We will never have a genuine democracy until the upper house is reformed. In 1787, political compromise dictated that the Senate represent the States. In 2020, political justice demands that it represent the People.
One Person, One Vote
Roots of Trumpism - a series
I think it was Nebraska Sen. Roman Hruska who memorably told the Senate, during the aborted* attempt to appoint Harold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court, that "It has been held against this nominee that he is a lying sack of shit. Even if he is a lying sack of shit, there are a lot of judges and people and lawyers who are lying sacks of shit. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? And a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there." Or words to that effect.
*If you'll pardon the expression.
*If you'll pardon the expression.
Be afraid
Think of the Presidential Alert as a kind of Amber Alert. It warns that a sexual predator is on the loose in the West Wing.
Until this moment, Senators, I think we never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness.
So let's see if we have this straight.
The National Council of Churches opposes Brett Kavanagh. Countless Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders and organizations (not associated with fundamentalism) oppose Brett Kavanagh. The Human Rights Campaign opposes Brett Kavanaugh. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights opposes Brett Kavanaugh. The American Bar Association opposes Brett Kavanagh. The American Civil Liberties Union opposes Brett Kavanagh. The National Women’s Law Center opposes Brett Kavanaugh. Over 1000 law school professors oppose Brett Kavanagh. Hundreds of psychiatrists and psychologists oppose Brett Kavanagh. Every women's group in the country (not associated with fundamentalism) opposes Brett Kavanagh. A majority of Americans opposes Brett Kavanaugh.
Even so, the Senate Republicans think it's a fine idea to install him on the Supreme Court, there to remain until well after most of those who put him there are dead.
Repeal and replace
The National Anthem.
"The Star-Spangled Banner." Too martial.
"This Land Is Your Land" and "America the Beautiful." More uplifting and far easier to sing, although the latter may not be sufficiently secular.
It should have been Woody's song all along:
Rumpled but Right
“I just want to make clear that I send @SenSherrodBrown out of this house in dress shirts ironed with so much spray starch they stand on their own like tombstones on the carpet. Two hours later, reporters are calling him ‘rumpled.’" -- Connie Schultz, tweeting about on her husband’s attire.
Parenthetically, in a Democratic Party that had its priorities straight, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown would be at the top of the prospective POTUS list.
From the Self-Importance Desk
What a relief that Sen. Gillibrand has called for the withdrawal of the Kavanaugh nomination. Clearly, Sens. Feinstein, Hirono, Booker, Harris, et al, have not been up to the job. Everything's going to work out all right, though, now that Sen. Gillibrand has arrived to save the day.
Vote. But vote strategically.
Both major parties follow scripts leading up to elections. The GOP pitches prayer in the schools, criminalizing abortion and what amounts to racial cleansing. Never happens. The Democrats hawk social and economic justice (this year in the form of free education, Medicare for All and criminal justice reform). Never happens. Whatever was promised turns out to be "too hard," the other side just won't compromise. Whichever party wins, though, what does happen is this: endless war, corporate welfare and unimpeded transfer of public wealth into private hands.
Vote. Vote locally. Vote strategically. But, wherever possible, don't vote for corporate shills and the war machine. Change is a long, slow process. It's not going to happen in one election. Or two. Or probably ten. But it's not going to happen at all if we keep falling for false narratives.
There are plenty of Democrats to vote for, especially at the local level. But we need to be selective. The Democratic establishment apparently learned nothing from 2016. They may need to hear from you again. If you don't favor kleptocracy and militarism, then in races where the outcome will be the same, don't vote. Or vote Green or Peace & Freedom or Working Family or whatever other off-brand choice you have. Or write in yourself or Lebron James or Kshama Sawant or Jimmy Dore or Helen Keller or Stormy Daniels or the progressive who got outspent in the primary or anyone else you think will get across the point that you're not accepting business as usual or the lesser evil anymore.
Otherwise, change? Never happens.
