Showing posts with label Occupy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Occupy. Show all posts
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Left Side of the Aisle #249
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of June 9 - 15, 2016
This week:
Part One: What now?
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/6/7/1535401/--Shame-On-You-AP-and-John-King-David-Brock-NBC-Voters-Outraged-By-False-Clinton-Coronation
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-california-voters-president-20160607-snap-story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ap-clinton-clinches-the-nomination-becoming-first-woman-to-top-a-major-party-ticket/2016/06/06/9875db18-2c5d-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/06/2485-disqualifying-change-by.html
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/282631-clinton-makes-appeal-to-sanders-supporters-in-historic
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/282638-obama-to-meet-with-sanders-thursday
http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/281920-dem-operative-to-sanders-dont-be-a-sore-loser
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign.html
Part Two: Issues that won't be discussed in the fall election
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/heres-a-map-of-the-countries-that-provide-universal-health-care-americas-still-not-on-it/259153/
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/insured-not-covered-problems-obamacare
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/sunday-review/insured-but-not-covered.html?_r=0
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2472-some-updates-on-secret-trade.html
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/the-collapse-of-the-middle-class-job
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/what-does-it-mean-to-gig-american-workers
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2357-income-inequality-is-growing.html
http://fightfor15.org/
http://www.nelp.org/publication/raise-wages-kill-jobs-no-correlation-minimum-wage-increases-employment-levels/
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3059118/after-a-year-seattles-new-minimum-wage-hasnt-raised-retail-prices
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-05-04/unicef-report-reveals-americas-childhood-poverty-is-a-global-embarrassment
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/05/the-hourly-wage-needed-to-rent-a-2-bedroom-apartment-in-2016-mapped/484091/
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/the-hidden-homeless-families-in-the-suburbs/
http://www.deseretnews.com/top/1642/0/Countries-that-offer-free-higher-education-.html
https://berniesanders.com/issues/its-time-to-make-college-tuition-free-and-debt-free/
http://www.salon.com/2014/11/02/7_countries_where_college_is_free_partner/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/us/politics/obama-proposes-free-community-college-education-for-some-students.html?_r=0
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/obama-free-community-college_n_6446866.html
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13598498/1/lsquo-too-big-to-fail-rsquo-bank-review-finds-wells-fargo-now-number-2.html
Part Three: Making the impossible, possible
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/07/opinion/campaign-stops/life-after-bernie-sanders.html
http://www.thepeoplessummit.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0yP4aLyq1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jDcPbSCluA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtHM77IRkus
Monday, July 13, 2015
211.2 - Our worst unacknowledged evil: Part 2
Our worst unacknowledged evil: Part 2
When I say we tell the poor like it or lump it, I'm not exaggerating in the least. Just consider by way of way of example the way we demonize the hungry, the folks who rely on SNAP - the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, what we used to call, and often still do call, Food Stamps - for food purchases.
A Wisconsin state representative wants people getting SNAP benefits to have to go to "privately run food pantries" - more bluntly put, he wants "separate but (no doubt) equal" grocery stores for poor people.
One member of Congress has called on his constituents literally to spy on what people using EBT cards buy at the supermarket and to question them if they think anything they are buying looks suspicious or "inappropriate."
The state of Wisconsin has a list of precisely what you can and can't buy with your SNAP benefits right down to things like what type and size of canned beans you can buy.
Maine wants to say SNAP recipients can't use any of their benefits for candy or soda because heaven forbid poor children should have something fun or a treat.
It's not just SNAP, not just Food Stamps, it's all assistance in all forms. More than 20 states have extensive lists of what cash assistance can't be used for - with one state official insisting the list has educational value in that it sends the message that cash assistance should be used for necessities. Because of course the poor are unaware of the need for food or clothing or housing or medicine or transportation or whatever else and we have to "educate," that is, control, them, all for their own good, of course, because they are inferior and can't be trusted to make their own decisions.
And then there is the drug testing. No matter how many time it turns out that poor people looking for help are less likely to use drugs than their richer fellow citizens, no matter how many times it turns out that forcing applicants to submit to a drug test winds up costing the state more than it saves, no matter now many times these programs are miserable failures that do nothing more than brand all poor people as drug addicts, still they get pushed.
And the thing is, that's why they get pushed: They get pushed, and they get public support, because they label the poor as druggies, because we are prepared to assume that all poor people are somehow inferior, they are irresponsible, they are lazy, self-indulgent, moochers who spend all their time and money getting high. They're not like us! And because they are poor, rules of privacy protection and against self-incrimination don't apply to them.
We put demands on the poor that we simply do not put on the rich. It does not occur to us.
In his recent book Divide, journalist Matt Taibbi refers to "a creepy inverse correlation between rights and need" [emphasis in original] that exists in the US, where the protection of Constitutional, of basic human, rights is inversely proportional to how rich you are. Put another way, the poorer you are, the less rights you have.
He cites the example of CalWORKS, the state of California's what would in the past have been called welfare program. Everyone who applies for aid and is accepted must agree to have their homes be preemptively searched for evidence of fraud at a time of the agency's choosing, which of course they do not tell you in advance because then you could hide the evidence of fraud of which they assume you are guilty - and if you're not there when they come, you can be declared "uncooperative" and denied aid. In short, not only are you in effect a prisoner in your home until this raid takes place, the Fourth Amendment does not exist for you and neither does innocent until proven guilty - because you are poor and need help.
Can you even conceive of someone declaring their children as deductions on their tax return being told they have to agree to have their home preemptively searched to prove those kids really live there and really are dependent on them? Remember, that deduction is a benefit, a tax benefit that by cutting your taxable income puts extra money in your pocket just as surely as does any cash aid to a poor person - in fact, in both cases, that is the idea: giving you more money to spend. But can you imagine anyone being told they have to surrender their Fourth Amendment rights in order to claim that benefit?
You know, some of those drug-testing regimens not only want you to be drug-tested to get benefits, they want you to be tested on a regular basis to keep them.
Can you even imagine, can you even conceive of, someone declaring a home mortgage deduction on their income taxes being told that every year that they do so that they have to submit to a drug test to prove that they are not using the benefits we are providing to them to get high?
The fact is, of course you can't. You can't imagine a non-poor person being told they have to surrender basic rights in order to obtain a public benefit.
But you can imagine it being done to a poor person; in fact, it happens every day and you know it happens every day. It is the great unacknowledged evil in our society - unacknowledged because even though you might be aware of the fact that the poor are treated differently, it doesn't register that way, it doesn't register as an evil the way equally blatant racism and sexism do. In point of harsh fact, it often doesn't even register as an evil but is perceived by far too many of us as a good thing, a proper thing, a right thing, to assume, to build public policy on the idea, that poor people are lazy, ignorant, drug-addicted frauds just sitting on their asses waiting for a handout.
Although most of us would be loath to admit it, the fact is, that is what many of us believe even if we would not express it so bluntly. The tell is that we don't as a society regard the different, the cruel, ways the poor are treated as an evil.
That great unacknowledged evil of our society, the one we don't face, the one we refuse to recognize, is called classism and it is our contempt for the poor, a contempt that cuts across lines of gender, age, race, and even income class, a contempt that is pervasive, constant; it is all around us in ways major and minor, big and small. Classism is driven by the moral corruption of power among the rich, but it infects our entire society.
In Divide, Matt Taibbi said "We have a profound hatred for the weak and the poor." When asked how he came to that conclusion - which I would re-label an insight - he said it was from visiting US courtrooms and seeing the different ways poor and rich defendants get treated by the courts.
When a poor person, a person without means, comes before a judge in an inner-city courtroom, he says, the judge doesn't want to hear anything the defense attorney has to say and seems angry at having to deal with this person at all. But when he attends trials involving white-collar criminals, Taibbi says, the judge is often very interested in what the defense attorneys - the plural is deliberate - have to say, even to the point of asking their advice on points of law, and there is a sense of admiration for the accused, who are regarded as somehow special, important, respectable, even superior, people.
As I would sum it up, what the word "justice" means in the US political and legal system depends almost entirely on who is asking for it.
Even the way we donate money reflects that class division, reflects the classism of our society. Repeated studies have shown that, as a percentage of household income, the poorest 20% of the population gives more than the richest 20% - and that gap has grown in recent years. Also to the point is that the poor give mostly to religious organizations and social-service charities, while the wealthy give to colleges, museums, and the arts - in other words, the stuff they themselves use. In fact, of the 50 largest individual gifts to public charities in 2012, not one went to a social-service organization or charity that principally serves the poor and the dispossessed.
We are an unjust society. And I don't just mean an unequal one - I mean a morally corrupt one. A society whose richest - that is, most powerful - members are by that very wealth, that very power, twisted into an ethically-bankrupt indifference to the concerns and needs of others, an indifference, that, precisely because it is expressed by the most powerful among us, again, infects the rest of us.
And it will not change. Not on its own. It's not something we can grow out of as a society, especially because we are now ever-more growing into it. It will not change on its own. It will, rather, only get worse absent direct action against it. And no, neither Hillary nor even Bernie represent that kind of direct action.
Because this is not about faces and this is not about just slowing the decline, which is all your "Hillary's the one"s and "Feel the Bern"s will ever do - now I will grant you that there's nothing wrong with doing that, nothing wrong with slowing the decline, so long as you realize that's all you're doing: You're not reversing the decline, you're just slowing it down. But ultimately, at the end of it all, that simply isn't good enough. A slower decline is not good enough. Because the issue here is about change, about real change; this is about power, about changing power - and when you talk about confronting power in search of real change in power, you are talking about revolution.
Frederick Douglass said it: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
I have said it before: Change is going to require struggle. It's going to require a genuine social revolution. It's going to require disruption. It's going to require people in the streets. It's going to require more, a lot more, than twitter feeds and Facebook posts and far more than "vote for Democrats!" It's going to require a combination of the intensity and determination of the labor movement of the 1930s, the fearlessness of the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s, the passion of the antiwar and counterculture movements of the '60s and '70s, and the creativity of the Occupy movement of this century.
That revolution does not have to be, it should not be, violent, but it does have to be aggressive. We have to be loud, boisterous, insistent, not just once but over and over again. We have to fill the streets and yes the jails. We have to make "business as usual" impossible. We have to be disruptive, noisy, disrespectful, impolite.
I think of something from some years ago: On May 17, 1968, a group of nine antiwar protesters went into the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, pulled out a pile of files on men about to be drafted, took them outside, and burned them with homemade napalm before waiting for arrest. At his sentencing, one of the nine, Daniel Berrigan, read a statement in which he said the action was
Quoting Douglass again,
I hope that revolution comes soon. I don't know if it will, I don't know if it will come at all. No one ever doesWhat I do know is that it is possible and that when it happens, whenever it happens, it will, as do most revolutions, come as a complete surprise to those who are its targets.
Sources cited in links:
http://wonkette.com/583395/wisconsin-rep-will-card-poors-for-food-at-their-separate-and-unequal-welfare-groceries
http://wonkette.com/577424/congressloon-spy-on-your-neighbors-shopping-carts-for-your-country
http://wonkette.com/584739/wisconsin-takes-lead-in-fck-the-poors-sweepstakes-now-you-cant-buy-beans-and-rice
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/paul-lepage-food-stamps_n_7134902.html?cps=gravity_2692_-7114837514795982426
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/04/16/new-kansas-rules-would-limit-spending-of-welfare-benefits/21172946/
http://time.com/3117361/welfare-recipients-drug-testing/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/02/1939-outrage-of-week-drug-testing-poor.html
https://www.powells.com/biblio/9780812993424
http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/matt-taibbi
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/matt-taibbi-on-the-profound-hatred-of-the-weak-and-the-poor/534d9e0578c90a533c000134?cn=tbla
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/why-the-rich-dont-give/309254/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/06/wealthy-charity-giving-greedy_n_5937100.html
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/power-concedes-nothing-without-a-demand-it-never/1273306.html
http://c9.digitalmaryland.org/index.cfm
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2012/06/11/daniel-berrigan-americas-street-priest
http://www.tomjoad.org/catonsville9.htm
When I say we tell the poor like it or lump it, I'm not exaggerating in the least. Just consider by way of way of example the way we demonize the hungry, the folks who rely on SNAP - the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, what we used to call, and often still do call, Food Stamps - for food purchases.
