Sandra Steingraber Reacts – NY Decision to Prohibit Fracking

We Are Seneca Lake

Published on Dec 17, 2014

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Democrats Bow Down to Wall Street | Moyers & Company

https://vimeo.com/114336508
http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-democrats-bow-wall-street/
December 12, 2014

Negotiators from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are in Washington this week for a new round of talks which they hope will lead them closer to agreement on the trade deal. President Obama has called passage of TPP a “high priority.”

This week, Bill speaks with outspoken veteran journalist John R. MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine, about the problems with TPP, which is being negotiated in secret, behind closed doors. MacArthur says that the “free trade” agreement will take jobs away from Americans: “I guarantee you, this is a way to send more jobs [abroad], particularly to Vietnam and Malaysia.”

Obama’s commitment to trade is just another example of his indebtedness to Wall Street for massive campaign contributions. Hillary Clinton, who MacArthur describes as to the right of Americans’ political beliefs, may be scaring off progressives looking to run in 2016 as she is “very much in harmony” with Wall Street.

“There are a lot of people who would make good candidates, but they’re intimidated by the Clinton fundraising machine.”

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The New Robber Barons | Moyers & Company

https://vimeo.com/114956900

http://billmoyers.com/episode/steve-fraser-new-robber-barons/
December 19, 2014

We’ve just watched the Senate and the House — aided and abetted by President Obama — pay off financial interests with provisions in the new spending bill that expand the amount of campaign cash wealthy donors can give, and let banks off the hook for gambling with customer (and taxpayer) money.

What happened in Washington over the past several days sounds strikingly familiar to the First Gilded Age more than a century ago, when senators and representatives were owned by Wall Street and big business. Then, as now, those who footed the bill for political campaigns were richly rewarded with favorable laws.

Bill’s guest this week, historian Steve Fraser, says what was different about the First Gilded Age was that people rose in rebellion against the powers that be. Today we do not see “that enormous resistance,” but he concludes, “people are increasingly fed up… their voices are not being heard. And I think that can only go on for so long without there being more and more outbreaks of what used to be called class struggle, class warfare.”

Steve Fraser is a writer, editor and scholar of American history. Among his books are Every Man a Speculator, Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace and Labor Will Rule. His latest, The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, will be published early next year.

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Global Environmental Institute | China

The Global Environmental Institute (GEI) is a Chinese non-profit, non-governmental organization that was established in Beijing, China in 2004. Our mission is to design and implement market-based models for solving environmental problems in order to achieve development that is economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable.

GEI Vision
The Global Environmental Institute (GEI) envisions a diverse and healthy world shaped and shared by all, in which economic well-being is directly linked to ecological and social well-being, industry is accountable and clean, and rural communities flourish at the local level.

GEI Goals
GEI believes that solving environmental problems cannot be separated from solving social and economic problems. This is especially true in developing countries like China, where conventional approaches to environmental protection often fail because they hinder economic activity. There is urgent need for new solutions that work with the market to provide sustainable livelihoods and thriving ecosystems. GEI was founded to find those solutions.

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BBC News – Birds ‘heard tornadoes coming’ and fled one day ahead

18 December 2014 Last updated at 21:21 ET
By Jonathan Webb Science reporter, BBC News

Multiple tornadoes devastated parts of the southern and central US in April
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US scientists say tracking data shows that five golden-winged warblers “evacuated” their nesting site one day before the April 2014 tornado outbreak.

Geolocators showed the birds left the Appalachians and flew 700km (400 miles) south to the Gulf of Mexico.

The next day, devastating storms swept across the south and central US.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, ecologists suggest these birds – and others – may sense such extreme events with their keen low-frequency hearing.

Remarkably, the warblers had completed their seasonal migration just days earlier, settling down to nest after a 5,000km (3,100 mile) journey from Colombia.

…(read more)

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New York State to Ban Fracking over Health Concerns

New York State is banning the oil and gas drilling process known as fracking, citing potential risks to public health. Fracking involves blasting sand, water and toxic chemicals deep into shale rock to release oil and gas, a process which can poison water supplies and pollute the air. Environmentalists have waged a fierce campaign to pressure the administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to render permanent a 2009 moratorium on the practice. Following a two-year study, acting health commissioner Howard Zucker said fracking was too risky.

Howard Zucker: “The potential risks are too great. In fact, they are not even fully known. Relying upon the limited data that is presently available to answer the public health risks would be negligent on my part. I have identified significant public health risks in the current data. And until the public health red flags are answered by valid evidence through longitudinal long-term studies, prospective analysis, patient surveys with large population pools showing that the risk for impact on public health are avoidable or sufficiently low, I cannot support high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York.”

New York will be the first state with major gas deposits to ban fracking. The move will protect reserves in New York’s portion of the Marcellus Shale, a massive underground rock formation which stretches across multiple states including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

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Full Show 12/18/14: Torture and Fracking with RFK Jr.

The Big Picture RT

Published on Dec 18, 2014
In a special, “Conversations with Great Minds,” Thom talks about Pres. George W. Bush, the Iraq War and if he should be prosecuted with author and former prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi.

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Is the Koch Brothers’ Curriculum Coming to Your Kids School?

The Big Picture RT

Published on Dec 12, 2014

First they came for our democracy – and we said nothing. Now – they’re coming for our education. What are the Koch Brothers up to now and how can we stop them?

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Will Europe Prosecute Bush & Cheney for Torture?

The Big Picture RT

Published on Dec 17, 2014

Michael Ratner, Attorney / Center for Constitutional Rights (President Emeritus) joins Thom Hartmann. President Obama says that torturing people “isn’t who we are.” But is that really true? What does history tell us about America’s relationship with torture?

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Naomi Klein says climate activists need to get comfortable attacking capitalism

Grist

Published on Oct 9, 2014
Naomi Klein — “the most visible and influential figure on the American left,” as The New Yorker puts it — dropped by the Grist office to chat with David Roberts about her new book. They kicked things off by discussing its provocative title: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.

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