Vote. Vote locally. Vote strategically. But, wherever possible, don't vote for corporate shills and the war machine. Change is a long, slow process. It's not going to happen in one election. Or two. Or probably ten. But it's not going to happen at all if we keep falling for false narratives.
There are plenty of Democrats to vote for, especially at the local level. But we need to be selective. The Democratic establishment apparently learned nothing from 2016. They may need to hear from you again. If you don't favor kleptocracy and militarism, then in races where the outcome will be the same, don't vote. Or vote Green or Peace & Freedom or Working Family or whatever other off-brand choice you have. Or write in yourself or Lebron James or Kshama Sawant or Jimmy Dore or Helen Keller or Stormy Daniels or the progressive who got outspent in the primary or anyone else you think will get across the point that you're not accepting business as usual or the lesser evil anymore.
Otherwise, change? Never happens.
DogGone
A couple of days ago, I'm in a coffee shop on Montana. You know the one. I'm having a scone and coffee near the door at a table next to that counter holding the cream and milks, sweeteners, condiments, straws and napkins. The stream of dogs is unrelenting, but what can you expect in a city that enforces only those laws that affect squeaky wheels.
The entitled have no second thoughts about turning others' protections to their benefit. Case in point: you could open a wildly successful store here selling nothing but counterfeit service-dog outfits.
So, just another day in paradise.
Then this happened, over the top even by Westside standards. A woman enters, wearing expensive workout clothes, apparently aspirational, with a small pooch that also looks like it has missed a few days at the doggie dojo. The woman drags her little darling over to the food-laden counter, grabs a handful of napkins, and proceeds to wipe the dog's ass. Then she reaches up and throws the toilet paper into the hole between the honey and the half and half.
There are good reasons for the regulations prohibiting animals, other than service animals, in places that stock and serve food: hygiene, allergies, disease, noise, bites, fights, the rights of other patrons among them. Service dogs are excepted because they are a necessary aid to people with certain disabilities. They are also well-trained: they don't bark, fight, climb on the furniture, or lick the tables (there is one local mutt that drags his ass around the floor every day while his "master" gets his order; I wonder what level of fecal matter Mythbusters would find on the Sugar in the Raw at that location).
The regulations are reasonable. They should be enforced.
Wanna know how scared Ted Cruz is?
“Searching for new wedge issue, Cruz says O’Rourke will ban barbecue” (Austin American-Statesman headline).
That's how scared Ted Cruz is.
Official campaign site for Beto O'Rourke, the 2018 Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas: Beto for Texas.
Whistling past the graveyard
So Andrew Cuomo, smug in the afterglow of his primary win, says the progressive "wave" is "not even a ripple."
But I have to ask, moving forward, do you want to be in the party of, say, Beto O'Rourke and Elizabeth Warren or the party of Andrew Cuomo?
'Cause it's not going to be both.
Senator Elizabeth Warren at Netroots Nation 2018
Sen. Warren tells her own story to show how radically government has abandoned its responsibility to help the poor and working class.
The next president of the United States will be a woman.
Elizabeth Warren or Nikki Haley.
Your choice.
This is what neglect of infrastructure looks like
‘It looked like Armageddon’: Gas explosions trigger deadly chaos in Massachusetts by Karen Weintraub, Frances Stead Sellers Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (Washington Post).
This morning, someone said to me...,
"If we can survive this stupid, ignorant, corrupt dictator-wannabe, we can survive anything." I'm not so sure. What if he was an intelligent, informed, personally ethical dictator-wannabe? Take away Donald Trump's creepiness, avarice and racism, teach him to read and write and hold a coherent thought, and you have Barack Obama, ruling by executive order, conducting endless wars because he can. We have stood by as representative legislative government has become enfeebled, fossilized, barely functional, nearly useless; watched as power has increasingly vested in our serial kings. Isn't there a significant (and probably growing) number of us that would be happy to bring the curtain down on political theater that offers no happy endings, to bring an end to kleptocracy and dysfunction? Aren't there more than few voters who would respond readily to someone who promised convincingly to make the trains run on time?
