Grassroots: Guitar in an African Village

Utterly breathtaking guitar performance by an anonymous woman in an African village. Her fingers dance in an original style, producing musical speech we can all understand.

Movie: Boyhood

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's Boyhood is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason

John Oliver: Nuclear Weapons

America has over 4,800 nuclear weapons, and we don’t take terrific care of them. It’s terrifying, basically.

Friday Nite Videos -- August 1, 2014

Portside
John Oliver: Nuclear Weapons. 10 Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm. Movie: Boyhood. Guitar in an African Village. Are US Military Bases and Embassies American Soil?

A Kinder Gentler Bank of America and Other Fairy Tales

Lynn Parramore Alternet
Bank of America and the other giant banks have set their predatory sights on the 25 percent of U.S. residents who rely on the unregulated system of payday lenders, check cashing joints, and pawnshops for their financial services. While the giant banks see an opportunity for maximizing profit, others say this population would best be served by banking through a non-profit institution such as the U.S. Postal Service.

Judge Orders Kellogg to End Lockout, Reinstate Workers

Mike Hall AFL-CIO
Transnational cereal maker Kellogg's has locked out 220 members of the IUF-affiliated BCTGM since October 22 at its factory in Memphis, Tennessee in an effort to force union acceptance of a plan to radically increase the use of casual workers. Yesterday a Judge ordered Kelloggs to return the workers to work.

Criminal Prosecution Rates for Environmental Crimes Near Zero

Carey L. Biron Mint Press
The Environmental Protection Agency, the government agency charged with safeguarding the country's health from environmental pollutants, pursues criminal charges in “fewer than one-half of one percent” of total legal violations. And the U.S. Justice Department has an even worse record. Consequently, all corporate violators, even repeat offenders and those involved in the illegal release of large amounts of dangerous toxic chemicals, escape criminal prosecution.

Veterans Complain of Dangerous Exposure to Burn Pits

Anna Mulrine Christian Science Monitor
Hundreds of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worried about what’s being called the new Agent Orange: open air burn pits. Burn pits are open-air areas where the US military burned water bottles and plastic-foam cups, as well as human and medical waste. In a survey of some 2,000 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, three-quarters reported being exposed to burn pits and half said they have "symptoms associated with that exposure."