One member of Congress has called on his constituents literally to spy on what people using EBT cards buy at the supermarket and to question them if they think anything they are buying looks suspicious or "inappropriate."
The state of Wisconsin has a list of precisely what you can and can't buy with your SNAP benefits right down to things like what type and size of canned beans you can buy.
Maine wants to say SNAP recipients can't use any of their benefits for candy or soda because heaven forbid poor children should have something fun or a treat.
It's not just SNAP, not just Food Stamps, it's all assistance in all forms. More than 20 states have extensive lists of what cash assistance can't be used for - with one state official insisting the list has educational value in that it sends the message that cash assistance should be used for necessities. Because of course the poor are unaware of the need for food or clothing or housing or medicine or transportation or whatever else and we have to "educate," that is, control, them, all for their own good, of course, because they are inferior and can't be trusted to make their own decisions.
And the thing is, that's why they get pushed: They get pushed, and they get public support, because they label the poor as druggies, because we are prepared to assume that all poor people are somehow inferior, they are irresponsible, they are lazy, self-indulgent, moochers who spend all their time and money getting high. They're not like us! And because they are poor, rules of privacy protection and against self-incrimination don't apply to them.
We put demands on the poor that we simply do not put on the rich. It does not occur to us.
In his recent book Divide, journalist Matt Taibbi refers to "a creepy inverse correlation between rights and need" [emphasis in original] that exists in the US, where the protection of Constitutional, of basic human, rights is inversely proportional to how rich you are. Put another way, the poorer you are, the less rights you have.
He cites the example of CalWORKS, the state of California's what would in the past have been called welfare program. Everyone who applies for aid and is accepted must agree to have their homes be preemptively searched for evidence of fraud at a time of the agency's choosing, which of course they do not tell you in advance because then you could hide the evidence of fraud of which they assume you are guilty - and if you're not there when they come, you can be declared "uncooperative" and denied aid. In short, not only are you in effect a prisoner in your home until this raid takes place, the Fourth Amendment does not exist for you and neither does innocent until proven guilty - because you are poor and need help.
You know, some of those drug-testing regimens not only want you to be drug-tested to get benefits, they want you to be tested on a regular basis to keep them.
Can you even imagine, can you even conceive of, someone declaring a home mortgage deduction on their income taxes being told that every year that they do so that they have to submit to a drug test to prove that they are not using the benefits we are providing to them to get high?
The fact is, of course you can't. You can't imagine a non-poor person being told they have to surrender basic rights in order to obtain a public benefit.
Although most of us would be loath to admit it, the fact is, that is what many of us believe even if we would not express it so bluntly. The tell is that we don't as a society regard the different, the cruel, ways the poor are treated as an evil.
That great unacknowledged evil of our society, the one we don't face, the one we refuse to recognize, is called classism and it is our contempt for the poor, a contempt that cuts across lines of gender, age, race, and even income class, a contempt that is pervasive, constant; it is all around us in ways major and minor, big and small. Classism is driven by the moral corruption of power among the rich, but it infects our entire society.
In Divide, Matt Taibbi said "We have a profound hatred for the weak and the poor." When asked how he came to that conclusion - which I would re-label an insight - he said it was from visiting US courtrooms and seeing the different ways poor and rich defendants get treated by the courts.
As I would sum it up, what the word "justice" means in the US political and legal system depends almost entirely on who is asking for it.
Even the way we donate money reflects that class division, reflects the classism of our society. Repeated studies have shown that, as a percentage of household income, the poorest 20% of the population gives more than the richest 20% - and that gap has grown in recent years. Also to the point is that the poor give mostly to religious organizations and social-service charities, while the wealthy give to colleges, museums, and the arts - in other words, the stuff they themselves use. In fact, of the 50 largest individual gifts to public charities in 2012, not one went to a social-service organization or charity that principally serves the poor and the dispossessed.
We are an unjust society. And I don't just mean an unequal one - I mean a morally corrupt one. A society whose richest - that is, most powerful - members are by that very wealth, that very power, twisted into an ethically-bankrupt indifference to the concerns and needs of others, an indifference, that, precisely because it is expressed by the most powerful among us, again, infects the rest of us.
And it will not change. Not on its own. It's not something we can grow out of as a society, especially because we are now ever-more growing into it. It will not change on its own. It will, rather, only get worse absent direct action against it. And no, neither Hillary nor even Bernie represent that kind of direct action.
Frederick Douglass said it: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
I have said it before: Change is going to require struggle. It's going to require a genuine social revolution. It's going to require disruption. It's going to require people in the streets. It's going to require more, a lot more, than twitter feeds and Facebook posts and far more than "vote for Democrats!" It's going to require a combination of the intensity and determination of the labor movement of the 1930s, the fearlessness of the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s, the passion of the antiwar and counterculture movements of the '60s and '70s, and the creativity of the Occupy movement of this century.
I think of something from some years ago: On May 17, 1968, a group of nine antiwar protesters went into the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, pulled out a pile of files on men about to be drafted, took them outside, and burned them with homemade napalm before waiting for arrest. At his sentencing, one of the nine, Daniel Berrigan, read a statement in which he said the action was
in consequence of our inability to live and content in the plagued city, to say "peace peace" when there is no peace, to keep the poor poor, the thirsty and hungry thirsty and hungry. Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.We, too, have to be prepared to anger the orderlies to overcome those who stand behind them.
It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.We are, I fear, approaching a time when there will be the stark choice: confront or capitulate. Not one of those movements I mentioned could fairly or even rationally be called violent. But each in their own way, in their impact, they brought the fire, the thunder, the whirlwind. We need that sort of storm again.
I hope that revolution comes soon. I don't know if it will, I don't know if it will come at all. No one ever doesWhat I do know is that it is possible and that when it happens, whenever it happens, it will, as do most revolutions, come as a complete surprise to those who are its targets.
Sources cited in links:
http://wonkette.com/583395/wisconsin-rep-will-card-poors-for-food-at-their-separate-and-unequal-welfare-groceries
http://wonkette.com/577424/congressloon-spy-on-your-neighbors-shopping-carts-for-your-country
http://wonkette.com/584739/wisconsin-takes-lead-in-fck-the-poors-sweepstakes-now-you-cant-buy-beans-and-rice
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/paul-lepage-food-stamps_n_7134902.html?cps=gravity_2692_-7114837514795982426
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/04/16/new-kansas-rules-would-limit-spending-of-welfare-benefits/21172946/
http://time.com/3117361/welfare-recipients-drug-testing/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/02/1939-outrage-of-week-drug-testing-poor.html
https://www.powells.com/biblio/9780812993424
http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/matt-taibbi
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/matt-taibbi-on-the-profound-hatred-of-the-weak-and-the-poor/534d9e0578c90a533c000134?cn=tbla
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/why-the-rich-dont-give/309254/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/06/wealthy-charity-giving-greedy_n_5937100.html
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/power-concedes-nothing-without-a-demand-it-never/1273306.html
http://c9.digitalmaryland.org/index.cfm
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2012/06/11/daniel-berrigan-americas-street-priest
http://www.tomjoad.org/catonsville9.htm
211.1 - Our worst unacknowledged evil: Part 1
Our worst unacknowledged evil: Part 1
Two weeks ago, I discussed what I called our worst unadressed evils, "unaddressed" meaning evils of which we are aware yet persist because we continue to fail to address them seriously. Those evils, I said, are racism and sexism, with racism being the worse of the two on this score, that is, as unaddressed, not because racism is worse or more pervasive than sexism but because it is just so painfully obvious.
This week I'm going to address our great unrecognized, our great unacknowledged, evil, the evil that all too often we don't even see an evil.
That evil is the sickness of being rich. Because to be rich in our society, to have wealth, is to have power. And as the man said, "power corrupts*."
To be rich is to be sick. Yes, that is a sweeping statement, and I have to amend it slightly by comparing being rich to obesity. Obesity itself is not a sickness. You can be obese and be quite healthy. But obesity is rightly considered a not healthy condition because to be obese is to be at greater risk of a variety of conditions that are themselves damaging: heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and others.
In the same way, being rich is not itself a sickness; you can be rich and still be a decent human being. It's just a lot harder and a lot less likely. Because being rich puts you at a signifcantly greater risk of the true social sicknesses of moral and ethical corruption. And just like the greater the degree of obesity, the greater the risk to physical health, the greater the wealth, that is, the greater the power, the greater the risk to moral and ethical health.
There is an enormous amount of psychological research showing this, showing the corruption of power. Just by making people feel more powerful in comparison to others, not even making them more powerful but just feeling more powerful, you can affect how they deal with those others and how they react to moral and ethical questions.
Just by making people feel powerful in comparison to others around them you can create in them a sense of entitlement, a sense that "what I want is simply more important than other considerations and I deserve to have what I want." Again, there is a boatload of psychological and social research showing this.
So imagine the impact when you live that day to day, when you live that sense of power, of entitlement, every day, when you've been brought up to feel that sense of power, of entitlement - imagine the potential for moral corruption. Because in our society, wealth is power. And power corrupts.
So just like being obese doesn't mean you have heart disease or diabetes or whatever, being rich doesn't mean you are a callous, amoral, sociopath with an inflated sense of your own significance who has contempt for those less rich, that is, less powerful, than you - but it does mean you are at genuine risk of becoming one, a risk that far too often comes to pass.
Because wealth is power. And power corrupts.
Do you want to see that sense of entitlement in action? Here are two recent examples.
You know that California has been experiencing a severe drought, one likely connected to global climate change. Last fall, California Gov. Jerry Brown called for austerity measures and in April, he urged people to cut their water use by 25%.
Okay. There is this ultra-rich enclave in San Diego county in southern California called Rancho Santa Fe. This landscape of ranches, gated communities, golf courses, and country clubs already uses five times more water per capita than the statewide average. After the call to conserve water, consumption there went up by nine percent.
But the drought continued, the drought got worse, the drought got more damaging. So on July 1, Rancho Santa Fe, along with some other equally wasteful areas in the state, became subject to water rationing.
According to Jessica Parks of the Santa Fe Irrigation District, which provides water service to Rancho Santa Fe and other parts of the county, "It’s no longer ‘You can only water on these days.' It's now more 'This is the amount of water you get within this billing period. And if you go over that, there will be penalties.'" Fines can up to $1,000 a day and if residents don't comply after being fined, the water district can place flow restrictors on individual meters, which simply would reduce the water supply to them.
And the residents of Rancho Santa Fe, whose response to calls for conservation was to waste more water, are whining and blubbering like the self-centered two-year old screaming "Mine! Mine!" that their wealth has, in an ethical sense, turned them into.
The Washington Post quoted resident Steve Yuhas weeping that people like him "should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns or golf on brown courses" because "no, we’re not all equal when it comes to water." That is, "I get to have what I want and if that means your lawn is brown or your golf course is brown - wait, forget that last part since you can't afford to play golf all the time which is why you don't matter anyway - well, if your tap runs dry, who cares. Well, you probably do but you're a nobody so that doesn't count. Only I count."