Noted
Bernie Sanders ran; Hillary Clinton moved left. Cynthia Nixon ran; Andrew Cuomo moved left.
It takes an existential threat to their power to make establishment Democrats do the right thing.
Good to know.
It should go without saying
It is unfair and counter-productive of society to dump the job of providing services to the homeless community on businesses, like coffee shops and gas stations, and public organizations, like libraries, that are ill-equipped and unprepared to handle them.
Fear (and Loathing)
Trump's lawyer told him, "Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit." Then he resigned.
The rest of the story:
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward.
Fear
"Woodward's book, detailing the inner workings of Trump's administration, is set to hit shelves Sept. 11. The White House has issued a blanket refutation of the book's claims, which it says are based on information from disgruntled ex-employees." Except, who has so many disgruntled ex-employees their gripes would fill a book?
What is patriotism?
A veteran asks Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke (who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz): Do you share my frustration when NFL players kneel during the anthem?
Recorded at the August 10, 2018 at Senate campaign town hall in Houston.
Why the U.S. Should Provide Universal Basic Income
America is the richest civilization in history. Why, then, are our living standards so low compared to those of other wealthy democracies? A universal basic income would help close the income inequality gap, eliminating poverty and increasing opportunity for all Americans.
David McReynolds 1929-2018
R.I.P.:
✓ David McReynolds: Peace Movement Titan Is Gone by Chuck Fager (A Friendly Letter).
✓ David McReynolds, socialist, photographer, and lifetime WRL member, passes at 88 by Ed Hedemann (War Resistors League).
✓ David McReynolds:Socialist Peacemaker by Paul Buhle (Nonviolent Activist).
✓ A socialist presidential candidate — no, not that one — looks back by Joseph Mulkerin (The Villager).
End: Less War
The Long War has dragged on for nearly two decades, with huge losses in lives and wealth inflicted on countries suffering our attention, but also at great cost to American citizens.
In Yemen alone, for example, since the beginning of the conflict there, more than 10,000 people have been killed and at least 40,000 wounded, mostly from air raids; the collateral deaths from damage to the infrastructure (hospitals, especially) and from "non-lethal" actions such as blockades and sanctions (from starvation, cholera, etc.) is immeasurable. This is just another illegal and immoral war racking up war crimes on our tab, crimes against humanity that have gone on far too long.
And yet there is no peace movement in the United States. Neither moral outrage nor the costs to the nation in lives, in quality of life and in reputation and influence has been enough to strike a spark of resistance.
What is wrong with us?
Must read: The War on Peace by Tino Rozzo (The Dissident).
A parody by a master, and a master parodied.
A take on the great Walt Kelly by the great Wally Wood in a Mad Magazine parody of Pogo from 1961.
The President of the United States hosts bikers at the White House
Donald J. Trump tries on his tough face:
These guys are perfect. Central Casting couldn't have done a better job.
Maybe if you never call a war a war, you never have to call peace peace.
North Korea wants a peace treaty before beginning denuclearization. South Korea wants a peace treaty, period. The U.S., which conducted the war in violation of the U.S. Constitution, is still resisting.
How the U.S. Helped Prevent North Korea and South Korea From Reaching Real Peace in the 1950s by Michael Pembroke (Time)
quote unquote
Man: "Well, baby, now we're poor again."
Woman: "No, we're BROKE again. We were already poor."
-- Overheard at Santa Fe Savers check-out.
Must read: War, war and more war
The War Party, comprised of nearly all Republicans and most Democrats, manipulated by the security-industrial state and the Pentagon, the craftiest lobbying operation inside the Beltway, must be stopped. Nothing can be fixed -- infrastructure, housing, health care, poverty, social services, the environment -- until military adventurism is brought to an end.
