons for hope in 2014.

1. Ebola
2. The Economy
3. Obamacare
4. Foreign policy  

2014: The 6 most ridiculous attacks on clean energy

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/12/26/the-6-most-ridiculous-attacks-on-clean-energy-i/201967

1. 60 Minutes Produces "Poor Piece Of Journalism" To Attack Clean Energy
2. Fox News Warns That DOE's Clean Energy Program Picks "Losers," Threatens Taxpayers
4. Fox Pushes False Analogy In Dishonest Attack On Solar Industry. 
6. Breitbart.com Twists Google's Words To Label Renewable Energy "A Total Fail.  

8 PseudoScientific Claims which were DEBUNKED by Real Scientists.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/16/eight-pseudo-scientific-climate-claims-debunked-by-real-scientists/

1. No, the Earth Hasn’t Stopped Warming Since 1998 (or 1996 or 1997)

the idea that the climate stopped warming at some point goes back even further. In the 1990s, two climatologists, Roy Spencer and Richard Lindzen, published a series of papers hypothesizing that global warming had stopped. Spencer and Lindzen are among the few climate contrarians with real scientific credentials, and have been widely cited by climate skeptics; Spencer has testified at a number of Republican congressional hearings on climate science.

Spencer also dismisses the theory of evolution, and has written: “I view my job a little like a legislator, supported by the taxpayer, to protect the interests of the taxpayer and to minimize the role of government.”

6. Doubling Down With “Global Cooling”

Climate change deniers seized on an op-ed Henrik Svensmark wrote in 2009 for a conservative Danish newspaper claiming that the sun had entered a cooling cycle, and therefore the Earth would begin to cool as well.
“There is no credible data nor any credible scientist who would make this claim,” says John Abrahams. “Perhaps Cliff Clavin from Cheers might say this but not even the few contrarian scientists would agree that this statement is correct.”
Several of the other scientists we spoke to agreed that this claim is simply bizarre.

8. No, Antarctic Ice Isn’t Increasing

The claim that Antarctic ice is increasing rather than melting is an interesting one given the two major studies released this week which found that six large West Antarctic glaciers are in an irreversible state of decline.
Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research explains the importance of distinguishing between sea ice and land ice. Ninety-eight percent of Antarctica’s land mass is covered by ice that accumulated over thousands of years. This ice is melting at an alarming rate.
Sea ice, on the other hand, builds up in the winter and melts almost entirely in the summer. The difference between the two is crucial — melting land ice increases ocean levels significantly, while sea ice melt has a lesser effect.

And 168 more…

These are only some of the most common pseudoscientific climate arguments. The Skeptical Science website provides easy-to-understand scientific rebuttals to these and 168 others.

Top Environmental Stories of 2014

http://www.alternet.org/environment/top-environmental-stories-2014

1. Obama Finally Acts on Power Plant Emissions
2. U.S. and China Agree to Cut Emissions
3. A Vibrant, Diverse U.S. Climate Movement Emerges
7. Wildlife Continues to Decline

  Environment  

Earth Island Journal / By Jason Mark

8. California Drought

  

Black People Lies - The brainwashing of White People about Black Folks.

http://www.alternet.org/white-americans-have-been-brainwashed-about-race-lies-we-tell-ourselves-about-black-women?akid=12616.294211.b-HRho&rd=1&src=newsletter1029300&t=4

The black male body has been popularly pathologized as a source of criminal danger, and the mere fact that black male crime rates are higher than those for whites is  used as a justification for treating any and all black males as potential criminals: to be stopped, searched, frisked, detained, beaten, and even killed if an officer feels threatened by them. Or if a pathetic wanna-be like George Zimmerman does. The rhetoric about black men on talk radio and TV is almost uniformly condemnatory. A steady diet of "pull up your pants," and "stop glorifying thugs," and  "stop killing each other" has been the complete menu of conservative commentary as of late, and the default position of much of white America, beholden to their racialized images.
Less discussed, however, but just as important, is the way in which black women too are being pathologized and demeaned, dissed by the same sources as those who have so continually sought to demonize their male counterparts.It isn't new of course: white critiques of the black community have always been nothing if not gender-inclusive. From the days of enslavement, during which black women were de-sexualized as masculine workhorses in the white imagination (even as they were often the object of white male sexual abuse), to the sexist condemnations of so-called matriarchal "ghetto culture" by the  Moynihan Report in 1965, black women have hardly been immune to racist caricatures drawn by white folks. For that matter, neither have they escaped criminalization at the hands of law enforcement. Though we don't speak of it as often, it is not solely black men and men of color being targeted by the cops. While their names may be less well known than those of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, or the recently added names of Crawford, Brown, Garner, Rice, and  Akai Gurley, let there be no mistake,  Tyisha Miller, Aiyana Jones, Yvette Smith, Rekia Boyd and Kathryn Johnston (among many others) are every bit as dead as they.