Resident Gay Butler, for her part, got all petulant: "We’re being overly penalized and overly scrutinized. People aren’t looking at the overall picture. What are we supposed to do, just have dirt around our house on four acres?"
No, what you're supposed to do is conserve water in the midst of what by a number of measures is the worst drought in the state's history, you selfish twit.
That inability to see the actual "overall picture," that defining of the "overall picture" as her desires, her preferences, that right there is that sociopathic sense of entitlement that wealth - and the power thar accompanies it - bring. It is the sickness of wealth, the sickness of being rich.
Again, not everybody falls prey to it: The same Washington Post article refers to other area residents who are adapting to the drought by adopting what's called drought-tolerant landscaping, such as replacing water-hungry lawns with crushed stone pathways amid succulents or other low-water plants.
But that some escape the effect doesn't mean that wealth does not remain morally and ethically dangerous any more than the fact that not all obese people have heart disease makes obesity a sign of peak condition.
Here's another example, partcularly pointed.
Right now, in order to quality for federal housing block grants, local and state housing authorities must have plans showing they are "affirmatively furthering fair housing." In other words, making sure their communities offer affordable housing opportunities in all neighborhoods, not just the poor ones, and do not discriminate. (Affordable housing is generally defined as housing that costs no more than a third of a family's monthly income.)
HUD is planning to issue new regulations to require those authorities to conduct five-year assessments that would be more revealing of the pattern of affordable housing in each area to see if those communities really are trying to make affordable housing available everywhere rather than just concentrating it in poor neighborhoods, leaving the rich to live with the rich without having to see any icky poor people anywhere nearby. That is, to see if these communities are trying to do what they are supposed to be trying to do.
And of course this is outrageous! How dare they! How dare those heavy-handed meddling government bureaucrats try to find out if this program is actually working! Because the attitude is, "They should just give us the money and be quiet! We're entitled to the money without being told what to do with it! Put conditions on it? Outrageous!"
But - and here is the point - Debby Goldberg, vice president at the National Fair Housing Alliance, said this is the way it works: Jurisdictions are not required to comply with the law. They're not. They don't have to take part. But they won't get the federal grants if they don't.
That is, you want the money, you accept the conditions under which it's given.
And while for the rich this is an unconscionable assault on their God-given right to free money, the fact is, that's what we tell poor people all the time: You want the help? You accept the conditions.
No matter how inane, humiliating, degrading; no matter how arbitrary, pointless, irrelevant; no matter how much they appear consciously designed to see you fail; you will comply and do it without complaint or you can just go sleep in the streets as you family goes hungry and your children have no medicine if they get sick.
Don't imagine that's an exaggeration. Because when it comes to the poor, the attitude is like it or lump it. Put up with whatever we put you through or else.
We'll talk more about that in Part 2.
*The phrase "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is often attributed to John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, usually referred to as Lord Acton, from a letter written in 1887. But the meaning, expressed in somewhat different words, dates back to at least 1770.
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/06/2093-our-worst-unaddressed-evil.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/14710-being-rich-is-sickness.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/1481-how-being-rich-can-make-you.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/1482-how-power-corrupts-and-wealth-is.html
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/140205_lottery.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/su-coc092614.php
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/15/1393404/-Wealthy-Californians-don-t-think-they-need-to-conserve-water-because-they-re-rich
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rich-californians-youll-have-to-pry-the-hoses-from-our-cold-dead-hands/2015/06/13/fac6f998-0e39-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/15/feds-accused-trying-to-push-utopia-on-wealthy-neighborhoods-with-diversity-regs/
Sources cited in footnote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html
Two weeks ago, I discussed what I called our worst unadressed evils, "unaddressed" meaning evils of which we are aware yet persist because we continue to fail to address them seriously. Those evils, I said, are racism and sexism, with racism being the worse of the two on this score, that is, as unaddressed, not because racism is worse or more pervasive than sexism but because it is just so painfully obvious.
This week I'm going to address our great unrecognized, our great unacknowledged, evil, the evil that all too often we don't even see an evil.
To be rich is to be sick. Yes, that is a sweeping statement, and I have to amend it slightly by comparing being rich to obesity. Obesity itself is not a sickness. You can be obese and be quite healthy. But obesity is rightly considered a not healthy condition because to be obese is to be at greater risk of a variety of conditions that are themselves damaging: heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and others.
In the same way, being rich is not itself a sickness; you can be rich and still be a decent human being. It's just a lot harder and a lot less likely. Because being rich puts you at a signifcantly greater risk of the true social sicknesses of moral and ethical corruption. And just like the greater the degree of obesity, the greater the risk to physical health, the greater the wealth, that is, the greater the power, the greater the risk to moral and ethical health.
There is an enormous amount of psychological research showing this, showing the corruption of power. Just by making people feel more powerful in comparison to others, not even making them more powerful but just feeling more powerful, you can affect how they deal with those others and how they react to moral and ethical questions.
Just by making people feel powerful in comparison to others around them you can create in them a sense of entitlement, a sense that "what I want is simply more important than other considerations and I deserve to have what I want." Again, there is a boatload of psychological and social research showing this.
So just like being obese doesn't mean you have heart disease or diabetes or whatever, being rich doesn't mean you are a callous, amoral, sociopath with an inflated sense of your own significance who has contempt for those less rich, that is, less powerful, than you - but it does mean you are at genuine risk of becoming one, a risk that far too often comes to pass.
Because wealth is power. And power corrupts.
Do you want to see that sense of entitlement in action? Here are two recent examples.
Okay. There is this ultra-rich enclave in San Diego county in southern California called Rancho Santa Fe. This landscape of ranches, gated communities, golf courses, and country clubs already uses five times more water per capita than the statewide average. After the call to conserve water, consumption there went up by nine percent.
But the drought continued, the drought got worse, the drought got more damaging. So on July 1, Rancho Santa Fe, along with some other equally wasteful areas in the state, became subject to water rationing.
According to Jessica Parks of the Santa Fe Irrigation District, which provides water service to Rancho Santa Fe and other parts of the county, "It’s no longer ‘You can only water on these days.' It's now more 'This is the amount of water you get within this billing period. And if you go over that, there will be penalties.'" Fines can up to $1,000 a day and if residents don't comply after being fined, the water district can place flow restrictors on individual meters, which simply would reduce the water supply to them.
The Washington Post quoted resident Steve Yuhas weeping that people like him "should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns or golf on brown courses" because "no, we’re not all equal when it comes to water." That is, "I get to have what I want and if that means your lawn is brown or your golf course is brown - wait, forget that last part since you can't afford to play golf all the time which is why you don't matter anyway - well, if your tap runs dry, who cares. Well, you probably do but you're a nobody so that doesn't count. Only I count."
Resident Gay Butler, for her part, got all petulant: "We’re being overly penalized and overly scrutinized. People aren’t looking at the overall picture. What are we supposed to do, just have dirt around our house on four acres?"
No, what you're supposed to do is conserve water in the midst of what by a number of measures is the worst drought in the state's history, you selfish twit.
That inability to see the actual "overall picture," that defining of the "overall picture" as her desires, her preferences, that right there is that sociopathic sense of entitlement that wealth - and the power thar accompanies it - bring. It is the sickness of wealth, the sickness of being rich.
Again, not everybody falls prey to it: The same Washington Post article refers to other area residents who are adapting to the drought by adopting what's called drought-tolerant landscaping, such as replacing water-hungry lawns with crushed stone pathways amid succulents or other low-water plants.
But that some escape the effect doesn't mean that wealth does not remain morally and ethically dangerous any more than the fact that not all obese people have heart disease makes obesity a sign of peak condition.
Here's another example, partcularly pointed.
HUD is planning to issue new regulations to require those authorities to conduct five-year assessments that would be more revealing of the pattern of affordable housing in each area to see if those communities really are trying to make affordable housing available everywhere rather than just concentrating it in poor neighborhoods, leaving the rich to live with the rich without having to see any icky poor people anywhere nearby. That is, to see if these communities are trying to do what they are supposed to be trying to do.
And of course this is outrageous! How dare they! How dare those heavy-handed meddling government bureaucrats try to find out if this program is actually working! Because the attitude is, "They should just give us the money and be quiet! We're entitled to the money without being told what to do with it! Put conditions on it? Outrageous!"
But - and here is the point - Debby Goldberg, vice president at the National Fair Housing Alliance, said this is the way it works: Jurisdictions are not required to comply with the law. They're not. They don't have to take part. But they won't get the federal grants if they don't.
That is, you want the money, you accept the conditions under which it's given.
No matter how inane, humiliating, degrading; no matter how arbitrary, pointless, irrelevant; no matter how much they appear consciously designed to see you fail; you will comply and do it without complaint or you can just go sleep in the streets as you family goes hungry and your children have no medicine if they get sick.
Don't imagine that's an exaggeration. Because when it comes to the poor, the attitude is like it or lump it. Put up with whatever we put you through or else.
We'll talk more about that in Part 2.
*The phrase "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is often attributed to John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, usually referred to as Lord Acton, from a letter written in 1887. But the meaning, expressed in somewhat different words, dates back to at least 1770.
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/06/2093-our-worst-unaddressed-evil.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/14710-being-rich-is-sickness.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/1481-how-being-rich-can-make-you.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/1482-how-power-corrupts-and-wealth-is.html
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/140205_lottery.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/su-coc092614.php
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/15/1393404/-Wealthy-Californians-don-t-think-they-need-to-conserve-water-because-they-re-rich
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rich-californians-youll-have-to-pry-the-hoses-from-our-cold-dead-hands/2015/06/13/fac6f998-0e39-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/15/feds-accused-trying-to-push-utopia-on-wealthy-neighborhoods-with-diversity-regs/
Sources cited in footnote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Left Side of the Aisle #211
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of July 9-15, 2015
This week:
Our great unacknowledged evil: classism, our contempt for the poor, and the moral corruption of the rich, Part 1
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/06/2093-our-worst-unaddressed-evil.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/14710-being-rich-is-sickness.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/1481-how-being-rich-can-make-you.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/02/1482-how-power-corrupts-and-wealth-is.html
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/140205_lottery.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/su-coc092614.php
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/15/1393404/-Wealthy-Californians-don-t-think-they-need-to-conserve-water-because-they-re-rich
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rich-californians-youll-have-to-pry-the-hoses-from-our-cold-dead-hands/2015/06/13/fac6f998-0e39-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/15/feds-accused-trying-to-push-utopia-on-wealthy-neighborhoods-with-diversity-regs/
Part 2
http://wonkette.com/583395/wisconsin-rep-will-card-poors-for-food-at-their-separate-and-unequal-welfare-groceries
http://wonkette.com/577424/congressloon-spy-on-your-neighbors-shopping-carts-for-your-country
http://wonkette.com/584739/wisconsin-takes-lead-in-fck-the-poors-sweepstakes-now-you-cant-buy-beans-and-rice
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/paul-lepage-food-stamps_n_7134902.html?cps=gravity_2692_-7114837514795982426
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/04/16/new-kansas-rules-would-limit-spending-of-welfare-benefits/21172946/
http://time.com/3117361/welfare-recipients-drug-testing/
https://www.powells.com/biblio/9780812993424
http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/matt-taibbi
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/matt-taibbi-on-the-profound-hatred-of-the-weak-and-the-poor/534d9e0578c90a533c000134?cn=tbla
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/why-the-rich-dont-give/309254/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/06/wealthy-charity-giving-greedy_n_5937100.html
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/power-concedes-nothing-without-a-demand-it-never/1273306.html
http://c9.digitalmaryland.org/index.cfm
http://www.tomjoad.org/catonsville9.htm
Saturday, April 12, 2014
154.4 - Congressional Progressive Caucus proposes a budget, media ignores it
Congressional Progressive Caucus proposes a budget, media ignores it
A couple of weeks ago, Rep. Paul Rantn', who is what passes for an intellectual in the right wing, got my uncoveted Clown Award, and not for the first time.