On one matter there can be no argument: The policies that sent these men and women abroad, with their emphasis on military action and their visions of reordering nations and cultures, have not succeeded. It is beyond honest dispute that the wars did not achieve what their organizers promised, no matter the party in power or the generals in command. Astonishingly expensive, strategically incoherent, sold by a shifting slate of senior officers and politicians and editorial-page hawks, the wars have continued in varied forms and under different rationales each and every year since passenger jets struck the World Trade Center in 2001. They continue today without an end in sight, reauthorized in Pentagon budgets almost as if distant war is a presumed government action.The rest of the story:
The Pentagon’s failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one another: War Without End by C.J.Chivers (New York Times).
Down-ticket
California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom has amassed a massive money pile since starting his campaign more than three years ago. His total is nearly five times that of Republican John Cox.
Newsom can't lose.
Why isn't that dough being passed along to Democrats in tight congressional races?
Ron Dellums, R.I.P.
A Real News interview with Robert Scheer, editor of Truthdig, discussing Congressman Ron Dellums, who died recently of cancer. He was elected in 1971 to represent California's 13th District and was an unrelenting warrior for peace and civil rights. He launched Vietnam war crimes investigations, stood with the Black Panthers, and he was singled out by Nelson Mandela as being integral in the US for helping to end apartheid.
"Denialism...
"...is more than just another manifestation of the humdrum intricacies of our deceptions and self-deceptions. It represents the transformation of the everyday practice of denial into a whole new way of seeing the world and – most important – a collective accomplishment. Denial is furtive and routine; denialism is combative and extraordinary. Denial hides from the truth, denialism builds a new and better truth."
The rest of the story:
From vaccines to climate change to genocide, a new age of denialism is upon us. Why have we failed to understand it? Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth by Keith Kahn-Harris (The Guadian)
The rest of the story:
From vaccines to climate change to genocide, a new age of denialism is upon us. Why have we failed to understand it? Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth by Keith Kahn-Harris (The Guadian)
Talk about mixed messages
"Do you have a story to share about Santa Monica, California?" asks an ad promoting tourism to Santa Monica. "Perhaps it’s about your first visit or something memorable you experienced. Submit it for a chance to win an electric bike."
Motorized vehicles are prohibited on the municipal bike path, but
Here's what the City's code says:
"3.12.550 Bike-path and beach promenade. "(a) It shall be unlawful to ride a bicycle or to coast in any vehicle upon the Beach Promenade; bicycle riding shall be permitted along the beach bike-path, within the City limits and in those areas where the Promenade constitutes a portion of the bikeway and are otherwise permitted by sign. All persons riding bicycles on the bike-path shall comply with all lawful signs and directional markings, including, but not limited to, painted, directional arrows, bike-path route boundaries, and signs designating permissible travel lanes. "(b) It shall be unlawful to operate a pedicab upon the beach bike-path.The City, despite its recent move against Bird scooters and their ilk, is seriously deficient in its maintenance of the bike path. Segways, Vespas, etc., are routine. Signage is confusing when it isn't wrong, misleading or absent. No effort whatsoever is made to control pedestrians and dogs. And pedicabs routinely troll for customers along the bike path, blocking traffic when people get on and off.
"3.12.560 Prohibited vehicles. "In the area where bicycle riding is permitted by Section 3.12.550, no vehicle of any type shall be permitted except unicycles, bicycles, bicycles with training wheels, wheelchairs, and single-person tricycles operated by a person eighteen years of age or older."
It's a tribute to the City's pr flacks that it has a reputation as pro-bicycle and pro-pedestrian.
Something to think about.
According to the National Education Association, the average salary of teachers in U.S. public schools has declined by 4% since 2008. At the same time, according the the National Center for Education Statistics, 94% of teachers spend their own money on school supplies, at an average per teacher of $479 per school year.
We'll always have Florida.
Or not.
"Forget sharks; hookworms are lurking at the beach. Sharks will tear open your flesh. Jellyfish will double you over in pain. And now, another villain has joined the list of threats at the beach. Beware of hookworms lurking in the sand. A teenager from Memphis was attacked by hookworms after his friends buried him in the sand at Pompano Beach, his mother says." -- Florida Sun Sentinel
"Forget sharks; hookworms are lurking at the beach. Sharks will tear open your flesh. Jellyfish will double you over in pain. And now, another villain has joined the list of threats at the beach. Beware of hookworms lurking in the sand. A teenager from Memphis was attacked by hookworms after his friends buried him in the sand at Pompano Beach, his mother says." -- Florida Sun Sentinel
Should we let go of Roe?
With Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court short-circuited the political debate that we needed to have about abortion if the issue was ever to be successfully terminated. It appears that the court is about to short-circuit debate again, with untold harm befalling countless women and families. But
Required reading:
✓ "How can someone who calls herself pro-choice oppose Roe v. Wade? Let me count the ways: Let Roe Go by Megan McArdle (Washington Post).
Extra credit:
✓ Europeans may have stricter abortion laws, but Americans have less abortion access: Abortion Is Different in Europe Because Religion Is Different in Europe by Amanda Marcotte (Slate).
✓ Why Is the US Still Hung Up on the Abortion Debate? A Bioethics Perspective by George Dvorsky (io9).
✓ Leo Varadkar vows legal terminations by end of year after huge vote for change: Ireland votes by landslide to legalise abortion (Guardian).
✓ A proposed law to ban abortion outright has sent thousands of Poles onto the streets, coat hangers held aloft and drawn on posters -- a long-standing symbol of dangerous self-induced or back-alley abortions: 'Coat Hanger Rebellion' Grips Poland by Cassandra Vinograd and Eva Gallica (NBC News)
Without Diana Ross, The Supremes couldn't cut it
But the Supremes without Anthony Kennedy won't change a whit. So he hit a few left notes right: he was no moderate.
Three Blue Dog Democrats, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, met with Donald Trump at the White House last week, along with GOP Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, and judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley, to discuss the president's plans to pack the Supreme Court with reactionary ideologues.
So far they claim to be in wait-and-see mode, all having raised doubts about whether they would vote for a nominee with a record of opposition to Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care Act.
But talk is cheap: Donnelly, Manchin and Heitkamp all crossed the aisle last year to support Rightist blowhard now-Justice Neil Gorsuch, as terrible an appointment as anyone Trump is likely to unearth.
The Democrats have the power to shut down the Senate until they get a satisfactory compromise nominee or the election happens, whichever comes first. Or, for that matter, to achieve any other goal they're serious about (DACA, say).
For Democrats, unfortunately, being able to do something and doing something are two very different matters.
Or: they could hold out for changes to the terms of judges. The primary argument for lifetime appointments, judicial independence, a horse that escaped from the barn years ago, is as well served by single terms longer than a president's two. If justices were limited to 12-year appointments, say, they would still be independent, but you would no longer have the incumbent party trying to control the judiciary decades after it has left office.
An interesting sidebar is what should happen to the terms of justices currently ensconced on the court that exceed the new limit, especially since removing them simultaneously would require also that several new judges be appointed at once. But in politics everything is negotiable. There is nothing impractical in working out a formula to dispose of the longest-serving justices (who are Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer and Alito, the latter, conveniently, having been there 12 years) if their removal supported the intention of the reform.
With the promise of more turnover, any single appointment would be less fraught. The Democrats would lose the opportunity to influence this court seat, but by forcing a change to termed justices they might make future appointments less contentious for being less momentous.
Extra credit:
✓ If Democrats refuse to participate in roll call votes, the Senate will come to a halt for lack of a quorum: How Democrats can shut down the Senate by Gregory Koger (Vox/Mischiefs of Faction).
✓ Quorum-breaking can be very disruptive but does not provide a long-term option for blocking a Supreme Court nomination: How Democrats can shut down the Senate, part II by Gregory Koger (Vox/Mischiefs of Faction).
✓ How can someone who calls herself pro-choice oppose Roe v. Wade? Let me count the ways: Let Roe go by Megan McArdle (Washington Post).
✓ “Massive numbers of women resisted the law” -- a historian on life before Roe: The secret lives of women before Roe v. Wade by Rickie Solinger (Vox).
