Richard D. Wolff : Economic Update November 2013

Awesome. As informative and engaging as ever and this one has been especially entertaining.
I would suggest showing it to everyone you know...

More info here...

Fuck The TPP

drone warfare / TPP /"obamacare"


wow... I am really pissed right now...

On "net neutrality"...

In the past few days I've been seeing all of these articles about ISPs and governments trying to get more control over the information on the internet. Verizon is going to court with the FCC to try and make a two tiered internet where certain sites will have traffic priority over others which will mean big money for the people who have and control it and take options away from the people who don't.

In England the proposed legislation is that there will be national filters on the internet; one of which for "esoteric" content, which really could be anything... It seems like they are getting more and more afraid of new ideas... The internet already has ads, shopping and useless, trash entertainment- I'm hoping that there will still be information and tools of actual worth on here as well... These are the things that make this whole computer business worth all of the money, time and social anxiety... The kindof fable about the internet being the next step toward human/cultural evolution.

We've all bought into the idea that the internet is the safest, easiest tool to get all of our business done- we've moved our banking, bill paying, our shopping and communication to the computer because it's been the easiest option and everyone else is doing it; and what bothers me about that aside from the obvious tracking / data mining is that now that everyone's become dependent on this thing which at least to my generation has become a resource or utility that's almost inescapable; and now the people in power want to make sure that it's only used for what they want you to use it for... Strictly a platform for selling you garbage- propaganda and otherwise...

Having a free internet where people are able to share new ideas and strategies was the sugar to help the medicine go down... This is why we pay upwards of $60 a month to these conglomerates instead of going out to the bar, the club, the local movie theater... Tangible goods and experiences are not in our budgets anymore; this alternative works because we have more of a choice in what's available to see/read/listen to. This relative freedom to seek out different ideas, art and to connect with like-minded people is what the whole tradeoff was for...

All of this "austerity" in the western world; in America they're talking about cutting the post office, 1 in 5 people on public assistance and all of these people getting up in arms about it... Libraries are closing, schools are underfunded and people are finally starting to see just how broken the system is... Is it any wonder why they would want to restrict the choices of information the general populace may be privy to?

Everything is on the internet or through it now... It's all just data- "We've closed the library and moved it over to the internet for your convenience..." OK... "but you can't have access without a special pass..."
To hell with that...

I'm sure people will find a way to subvert it or figure out some new or forgotten way of communication to get around it, but it still sucks and it gives even more light to how desperate these people are to remain in control. They are out of ideas and terrified by them.

Here are a few articles on the Verizon / FCC case...

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-09/net-neutrality-goes-on-trial-a-guide-to-verizon-v-dot-fcc

http://www.forbes.com/sites/waynecrews/2013/09/08/net-neutrality-fcc-and-verizon-finally-head-to-court/

 Original graphic published at www.reachinglight.com.

 

Cornel West @ Dartmouth 4/13

I love this fucken guy...
Bookmark this it and watch it soon because they're going to take it down on august 31st...
enjoy...

Lawrence Lessig on Bill Moyers talking about technology and Government Corruption.

Big Brother’s Prying Eyes from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

The first half of the conversation is about the NSA/PRISM and though his point makes sense and is more realistic than most of our solutions to the problem; The second half of the interview is what got me excited.

At about 31 minutes the conversation moves on to congress and there are a few ideas about campaign finance and making superpacs to get corrupt motherfuckers out of office and begin to kindof straighten out the system instead of just accepting the way it is as the way it is... It's funny that these people all say they're going to fix the problems of the world and then when they don't they're just like "it's part of the game..." or whatever... How are you supposed to change the country or the world for the better if you can't even change the way shit goes down in your own daily life and business? Good ideas though... You should check it out, it doesn't seem too far fetched and if there is indeed a political solution that could be it right there...
enjoy... and hey, drop something in the comments somewhere... I'm putting all of this stuff out into the void because I don't have anything better to do, but if you hear it I'd like to hear what you people think about it...

prrrrrrisssssssssmmmmmmmm...

fuck...

It's interesting that more people are starting to hear about some of this stuff and are starting to wonder what this whole thing is about and what the ends are or might be... Fucking paranoid future for sure...

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I do not expect to see home again' | World news | The Guardian
 


A short interview with Glenn Greenwald about the story.



Obama's statement about the situation...

FBI wants "wiretap ready" websites NOW.

NSA Prism: Why I'm boycotting US cloud tech - and you should too • The Register

Zizek at Powell's in Portland...

what can one say about this?

nothing that shouldn't have been said louder long ago.
fuck...

Chris Hedges on the death of the left, corporations and modern society.

From Wikipedia: Christopher Lynn "Chris" Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist specializing in American politics and society. Hedges is also known as the best-selling author of several books including War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002)—a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction—Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009), Death of the Liberal Class (2010) and his most recent New York Times best seller, written with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt" (2012).
Chris Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City.^[1] He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times,^[2] where he was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years (1990–2005).
In 2002, Hedges was part of the team of reporters at The New York Times awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism. He also received in 2002 the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University^[2] and The University of Toronto. He writes a weekly column on Mondays for Truthdig and authored what The New York Times described as "a call to arms" for the first issue of The Occupied Wall Street Journal, the newspaper giving voice to the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park, New York City.

Richard D. Wolff - Global Capitalism April 2013

Richard Wolff's global capitalism seminar for april 2013.

Glenn Greenwald: Trading Democracy for ‘National Security’

Trading Democracy for ‘Security’ from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

"Glenn Greenwald talks about the Boston bombings and government secrecy, and two political scholars explain who's to blame for Congressional dysfunction."

totes.

Richard D. Wolff on The Crisis of Capitalism

A general analysis of the capitalist system and it's failings. Sounds dry, but he's an engaging speaker and can be pretty entertaining... I'm in the middle of a few of his lectures on Marxian Economics right now and will probably be posting those in the future. until then; enjoy.





from Wikipedia: "Richard D. Wolff (born April 1, 1942) is an American economist, well known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis. He is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City"

Douglas Rushkoff on media/technology/economy/society

Open Source Democracy


When Change Is Always On


Program Or Be Programmed

Crass Reunion?

For a night, maybe... Wish I were there to see it. I'm sure that would be amazing.
Here's the article...