Inauguration 2017 Special Coverage w/ Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Ralph Nader & More
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Special coverage in the Trump Era
From Public Citizen's Corporate Presidency site: "44 Trump administration officials have close ties to the Koch brothers and their network of political groups, particularly Vice President Mike Pence, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney."
Dark Money author Jane Mayer on The Dangers of President Pence, New Yorker, Oct. 23 issue on-line
Can Time Inc. Survive the Kochs? November 28, 2017 By Jane Mayer
..."This year, among the Kochs’ aims is to spend a projected four hundred million dollars in contributions from themselves and a small group of allied conservative donors they have assembled, to insure Republican victories in the 2018 midterm elections. Ordinarily, political reporters for Time magazine would chronicle this blatant attempt by the Kochs and their allies to buy political influence in the coming election cycle. Will they feel as free to do so now?"...
"Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America" see: our site, and George Monbiot's essay on this key book by historian Nancy MacLean.
Full interview with The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer March 29, 2017, Democracy Now! about her article, "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer Exploited America’s Populist Insurgency."
Democracy Now! Special Broadcast from the Women's March on Washington
The Economics of Happiness -- shorter version
Local Futures offers a free 19-minute abridged version of its award-winning documentary film The Economics of Happiness. It "brings us voices of hope of in a time of crisis." www.localfutures.org.
What's New?
June 07, 2018
Save the Children: Gaza children on brink of mental health crisis
June 4, 2018, Al Jazeera:
"A generation of children in the besieged Gaza Strip are on the brink of a mental health crisis, a children rights group said.
"A whole generation of children in Gaza is balancing on a knife edge where one more shock could have devastating life-long consequences," Marcia Brophy, a senior health adviser at Save the Children, said in a statement on Sunday.
Save the Children, which surveyed 150 young adolescents, with a median age of 14, and 150 caregivers living in the coastal enclave, found that 95 percent of children interviewed displayed symptoms such as feelings of depression, hyperactivity, a preference for being alone, and aggression.
Many children grew up witnessing three Israeli offensives - 2008 to 2009, 2012 and 2014 - that devastated the strip. Furthermore, the 11-year Egyptian-Israeli blockade has severely curtailed the quality of life in Gaza, where youth unemployment now is at 60 percent and poverty levels increased from 30 to 50 percent.
At least 68 percent of children say they have difficulties sleeping, and 78 percent consider the single biggest source of fear for them was the sound of warplanes.
Yet the research also shows that these children revealed strands of resilience, with 80 percent saying they could openly talk about their problems to their families and friends, and 90 percent saying they felt supported by their parents.
Brophy said that while most of the children tied their security to the presence of their families, the breakdown of that family security is "one of the key triggers for mental health issues among children in conflict".
'Address the root cause: the blockade' ...
... "The international community needs to step up its assistance and introduce more mental health and psycho-social support into schools, extracurricular activities and homes," she said.
"Only by doing this immediate step, as well as focusing on ending the blockade and finding a durable and just solution, will children have a more hopeful future." ...