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Canadian Spy Agency Won't Say Why It Monitors Environmental Groups

Jim Bronskill The Canadian Press
Last February British Columbia's Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint demanding to know why the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) considers critics of Canada's petroleum industry a threat to national security. But, last week the CSIS said the association's complaint was "overly broad," and took steps to limit the inquiry into why the agency was spying on environmental groups and sharing its information with the oil companies.

Why the Economy Is Still Failing Most Americans

Robert Reich Robert Reich
It used to be that economic expansions improved the incomes of the bottom 90 percent more than the top 10 percent. But starting with the “Reagan” recovery of 1982 to 1990, the benefits of economic growth during expansions have gone mostly to the top 10 percent. Since the current recovery began in 2009, all economic gains have gone to the top 10 percent.

Friday Nite Videos -- October 3, 2014

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Subway Flashmob: Bolero. A History Of The Minimum Wage. Anti-matter Explained. People's Climate March -- Aerial Footage. Bill O'Reilly's Anti-Terrorist Mercenaries.

Precariat of the World Unite?

Tim Strangleman Working-Class Perspectives
It's important that we don't just see working-class people as passive victims of neo-liberalism. Often it is precisely workers occupying the lowest rungs of the labor market who exercise both voice and agency. We need to recognize the shared humanity working-class people hold in common.

Tidbits - October 2, 2014

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Reader Comments - Ten Points Towards a Two-State Solution; Students Walk Out Suburban Denver Schools; Indiana Autoworkers and Two-Tier Contracts; Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism; War on Drugs Damages Black Social Mobility; Freelancer Economy; Transformative Utopias and Human Rights; Climate Change Rally; Banned Books; Texas Schoolbooks; ISIS, Iraq and Syria; Freedom University Georgia; Immigrants; Cuba Training World's Doctors

An Israel Equal for All, Jewish or Not

Patricia Marks Greenfield The Washington Post
Israel is out of step with much of the world. Over time, nations have become more ethnically and religiously diverse; populations have become more urban and educated; and economies have become more commercial. In response to these social and economic changes, many nations have left behind the notion of a favored state religion. It is time for Israel to do the same. It must be a fully secular state.

War and Climate Change: Time to Connect the Dots

Sheila D. Collins, Truthout Op-Ed Truthout
When President Obama spoke at the UN last week, it was as if climate change and war were distinct ontological categories when in fact climate change is both a catalyst of conflict and a result of it. Competition over resources - land, water, energy - has always been the ground of conflicts within and between nations despite the fact that they may be clothed in the trappings of ethnic, religious or national rivalries.