It is quite apparent by now that conservatives will stop at nothing to deflect attention from issues of structural racism, police violence in black communities, unequal job opportunities, unequal school resources, and persistent racial gaps in every measure of well-being. Rather than address the ongoing failure of America to live up to its purported principles --- a failure so utterly complete as to suggest those principles were never meant to be taken seriously in the first place --- they retreat instead to victim-blaming, black culture-shaming and reality-challenged slanders against African Americans, both male and female. Only by calling them out for their lies can the movement for justice hope to prevail. And only by noting the way all black people are under attack --- not just men --- can we hope to build the struggle for both racial and gender equity, both of which components will be critical for the attainment of a new and radical democracy. 

Bank gives elderly lady a late fee: Her response was Priceless

http://www.tickld.com/x/woman-sends-bank-angry-letter-after-they-bounced-her-check-this-is-gold

This is very well done.

Lone Hero stands up to Open Carry Bullies and the bullies assault him.

http://www.americannewsx.com/politics/lone-hero-stands-up-to-open-carry-bullies-who-assault-him-on-video/

“I went there because I really have a problem with people that think they can stir good-hearted people that want a safe and positive change in a community into their violent paranoia that they themselves are responsible for creating.”

That’s when you can hear one of the gun-nuts screaming, “shoot him.” The vulgar hypocrisy of these batshit loons escapes them completely. Michael also stated,

“The speaker riled up the crowd and told them lawmakers could not make them give up a right that god had given them and that it was time to overtake those people.”

Apparently in the demented minds of these hapless nitwits, Jesus wrote the constitution right after he won the Murikan Revolution!
The next bit of video was captured by another attendee of the rally that shows the cowardly bullies for the liars they are. They are the ones manhandling Michael and putting him on the ground with their knees in his back while trying to handcuff him with zip ties.

10 Facts to upset your FOX spewing relatives this vacation.

http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/10-facts-that-will-drive-your-fox-spewing-relatives-crazy-this-holiday/

1: The U.S. economy grew at a rate of 5 percent in third quarter,  the fastest rate in more than a decade.  Source: The Wall Street Journal  & The Washington Post
2: Gasoline prices are the lowest since May 2009. The current average price per gallon in the U.S. is $2.38. Source: CNN Money  & NBC News
3: The White House had no connection to alleged targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS. Source: The New York Times
4: A GOP Congressional report found no wrongdoing by the Obama Administration surrounding the Benghazi attacks. The fabricated charges have been thoroughly debunked. Source: CBS News
5: Growth in government spending has been the slowest under President Obama than both Bush’s and Reagan. Source: The Fiscal Times
6: Climate change is real according to 97% of climate scientists. Sources: NASA & The Union of Concerned Scientists

The NY Cop Killer was just another resentful, MENTALLY ILL man with easy access to a gun - the same old story.

http://www.alternet.org/man-who-killed-nypd-officers-was-just-another-resentful-mentally-ill-person-access-firearms?akid=12615.294211.YBfIQM&rd=1&src=newsletter1029277&t=6

 

No sooner had the  fatal shooting of two NYPD officers reached the newswires than the predictable partisan backlash began: conservatives  who had been on their heels as a movement grew against police brutality suddenly  found their foooting from which to unleash a torrent of invective blaming liberals for the killings. Sensible people have pointed out that it is possible to mourn the brutal killings of police officers alongside the pointless deaths of unarmed civilians. 
But overlooked in this narrative is the depressing reality that this latest multiple murder has much more to do with America's continued inability to solve its epidemic of gun violence, particularly by the mentally ill, than it does with the ongoing debate about policing tactics. It's not just that (minor incidents of looting notwithstanding) protests against excessive force by police have been expressly non-violent and that a movement whose slogan is "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" can hardly be blamed for causing someone to shoot innocent public servants. There are other, deeper problems. 
The Right's preferred narrative about the killings that the shooter's primary motive was to take revenge on police is complicated by the fact that he  first shot his ex-girlfriend  before using his gun on the officers and finally on himself. It's difficult to assert a cold-blooded anti-institutional revenge motive when his first victim was a defenseless former lover. The conservative story that anti-police protests convinced the killer to take racially motivated vengeance is complicated by the fact that the victims, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were both people of color. Nor was the killer a rational actor: he had a  long history of mental illness and attempted suicide. His social media presence paints a portrait of a man veering back and forth from self-loathing to rage against society. 
In this respect, he was little different from other recent mass murderers in America: mentally ill, usually violent against women, resentful of the world, and somehow able to acquire a gun. In Oregon earlier this year a deeply religious conservative teenager  shot a fellow student to death and injured a teacher to rid the world of "sinners." Another mentally ill and sexually frustrated young man acquired an arsenal of guns and  went on a murderous and ultimately suicidal rampage in Isla Vista, apparently in an attempt to punish all the young women who had spurned him.

