In this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, Noam Chomsky sits down with Rosiland Jordan to talk about the two main tracks of his life: research and political activism. Chomsky emphasizes "The more privilege you have, the more opportunity you have. The more opportunity you have, the more responsibility you have."

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Discussing US politics, he attributes the growing popularity of the Tea Party movement, and the fanatical opposition to President Barack Obama in some quarters, to what he calls the country's "pathological paranoia".

"It’s something that exists in the country. It’s a very frightened country, always has been," he says.

At the same time, Chomsky sees Obama himself as a man without a "moral centre".

"If you look at his policies I think that’s what they reveal. I mean there’s some nice rhetoric here and there but when you look at the actual policies … the drone assassination campaign is a perfectly good example, I mean it’s just a global assassination campaign."

On Israel's continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank, Chomsky says "there was no effort" by Obama to even try and curb it.

"[Obama's] telling Netanyahu and the other Israeli leaders: I’ll tap you on the wrist but go ahead and do what you like .... So in fact, Obama is actually the first president who hasn’t really imposed restrictions on Israel."

Chomsky is also critical of "neoliberal programmes" that he blames for the global financial crisis:

"The New Deal regulations were in place and there were no financial crisis, none .... Starting in the 1970s it changed pretty radically. There were decisions made - not laws of nature - to reconstruct the economy."

And decades later, these decisions have resulted in a situation which "really is a catastrophe," he says.

Chomsky believes that "Nothing’s ever gone too far. Anything can be reversed; these are human decisions.The more privilege you have, the more opportunity you have. The more opportunity you have, the more responsibility you have."

From Moveon.org, Check out these brave people who’ve responded to Mitt Romney’s comment that 47% of Americans think of themselves as “victims” and will never “take responsibility for their lives.”

This first video was submitted by Donna & Bruce StClair from Forest, Virginia.

Submitted by DeEtte Beghtol Waleed from Multnomah, Oregon. She says “Mr. Romney… I take responsibility for my children, my grandchildren, and my great-children, and have done that for more than sixty years.”

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced today in a press release that it has recently moved its primary banking relationship to Amalgamated Bank, America's Labor Bank. The DNC will use Amalgamated Bank's cash management services to handle its day-to-day banking needs.

Amalgamated Bank was founded in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America so that workers, labor unions, and progressive organizations would be able to bank with an institution that represented their interests. Today, Amalgamated Bank's largest shareholder is Workers United, an SEIU affiliate.

In announcing the new alliance with Amalgamated, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, "We are proud to join forces with Amalgamated Bank, an organization with a 90-year legacy of reflecting the values of our nation's middle class. Amalgamated and the Democratic Party share a common heritage of advocating for positive changes in our economy and society to help working men and women achieve their fair share of the American dream. Furthermore, at the DNC, we have a fiduciary responsibility to those who invest in our party; it is critical that we honor their efforts to strengthen our infrastructure and build our organization by partnering with an institution that shares our commitment to standing with America's working families and small businesses, who we believe are the backbone of our country."

Protesters gathered at an vacant and neglected bank-owned home in southeast San Diego on Tuesday to collect debris and transport it to a local bank, where they had hoped to make a "deposit."

They hoped that their efforts would send a message to Bank of America, the reported owner of the property: "Clean up your mess."

The protesters, members of Alliance Of Californians For Community Empowerment, a homeowner advocate group, organized the protest to underscore the filth and possible unwanted behavior that could infiltrate communities as a result from a bank's failure to maintain a vacant foreclosed property.

Members of the group also used the event to push for a city ordinance that would require banks to enter every home in the foreclosure process into a registry. The proposed measure would also fine lenders if they do not properly maintain those homes.

More on this here.