Students to Teach for America CEOs: You Are ‘Complicit’ in Attacks on Public Education

Ari Paul In These Times
USAS is the country’s largest student labor organization. The group’s main gripes with TFA and its Peace Corps-like model for American education, bringing college students—most from elite universities—to teach for a short period of time in some of the country’s poorest school districts, are that it is inadequately training teachers and promoting a for-profit, anti-union education reform agenda.

Afghan Opium Production Hits All-Time High

Mike Whitney CounterPunch
Is the US is really allowing an illicit multi-billion dollar industry to flourish right under its nose (without involvement of any kind) or is there a part of this story that’s missing from the headlines? Of course, that leads us to an area of speculation that the media considers taboo, the prospect that US intel agencies are somehow implicated.

FBI's "Suicide Letter" to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Dangers of Unchecked Surveillance

Nadia Kayyali Electronic Frontier Foundation
Should intelligence agencies be able to sweep email, read texts, track calls, locate us by GPS? Much of the conversation swirls around the possibility that agencies like the N.S.A. or the F.B.I. will use such information not to serve national security but to carry out personal and political vendettas. King’s experience reminds us that these are far from idle fears, conjured in the fevered minds of civil libertarians. They are based in the hard facts of history.

Some Initial Thoughts on the US-China Climate Accord

Naomi Klein This Changes Everything
Upon initial analysis, noted journalist Naomi Klein sees the US-China climate deal as a badly need piece of good news. For the first time, China is committing to capping its emissions, robbing U.S. obstructionists of their most effective argument for inaction. This is an important pledge by the Presidents of the U.S. and China and pledges matter because movement can "harness them to win even more."

Friday Nite Videos -- November 14, 2014

Portside
Ry Cooder: Feelin' Bad Blues. Citizen Four: Edward Snowden Documentary. The Inspiration Project. John Oliver: The Lottery. 90-Year-Old Arrested for Feeding Homeless.

Ry Cooder: Feelin' Bad Blues

Ry Cooder's Feelin' Bad Blues, from his album Crossroads, set to images that, person by person, put a face to heartbreak.

Citizen Four: Edward Snowden Documentary

This riveting documentary by Oscar-nominee Laura Poitras captures the remarkable contrast between the quiet -- even camera-shy -- Edward Snowden and the global reverberations from his revelations of NSA abuses.

The Inspiration Project

Music Under New York artist Cathy Grier (aka NYCSubwayGirl) asks her favorite question "What inspires you?" Super Short Doc 2014 Chain Film Fest official selection.

John Oliver: The Lottery

State lotteries claim to be good for education and the general wellbeing of citizens. But are they? (Spoiler alert: No.)

90-Year-Old Arrested for Feeding Homeless

Russell Brand (The Trews) reacts to the news that 90-year-old Arnold Abbott was arrested by police in Florida for handing out meals to homeless people in a park.