How Civilized DOGS and CATS celebrate Christmas Dinner. Excellent.

http://cutepuppylove.me/2014/12/18/how-do-pets-celebrate-the-holidays/

This is funny.

24 of 25 Black NY Police officers said they were racially profiled and/or threatened while on the force.

http://www.alternet.org/black-nypd-cops-say-theyre-profiled-and-threatened-white-cops

The wire service interviewed 25 black male officers, ten current cops and 15 retired. With just one exception, they said that they have been victims of racial profiling by police, both when wearing the uniform and while off duty. For its article, Reuters identified racial profiling as “using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.”

In the article, Reuters equates what they experience as the same type of racial profiling that cost Eric Garner his life after he was swarmed by police officers and one applied a choke hold to him.

14 Year old Child Bride admits to killing 35 year old husband.

http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-child-bride-confessed-killing-husband-police-194833359.html

Gezawa (Nigeria) (AFP) - A packed Nigerian court heard testimony on Monday that a 14-year-old girl admitted to killing her 35-year-old husband with rat poison, and signed a police confession with a thumbprint because she cannot write.

Wasila Tasi'u, from a poor and deeply conservative Muslim family, has been charged with murdering her husband Umar Sani days after their marriage in northern Kano state.

Because she did not understand English, homicide investigator Abdullahi Adamu translated her statement from the Hausa language dominant in the region and gave her the document to sign.

She could not write her name, so "she had to use a thumbprint," he told the court during his testimony on the last day of the prosecution’s case.

How GUNS EVERYWHERE make Police and Communities LESS SAFE.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/22/how-guns-make-police-less-safe-their-jobs-more-difficult-and-communities-less-trusting/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

Guns change the equation in so many ways. They make it harder for police to retreat, and more likely that a stand-off that might have been resolved peacefully will escalate. They make it harder for police to give suspects the benefit of the doubt, and more likely that a suspected criminal may not deserve it.
They make it easier for a mentally ill man to forever alter two families' lives in the name of "revenge."
After the killing of New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos over the weekend, it feels perhaps more satisfying to place blame elsewhere: on protesterswho've cried for better policing, on public officials who acknowledge that the protesters' grievances are valid. But both claims deflect attention toward a vague culprit — "anti-police rhetoric" — and away from a more concrete and systemic one: the ever-presence and easy availability of guns.

SEX ED - NO WAY! 28 girls take a 5 day field trip. 7 end up pregnant.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/23/pregnant-girls-field-trip-bosnia-sex-ed/

States with NO Sex Ed or Just say No or Pray sex ed have the highest teenage pregnancy rates.

Homeless Man is given 100.00. See what he does with the money

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/23/100-then-secretly-followed/

This is pretty amazing, well worth seeing.  You might learn about homeless people too.

Dangerous Anti-Intellectualism: In the US, Fact and scientific knowledge DO NOT matter to policy makers.

http://www.alternet.org/education/americas-dangerous-turn-anti-intellectualism?akid=12609.294211.V7O_jZ&rd=1&src=newsletter1029213&t=7

 Recently, I found out that my work is mentioned in a book that has been banned, in effect, from the schools in Tucson, Arizona. The anti-ethnic studies law passed by the state prohibits teachings that "promote the overthrow of the United States government," "promote resentment toward a race or class of people," "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group," and/or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." I invite you to read the book in question, titled Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, so that you can decide for yourselves whether it qualifies.

In fact, I invite you to take on as your summer reading the astonishingly lengthy list of books that have been removed from the Tucson public school system as part of this wholesale elimination of the Mexican-American studies curriculum. The authors and editors include Isabel Allende, Junot Díaz, Jonathan Kozol, Rudolfo Anaya, bell hooks, Sandra Cisneros, James Baldwin, Howard Zinn, Rodolfo Acuña, Ronald Takaki, Jerome Skolnick and Gloria Anzaldúa. Even Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Shakespeare's The Tempest received the hatchet.

