Comú Core
Rebel cities: Radical municipality and direct democracy in Spain and Catalonia.
Live from Barcelona, democracy advocate Kate Shea Baird profiles Barcelona en Comú (BComú,) part of a wave of citizen-lead municipal platforms that have claimed political power in response to government corruption and post-finance crisis austerity policies, and explains how emerging democratic movements are balancing hyper-local identities with hyper-global challenges.
Kate wrote the essay The Disobedient City and the Stateless Nation for ROAR Magazine.
Inside the Obama/Clinton State Department's global fracking push.
Investigative journalist Steve Horn explains how State Department emails reveal a coordinated effort by the Obama administration and government departments from the EPA to the military to sell the world on fracking, and why the failed (thanks geology!) plans aimed to curtail Russian economic power in Eastern Europe. Steve also explains why natural gas isn't a bridge fuel, and Hillary's email scandal is about transparency, not national security.
Steve wrote the Intercept article Hillary Clinton’s Energy Initiative Pressed Countries to Embrace Fracking, New Emails Reveal with Lee Fang, and the DeSmog Blog article Documents: IOGCC-Spawned Loophole Creating Frackquake Crisis Faces Federal Lawsuit.
Being too poor for justice isn't just for poor people anymore.
Attorney Brian Foley explains how rising costs (for lawyers and clients) have priced the middle class out of the legal system, leaving them to rely on off-the rack online legal services to navigate an increasingly complex dimension to American life, and why accessible lawyers in service of the public is the key to solving this problem, not robot lawyers with built in printers.
Brian explores the ramifications (for himself, lawyers and robots) of the article The world's first artificially intelligent lawyer was just hired at a law firm at Tech Insider.
Beyond the streets: A comprehensive model of urban violence.
Sociologist Robert Vargas reframes the narrative around urban violence beyond interactions between gang member and the police - to include the actions of communities, nonprofits and lawmakers, as well as the impact of neighborhood boundaries and political inertia - and explains why preventing violence requires enabling community members to exercise power and advocate for the economic health and safety of their communities.
Robert is author of the new book Wounded City: Violent Turf Wars in a Chicago Barrio from Oxford University Press.
Why the US bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan.
Journalist Matthieu Aikins reports on the stories behind the 'accidental' bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan by the US military - from the Afghan government's hostility towards the aid organization for treating injured Tailban fighters, to the chain of events and decisions that lead to the killing of 42 people by US bombs - and explains how the affair points to the contradictions of US military strategy in the country.
[Audio is a bit rough in patches, listening with headphones helps, it's a great interview]
Matthieu's latest writing is Doctors With Enemies: Did Afghan Forces Target the M.S.F. Hospital? for New York Times Magazine.
Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous Bernie: The election's best laid plans.
In a Moment of Truth gang agley, Jeff Dorchen considers the monkeywrenches throw into the works of both political parties this election year, and finds the Bernie shaped one more interesting (and silly) as it challenges the inevitability setting of the Clinton machine, infuriating pre-diminished expectations and true believers alike.