Well, he's back, because he recently went through his annual charade of presenting an ideological wish list of attacks on the poor and public employees, tax cuts for the rich, and increases for the War Department under the guise of a proposed federal budget.
It has been roundly and justifiably trashed as economic nonsense - even Bloomberg.com, hardly a bastion of radical left-wing activism, called it a "fantasy" - as economic nonsense and in fact as a political document to rouse the rabid faithful rather than an actual budget.
But here's the thing: It has been discussed. Debated. Denounced and even in some quarters defended - but discussed. Widely and even intensely.
Okay, a couple of weeks earlier, on March 12, so there is no news-cycle conflict here, on March 12 the Congressional Progressive Caucus released what it called its Better Off Budget. First things first, this is an actual budget with actual numbers and actual economic analysis, not a wish list of "don't worry, the Magic of the Market (pbui) will take care of everything" hand-waving of the sort that Ryan's "budget" spews out over everything.
This budget shows, again with actual numbers, that we can create jobs, improve infrastructure, protect and aid the poor, protect the environment, improve education, improve housing, expand healthcare, and a whole lot more without having to raise taxes on anyone making less than $1 million a year - all while reducing the deficit significantly over the next 10 years.
Sounds like something that should merit a headline or two. So how much press coverage did this get?
[long silence]
About that much.
Oh, there was some coverage in the expected places, such as The Nation, the New Republic, Truth-Out.org, and In These Times and some analysis from outfits such as Citizens for Tax Justice, the National Priorities Project, and the Economic Policy Institute - but after a fairly intensive search1, the closest I could come to any what could be considered mainstream coverage were opinion pieces in the LA Times, US News and World Report, two in the Huffington Post, and one in The Guardian, which is a newspaper in the United Kingdom, plus in terms of news coverage a couple of minutes for a single report on MSNBC the day before the budget was released and a report on al-Jazeera, which does cover a wide range of news and which most Americans can't see unless they know to search it out online.
Other than that, five opinion pieces and two news reports, there was pretty much complete silence. As far as I can determine, the New York Times never mentioned it2. Not a word. The Washington Post never mentioned it3. Not a word. The Wall Street Journal never mentioned it4. Not a word. The network news never mentioned it. Fox News never mentioned it5. CNN never mentioned it6. In fact, as far as I can tell, all of cable news - other than that those single mentions on MSNBC7 and al-Jazeera8 - never mentioned it. Not once. Not a word.
So while I'm sure you're all aware that Paul Rantin' released his "budget," I would not be the least surprised to hear that until now you didn't even know the Progressive Caucus budget even existed.
The fact is, the media - the supposedly oh-so "liberal" media - is trapped, has trapped itself, in way of thinking that what comes from the right by definition deserves serious attention even if it's to knock it down while what comes from the left by definition deserves to be ignored.
The result is the right wing repeatedly is allowed to set the terms of debate such that that Barack Obama is taken to represent to extreme left edge of permissible debate and that's only because he's president so the media can't ignore him, and the answer to every policy question is for the left (not the right, just the left) to "move to the center," the center being defined as midway between the left and the right. So if the left does "move to the center," that center will still be defined as midway between left and right, so the left get demands to "move to the center," which means moving to the right, after which the "center" will still be to their right, and so on and so on.
And one of the reasons they get away with this is that we let them. We, us, the American left, the real left, we let them. And I don't only mean that we let the media get away with it - although part of the reason the media behaves the way it does is that a good long time ago the right wing learned to work the refs, to screech and scream about anything and everything they didn't like until the media just goes along to avoid the hassle - but I don't only mean the media, I mean "our" (and I use that word very cautiously here) political leaders.
Or should I say leader. No matter how many promises he has broken, no matter how many times he has disappointed or even angered his supporters, no matter how much he increases spying, no matter how many drone strikes he authorizes, no matter how many new military actions he authorizes in Africa, no matter how many undocumented workers he deports - more than any previous president - no matter how many whistleblowers he prosecutes - more than all previous presidents combined - no matter how many times he pushes a corporate agenda or coddles corporate crooks, no matter how many times he says he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare as part of some mythical "grand bargain," no matter how many fill in your own blank, no matter what he does or doesn't do, still there are people going around with bumper stickers and buttons saying some version of "Don't worry, Mr. Prez, I got your back."
Hey, for all of you who have forgotten: We're not supposed to have his back, he's supposed to have ours. And the fact is, in all too many ways, he doesn't.
It's not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing about particular policies. It's not a matter of arguing over whether some program goes a little too far or not quite far enough. It a matter of the fact that there is a basic, an essential, divide in this country, one notably expressed in digest form if you will by the Occupy movement: the 1% versus the 99%. It's not a matter of isolated issues. It's a matter of being aware of that divide and of knowing which side of that divide you are on and of being willing to stand there, with all that entails - something too many of us, ducking and covering from the slings and arrows of the right wing, are unwilling to do.
Sources:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/03/1507-clown-award-rep-paul-ryan.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/01/paul-ryan-budget_n_5069608.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/gop-budget-would-amount-to-pay-cut-for-federal-employees/2014/04/01/906b47ec-b9a9-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-paul-ryan-budget-20140401,0,2127070.story#axzz2xgALCyAS
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-01/paul-ryan-s-budgetary-fantasy
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/hot-topics/progressive-caucus-unveils-the-better-off-budget1/
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/uploads/The%20Better%20Off%20Budget.pdf
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/uploads/Back%20to%20Work%20Budget%20-%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
http://www.thenation.com/blog/173348/truly-progressive-budget-vision
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117135/qa-rep-keith-ellison-cpcs-better-budget
http://truth-out.org/news/item/22921-ryan-vs-progressive-caucus-competing-visions-on-the-federal-budget
http://inthesetimes.com/article/16419/fighting_inequality_one_budget_at_a_time
http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2014/03/progressive_caucus_budget_we_c.php
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/12986
http://www.epi.org/publication/budget-analysis-congressional-progressive/
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79604810/?related=true
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/2014/03/12/finally-a-washington-plan-for-jobs-and-the-debt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-dolan/want-to-be-better-off-get_b_4950896.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/common-sense-takes-courag_b_4948854.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/17/paul-ryan-budget-vs-congressional-progressive-caucus
http://www.msnbc.com/now-with-alex-wagner/watch/better-off-budget-set-for-release-193403971839
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/12/congressional-progressivecaucusbudget.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/10/left-side-of-aisle-76-part-4.html
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/revealed_the_u_s_militarys_next_shadow_war_partner/
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/05/obama-exceeds-million-mark-deportations/7340419/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/09/left-side-of-aisle-75-part-4.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/09/left-side-of-aisle-73-part-4.html
1. searching via news.google.com, news.yahoo.com, and duckduckgo.com
2. a search at http://nytimes.com on "Better Off Budget" returned no relevant results
3. a search at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ on "Better Off Budget" for the period 3/11-3/14 returned no relevant results
4. a search at http://wsj.com on "Better Off Budget" for the period 3/11-3/14 returned no relevant results
5. a search at http://www.foxnews.com on "budget" for the period 3/12-14 returned no relevant results
6. a search at http://www.cnn.com/ on "Better Off Budget" returned no relevant results
7. a search at http://www.msnbc.com returned no additional relevant results
8. a search at http://america.aljazeera.com/search.html returned no additional relevant results
A couple of weeks ago, Rep. Paul Rantn', who is what passes for an intellectual in the right wing, got my uncoveted Clown Award, and not for the first time.
It has been roundly and justifiably trashed as economic nonsense - even Bloomberg.com, hardly a bastion of radical left-wing activism, called it a "fantasy" - as economic nonsense and in fact as a political document to rouse the rabid faithful rather than an actual budget.
But here's the thing: It has been discussed. Debated. Denounced and even in some quarters defended - but discussed. Widely and even intensely.
Okay, a couple of weeks earlier, on March 12, so there is no news-cycle conflict here, on March 12 the Congressional Progressive Caucus released what it called its Better Off Budget. First things first, this is an actual budget with actual numbers and actual economic analysis, not a wish list of "don't worry, the Magic of the Market (pbui) will take care of everything" hand-waving of the sort that Ryan's "budget" spews out over everything.
This budget shows, again with actual numbers, that we can create jobs, improve infrastructure, protect and aid the poor, protect the environment, improve education, improve housing, expand healthcare, and a whole lot more without having to raise taxes on anyone making less than $1 million a year - all while reducing the deficit significantly over the next 10 years.
[long silence]
About that much.
Oh, there was some coverage in the expected places, such as The Nation, the New Republic, Truth-Out.org, and In These Times and some analysis from outfits such as Citizens for Tax Justice, the National Priorities Project, and the Economic Policy Institute - but after a fairly intensive search1, the closest I could come to any what could be considered mainstream coverage were opinion pieces in the LA Times, US News and World Report, two in the Huffington Post, and one in The Guardian, which is a newspaper in the United Kingdom, plus in terms of news coverage a couple of minutes for a single report on MSNBC the day before the budget was released and a report on al-Jazeera, which does cover a wide range of news and which most Americans can't see unless they know to search it out online.
Other than that, five opinion pieces and two news reports, there was pretty much complete silence. As far as I can determine, the New York Times never mentioned it2. Not a word. The Washington Post never mentioned it3. Not a word. The Wall Street Journal never mentioned it4. Not a word. The network news never mentioned it. Fox News never mentioned it5. CNN never mentioned it6. In fact, as far as I can tell, all of cable news - other than that those single mentions on MSNBC7 and al-Jazeera8 - never mentioned it. Not once. Not a word.
So while I'm sure you're all aware that Paul Rantin' released his "budget," I would not be the least surprised to hear that until now you didn't even know the Progressive Caucus budget even existed.
The fact is, the media - the supposedly oh-so "liberal" media - is trapped, has trapped itself, in way of thinking that what comes from the right by definition deserves serious attention even if it's to knock it down while what comes from the left by definition deserves to be ignored.
The result is the right wing repeatedly is allowed to set the terms of debate such that that Barack Obama is taken to represent to extreme left edge of permissible debate and that's only because he's president so the media can't ignore him, and the answer to every policy question is for the left (not the right, just the left) to "move to the center," the center being defined as midway between the left and the right. So if the left does "move to the center," that center will still be defined as midway between left and right, so the left get demands to "move to the center," which means moving to the right, after which the "center" will still be to their right, and so on and so on.
And one of the reasons they get away with this is that we let them. We, us, the American left, the real left, we let them. And I don't only mean that we let the media get away with it - although part of the reason the media behaves the way it does is that a good long time ago the right wing learned to work the refs, to screech and scream about anything and everything they didn't like until the media just goes along to avoid the hassle - but I don't only mean the media, I mean "our" (and I use that word very cautiously here) political leaders.
Or should I say leader. No matter how many promises he has broken, no matter how many times he has disappointed or even angered his supporters, no matter how much he increases spying, no matter how many drone strikes he authorizes, no matter how many new military actions he authorizes in Africa, no matter how many undocumented workers he deports - more than any previous president - no matter how many whistleblowers he prosecutes - more than all previous presidents combined - no matter how many times he pushes a corporate agenda or coddles corporate crooks, no matter how many times he says he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare as part of some mythical "grand bargain," no matter how many fill in your own blank, no matter what he does or doesn't do, still there are people going around with bumper stickers and buttons saying some version of "Don't worry, Mr. Prez, I got your back."