✓ A testy exchange with Dianne Feinstein helped make a former Notre Dame law professor a favorite of conservatives: How Amy Coney Barrett vaulted onto Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist by Eliana Johnson (Politico).
✓ Humans are living longer. That means judges are serving longer, too: It’s Time to Retire Lifetime Appointments for Supreme Court Justices by Adrienne LaFrance (Slate).
Three Blue Dog Democrats, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, met with Donald Trump at the White House last week, along with GOP Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, and judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley, to discuss the president's plans to pack the Supreme Court with reactionary ideologues.
So far they claim to be in wait-and-see mode, all having raised doubts about whether they would vote for a nominee with a record of opposition to Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care Act.
But talk is cheap: Donnelly, Manchin and Heitkamp all crossed the aisle last year to support Rightist blowhard now-Justice Neil Gorsuch, as terrible an appointment as anyone Trump is likely to unearth.
The Democrats have the power to shut down the Senate until they get a satisfactory compromise nominee or the election happens, whichever comes first. Or, for that matter, to achieve any other goal they're serious about (DACA, say).
For Democrats, unfortunately, being able to do something and doing something are two very different matters.
Or: they could hold out for changes to the terms of judges. The primary argument for lifetime appointments, judicial independence, a horse that escaped from the barn years ago, is as well served by single terms longer than a president's two. If justices were limited to 12-year appointments, say, they would still be independent, but you would no longer have the incumbent party trying to control the judiciary decades after it has left office.
An interesting sidebar is what should happen to the terms of justices currently ensconced on the court that exceed the new limit, especially since removing them simultaneously would require also that several new judges be appointed at once. But in politics everything is negotiable. There is nothing impractical in working out a formula to dispose of the longest-serving justices (who are Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer and Alito, the latter, conveniently, having been there 12 years) if their removal supported the intention of the reform.
With the promise of more turnover, any single appointment would be less fraught. The Democrats would lose the opportunity to influence this court seat, but by forcing a change to termed justices they might make future appointments less contentious for being less momentous.
Extra credit:
✓ If Democrats refuse to participate in roll call votes, the Senate will come to a halt for lack of a quorum: How Democrats can shut down the Senate by Gregory Koger (Vox/Mischiefs of Faction).
✓ Quorum-breaking can be very disruptive but does not provide a long-term option for blocking a Supreme Court nomination: How Democrats can shut down the Senate, part II by Gregory Koger (Vox/Mischiefs of Faction).
✓ How can someone who calls herself pro-choice oppose Roe v. Wade? Let me count the ways: Let Roe go by Megan McArdle (Washington Post).
✓ “Massive numbers of women resisted the law” -- a historian on life before Roe: The secret lives of women before Roe v. Wade by Rickie Solinger (Vox).
✓ A testy exchange with Dianne Feinstein helped make a former Notre Dame law professor a favorite of conservatives: How Amy Coney Barrett vaulted onto Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist by Eliana Johnson (Politico).
✓ Humans are living longer. That means judges are serving longer, too: It’s Time to Retire Lifetime Appointments for Supreme Court Justices by Adrienne LaFrance (Slate).
Øبيبتي ، بيبي ، تقود سيارتي.
Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash and Syrian singer Nano Raies produced this rendition of the Beatles’ 1965 song “Drive My Car” to celebrate of the lifting of the Saudi women’s driving ban. Alatrash arranged the piece, arabizing it both lyrically and vocally, while Raies provided the vocal. ref
Aspirational thought o' the day
When Andrés Manuel López Obrador presides in Mexico, Jeremy Corbyn is British prime minister, and Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren is president of the United States, what a better world this will be.
Youth is irrepressible
Palestinian youth performing the Palestinian Dabkeh on the border under the close watch of Israeli snipers.
