A conservative activist organization named Turning Point USA (TPUSA) has released a “Professor Watchlist” to provide information about university academics across the United States who “advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” Turning Point—a nonprofit organization that promotes right-wing values of free markets and limited government and connects with young, college-age conservatives—targets nearly 200 professors for purportedly displaying liberal bias. The …
A New Look at the Role of Apps in Distracted Teen Driving
As parents, we share some really big milestones with our children. There’s riding a bike for the first time, braving the first day of school, or marching off to sleep-away camp. Source: Ben Harding/iStock And, of course, there’s the hugely anxiety-provoking and incredibly exciting moment of earning a driver’s license. It should also be borne in mind that young people often just …
Nika Knight – ‘Be Afraid’: Largest Corporations Wealthier Than Most Countries
Corporations are running the world, according to new figures released Monday from the U.K.-based Global Justice Now. “As multinationals increasingly dominate areas traditionally considered the primary domain of the state, we should be afraid.” —Aisha Dodwell, Global Justice Now The economic and social justice advocacy group discovered (spreadsheet) that the ten largest corporations are wealthier than most countries in the world combined. …
Karen Hansen-Kuhn – Building alternatives for food systems and trade
Public opposition to free trade agreements, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that serve to increase inequality and concentrate corporate power has reached a loud crescendo. We got to this point through years of effort by thousands of civil society groups around the world, reaching out to educate people on the likely impacts of the very specific rules embedded in those …
Sarah Lazare – A Surprise Shill for Big Pharma?
Patients groups have credibility and influence precisely because they ostensibly represent the ordinary people whose fate is in the hands of the health care system, from brain injury survivors to people living with cancer to individuals facing mental health problems. Now a troubling new report [3] from the corporate watchdog group Public Citizen reveals that some patients groups are accepting donations from the …
Leid Stories—Unfinished Business: Bernie Sanders, the ‘Revolution’ and the Democratic Party—08.01.16
Unfinished Business: Bernie Sanders, the ‘Revolution’ and the Democratic Party
Candidate for UN health chief eyes global tax to help WHO
A French diplomat competing to be the world’s top health official says a tiny international tax can help fill the World Health Organization’s coffers, a proposal aimed at bringing order to the U.N. agency’s fragmented budget. Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy told journalists at the Foreign Ministry in Paris that “micropayments” tacked on to as-yet-undetermined international business operations could support WHO’s budget. …
What I Learned From My March With Democracy Spring
Yesterday was the most important day of my life. I walked up to the Capitol building and sat on the steps with more than 400 people. When asked to move, we refused and were arrested. We committed nonviolent civil disobedience together to protest the power of money in politics and support the restoration of real democracy. I was arrested in …
Diane Ravitch – Why Every Child Should Opt Out of the Standardized Tests
Want to end the obsession with standardized testing? Opt your children out of the state tests. Ignore the threats from state and federal officials. The tests today have taken over too much of the school year. Teachers should prepare and give tests that cover what they taught. What if all students opted out of testing? That’s democracy in action. The elected officials …
Paul Craig Roberts – Are Americans Too Insouciant To Survive?
When one looks at the deplorable state of the world, one cannot help but wonder at the insouciance of the American people. Where are they? Do they exist or are they a myth? Have they been put to sleep by an evil demon? Are they so lost in The Matrix that they cannot get out? Ever since Clinton’s second term …