Chapman University’s second annual Survey of American Fears released

What Americans fear most in 2015 Chapman University recently completed its second annual Chapman University Survey of American Fears (2015). Each wave of the survey focuses upon what Americans fear, the potential causes of those fears and the consequences of fear. In addition, the comprehensive survey includes extensive background information about respondents, allowing for examinations of how fears vary by …

Black Agenda Radio – 09.21.15

– A researcher at the University of Connecticut has come up with a price tag for reparations for Black people for slavery in the United States. Professor Thomas Craemer puts the cost at between $5.9 trillion and $14.2 trillion, depending on how you do the calculations.

– Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report, a renowned whistleblower, and an activist with the Hands Up Coalition-DC. She’s also become a close friend and comrade with the mother of Emanuel Okutuga, a Nigerian American college senior who was shot dead by a cop in suburban Washington, in 2011. Dr. Coleman-Adebayo says her Nigerian friend’s American dream has turned into a nightmare.

– A new book reveals U.S. efforts to undermine and overthrow governments in Latin America during the Bush and early Obama administrations. The book is titled “The WikiLeaks Files,” and it’s co-authored by Dan Beeton and two other researchers from the Center for Economic Policy and Research. The team examined diplomatic cables detailing U.S. subversion of the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Honduras. The United States claims that it is a good neighbor to nations in Latin America, but Dan Beeton says the evidence tells a very different story.

– There will soon be a new film on the aftermath of Katrina, in New Orleans. Kimberly Rivers-Roberts produced her first film, “Trouble the Water” shortly after the 2005 catastrophe in her hometown. The film was nominated for an Oscar and won several awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Ms. Rivers-Roberts is also known by her Hip Hop artist name, Queen Kold Madina, Her new film looks at what has happened to New Orleans in the ten years since Katrina. It’s titled “Fear No Gumbo.”

Catey Hill – Report: 43% of U.S. homes are at high risk of natural disaster

Four hurricanes are currently brewing in the Pacific and Atlantic. Wildfires have ravaged more than 8 million acres in the U.S. in 2015 alone. And in just the first two weeks of May this year, nearly 150 tornadoes touched down in the U.S. Many American homeowners might still be surprised at the risk their home faces of getting hit by …

This Can’t Be Happening – 09.02.15

Prof. Francis Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois Law School with a long career as an anti-war activist and upholder of human rights. He has served as a counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and was a legal advisor to the Palestinian delegation during the Middle East Peace negotiations from 1991 to 1993. Prof. Boyle has served on the board of directors of Amnesty International, and the Council for Responsible Genetics. He drafted the legislation for what became the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act in 1989 which was signed into law by the first Bush administration. He has been a strong opponent of the current Afghan and Iraq wars, and was an advocate for bringing international arrest warrants against George W Bush, Cheney and others in the Bush administration. Prof. Boyle has published numerous papers in law reviews and many books. His most recent publications are “Palestine, Palestinians and Internaitonal,” “Biowarfare and Terrorism” and “The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence” co-written with Phillip Berrigan.

Naomi Klein – Change Everything or Face A Global Katrina

For me, the road to This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate begins in a very specific time and place. The time was exactly ten years ago. The place was New Orleans, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The road in question was flooded and littered with bodies. Today I am posting, for the first time, the entire section on Hurricane Katrina …

Russ Baker – How the Bush Machine Destroyed America’s Emergency Response Agency

This article was originally assigned, accepted, and paid for in full by Vanity Fair — which never got around to publishing it, and graciously released it to the author. It tells the story of the cronyism, corruption, ineptness, contempt for the public and utter shamelessness of the Bush family apparatus and its extensive network. With yet another Bush now contesting …

Farewell to America: Why I am Glad I’m Leaving the US – Gary Younge

For the past couple of years the summers, like hurricanes, have had names. Not single names like Katrina or Floyd – but full names like Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown. Like hurricanes, their arrival was both predictable and predicted, and yet somehow, when they landed, the effect was still shocking. We do not yet know the name that will be …

How front groups posing as grassroots campaigns do the dirty work for Agribusiness – Martha Rosenberg

How did the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (Proposition 37), get defeated in 2012 despite the state’s high level of food awareness of activism? How did a ban on the sale of large soft drinks in New York City fail the same year despite such drinks’ complete lack of nutritional value and links to obesity? Welcome to the world of food …

Militarizing Ourselves Toward a New Dark Age – Robert C. Koehler

“What struck me” journalist Christian Parenti said in a recent Truthout interview, referring to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, “was the fact that these local towns and states around the region were sending the only resources they had to New Orleans: weapons and militarized gear. “After 30 years of the War on Drugs and a neoliberal restructuring of the state at the …

Anger as Hurricane Sandy victims have to pay back emergency aid with interest – David Millward

Thousands of families whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Sandyare being ordered to repay some of the compensation they received from the government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is not only demanding interest on what it says were overpayments, but Washington is ready to call in debt collectors to recoup the cash. That is not the only blow faced by …