Fun Fact
"The Teddy Bear was invented in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. On a bear hunting trip in Mississippi, Roosevelt's hunting party cornered a Louisiana black bear, then tied the bear to a willow tree and suggested that the President shoot it. Viewing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused to kill the bear. Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman heard the story and drew a cartoon celebrating the President’s decision. A Brooklyn candy shop owner by the name of Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and decided to create a stuffed toy bear and dedicate it to the president who refused to shoot a bear. He called it Teddy's Bear and children have been enjoying them ever since." -- doi.gov
Central America: So far from God...
...so near to the United States.
How much of the refugee crisis in the Americas is caused by our own actions?
And at least one more, in Venezuela, almost certain soon to come.
"The four countries discussed in this report [see, below], Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, share a history as well as contemporary social and economic characteristics. The Spanish colonial period, which lasted from the early sixteenth century until 1821, laid certain institutional foundations whose legacies are still in place. Two legacies stand out: concentration of land in the hands of a small powerful elite and the exploitation of the indigenous labour force. The economies of all four countries are dominated by a handful of extremely rich families while the overwhelming majority is socially marginalized, economically and politically excluded, and suffers the lacerating effects of poverty, racism and discrimination. Moreover, the bloody internal conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s produced large-scale displacement, economic hardship, and debilitating fear. The recent surge of everyday violence rips into the most vulnerable, but society as a whole suffers from the instability resulting from the failure to reign in criminal activity.
"The new gang-related violence can be attributed to several factors including decades of internal wars and impunity, extensive displacement to urban areas, the absence of social and economic programmes to integrate the youth, the migration to the United States, and the over all social exclusion of a large proportion of the population. The continuation of death squad violence and the expansion of the drug trade is a reflection of the absence of the rule of law as well as the continued links between these clandestine organizations and the military and other power elites.
"The harsh response to the variety of gang activities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras has proved ineffective. While the problems are real, the government and the press find it more expedient to target the gangs and street children for virtually all the rampant violence in the society. In response, many citizens support draconian anti-gang laws and self-help “social cleansing” practices. In the process, the more powerful clandestine organized crime units tend to be overlooked, in part because of the links, influence and control they exercise at various institutional levels in the governments. Nicaragua, while the poorest country in Central America, has fewer gangs and less violence and its government’s alternative approach to rehabilitate and integrate gang members into society has been much more successful.
"Violence against women is an extremely serious problem. These crimes are seldom solved or punished, creating further fear and vulnerability among women. Crimes against homosexuals are less identified and are also likely under-reported. Politically motivated violence against party workers, human rights defenders, and professionals dedicated to investigating and bringing to justice those responsible for these crimes, especially in Guatemala, has seen an alarming rise. The judicial system and the police have proved largely to be ineffective. The serious instability and danger resulting from violence and the failure of national protection leads to displacement and migration out of the country, especially to the United States. These undocumented migrants live in limbo with the increasing threat of deportation back to the country they fled, often in fear for their lives."
From Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua): Patterns of Human Rights Violations (pdf) by Beatriz Manz (University of California, Berkeley) commissioned by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Status Determination and Protection Information Section (DIPS) (Writenet Independent Analysis).
Writenet is a network of researchers and writers on human rights, forced migration, ethnic and political conflict.
See image larger.
(Resource: GreenNet is not-for-profit collective, established in 1985, providing internet services, web design and hosting to supporters of peace, the environment and human rights.)
How much of the refugee crisis in the Americas is caused by our own actions?
"The four countries discussed in this report [see, below], Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, share a history as well as contemporary social and economic characteristics. The Spanish colonial period, which lasted from the early sixteenth century until 1821, laid certain institutional foundations whose legacies are still in place. Two legacies stand out: concentration of land in the hands of a small powerful elite and the exploitation of the indigenous labour force. The economies of all four countries are dominated by a handful of extremely rich families while the overwhelming majority is socially marginalized, economically and politically excluded, and suffers the lacerating effects of poverty, racism and discrimination. Moreover, the bloody internal conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s produced large-scale displacement, economic hardship, and debilitating fear. The recent surge of everyday violence rips into the most vulnerable, but society as a whole suffers from the instability resulting from the failure to reign in criminal activity.