Hey, for all of you who have forgotten: We're not supposed to have his back, he's supposed to have ours. And the fact is, in all too many ways, he doesn't.
It's not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing about particular policies. It's not a matter of arguing over whether some program goes a little too far or not quite far enough. It a matter of the fact that there is a basic, an essential, divide in this country, one notably expressed in digest form if you will by the Occupy movement: the 1% versus the 99%. It's not a matter of isolated issues. It's a matter of being aware of that divide and of knowing which side of that divide you are on and of being willing to stand there, with all that entails - something too many of us, ducking and covering from the slings and arrows of the right wing, are unwilling to do.
Sources:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/03/1507-clown-award-rep-paul-ryan.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/01/paul-ryan-budget_n_5069608.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/gop-budget-would-amount-to-pay-cut-for-federal-employees/2014/04/01/906b47ec-b9a9-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-paul-ryan-budget-20140401,0,2127070.story#axzz2xgALCyAS
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-01/paul-ryan-s-budgetary-fantasy
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/hot-topics/progressive-caucus-unveils-the-better-off-budget1/
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/uploads/The%20Better%20Off%20Budget.pdf
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/uploads/Back%20to%20Work%20Budget%20-%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
http://www.thenation.com/blog/173348/truly-progressive-budget-vision
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117135/qa-rep-keith-ellison-cpcs-better-budget
http://truth-out.org/news/item/22921-ryan-vs-progressive-caucus-competing-visions-on-the-federal-budget
http://inthesetimes.com/article/16419/fighting_inequality_one_budget_at_a_time
http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2014/03/progressive_caucus_budget_we_c.php
http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/12986
http://www.epi.org/publication/budget-analysis-congressional-progressive/
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79604810/?related=true
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/2014/03/12/finally-a-washington-plan-for-jobs-and-the-debt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-dolan/want-to-be-better-off-get_b_4950896.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/common-sense-takes-courag_b_4948854.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/17/paul-ryan-budget-vs-congressional-progressive-caucus
http://www.msnbc.com/now-with-alex-wagner/watch/better-off-budget-set-for-release-193403971839
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/12/congressional-progressivecaucusbudget.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/10/left-side-of-aisle-76-part-4.html
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/revealed_the_u_s_militarys_next_shadow_war_partner/
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/05/obama-exceeds-million-mark-deportations/7340419/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/09/left-side-of-aisle-75-part-4.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/09/left-side-of-aisle-73-part-4.html
1. searching via news.google.com, news.yahoo.com, and duckduckgo.com
2. a search at http://nytimes.com on "Better Off Budget" returned no relevant results
3. a search at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ on "Better Off Budget" for the period 3/11-3/14 returned no relevant results
4. a search at http://wsj.com on "Better Off Budget" for the period 3/11-3/14 returned no relevant results
5. a search at http://www.foxnews.com on "budget" for the period 3/12-14 returned no relevant results
6. a search at http://www.cnn.com/ on "Better Off Budget" returned no relevant results
7. a search at http://www.msnbc.com returned no additional relevant results
8. a search at http://america.aljazeera.com/search.html returned no additional relevant results
Friday, August 30, 2013
123.6 - What the world needs now is some of the '60s
What the world needs now is some of the '60s
For the rest of the show I want to talk about something else, because all this talk about the March and whatnot, I have to admit it has got me thinking about the '60s. "The '60s." Because the March on Washington, in a lot of ways we don't seem to recognize, it was a spark, it was a foundation for, what we think of as "the '60s" - which really started about 1963 and ran to about 1972.
And I've been thinking that there are some ways in which I miss the '60s. Now, you have to understand, I'm not talking about nostalgia. I don't want to "go back to the '60s." There were a lot of things wrong in the '60s. For one thing, we have some technology now that - I'm not big on high-tech or having the latest and greatest technologies, but we have some technologies that I like that weren't available in the '60s and I wouldn't want to give those up easily.
For another, as we just talked about, there was more bigotry - it was worse in the '60s than it is now. And not just for blacks, for women, for gays and lesbians, for Hispanics, for still others.
Crime was actually a bigger issue in the '60s than it is now - or have we forgotten Richard Nixon running for office as the "law and order" president? Infant mortality - I mentioned the infant mortality rate was higher. The poverty rate was higher.
And, we tend to forget, there was a war. A big war. Not on the scale of World War II, but a big war. I have a notion that the time when people come to what I call political maturity, what's going on at that time, affects their view of the world and how they perceive later events. It influences their view of the world. And I came to political maturity during, as I have described it before, that brief and some would have it mythological time marked at one end by the Sgt. Pepper Summer and the other by Altamont - or, if you prefer a political description, by Flower Power and the Days of Rage.
But people now, in the last couple of decades, people who have come to political maturity during the Afghanistan War, during the Iraq War, I think some of them, when we talk about Vietnam, don't know what we're talking about. The total number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined was about 6700; I forget the exact number. The number of American soldiers killed in the Indochina War was well over 50,000. There were over 50,000 American wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan combined; there were over 300,000 in Indochina. Peak troop strength in Iraq was about 140,000. In Vietnam, it was about 540,000. It was a massive war. We didn't measure the deaths by one here and one there and a few others somewhere else, we measured them by 300 a week. Total deaths in that war were well over a million, perhaps as many as three million, plus millions more refugeed.
I have no desire to go back to that. I have no desire to go back to the '60s. But I do have a desire to have some aspects of the '60s brought forward to the 20-teens.
For example, one thing I miss, something I do miss about the '60s is color. Think of any cliche image about the '60s you can imagine and I'm willing to bet that one aspect of that image is lots of color. I miss that. I miss the explosions of colors and the poster art - like Peter Max, for example - the poster art with the very bold, dramatic colors. I miss being surrounded by color.
Another thing I miss is the sense that music could matter. That music could matter. Not that all the music of the '60s mattered, there was a lot of schlock that was produced in the '60s. You know, sometimes you hear these shows about "the lost 45s" and you hear some of those songs and you think, "oh boy, that should have stayed lost." Remember "Laurie" by Dickie Lee? You know, "Last night at the dance I met Laurie." Remember that? What about "The Race is On" by Jack Jones? These are - wow.
And this also doesn't mean there isn't good music being produced now and it doesn't even mean there aren't protest songs being produced now. I just saw something recently about "the top 10 protest songs of the 21st century."
But the '60s had a sense, it was just a sense, that the music could matter, that music could make a difference, the music could change the world - we went a little over the top there, but still that was the sense that we had, that music could change the world. Music was more important to us. Music wasn't just entertainment, it wasn't just a way some people made a living. Music mattered.
The other thing that I miss, and this is the real point here, I miss that sense of solidarity. Back in the '60s, we talked about "the Movement." And it went in all sorts of different directions, all kinds of different subjects, all kinds of different topics, all sorts of different tactics, but the point is, we all thought "this is one Movement, we are all part of it."
Where I grew up, we had a military base - Fort Monmouth, New Jersey - and we used to have picket lines there on occasion, you know, maybe 10 to 20 people. That didn't matter: We were the same as the 150,000 who were out in San Francisco. And what's more, we were the same as the United Farm Workers. We were the same as the striking teachers in some other city. It was all the same thing. And that is something I don't see now.
I've talked about the Solidarity Sing Along in Wisconsin. And this is great, it's wonderful, it's a great thing, and people support that and endorse it - but we don't feel it's us. It's them doing that - it's not us, it's separate. Every battle is separate, every battle is a local battle, that we don't perceive emotionally as part of a whole thing.
This is one of the reasons, by the way, that the Occupy Movement had to be destroyed. Because when the Occupy Movement talked about the 99%, it hit that nerve: We are in this together, we are all linked and all of our different struggles do relate to each other.
Two reasons the Occupy Movement had to be destroyed. One, it was in your face. You couldn't ignore it. It was always there. The other reason, though, was the fact that all of these Occupy sites, they all thought of themselves as "Occupy." Whether you were in Boston or New York or Oshkosh or wherever, you know, you weren't just Oshkosh Occupy, you were Oshkosh Occupy. You were emotionally liked to all the others. Some local encampments focused on income inequality, some on student debt, some on foreclosures, some on supporting labor actions, some even on the arcane details of federal regulation of financial markets. It didn't matter. You were all part of the same thing. You were all Occupy. There was a solidarity there that I have not seen otherwise.
And I really, really miss that.
We need to be back on the streets. Because the one thing we need - the one thing those big marches that people say "oh, that's passe, that's old-fashioned" and all that, well, nonsense. Because the thing those marches did was they gave you that sense of solidarity, they gave you that sense that "this is all one thing; we are all linked; we are all part of the same thing."
We need to be back on the streets - and I don't mean just once, I mean over and over and over again. This is not something that's going to be done just this year or the year after, this is year after year after year after year. We have to be out on the streets, locally and nationally, to say "we are all one Movement, we are all one consideration."
And that one consideration is, again, justice.
Sources:
http://icasualties.org/
http://vietnamwar-database.blogspot.com/2010/11/vietnam-war-casualties.html
http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf
http://tropicalglen.com/
http://tropicalglen.com/Jukebox/1965Top/Channel1965.html
http://flavorwire.com/143568/the-10-most-powerful-protest-songs-of-the-21st-century
For the rest of the show I want to talk about something else, because all this talk about the March and whatnot, I have to admit it has got me thinking about the '60s. "The '60s." Because the March on Washington, in a lot of ways we don't seem to recognize, it was a spark, it was a foundation for, what we think of as "the '60s" - which really started about 1963 and ran to about 1972.
And I've been thinking that there are some ways in which I miss the '60s. Now, you have to understand, I'm not talking about nostalgia. I don't want to "go back to the '60s." There were a lot of things wrong in the '60s. For one thing, we have some technology now that - I'm not big on high-tech or having the latest and greatest technologies, but we have some technologies that I like that weren't available in the '60s and I wouldn't want to give those up easily.
For another, as we just talked about, there was more bigotry - it was worse in the '60s than it is now. And not just for blacks, for women, for gays and lesbians, for Hispanics, for still others.
Crime was actually a bigger issue in the '60s than it is now - or have we forgotten Richard Nixon running for office as the "law and order" president? Infant mortality - I mentioned the infant mortality rate was higher. The poverty rate was higher.
And, we tend to forget, there was a war. A big war. Not on the scale of World War II, but a big war. I have a notion that the time when people come to what I call political maturity, what's going on at that time, affects their view of the world and how they perceive later events. It influences their view of the world. And I came to political maturity during, as I have described it before, that brief and some would have it mythological time marked at one end by the Sgt. Pepper Summer and the other by Altamont - or, if you prefer a political description, by Flower Power and the Days of Rage.
But people now, in the last couple of decades, people who have come to political maturity during the Afghanistan War, during the Iraq War, I think some of them, when we talk about Vietnam, don't know what we're talking about. The total number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined was about 6700; I forget the exact number. The number of American soldiers killed in the Indochina War was well over 50,000. There were over 50,000 American wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan combined; there were over 300,000 in Indochina. Peak troop strength in Iraq was about 140,000. In Vietnam, it was about 540,000. It was a massive war. We didn't measure the deaths by one here and one there and a few others somewhere else, we measured them by 300 a week. Total deaths in that war were well over a million, perhaps as many as three million, plus millions more refugeed.
I have no desire to go back to that. I have no desire to go back to the '60s. But I do have a desire to have some aspects of the '60s brought forward to the 20-teens.
