Maverick Media’s Rebel News airs 9-10 a.m. (more or less) on Fridays on
WOMM (105.9-FM/LP – The Radiator and live streaming). THIS WEEK: Obama’s
secret deal, Labor amnesia, Fukushima fallout, America’s love affair with
conspiracies, an attention deficit epidemic, guns in schools , college majors
and unemployment, jails gone wild (shocking video from Maine!), and local
updates. Here are highlights:
TOP STORY: Obama’s Secret Trade Deal
Out of public view the Obama administration is negotiating the
Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, a US-led free trade deal with several
Pacific Rim countries. Six hundred US corporate advisers have had input, but so
far the text hasn’t been shared with the public or media.
The level of secrecy is unprecedented. During
discussions paramilitary teams guard the premises, helicopters loom overhead,
and there’s a near-total media blackout on the subject. US Senator Ron Wyden,
who chairs the congressional committee with jurisdiction over TPP agreement,
was denied access to the negotiation texts.
In a floor statement to Congress Wyden said, “The
majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP
negotiations, while representatives of US corporations — like Halliburton,
Chevron, Comcast and the Motion Picture Association of America — are being
consulted and made privy to details of the agreement.”
The deal would give multinational corporations
unprecedented rights to demand taxpayer compensation for policies they think
will undermine their expected future profits -- straight from the treasuries of
participating nations. It would push Big Pharma’s agenda in the developing
world -- longer monopoly controls on drugs, drastically limiting access to
affordable generic meds that people need. The TPP would undermine food safety
by limiting labeling and forcing countries like the US to import food that
fails to meet its national safety standards, and ban Buy America or
Buy Local preferences.
The proposed legislation on intellectual property
will have enormous impacts, including Internet termination for households,
businesses, and organizations as an accepted penalty for copyright
infringement. Nations who sign on to the deal would essentially submit
themselves to oppressive IP restrictions designed by Hollywood, severely
limiting their ability to digitally exchange information on sites like YouTube,
where streaming videos are considered copyrightable.
“Broader copyright and intellectual property rights
demands by the US would lock up the Internet, stifle research and increase
education costs, by extending existing generous copyright from 70 years to 120
years, and even making it a criminal offense to temporarily store files on a
computer without authorization. The US, a net exporter of digital information,
would be the only party to benefit from this,” said Patricia Ranald, convener
of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.
ARMAGEDDON UPDATE
Reuters reports that the United States will soon send a missile defense
system to Guam to defend it from North Korea. The U.S. military is adjusting to
what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called a "real and clear danger" from
Pyongyang.
LABOR AMNESIA
Rediscovering the legacy
Automation and globalization continue to create massive labor
displacement as corporations advance their interest while attempting to
restrict the rights of workers. Labor’s fall from grace is a case of
collective amnesia. The true, largely ignored history of the labor movement
tells a different story... Revisiting
May Day & the First Red Scare. (Radio drama segment)
The Fukushima Effect
Thyroid problems for US kids
Some bad news from Common
Dreams -- Infants on the West Coast are showing increased incidents of
thyroid abnormalities and researchers attribute it to radiation released after
the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. According to a new study published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics, children born in Alaska,
California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington between one week and 16 weeks after
the meltdown began are 28 percent more likely to suffer from congenital hypothyroidism.
The abnormalities result from a build up of
radioactive iodine in the thyroid and can result in stunted growth, lowered
intelligence, deafness, and neurological abnormalities—although some can be
treated if detected early. Because their bodies are more vulnerable and
their cells grow faster than adults', infants are the proverbial 'canary in the
coal mine' for injurious environmental effects.
Earlier this year, the Fukushima Prefecture Health
Management Survey found that more than 40 percent of the Japanese children
studied showed evidence of thyroid abnormalities.
CONSPIRACY NATION
America Speaks: One quarter say Obama is the Anti-Christ
They aren’ t absolutely sure, but about a fourth of all Americans
suspect that the President just might be the anti-christ. Of course, more
than a third also believe that global warming is a hoax and more than half
suspect that a secretive global elite is trying to set up a New World Order.
The survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling,
asked a sample of voters about a number of conspiracy theories, phrasing
the questions in eye-catching language. The study revealed that 13% of
respondents thought Obama was "the antichrist", while another 13%
were "not sure" – just open to the possibility that he might be. Some
73% were able to say unequivocally that they didn’t think Obama was "the
antichrist".
The survey also showed that 37% of Americans
thought that global warming was a hoax, while 12% were not sure and a slim
majority – 51% – agreed with the overwhelming majority view of the scientific
establishment and thought that it wasn’t. It indicates that 28% of people
believed in a sinister global New World Order conspiracy which is aimed at
ruling the whole world through authoritarian government. Another 25% were
"not sure," and only – 46% – thought such a theory wasn’t true.
Some theories were dismissed by large majorities.
For example, only 7% said the moon landing was faked, 14% believed in Bigfoot,
and 4% accepted that "shape-shifting alien reptilian people control our
world by taking on human form." 5% believed that Paul McCartney died in a
car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a double so the Beatles could continue
their careers. Just 11% believe that the US government knowingly allowed the
terror attacks of 11 September 2001 to take place.