P.U.-LITZER AWARDS - The stinkiest reporting fir tge 2014 year

http://www.alternet.org/media/pu-litzer-prizes-stinkiest-reporting-year?page=0%2C0&akid=12609.294211.V7O_jZ&rd=1&src=newsletter1029213&t=9


 
It's that time of year again, when FAIR looks back at the year and recalls some of the stinkiest media moments. There were, of course, many contenders-- but only a select few can make the list.
So without further ado, we present the 2014 P.U.-litzers:
-We Are Awesome Award:  Andrea Tantaros, Fox News Channel
-Promoting Climate Change Denial Award: CNN

-Best, Smartest, Whitest, Malest Award: Chuck Todd, NBC

-Torture Without Torture Award: Washington Post

-Leaving Out Labor Award: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox

-Selective Outrage Award: New York Times  

Mayor Bill de Blasio schooled a planted right wing reporter a lesson.

http://www.alternet.org/media/how-bill-de-blasio-schooled-right-wing-planted-reporter-guide-progressives?akid=12609.294211.V7O_jZ&rd=1&src=newsletter1029213&t=25

Don't portray the minority crazies as the majority!


A reporter asked one of the most divisive questions at a news conference in New York City featuring Bill de Blasio, his commissioner, and police chief. The reporter's question was barely audible. He asked the mayor if he approved of anti-police chants, with some equating the police to the KKK. Bill de Blasio did not run away from the question. He answered it straight on.

10 Educational Aps for Kids during this Holiday Season.

http://www.alternet.org/education/10-educational-apps-your-kids-holiday-season?akid=12606.294211.ZibMnr&rd=1&src=newsletter1029141&t=21

1. Bitsboard.
Bitsboard is an app that is part discovery tool, part multimedia flashcard system. Think of it as a dynamic and gamified index of educational topics. Bitsboard engages learners by making a game of the learning process, and has more than two dozen variations on those approaches, from basic matching and true or false, to memory games and word searches
2. Pocket. 
Pocket is what it sounds like—a digital pocket to save what’s worth saving for later reading and reference. Articles to read for pleasure, research sources, ideas for projects, and more can all be saved.
3. Sandbox. Sandbox is an educational game that allows children to experiment with the elements of the universe in digital form. Combine water and heat to make steam.
4. Storehouse. Storehouse is a visual storytelling app for iOS that allows your child to quickly build elegant and engaging digital media “pages.
5. Today’s Doc. Today’s Doc is a series of 365 important documents in American history. 

Have a Selfish, Conservative Christmas - Ayn Rand Christmas Cards.

http://www.alternet.org/culture/happy-selfish-christmas-21-ayn-rand-holiday-cards?akid=12606.294211.ZibMnr&rd=1&src=newsletter1029141&t=5

According to Scott McConnell's 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand she did indeed. Unfortunately, none are included in McConnell's 656 page book.
Fortunately, with a little help from the Ayn Rand Archives*, we're able to present to you this exclusive, never-before-seen collection of Ayn Rand favorites.

FOX: White guys killing cops NO BIG DEAL! Black guy kills cop - MAJOR OBAMA PROBLEM. Why the difference.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/12/22/fox-news-double-standard-for-right-wing-cop-kil/201978