"The new gang-related violence can be attributed to several factors including decades of internal wars and impunity, extensive displacement to urban areas, the absence of social and economic programmes to integrate the youth, the migration to the United States, and the over all social exclusion of a large proportion of the population. The continuation of death squad violence and the expansion of the drug trade is a reflection of the absence of the rule of law as well as the continued links between these clandestine organizations and the military and other power elites.
"The harsh response to the variety of gang activities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras has proved ineffective. While the problems are real, the government and the press find it more expedient to target the gangs and street children for virtually all the rampant violence in the society. In response, many citizens support draconian anti-gang laws and self-help “social cleansing” practices. In the process, the more powerful clandestine organized crime units tend to be overlooked, in part because of the links, influence and control they exercise at various institutional levels in the governments. Nicaragua, while the poorest country in Central America, has fewer gangs and less violence and its government’s alternative approach to rehabilitate and integrate gang members into society has been much more successful.
"Violence against women is an extremely serious problem. These crimes are seldom solved or punished, creating further fear and vulnerability among women. Crimes against homosexuals are less identified and are also likely under-reported. Politically motivated violence against party workers, human rights defenders, and professionals dedicated to investigating and bringing to justice those responsible for these crimes, especially in Guatemala, has seen an alarming rise. The judicial system and the police have proved largely to be ineffective. The serious instability and danger resulting from violence and the failure of national protection leads to displacement and migration out of the country, especially to the United States. These undocumented migrants live in limbo with the increasing threat of deportation back to the country they fled, often in fear for their lives."
From Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua): Patterns of Human Rights Violations (pdf) by Beatriz Manz (University of California, Berkeley) commissioned by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Status Determination and Protection Information Section (DIPS) (Writenet Independent Analysis).
Writenet is a network of researchers and writers on human rights, forced migration, ethnic and political conflict.
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(Resource: GreenNet is not-for-profit collective, established in 1985, providing internet services, web design and hosting to supporters of peace, the environment and human rights.)
quote unquote: Molly Ivins
I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag. -- Molly Ivins
It's sad, when you stop to think about it.
Here we are.
In a revolutionary moment.
And we have no revolutionaries.
It's good to be the king...
Having one, less so.
The Founders intended the legislature to be preeminent, with the President largely an administrator (and the Supreme Court a referee), but over time Congress has ceded far too many of its responsibilities and far too much of its power to the executive, until we have reached the point where what we have is a sort of serial monarch, one chosen -- because of Citizens United and other electoral corruptions -- by the nobles, like a Polish King. And although we still have a more or less (mostly less) functioning legislature, our king has vastly more power than any constitutional monarch among his contemporaries.
How we make our way back to truly representative democracy is the most central political question of our times.
The Founders intended the legislature to be preeminent, with the President largely an administrator (and the Supreme Court a referee), but over time Congress has ceded far too many of its responsibilities and far too much of its power to the executive, until we have reached the point where what we have is a sort of serial monarch, one chosen -- because of Citizens United and other electoral corruptions -- by the nobles, like a Polish King. And although we still have a more or less (mostly less) functioning legislature, our king has vastly more power than any constitutional monarch among his contemporaries.
How we make our way back to truly representative democracy is the most central political question of our times.
We have met the enemy and he is us (with apologies to Walt Kelly)
Ironically, given our long and sordid history of meddling in the domestic affairs of other nations, regime change in the U.S. is now a reasonable foreign policy goal for our former allies.
Party poopers
“Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.” -- Alexander Hamilton, 1787While at present political parties are practical mechanisms for the expression of political intentions, for average citizens allegiance to party -- partisanship -- is self-defeating.
It was the existence of independent concentrations of power and influence, especially labor unions, national associations (such as the NAACP) and, on the local level, social clubs, that gave ordinary people muscle in the long struggle for economic and social justice.
Restoring such organizations must be part of any long-term reform of our democracy.
“If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” -- Thomas Jefferson, 1789
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