(via outsideparenthesis)
Yeah let’s not do things like this.
(via stfuconservatives)
this post about indigenous activist criticisms of occupy that came out in october;
the decolonize oakland website;
the occupy wall street poc commitee;
in front and center: critical voices of the 99%;
brown power at occupy wall street about poc activists working to change the language of the original ows declaration.
tequila sovereign with some background about occupy oakland’s interaction with indigenous activists
(via stfuconservatives)
In the days following the rogue US soldier’s shooting spree in Kandahar, most of the media, us included, focused on the “backlash” and how it might further strain the relations with the US.
Many mainstream media outlets channelled a significant amount of energy into uncovering the slightest detail about the accused soldier – now identified as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. We even know where his wife wanted to go for vacation, or what she said on her personal blog.
But the victims became a footnote, an anonymous footnote. Just the number 16. No one bothered to ask their ages, their hobbies, their aspirations. Worst of all, no one bothered to ask their names.
In honoring their memory, I write their names below, and the little we know about them: that nine of them were children, three were women.
The dead:
Mohamed Dawood son of Abdullah
Khudaydad son of Mohamed Juma
Nazar Mohamed
Payendo
Robeena
Shatarina daughter of Sultan Mohamed
Zahra daughter of Abdul Hamid
Nazia daughter of Dost Mohamed
Masooma daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Farida daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Palwasha daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Nabia daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Esmatullah daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Faizullah son of Mohamed Wazir
Essa Mohamed son of Mohamed Hussain
Akhtar Mohamed son of Murrad Ali
The wounded:
Haji Mohamed Naim son of Haji Sakhawat
Mohamed Sediq son of Mohamed Naim
Parween
Rafiullah
Zardana
Zulheja
(via mohandasgandhi)
35 Facts That Prove Higher Education Has Become A Corporate Scam
The Student Loan Debt Bubble
1. After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.
2. According to the College Board, college tuition is absolutely soaring. The following comes from a recent CBS News article….
Average tuition and fees at public colleges rose 8.3 percent this year and, with room and board, now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board.
3. Average yearly tuition at private universities in the United States is now up to $27,293. That figure has increased by 29% in just the past five years.4. In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt.
5. In 2010, the average college graduate had accumulated approximately $25,000 in student loan debt by graduation day.
6. According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark in early 2012.
7. The total amount of student loan debt in the United States now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.
8. Over the past 25 years, the cost of college tuition has increased at an average rate that is approximately 6% higher than the general rate of inflation.
9. Back in 1952, a full year of tuition at Harvard was only $600. Today, it is $35,568.
10. The cost of college textbooks has tripled over the past decade.
11. One survey found that 23 percent of all college students actually use credit cards to pay for tuition or fees.
12. According to recent Pew Research Center polling, 75% of all Americans believe that college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.
13. College has become so expensive that it is causing many college students to do desperate things in order to pay for it. For example, an increasing number of young college women are actively advertising on the Internet for “sugar daddies” who will help them pay their college bills.
14. The student loan default rate has nearly doubled since 2005.
15. Approximately 14 percent of all students that graduate with student loan debt end up defaulting within 3 years of making their first student loan payment.
The Quality Of College Education In America Stinks
16. The typical U.S. college student spends less than 30 hours a week on academics.
17. According to very extensive research detailed in a new book entitled “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses”, 45 percent of all U.S. college students exhibit “no significant gains in learning” after two years in college.
18. Today, college students spend approximately 50% less time studying than U.S. college students did just a few decades ago.
19. 35% of U.S. college students spend 5 hours or less studying per week.
20. 50% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to write more than 20 pages.
21. 32% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to read more than 40 pages in a week.
22. U.S. college students spend 24% of their time sleeping, 51% of their time socializing and 7% of their time studying.
23. Federal statistics reveal that only 36 percent of the full-time students who began college in 2001 received a bachelor’s degree within four years.
Not Enough Jobs For College Graduates
24. Only 55.3% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were employed last year. That was the lowest level that we have seen since World War II.
25. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the “official” unemployment rate for college graduates younger than 25 years old was 9.3 percent in 2010.
26. One-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don’t even require college degrees.
27. In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.
28. In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.
29. In the United States today, approximately 365,000 cashiers have college degrees.
30. In the United States today, 24.5 percent of all retail salespeople have a college degree.
31. The percentage of mail carriers with a college degree is now 4 times higher than it was back in 1970.
32. Right now, there are 5.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 that are living with their parents.
33. According to one recent survey, only 14 percent of all Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.
34. Record numbers of Americans are going to college, but incomes for young American adults just keep falling. Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.
35. Once they get out into the “real world”, 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the “real world” while they were still in school.
So is going to college always a bad idea? Of course not.
But it is a huge gamble.
(via stfuconservatives)
Obama And ISP’s To Launch Largest Digital Spying Scheme In History (Must Read)
If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.
Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 1.
That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.
Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration. The same groups have weighed in heavily on controversial Internet policies around the world, with similar facilitation by the Obama’s Administration’s State Department.
The July 12 date was revealed by the RIAA’s CEO and top lobbyist, Cary Sherman, during a publishers’ conference on Wednesday in New York, according to technology publication CNet.
The content industries calls this scheme a “graduated response” plan, which will see
-Time Warner Cable
-Cablevision
-Comcast
-Verizon
-AT&T
and others spying on users’ Internet activities and watching for potential copyright infringement. Users who are “caught” infringing on a creator’s protected work can then be interrupted with a notice that piracy is forbidden by law and carries penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement, requiring the user to click through saying they understand the consequences before bandwidth is restored, and they could still be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits.
Response: This is much worse than SOPA/PIPA and ACTA. It doesn’t necessarily censor the internet but it spys on everything you do. Your ENTIRE web history will be watched and recorded and might even assist the government. This was coordinated by Obama and his administration with the help of the MPAA and RIAA.
What is so dangerous about this is that this is not a law it is a policy adopted by several companies. That means this will not be debated in Congress and you will agree to be spied on by signing a contract with the company.
Internet censorship is becoming a reality and now the corporate elite will legally be able to spy on you. If we spread this and cause an uproar like what we did with SOPA, maybe they will back down. Either way people NEED to know about this.
(via bad-dominicana)
More reports of police brutality at #M17 in NYC:
- Cecily McMillan tackled by NYPD, possibly has some broken ribs & had a seizure while handcuffed with officers standing by not offering assistance or an ambulance. She is currently at the hospital & reportedly not allowed to see friends or family or call a lawyer.
- Shawn Carrie arrested tonight & tweeted - “Police broke my left thumb and possibly my jaw. My right ear is bleeding and theres a bootprint on my face.”
- NYPD bash protester named Jose head against a glass door window, cracking the glass. Video here.
- More stories will be updated as they are released.
