By Noam Chomsky

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175863/The question of how foreign policy is determined is a crucial one in world affairs.  In these comments, I can only provide a few hints as to how I think the subject can be productively explored, keeping to the United States for several reasons.

 

By Peter Van Buren

 http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175851/

Last year eight Americans -- the four Waltons of Walmart fame, the two Koch brothers, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett -- made more money than 3.6 million American minimum-wage workers combined. The median pay for CEOs at America's large corporations rose to $10 million per year, while a typical chief executive now makes about 257 times the average worker's salary, up sharply from 181 times in 2009. Overall, 1% of Americans own more than a third of the country’s wealth.

By ENEnews

http://enenews.com/nbc-explosion-at-u-s-nuclear-site-kept-secret-from-public-for-weeks-happened-at-plant-where-plutonium-was-manufactured-this-is-one-of-the-most-hazardous-buildings-in-america-flames-say 4th, 2014 at 11:24 am ET NBC Right Now (Yakima, WA), 

May 1, 2014 (h/t Stock): Hanford union workers tell NBC Right Now there was an explosion at the plutonium finishing plant cleanup site weeks ago, but the event wasn’t shared with the public. The Hanford union representative says it happened when workers were cutting some pipe as part of the demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant [PFP]. The union representative wants to remain anonymous and says workers are concerned management isn’t putting worker safety first. [...] Workers describe the explosion as a spark then flames that shot out of a pipe and a loud bang [...] We’re told it happened two weeks ago [...] Workers say they think the contractor is playing down the explosion and possible safety concerns to protect themselves from fines and work delays. ...] The union representative says management wants to keep experienced workers quiet.

We are just a couple of months away before the United States is in full swing of midterm election madness. Traditionally lower in voter turnout, the midterms have gained increased significance over the last few election cycles as the stalemate in Washington, D.C. has all but stopped any real forward progress on major issues. While candidates and political parties prepare their latest slogans, current elected officials have been spending a great deal of time focusing on voter access.

By Tom Engelhardt

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175809/

Here, at least, is a place to start: intelligence officials have weighed in with an estimate of just how many secret files National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden took with him when he headed for Hong Kong last June. Brace yourself: 1.7 million.  At least they claim that as the number he or his web crawler accessed before he left town.  Let’s assume for a moment that it’s accurate and add a caveat.  Whatever he had with him on those thumb drives when he left the agency, Edward Snowden did not take all the NSA’s classified documents.  Not by a long shot.  He only downloaded a portion of them.  We don’t have any idea what percentage, but assumedly millions of NSA secret documents did not get the Snowden treatment.

Noam Chomsky: The drug war is the latest manifestation of a centuries-old ‘race war’

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/06/noam-chomsky-the-drug-war-is-the-latest-manifestation-of-a-centuries-old-race-war/