Another thing I miss is the sense that music could matter. That music could matter. Not that all the music of the '60s mattered, there was a lot of schlock that was produced in the '60s. You know, sometimes you hear these shows about "the lost 45s" and you hear some of those songs and you think, "oh boy, that should have stayed lost." Remember "Laurie" by Dickie Lee? You know, "Last night at the dance I met Laurie." Remember that? What about "The Race is On" by Jack Jones? These are - wow.
And this also doesn't mean there isn't good music being produced now and it doesn't even mean there aren't protest songs being produced now. I just saw something recently about "the top 10 protest songs of the 21st century."
The other thing that I miss, and this is the real point here, I miss that sense of solidarity. Back in the '60s, we talked about "the Movement." And it went in all sorts of different directions, all kinds of different subjects, all kinds of different topics, all sorts of different tactics, but the point is, we all thought "this is one Movement, we are all part of it."
Where I grew up, we had a military base - Fort Monmouth, New Jersey - and we used to have picket lines there on occasion, you know, maybe 10 to 20 people. That didn't matter: We were the same as the 150,000 who were out in San Francisco. And what's more, we were the same as the United Farm Workers. We were the same as the striking teachers in some other city. It was all the same thing. And that is something I don't see now.
This is one of the reasons, by the way, that the Occupy Movement had to be destroyed. Because when the Occupy Movement talked about the 99%, it hit that nerve: We are in this together, we are all linked and all of our different struggles do relate to each other.
Two reasons the Occupy Movement had to be destroyed. One, it was in your face. You couldn't ignore it. It was always there. The other reason, though, was the fact that all of these Occupy sites, they all thought of themselves as "Occupy." Whether you were in Boston or New York or Oshkosh or wherever, you know, you weren't just Oshkosh Occupy, you were Oshkosh Occupy. You were emotionally liked to all the others. Some local encampments focused on income inequality, some on student debt, some on foreclosures, some on supporting labor actions, some even on the arcane details of federal regulation of financial markets. It didn't matter. You were all part of the same thing. You were all Occupy. There was a solidarity there that I have not seen otherwise.
We need to be back on the streets. Because the one thing we need - the one thing those big marches that people say "oh, that's passe, that's old-fashioned" and all that, well, nonsense. Because the thing those marches did was they gave you that sense of solidarity, they gave you that sense that "this is all one thing; we are all linked; we are all part of the same thing."
We need to be back on the streets - and I don't mean just once, I mean over and over and over again. This is not something that's going to be done just this year or the year after, this is year after year after year after year. We have to be out on the streets, locally and nationally, to say "we are all one Movement, we are all one consideration."
And that one consideration is, again, justice.
Sources:
http://icasualties.org/
http://vietnamwar-database.blogspot.com/2010/11/vietnam-war-casualties.html
http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf
http://tropicalglen.com/
http://tropicalglen.com/Jukebox/1965Top/Channel1965.html
http://flavorwire.com/143568/the-10-most-powerful-protest-songs-of-the-21st-century
Friday, March 22, 2013
Left Side of the Aisle #100 - Part 5
Good News #5: Occupy protesters winning in court
I haven't talked about the Occupy movement of late. They're still out there, the movement is still carrying on; they're just not making a lot of big headlines because a lot of what's going on is at the very local level.
But something that has been happening is that the court cases arising from the first wave of occupations are winding their way through the courts - and the activists keep winning.
For example, in Philadelphia recently, a jury acquitted a dozen activists who had been charged with conspiracy and trespassing for holding a sit-in at a Wells Fargo bank.
In New York, Michael Premo was charged with assaulting an officer in the first of the cases in the city to go to a jury. He was found innocent after video footage proved police lied about the incident and that Premo was the victim, not the assailant.
In Austin, seven Occupy activists faced felony charges for a peaceful act of civil disobedience: They had chained themselves to some piping at the Port of Houston. They had their sentences reduced to time served after it came out that three undercover Austin cops had infiltrated the group and goaded the protesters into the act.
In Chicago, 92 Occupy activists arrested in a raid at Grant Park had their cases summarily dismissed by Judge Thomas Donnelly. He found that the park’s supposed curfew law was enforced rarely and inconsistently, marking the crackdown as an infringement on the protestors' First Amendment rights.
In Cleveland, two activists who were found guilty of staying overnight in a park won a reversal when the state Court of Appeals found that the conviction ignored their First Amendment rights.
All of this recent success might have inspired Occupy to take on a new case; and for once, the group is not the defendant, but the plaintiff. The folks called Occupy Wall Street’s brain trust, Occupy the SEC, has filed a lawsuit against every top Wall Street federal regulator. The suit alleges that these regulators have violated the law by having failed to enacted the Volcker Rule, a key component of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which hoped to put at least some brakes on the banks.
Sources:
http://www.care2.com/causes/5-exciting-verdicts-occupy-keeps-winning-in-court.html
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-07/news/37503495_1_nina-n-wright-padilla-paul-hetznecker-trespass-charge
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/why_the_police.php
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/jury_finds_occu.php
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1361550856-Court-Case-Involving-Occupy-Protesters-Resolved.html
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2012/9/28/cook-county-court-dismisses-more-90-cases-against-occupy-chicago-protesters
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/cleveland_metro/ohio-court-hands-a-victory-to-occupy-protesters
http://www.care2.com/causes/first-ows-trial-ends-in-acquittal-thanks-to-citizen-journalism.html
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/02/occupy-movement-files-lawsuit-against-every-federal-regulator-of-wall-street/
But something that has been happening is that the court cases arising from the first wave of occupations are winding their way through the courts - and the activists keep winning.
For example, in Philadelphia recently, a jury acquitted a dozen activists who had been charged with conspiracy and trespassing for holding a sit-in at a Wells Fargo bank.
In New York, Michael Premo was charged with assaulting an officer in the first of the cases in the city to go to a jury. He was found innocent after video footage proved police lied about the incident and that Premo was the victim, not the assailant.
In Austin, seven Occupy activists faced felony charges for a peaceful act of civil disobedience: They had chained themselves to some piping at the Port of Houston. They had their sentences reduced to time served after it came out that three undercover Austin cops had infiltrated the group and goaded the protesters into the act.
In Chicago, 92 Occupy activists arrested in a raid at Grant Park had their cases summarily dismissed by Judge Thomas Donnelly. He found that the park’s supposed curfew law was enforced rarely and inconsistently, marking the crackdown as an infringement on the protestors' First Amendment rights.
In Cleveland, two activists who were found guilty of staying overnight in a park won a reversal when the state Court of Appeals found that the conviction ignored their First Amendment rights.
All of this recent success might have inspired Occupy to take on a new case; and for once, the group is not the defendant, but the plaintiff. The folks called Occupy Wall Street’s brain trust, Occupy the SEC, has filed a lawsuit against every top Wall Street federal regulator. The suit alleges that these regulators have violated the law by having failed to enacted the Volcker Rule, a key component of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which hoped to put at least some brakes on the banks.
Sources:
http://www.care2.com/causes/5-exciting-verdicts-occupy-keeps-winning-in-court.html
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-07/news/37503495_1_nina-n-wright-padilla-paul-hetznecker-trespass-charge
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/why_the_police.php
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/jury_finds_occu.php
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1361550856-Court-Case-Involving-Occupy-Protesters-Resolved.html
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2012/9/28/cook-county-court-dismisses-more-90-cases-against-occupy-chicago-protesters
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/cleveland_metro/ohio-court-hands-a-victory-to-occupy-protesters
http://www.care2.com/causes/first-ows-trial-ends-in-acquittal-thanks-to-citizen-journalism.html
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/02/occupy-movement-files-lawsuit-against-every-federal-regulator-of-wall-street/
Left Side of the Aisle #100
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of March 21-27, 2013
This week:
Good News #1: Same-sex marriage advances
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/gay-marriage-inevitable-americans_n_2876601.html
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-new-high-of-58-percent-support-same
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/18/gay-marriage-support-hits-new-high-in-post-abc-poll/
http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_22769152/gay-marriage-bill-faces-crucial-committee-votes-tuesday?c=upworthy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/rob-portman-gay-marriage_n_2881805.html
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2006/06/06/5669/inhofe-gay-marriage/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/james-inhofe-cpac-gay-marriage-rob-portman_n_2884724.html?ir=Politics&ref=topbar
http://greenstreetchurch.org/public-statement-weddings-green-street-united-methodist-church/#public-statement-weddings
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/n_carolina_church_stops_performing_straight_marriages_until_gay_marriage_becomes_legal/?source=newsletter
Good News #2: Maryland repeals death penalty
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/maryland-death-penalty_n_2885162.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130315/us-death-penalty-maryland/
http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2013/02/executions-are-becoming-rare-in-us.html
http://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment/death-penalty-101
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_country
Good News #3: Being overweight is not a disease
http://www.everydayhealth.com/sanjay-gupta/heavy-and-healthy-overweight-today-was-perfect-in-1913.aspx
http://www.digitalnewsrelease.com/?q=jama_3867
Good News #4: NSLs held unconstitutional
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/national-security-letter-_n_2886130.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303567704577519213906388708.html
http://75.101.159.206/documents/367107-104697082-us-dis-cand-3-11cv2173-2011-10-02.html#document/p6/a59670
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/nsl-found-unconstitutional/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/doj-sues-telecom-over-nsl/
Good News #5: Occupy protesters winning in court
http://www.care2.com/causes/5-exciting-verdicts-occupy-keeps-winning-in-court.html
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-07/news/37503495_1_nina-n-wright-padilla-paul-hetznecker-trespass-charge
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/why_the_police.php
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/jury_finds_occu.php
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1361550856-Court-Case-Involving-Occupy-Protesters-Resolved.html
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2012/9/28/cook-county-court-dismisses-more-90-cases-against-occupy-chicago-protesters
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/cleveland_metro/ohio-court-hands-a-victory-to-occupy-protesters
http://www.care2.com/causes/first-ows-trial-ends-in-acquittal-thanks-to-citizen-journalism.html
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/02/occupy-movement-files-lawsuit-against-every-federal-regulator-of-wall-street/
Good News #6: Nancy Pelosi questions Keystone XL pipeline
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/key-democrat-pelosi-voices-doubts-on-keystone-as-mulcair-visits-us/article9810656/
Hero Award #1: Croatian-Serb kiss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostar
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/19wsy5/when_an_old_lady_asked_croatian_girl_how_she/?limit=500
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_World_Colleges
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/10/croatian-girl-kisses-serb_n_2839945.html
Hero Award #2: Bradley Manning in his own voice
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-ellsberg/bradley-manning-military-court-speech_b_2859353.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/12/bradley-manning-tapes-own-words
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/group-aims-to-be-a-conduit-for-wikileaks-donations/
And Another Thing #1: Billboard produces fresh water from the air
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/18/billboard-lima-peru-water-crisis_n_2901882.html
And Another Thing #2: FCC proposes free nationwide wifi
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/tech-telecom-giants-take-sides-as-fcc-proposes-large-public-wifi-networks/2013/02/03/eb27d3e0-698b-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html
And Another Thing #3: Viking sunstones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Anse_aux_Meadows
http://www.polarization.com/viking/viking.html
http://www.ibtimes.com/viking-sunstone-evidence-found-sixteenth-century-english-wreck-1120939#
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/10/first-evidence-viking-sunstone-found/
And Another Thing #4: Curiosity finds chemicals for life on Mars
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/03/12/mars-top-five/1982783/
http://www.dailytech.com/NASA+Curiosity+Rovers+Rock+Sample+Suggests+Life+on+Mars/article30108.htm
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/12/17285137-curiosity-rover-sees-life-friendly-conditions-in-ancient-mars-rock?lite
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/12mar_graymars/
And Another Thing #5: Astronomers measure spin of supermassive black hole 56 million light-years away
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/130228_blackhole
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Left Side of the Aisle #88 - Part 3
Yes, there was a coordinated attack on the Occupy movement
I have to take a moment out to tell you I told you so. I did.