On a September night this year, 31-year-old marksman Eric Frein was allegedly laying in wait outside the Blooming Grove police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania, preparing to assassinate state troopers. That night, state police officer Bryon Dickson was shot and killed as he walked towards his patrol car.
He "made statements about wanting to kill law enforcement officers and to commit mass acts of murder," state police commissioner Frank Noonan warned the public at the time. Another official noted the shooter has a "longstanding grudge against law enforcement and government in general" dating back to at least 2006.
"He was obviously a big critic of the federal government," a man name Jack told CNN. "No indications of really any malice towards law enforcement in particular. Mostly--most of his aggression was towards the federal government."
In the two weeks after the shooting, as a massive manhunt unfolded in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Fox programs mentioned Frein's name in just six reports, according to Nexis transcripts. One of the reports mentioned Frein's hatred of law enforcement, but none mentioned Frein's vocal anti-government leanings.
When Frein was finally captured in late October, Fox News covered the stories a handful of times. Again, there was no emphasis on his possible anti-government motivations and why the "survivalist" set out to assassinate law enforcement officers.
Another police assassination attack unfolded in June. Claiming to be acting under the bloody "banner of Liberty and Truth," Jerad Miller and his wife Amanda entered a restaurant Las Vegas executed two local policemen while they at lunch.
As bullets flew, one of the shooters reportedly shouted that the "revolution" had begun. The killers then stripped the officers of their weapons and ammunition and badges, and covered them with cloth that featured the "Don't tread on me" Gadsden flag, which has recently been adopted as a symbol of the tea party movement.
Six days earlier, the shooters had posted a manifesto on Facebook where he announced "we must prepare for war." Jerad Miller, who traveled to Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch this spring to join the militia protests against the federal government, declared: "To stop this oppression, I fear, can only be accomplished with bloodshed."
Raw Story reported that Miller "left behind social media postings that show his concerns over Benghazi, chemtrails, gun control laws, and the government's treatment of rancher Cliven Bundy." And according to an NBC News report, the shooter had talked to his neighbor about his "desire to overthrow the government and President Obama and kill police officers."
Fox News primetime hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity both ignored the shocking cop-killer story the night after it happened; Megyn Kelly devoted four sentences to it.
The Las Vegas attack came just two days after a member of the "sovereign citizen" anti-government movement waged a brief war outside a courthouse near Atlanta. Dennis Marx came supplied with an assault weapon, "homemade and commercial explosive devices," as well as "a gas mask; two handguns; zip ties and two bulletproof vests," according to the Associated Press. He opened fire, shooting one deputy in the leg. Sovereign citizens are militia-like radicals who don't believe the federal government has the power and legitimacy to enforce the law. The FBI has called the movement "a growing domestic terror threat to law enforcement." 
Fox News barely covered the Marx attack on law enforcement. Nor did Fox assign collective blame.
On May 20, 2010, two West Memphis, Ark., police officers were shot and killed by a father-son team during a routine traffic stop.  The shooters were AK-47-wielding sovereign citizens with ties to white supremacy groups and who had posted anti-government rants on YouTube.

NY Times calls for Bush/Cheney Officials to be Indicted for Torture.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/22/new-york-times-calls-for-cheney-arrest/

It seems the world is starting to rise up against the Bush Administration after the release of the torture report. Yesterday, news broke that a human rights organization in Germany, with the aide of an international lawyer, were filing charges against the entire Bush administration for illegal, torturous practices on an innocent man. Now, it’s hitting here in America. The New York Times is calling for the investigation and indictment of the Bush Adminstration for war crimes.
In their blistering, hard-hitting Monday morning article  “Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses,” the New York Times editorial board is asking that the Department of Justice prosecute those who “committed torture and other serious crimes,” which includes former Vice President Dick Cheney and other major officials within the Bush Admin.
The board referred to the torture practices as “a vast criminal conspiracy, under color of law, to commit torture and other serious crimes.”
…any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos,” the editorial reads. “There are many more names that could be considered, including Jose Rodriguez Jr., the C.I.A. official who ordered the destruction of the videotapes; the psychologists who devised the torture regimen; and the C.I.A. employees who carried out that regimen.”

Islamic Extremism was created by the US and our Allies - 8 reasons (Historical Perspective)

http://www.alternet.org/8-reasons-why-us-and-its-allies-are-responsible-islamic-extremism?akid=12604.294211.sftHKU&rd=1&src=newsletter1029070&t=20

1) The US backs Saudi Arabia against pan-Arab socialism (1950s-1970s)
 2) The CIA funds Iran’s clergy against Mossadegh (1951-1953)
 3) Israel backs Hamas against nationalist Palestinian resistance (1970s-1980s) 
4) America, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan back the Afghan mujahideen (1979-1989)
5) US foments sectarianism to destroy united Iraqi opposition (2003-2008)
6) US boosts Libya’s al Qaeda-affiliate against Gaddafi (2004-2011)
7) US’s regional allies back ISIS (2011-2014)
8) US’s eternal ally Saudi Arabia exports proxy terror and repression (1970s-2014)
     

Poop as Fuel - The new future

http://www.alternet.org/environment/scoop-poop-bus-how-human-and-animal-waste-might-fuel-our-future?akid=12604.294211.sftHKU&rd=1&src=newsletter1029070&t=16


Last month, we were in collective awe of the Bio-Bus, better known as the Poop Bus, when it made  international headlines. The 40-seat bus, which runs on biomethane gas collected from human waste, was put into service in the UK, where it now travels the Bristol-to-Bath route.

The Bio-Bus, a 40-seat mass transit vehicle that can travel 186 miles on a tank of compressed gas produced from human waste, is a lot less disgusting than you think. It may even be an ingenious, carbon-neutral way to make use of our waste.

One tank of fuel on the Bio-Bus is roughly equal to the waste produced by five people in a year’s time. The exhaust emits about 30% less carbon dioxide than the standard diesel engine of a similarly sized bus.