Review by Nomi Prins

“Why do we Occupy?” he asks, animated, beneath his signature fedora.

Vultures' Picnic answers that question in dramatic detail and biting whodunit monologue and dialogue, the kind that could easily fill a riveting Mission Impossible film where Tom Cruise ricochets into the lairs of the bad guys to save the world from the big bad oil company. Yet all of Palast's and his team’s findings are shockingly true and infinitely more visceral. Palast and his team get everywhere.

In Chapter Three, “Pig in the Pipeline,” Palast dines with Etok (‘one bad-ass Eskimo’) inside a whale-carcass. He discovers the extent to which BP (which dumped a quarter million gallons of crude into the tundra via the BP/Alaska pipeline, blessed by the drill-baby-drill mentality in the minds of Sarah Palin and Barack Obama alike) faked pipeline safety reports. Meanwhile, the firm’s oil spillage is displacing the polar bear population to such an extent that there are campaigns to find them new homes.

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Interview by Silvia Cattori

Gilad Atzmon talks about his latest book “The Wandering Who?” Gilad Atzmon somehow manages to express his thoughts, ignoring any recognized taboos or restrictions. His style is innovative, fresh, and consistently well informed. We have read with great interest his latest book “The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity” (*). It is a very moving account that should be read by everyone.

Silvia Cattori: “The Wandering who?” — What stands behind this provocative title?

Gilad Atzmon: “The Wandering Who?” attempts to search for a deeper understanding of Jewish culture and Jewish identity politics. It is there to tackle some issues most of us prefer to avoid. Three years ago Israeli historian Shlomo Sand published his ground breaking work on Jewish history, thus dismantling the phantasmal Jewish historical narrative.

In my book, I attempt to take Sand’s quest one step further and elaborate on the problematic Jewish attitude towards history, the past , and temporality in general. Five years ago American academics Mearsheimer and Walt published an invaluable study on the Israeli Lobby in the United States [1]. I again try to pick up their research where they left off. I try to explain why lobbying is inherent to Jewish politics and culture.

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SYNOPSIS

The 1913 Federal Reserve Act let powerful bankers usurp money creation authority in violation of the Constitution's Article I, Section 8, giving only Congress the power to "coin Money (and) regulate the Value thereof...." Thereafter, powerful bankers used their control over money, credit and debt for private self-enrichment, bankrolling and colluding with Congress and administrations to implement laws favoring them.

As a result, decades of deregulation, outsourcing, economic financialization, and casino capitalism followed, producing asset bubbles, record budget and national debt levels, and depression-sized unemployment far higher than reported numbers, albeit manipulated to look better.

After the financial crisis erupted in late 2007, even harder times have left Main Street in the early stages of a depression, with recovery pure illusion. Today's contagion has spread out of control, globally. Wall Street got trillions of dollars in a desperate attempt to socialize losses, privatize profits, and pump life back into the corpses by blowing public wealth into a moribund financial sector, failing corporate favorites, and America's aristocracy.

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“A fascinating and deeply disturbing tale of hypocrisy, corruption, and insatiable greed. But more than that, it’s a much-needed reminder of just how we got into the mess we’re in—a reminder that is greatly needed when we are still being told that greed is good.”
-Paul Krugman and Robin Wells, The New York Review of Books

“The timing could not be better for a book like Age of Greed . . . A solid review of half a century of economic history . . . A commendable compendium.”
-Adam Lashinsky, San Francisco Chronicle

“Excellent . . . Straightforward . . . We owe Madrick thanks for what he has done.”
-Richard Parker, The American Prospect

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Memoir of a Baltimore Homicide Detective

Book Review by William Hughes

“[He] was breathing when his body was doused with gasoline and set on fire. He was burned alive!” - Kelvin Sewell

How bad is the crime situation in Baltimore City? Leaving the grim statistics aside for the moment, it’s so bad that I no longer watch the local TV newscast at 11 PM! (1) Who wants to go to bed with gory images of mindless violence dancing in their heads?

The mantra is always the same from the news reader--murder, mayhem, drugs, tears, blood and outrage! The only thing that changes are the names of the victims. Some are totally innocent, such as children and teenagers who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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From Jan Lundberg culturechange.org

Dr. David Cundiff, author of The Health Economy, has just released his new book Whistleblower Doctor--The Politics and Economics of Pain and Dying. Please see the webpage http://thehealtheconomy.com/WD/Whistle.htm

Dr. Cundiff is well known for losing his job and license over cutting tax-payers' costs at a major hospital in Los Angeles. Subsequently for his State relicensing hearing (May 27, 2011) he is refusing to play along with the campaign to blame himself by apologizing for giving the best treatment to a patient. Dr. Cundiff had begun to questionable the anti-coagulant drug Coumadin (basically rat poison). His position is being vindicated by the approval of prospective research, but he has to force the issue among federal bureaucrats. Will he get his license back?

This exposé, Whistleblower Doctor-The Politics and Economics of Pain and Dying, concerns Dr. David K. Cundiff's efforts over 32 years to improve the quality of palliative care and hospice services for cancer and AIDS patients at the LA County + USC Medical Center. Over a nine year period, he improved the care of terminally ill cancer and AIDS patients at the LA County + USC Medical Center by directing a popular "Pain and Palliative Care Consultation Service." Unfortunately for the financial bottom line of the hospital, better pain and symptom control of terminally ill patients led to more patients at home and fewer patients occupying Medicaid-funded hospital beds.

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FROM THE PREFACE

The popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have overthrown the public face of the imperial-backed dictatorships in the region, and inspired supporters of popular democracy worldwide.

As the Arab revolt spreads from North Africa to the Gulf and deepens its demands to include socio-economic as well as political demands, the Empire is striking back. The ruling military junta in Egypt has cracked down on the pro democracy movement and looks to its autocratic “partners” in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula to drown the civil society movements in a blood bath.

While standing by the crumbling dictatorships elsewhere in the region, the United States, France and the United Kingdom raced to intervene when it seemed the revolt had spread to Libya. NATO was deployed, using the UN’s new “responsibility to protect” doctrine authorizing humanitarian intervention. Already NATO intervention has exceeded the UN mandate by bombing the Libyan capital and inflicting civilian casualties. Meanwhile, western governments openly pursue regime change in Libya while seeking to forestall it elsewhere.

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