As early as November 2011, just two months after Occupy Wall Street sparked the nationwide Occupy movement, I was telling you that government officials from local cops up to federal agents were coordinating and cooperating on actions to break up and drive out the encampments that had sprung up in scores of places. I told you that the claims officials made, the methods chosen, and the language used to defend those actions were too similar to be a coincidence.
Now we know for sure. Documents pried from the FBI by a Freedom of Information Act filing by the Partnership For Civil Justice Fund show that the FBI and the Department for the Protection of the Fatherland were coordinating with local police to spy on, keep track of, and deal with Occupy. In some of these files, even nonviolent protest were viewed as "criminal activity" and even as "domestic terrorism." In fact, the surveillance began in August 2011, a month before the occupation of Zucotti Park in New York City - beginning and continuing even as the feds' own documents say that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at Occupy protests.
And it wasn't just law enforcement: Those same records show the feds coordinating with banks and other private firms about possible protests - and even the Federal Reserve in Richmond got in on the act, passing on to the FBI information it had gathered about Occupy.
So when I told you there was a coordinated effort to undermine the movement, that wasn't paranoia, that was prescience.
As a footnote to this, one news source developed a list of seven issues that Occupy helped to bring to the forefront of political discussion in the US. They are:
- income inequality
- the Robin Hood tax, otherwise known as the financial transaction tax
- student loan debt, now over $1 trillion
- the Volcker Rule, which limits a bank's ability to make speculative trades with its own accounts
- the foreclosure crisis
- political favoring of the rich
- corporate personhood
Sources:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/12/24/records-confirm-fbi-targeted-occupy-protests-categorized-as-terrorist-activity/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/fbi-occupy-wall-street_n_2355883.html
http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html
http://www.justiceonline.org/
As early as November 2011, just two months after Occupy Wall Street sparked the nationwide Occupy movement, I was telling you that government officials from local cops up to federal agents were coordinating and cooperating on actions to break up and drive out the encampments that had sprung up in scores of places. I told you that the claims officials made, the methods chosen, and the language used to defend those actions were too similar to be a coincidence.
Now we know for sure. Documents pried from the FBI by a Freedom of Information Act filing by the Partnership For Civil Justice Fund show that the FBI and the Department for the Protection of the Fatherland were coordinating with local police to spy on, keep track of, and deal with Occupy. In some of these files, even nonviolent protest were viewed as "criminal activity" and even as "domestic terrorism." In fact, the surveillance began in August 2011, a month before the occupation of Zucotti Park in New York City - beginning and continuing even as the feds' own documents say that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at Occupy protests.
And it wasn't just law enforcement: Those same records show the feds coordinating with banks and other private firms about possible protests - and even the Federal Reserve in Richmond got in on the act, passing on to the FBI information it had gathered about Occupy.
So when I told you there was a coordinated effort to undermine the movement, that wasn't paranoia, that was prescience.
As a footnote to this, one news source developed a list of seven issues that Occupy helped to bring to the forefront of political discussion in the US. They are:
- income inequality
- the Robin Hood tax, otherwise known as the financial transaction tax
- student loan debt, now over $1 trillion
- the Volcker Rule, which limits a bank's ability to make speculative trades with its own accounts
- the foreclosure crisis
- political favoring of the rich
- corporate personhood
Sources:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/12/24/records-confirm-fbi-targeted-occupy-protests-categorized-as-terrorist-activity/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/fbi-occupy-wall-street_n_2355883.html
http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html
http://www.justiceonline.org/
Left Side of the Aisle #88
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of December 27, 2012 - January 2, 2013
This week:
- Chained-CPI takes away benefits
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-18/obama-counter-offer-raises-tax-hike-threshold-to-400-000.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/nancy-pelosi-social-security_n_2333285.html
- Clown Award: Steve Lonegan of AFP
http://fortlee.patch.com/articles/americans-for-prosperity-60-billion-sandy-aid-package-a-disgrace-a1202edd
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171906/david-koch-now-taking-aim-hurricane-sandy-victims
- Yes, there was a coordinated attack on the Occupy movement
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/12/24/records-confirm-fbi-targeted-occupy-protests-categorized-as-terrorist-activity/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/fbi-occupy-wall-street_n_2355883.html
http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html
http://www.justiceonline.org/
- Outrage of the Week: NRA, the right wing, and gun violence
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/21/us-usa-shooting-connecticut-idUSBRE8BI1BV20121221?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=408
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/NRA-s-constituent-claims-questionable-4139574.php
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nra-defiance-newtown-draws-swift-harsh-reactions-article-1.1225243
http://www.beggarscanbechoosers.com/2012/12/nras-absurd-scapegoating-of-violent.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/#
http://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/3165442-Sheriff-Civilians-tackled-Giffords-shooter/
https://www.uua.org/news/knoxville/index.shtml
http://www.care2.com/causes/top-conservative-publication-shooting-occurred-because-women-ran-the-school.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/james-dobson-connecticut-shooting-gay-marriage_n_2318015.html
http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2012/12/gun-vs-auto-deaths-in-us.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1487470
- And Another Thing: Why Christmas is on December 25
http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice0.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice1.htm
Friday, December 07, 2012
Left Side of the Aisle #85 - Part 3
Outrage of the Week #3: NYC wants to shut Sandy recovery site
You know about Hurricane Sandy - although technically it was a tropical storm when it hit the mid-Atlantic coast. A few weeks ago I talked about some of the devastation - a proper word in this case - in the area where I grew up on the Jersey shore.
One of the places hard hit was the Midland Beach section of Staten Island. A man there named Aiman Youssef, a 42-year-old Syrian-American, saw his house destroyed in the storm. Remarkably, his response was to use the site to establish a 24/7 community pop up center. (That's him in the picture, at the site.)
Over the next month he was aided by hundreds of volunteers from the community and groups such as Occupy Sandy - whose skill at on-the-fly organizing proved quite valuable - and that stretch of pavement, which grew to be a half-block long, became a hub to gather and provide food, cleaning supplies, medical supplies, clothing, and blankets to the thousands of residents who were still without heat, power, or safe housing. Volunteers even formed teams to tear moldy drywall from flooded homes to begin the process of rebuilding.
This at a time when initially FEMA, the Red Cross, and New York City officials were nowhere to be found on the island. It was pure citizen-to-citizen aid and it earned widespread praise.
The city wants it shut down.
On November 30, a representative of the mayor's office showed up at Youssef's place and declared "we’re moving you out" because the relief center was "blocking the sidewalk." In a creepy echo of the excuses used across the country - including in New York - to shut down Occupy sites, the official insisted the site is "usafe." (As a sidebar, reported injuries at the site are zero.) The official then ordered a Red Cross truck that was delivering supplies to the area to leave.
As of Monday, December 3, the hub was still there despite official threats. Police told the volunteers they could stay if they didn't take up the whole sidewalk, so the volunteers moved the kitchen to a driveway and moved everything else three feet back from the curb.
But that hasn't stopped the pressure. The sidewalk is no longer "blocked" but the trailers that are used to deliver and store the goods are being ticketed and the sanitation canisters were removed, leading me to wonder how long it will be before "unsanitary" - the other near-universal excuse used against Occupy sites - is added to "unsafe." Volunteers at the site say that city agencies tell them that the mayor's office is twisting their arms.
The mayor's office says it is recommending - I love that, they are merely suggesting - the site be moved to an indoor location for "safety" reasons. Fine, say the volunteers. There are other hubs around the city and in other areas which are indoors. So fine. Bearing in mind that such a place must be adequate to the task, available for the medium to long term, close enough to still be useful for the neighborhood, and free, tell us where we can go.
The city, to what should be no one's surprise, has no answer. It doesn't have one because it doesn't want one. It just wants the site to go away. And that is outrageous.
Sources:
http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/nyc-threatens-imminent-eviction-247-sa
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/staten-island-volunteers-fear-city-will-hamper-their-hurricane-relief-efforts/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/22/nation/la-na-sandy-homeless-thanksgiving-20121123
http://gothamist.com/2012/12/02/mayors_office_allegedly_calls_state.php
http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/173277/midland-beach-volunteers-feel-pressured-to-move-their-storm-relief-center
One of the places hard hit was the Midland Beach section of Staten Island. A man there named Aiman Youssef, a 42-year-old Syrian-American, saw his house destroyed in the storm. Remarkably, his response was to use the site to establish a 24/7 community pop up center. (That's him in the picture, at the site.)
This at a time when initially FEMA, the Red Cross, and New York City officials were nowhere to be found on the island. It was pure citizen-to-citizen aid and it earned widespread praise.
The city wants it shut down.
On November 30, a representative of the mayor's office showed up at Youssef's place and declared "we’re moving you out" because the relief center was "blocking the sidewalk." In a creepy echo of the excuses used across the country - including in New York - to shut down Occupy sites, the official insisted the site is "usafe." (As a sidebar, reported injuries at the site are zero.) The official then ordered a Red Cross truck that was delivering supplies to the area to leave.
As of Monday, December 3, the hub was still there despite official threats. Police told the volunteers they could stay if they didn't take up the whole sidewalk, so the volunteers moved the kitchen to a driveway and moved everything else three feet back from the curb.
But that hasn't stopped the pressure. The sidewalk is no longer "blocked" but the trailers that are used to deliver and store the goods are being ticketed and the sanitation canisters were removed, leading me to wonder how long it will be before "unsanitary" - the other near-universal excuse used against Occupy sites - is added to "unsafe." Volunteers at the site say that city agencies tell them that the mayor's office is twisting their arms.
The mayor's office says it is recommending - I love that, they are merely suggesting - the site be moved to an indoor location for "safety" reasons. Fine, say the volunteers. There are other hubs around the city and in other areas which are indoors. So fine. Bearing in mind that such a place must be adequate to the task, available for the medium to long term, close enough to still be useful for the neighborhood, and free, tell us where we can go.
The city, to what should be no one's surprise, has no answer. It doesn't have one because it doesn't want one. It just wants the site to go away. And that is outrageous.