Head Games
One in five boys has ADHD
From Alternet ...The
number of young people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
has increased remarkably over the past decade, according to data released by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rise, reported in the New York Times, has led some to say that it
is due to parent pressure on doctors and a loose definition of the disorder.
The data says an estimated 6.4 million children aged 4 to 17 have received the
diagnosis, a 16 percent increase from 2007 and a 53 percent rise over the last
decade.
The data says an estimated 6.4 million children aged 4 to
17 have received the diagnosis, a 16 percent increase from 2007 and a 53
percent rise over the last decade. Two-thirds of those diagnosed take meds like
Ritalin and Adderall, which can lead to anxiety, addiction and potentially
psychosis. Nearly one in five high school boys and 11 percent of all school-age
children have ADHD, the data indicates.
One Harvard professor of medicine said, “There’s a
tremendous push where if the kid’s behavior is thought to be quote-unquote
abnormal — if they’re not sitting quietly at their desk — that’s pathological,
instead of just childhood.”
EDUCATION
Indiana could be first state to require guns in schools
The NRA released its long-awaited "National School
Shield Report" last week. It’s a lengthy document that recommends
schools arm and train staff members to carry guns. A few hours earlier,
Indiana's House Education Committee advanced a similar measure -- but one
that takes the NRA's logic even further. The NRA's "model"
legislation would lift restrictions on guns in schools and require training for
school employees who carry guns. But the Indiana proposal would make the state
the first to require all public schools to have an armed person with a loaded
weapon in the building during school hours.
But the Indiana proposal would make the state the
first to require all public schools to have an armed person with a loaded
weapon in the building during school hours. After receiving a
yet-to-be-determined training course, any school employee -- a teacher,
principal, or janitor -- could become the school's guard, called "school
protection officers." The amendment doesn't specify which firearms the
"officers" must hold or whether the guns should be visible or
concealed.
The amendment's sponsor, Rep. Jim Lucas (R), thinks
mass shootings like the one in Newtown could be prevented by more firearms.
"The way they are right now, school is a gun-free zone. Tragically we see
the tragic consequences of gun-free zones, defenseless zones like the Colorado
theater, Columbine, and Virginia Tech," Lucas told The Huffington Post
Wednesday. "We have to work to overcome the stigma that firearms are a bad
thing."
According to Marc Egan, a lobbyist for the National
Education Association, 27 states are now considering various laws that would
arm people in schools. "This is not the right approach," he said.
"Parents do not want to see their kids' schools turned into
fortresses."
RELATED NEWS: A new report finds a clear link between high levels of
gun violence and weak state gun laws. The 10 states with the weakest gun laws
collectively have an aggregate level of gun violence that is more than twice as
high - 104 percent higher, in fact - than the 10 states with the strongest gun
laws.
POST-COLLEGE DEPRESSION
From CBS News… Here are the college majors with the
highest unemployment rates. Top marks go to number 1. Clinical psychology,
with 19.5% unemployment... 2. Miscellaneous fine arts 16.2%...
3. US history 15.1%... 4. Library science 15.0%... 5. a tie
between Military technologies and educational psychology 10.9%.
The rest of the list isn’t good news for
prospective psychologists and those interested in the arts. But there are a few
surprises: 6. Architecture 10.6%; 7. Industrial & organizational psychology 10.4%;
8. Miscellaneous psychology 10.3%; 9. Linguistics & comparative literature
10.2%; 10. (tie) Visual & performing arts; engineering & industrial management 9.2%.
11. Engineering & industrial management
9.2% (what’s up with this?) ;12. Social psychology 8.8%; 13.
International business 8.5%; 14. Humanities 8.4%; 15. General social
sciences 8.2%; 16. Commercial art & graphic design 8.1%; 17. Studio art
8.0%; 18. Pre-law & legal studies 7.9%; 19. (tie) Materials
engineering and materials science and composition & speech 7.7%; 20.
Liberal arts 7.6%.
21. (another tie) Fine arts and genetics 7.4%; 22.
(tie) Film video & photography arts and cosmetology services & culinary
arts 7.3%; 23. Philosophy & religious studies and neuroscience (tie) 7.2%;
24. Biochemical sciences 7.1%; 25. (tie) Journalism and sociology 7.0%.
VIDEO SHOCKER: JAILS GONE WILD
Maine provides the latest example of corrections staff abusing
restraints and pepper spray, at times with deadly results. Other examples
include: Nick Christie died in 2006 after being pepper sprayed
twelve times and spending six hours naked in a restraint chair. As in Maine,
guards placed a spit hood over him, ensuring he would breathe the liquid as
long as he wore it. The case was ruled a homicide.
In Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio discontinued the use of restraint chairs in
2006 after three wrongful death lawsuits. And Jesse Lee Williams, Jr. was restrained when guards
sprayed an entire can of pepper spray into a hood before putting it over his
mouth as part of a savage beating. He died two days later.
And now Paul Schlosser, a former military medic who
was receiving treatment in a Maine prison for bipolar disorder and depression. In
the video, Schlosser is in a restraint chair while his face is coated at
close range with pepper spray from a canister intended for use on large crowds
from a distance of 20 feet. Schlosser chokes and fights for breath.
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