Sources:
http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/nyc-threatens-imminent-eviction-247-sa
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/staten-island-volunteers-fear-city-will-hamper-their-hurricane-relief-efforts/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/22/nation/la-na-sandy-homeless-thanksgiving-20121123
http://gothamist.com/2012/12/02/mayors_office_allegedly_calls_state.php
http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/173277/midland-beach-volunteers-feel-pressured-to-move-their-storm-relief-center
Left Side of the Aisle #85
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of December 6 - 12, 2012
This week:
Outrage of the Week #1: BP gets off easy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/bp-oil-spill-fine_n_2137339.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/bp-oil-spill_n_2136063.html
Outrage of the Week #2: Ignoring climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/21/uk-emissions-unep-idUSLNE8AK01O20121121
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/it-s-already-too-late-to-stop-climate-change-20121129
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j98HqUGojlAMbvTwaGxCjbOjtNEg
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/1204/1224327438977.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/03/climate-talks-idUSL5E8N3HAV20121203
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/12/us-eu-airlines-ets-idUSBRE8AB0HB20121112
http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/
http://www.sierraclub.org/dirtyfuels/downloads/2010-09-TarSands_factsheet.pdf
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/12/04/nebraska-hearing-kicks-off-final-stage-of-keystone-xl-review/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/keystone-pipeline-decisio_n_2223387.html
http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/keystone-pipeline-obama-84509.html
http://truth-out.org/news/item/8124-climate-change-disappears-from-keystone-xl-pipeline-debate
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/obama-signs-bill-to-exempt-us-airlines-from-eu-aviation-carbon-tax.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/28/obama-fails-climate-test-aviation
http://my.firedoglake.com/stevehorn1022/2012/11/21/second-us-tar-sands-mine-owned-by-former-exxonmobil-and-chevron-exec-approved-in-utah/
http://www.freep.com/article/20121203/NEWS07/312030143/Obama-laying-groundwork-for-climate-change-treaty
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Oil_watch/World_Oil%20_Table.html
http://physics.wwu.edu:8082/jstewart/physics101/worldconsumption.pdf
Outrage of the Week #3: NYC wants to shut Sandy recovery site
http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/nyc-threatens-imminent-eviction-247-sa
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/staten-island-volunteers-fear-city-will-hamper-their-hurricane-relief-efforts/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/22/nation/la-na-sandy-homeless-thanksgiving-20121123
http://gothamist.com/2012/12/02/mayors_office_allegedly_calls_state.php
http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/173277/midland-beach-volunteers-feel-pressured-to-move-their-storm-relief-center
Outrage of the Week #4: Why cell phones were out in the wake of Sandy
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-15/why-cell-phones-went-dead-after-hurricane-sandy.html
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6750
Outrage of the Week #5: Senate rejects treaty based on ADA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/opinion/treaty-rights-for-the-disabled.html
http://www.boston.com/politicalintelligence/2012/12/04/treaty-for-the-disabled-falls-short-ratification/Esvyz2zFLGdVzX5j42TSLM/story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/gop-opposition-sinks-un-disability-rights-treaty-a-frail-bob-dole-makes-senate-appearance/2012/12/04/b788e9c0-3e70-11e2-8a5c-473797be602c_story.html
Outrage of the Week #6: What's missing from "Grand Bargain" talks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki
http://www.alternet.org/economy/6-reasons-fiscal-cliff-scam
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/corker-and-clyburn-looks-like-beginning.html
Friday, November 16, 2012
Left Side of the Aisle #82 - Part 4
Occupy Wall Street: Occupy Sandy and Rolling Jubilee
I'm going to wrap up with a sort of feel-good story, at least one as feel-good as anything can be about the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Do you know what was among the first organizations to get relief to the victims of Sandy around New York City? An organization that was on the ground, distributing food and water and blankets and medicine and even some generators, often before the Red Cross or FEMA even showed up? A group that within just a couple of days established two distribution centers and was directing about 1,000 volunteers a day and by last week had dozens of relief centers across the city?
Occupy Wall Street. Yep, them. Working under the name Occupy Sandy, OWS has taken the commitment its participants showed, their social media skills, the prowess at on-the-fly organizing they developed, and the knowledge of neighborhoods they gained when doing community organizing in all those months the mass media thought they had just disappeared, and turned them into a praised and effective relief organization for victims of the superstorm.
ABC News claimed that OWS had become a punchline. I'm afraid that around New York I don't hear any laughing.
In fact, this is a double feel-good bit. Something to which OWS gave birth was the organization Strike Debt! which published the Debt Resistors' Operations Manual to tell people being crushed under debt about their rights and options. Now, Strike Debt! has a new project. It's called Rolling Jubilee.
Traditionally, Biblically, a jubilee year was a time for freeing of slaves and prisoners, returning land to its former owners, and forgiving debts. Rolling Jubilee wants to make the forgiving of debts an on-going event.
When banks or other creditors have what's called "distressed" debt, a debt that is in default which they are having trouble collecting, they often enough will sell that debt to someone else for a fraction of its face value, sometimes for just pennies on the dollar. This is a rather simple and fairly common business transaction. Usually, the new creditor sets about harrassing the debtor for the balance, which is all profit to the new creditor. What Rolling Jubilee intends to do is to use crowdfunding - that is, lots of people contributing small amounts each - to raise funds to buy destressed debt for pennies on the dollar, but then instead of trying to collect that debt, forgive it. Wipe it off the books.
The idea has been called simple, brilliant, and powerful and it's all quite legal. And in a country where in one-third of the states it is still legal for you to be sent to prison for not paying a debt and yes that is true, it's also very necessary.
But there is one potential hang-up: The banks may not go along with it. An outfit called American Homeowner Preservation was buying up pools of bad mortgages and then restructuring them to make it easier for the homeowners to pay them off. But the banks hated the idea of a homeowner being able to stay in their house after a short sale, and often asked for an affidavit from the buyer saying that the former owner yes, would be kicked out. Obviously, American Homeowner Preservation couldn't make such a promise since that was contrary to its whole purpose. So the banks just refused to sell them any mortgages.
There's no reason to think the banks will be any less stubborn, unreasonable, and selfish in this case. But even if that happens, there is one thing that can come out of it: A lot more people will know just how small-minded, stubborn, unreasonable, and selfish Wall Street is.
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/occupy-sandy-onetime-protesters-find-17685552#.UJ4Z04aNeSo
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/nyregion/anger-grows-at-the-red-cross-response-to-the-storm.html
http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/nov/08/occupy-sandy-hurricane-movement-reborn/
http://www.voanews.com/content/in-new-york-occupy-wall-street-becomes-occupy-sandy/1542192.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-leads-way-in-sandy-relief.html
http://strikedebt.org/
http://strikedebt.org/The-Debt-Resistors-Operations-Manual.pdf
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-articles/what-is-a-jubilee-year/article/111
http://rollingjubilee.org/
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-is-buying-and-paying-the-99s-debt.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/rolling-jubilee-occupy-wall-street_n_2117792.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/debtors-prison-legal-in-more-than-one-third-of-us-states_n_1107524.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/lisa-lindsay-breast-cancer-survivor-debtors-jail_n_1446391.html
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/13/388303/the-return-of-debtors-prisons-thousands-of-americans-jailed-for-not-paying-their-bills/
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-rolling-jubilee-works-2012-11
http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2012/11/rolling-jubilee-will-it-work
I'm going to wrap up with a sort of feel-good story, at least one as feel-good as anything can be about the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Do you know what was among the first organizations to get relief to the victims of Sandy around New York City? An organization that was on the ground, distributing food and water and blankets and medicine and even some generators, often before the Red Cross or FEMA even showed up? A group that within just a couple of days established two distribution centers and was directing about 1,000 volunteers a day and by last week had dozens of relief centers across the city?
ABC News claimed that OWS had become a punchline. I'm afraid that around New York I don't hear any laughing.
In fact, this is a double feel-good bit. Something to which OWS gave birth was the organization Strike Debt! which published the Debt Resistors' Operations Manual to tell people being crushed under debt about their rights and options. Now, Strike Debt! has a new project. It's called Rolling Jubilee.
Traditionally, Biblically, a jubilee year was a time for freeing of slaves and prisoners, returning land to its former owners, and forgiving debts. Rolling Jubilee wants to make the forgiving of debts an on-going event.
The idea has been called simple, brilliant, and powerful and it's all quite legal. And in a country where in one-third of the states it is still legal for you to be sent to prison for not paying a debt and yes that is true, it's also very necessary.
But there is one potential hang-up: The banks may not go along with it. An outfit called American Homeowner Preservation was buying up pools of bad mortgages and then restructuring them to make it easier for the homeowners to pay them off. But the banks hated the idea of a homeowner being able to stay in their house after a short sale, and often asked for an affidavit from the buyer saying that the former owner yes, would be kicked out. Obviously, American Homeowner Preservation couldn't make such a promise since that was contrary to its whole purpose. So the banks just refused to sell them any mortgages.
There's no reason to think the banks will be any less stubborn, unreasonable, and selfish in this case. But even if that happens, there is one thing that can come out of it: A lot more people will know just how small-minded, stubborn, unreasonable, and selfish Wall Street is.
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/occupy-sandy-onetime-protesters-find-17685552#.UJ4Z04aNeSo
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/nyregion/anger-grows-at-the-red-cross-response-to-the-storm.html
http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/nov/08/occupy-sandy-hurricane-movement-reborn/
http://www.voanews.com/content/in-new-york-occupy-wall-street-becomes-occupy-sandy/1542192.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-leads-way-in-sandy-relief.html
http://strikedebt.org/
http://strikedebt.org/The-Debt-Resistors-Operations-Manual.pdf
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-articles/what-is-a-jubilee-year/article/111
http://rollingjubilee.org/
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-is-buying-and-paying-the-99s-debt.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/rolling-jubilee-occupy-wall-street_n_2117792.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/debtors-prison-legal-in-more-than-one-third-of-us-states_n_1107524.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/lisa-lindsay-breast-cancer-survivor-debtors-jail_n_1446391.html
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/13/388303/the-return-of-debtors-prisons-thousands-of-americans-jailed-for-not-paying-their-bills/
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-rolling-jubilee-works-2012-11
http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2012/11/rolling-jubilee-will-it-work
Left Side of the Aisle #82
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of November 15-21, 2012
This week:
Global warming: Human cause and effect
http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2012/11/america-is-still-in-denial.html
http://www.people-press.org/2012/10/15/more-say-there-is-solid-evidence-of-global-warming/
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/report-climate-change-will-produce-un
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/climate-change-humidity.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-0_gDXqYeQ&feature=relmfu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rdLu7wiZOE&feature=fvwrel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skFrR3g4BRQ&feature=fvwrel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nRf2RTqANg&feature=fvwrel
http://gantdaily.com/2012/03/27/a-three-degree-warmer-world-by-2050-new-study-outlines-what-to-expect/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Energy_Agency
http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/media/weowebsite/2012/factsheets.pdf
http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/English.pdf
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/12-5
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-u.s.-oil-producer-saudi-arabia-iea-20121112,0,6181922.story
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/poll_most_republicans_believe_in_demonic_possession/
Clown Award: right-wing evangelical Christians
http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/11/11/noms-dangerous-export-of-hate-punishing-pro-equality-u-s-companies-in-countries-hostile-to-gays/
http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2012/11/this-man-is-idiot.html
Outrage of the Week: anti-independence day
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/another-lame-duck-session-horrorshow-the-first-lets-kill-all-the-regulators-bill.html
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/11/09/financial-regulation-advocates-fighting-bill-to-gut-regulatory-agencies/
http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Impact%20of%20the%20Independent%20Regulatory%20Analysis%20Act%20S_3468.pdf
Occupy Wall Street: Occupy Sandy and Rolling Jubilee
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/occupy-sandy-onetime-protesters-find-17685552#.UJ4Z04aNeSo
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/nyregion/anger-grows-at-the-red-cross-response-to-the-storm.html
http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/nov/08/occupy-sandy-hurricane-movement-reborn/
http://www.voanews.com/content/in-new-york-occupy-wall-street-becomes-occupy-sandy/1542192.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-leads-way-in-sandy-relief.html
http://strikedebt.org/
http://strikedebt.org/The-Debt-Resistors-Operations-Manual.pdf
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-articles/what-is-a-jubilee-year/article/111
http://rollingjubilee.org/
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-is-buying-and-paying-the-99s-debt.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/rolling-jubilee-occupy-wall-street_n_2117792.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/debtors-prison-legal-in-more-than-one-third-of-us-states_n_1107524.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/lisa-lindsay-breast-cancer-survivor-debtors-jail_n_1446391.html
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/13/388303/the-return-of-debtors-prisons-thousands-of-americans-jailed-for-not-paying-their-bills/
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-rolling-jubilee-works-2012-11
http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2012/11/rolling-jubilee-will-it-work
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