Helen Keller on the $10

Part of the reason for redesigning our paper currency is to make it accessible to people with difficulty seeing (also, to make it harder to counterfeit). We are one of only two nations whose bills are the same size no matter what the denomination; most countries also vary the colors to make bills more detectable to people who are sight-impaired but not totally blind.

The next bill due for a redo is the $10, and the Treasury has announced that it intends to replace the current occupant, Alexander Hamilton, with a woman.

That being the case, although the women on the front page of today's New York Times -- Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks -- are all admirable, it seems to me that there is one stand-out candidate: Helen Keller (1880–1968).

Struck totally deaf and blind by a childhood illness when she was 19 months old, before she'd learned to speak, she overcame the adversity of being unable hear or see anything to become one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, an international champion for the disabled, a feminist, a socialist, a teacher and lecturer, a journalist, the first deaf-blind person to earn a BA, and a co-founder of the ACLU.

Parenthetically, it's not too late to erase autocratic, slave-trading, Indian-relocating, populist Andrew Jackson from our currency, instead of Hamilton who, as founder of the nation's financial system (not to mention a far better human being), has a more direct connection to our currency.

The rest of the story:
A Woman on the $10 Bill, and Everyone Has 2 Cents to Put In by Jackie Calmes (New York Times).

Reading list:
What Helen Keller Saw: The making of a writer by Cynthia Ozick (The New Yorker).

Three Days to See by Hellen Keller (1933; The Atlantic Monthly).

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (Amazon).

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Amazon).

Extra credit:
The Water Scene and the Breakfast Scene from The Miracle Worker (Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke; directed by Arthur Penn; written by William Gibson)(YouTube).
Buy The Miracle Worker (Amazon).

Helen Keller Speaks Out (YouTube)

Hamilton - Original Broadway Cast Recording: book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer Lin Manuel Miranda, who also plays the title role; directed by Thomas Kail; choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler; music direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. The show was inspired by Chernow's biography (Amazon).

Just Curious #27,632

So you've tweeted, "Bernie Sanders is a do-nothing failure."

Mayor. Member of the House of Representatives. U.S. Senator.

What have you done lately? Just curious.

The nation’s largest private-sector employer is told to obey the law

A federal administrative law judge has ordered

Wal-Mart to offer 16 former workers their previous jobs and to make them "whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits suffered as a result of the discrimination against them." The company must also hold meetings in more than two dozen stores to inform workers of their rights to organize under U.S. labor law.

The rest of the story:
Wal-Mart strikes lawful, must reinstate workers: NLRB judge by Nathan Layne (Reuters).

Further reading:
How Walmart Keeps an Eye on Its Massive Workforce: The retail giant is always watching by Susan Berfield (Bloomberg Businessweek).

Life as a Wal-Mart worker -- and how its employees are monitored at all times: America’s real-life dystopia: Wal-Mart is straight out of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley by Aaron R. Hanlon (Salon).

“We are not anti-union; we are pro-associate”: A Manager's Toolbox To Remaining Union Free ("CONFIDENTIAL" Wal-Mart document) (source: ReclaimDemocracy.org).

The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman (Amazon). "[T]he story of Wal-Mart is really the story of the transformation of the American economy over the past 20 years." Fishman is "careful to present the consumer benefits of Wal-Mart's staggering growth and to place Wal-Mart in the larger context of globalization and the rise of mega-corporations. But he also presents the case against Wal-Mart in arresting detail, and his carefully balanced approach only makes the downside of Wal-Mart's market dominance more vivid." -- Publisher's Weekly

The discount giant is closing 269 stores worldwide—and not even bothering to build stores it promised in poor neighborhoods: Can Cities Afford to Trust Walmart? by Kriston Capps (CityLab)

Extra credit:
This video is shown to all "associates" at on-boarding: it's imperative that everyone working for Wal-Mart understands that s/he is "better off" without a union.


The parody t-shirt at the top of this post and other merchandise is available from Reclaim Democracy!: "Reclaim Democracy! is dedicated to restoring democratic authority over corporations, reviving grassroots democracy, and establishing appropriate limits on corporate influence. We work for systemic change, instead of reacting to corporate agendas."

On the Democratic candidates and the credibility gap

"Having learned from 2008, she's got the best ground operation in the history of Iowa caucuses that still may rescue her there. But she's sinking rapidly against a 73-year-old political maverick who is still just introducing himself to the American people."

The question is: Why is that so?

The rest of the story:
As Panic Grips Clinton Campaign, The Real Question: What's Wrong with Hillary? by Robert Borosage (Common Dreams)

"The Best, uh, Person"

Is it too late to pitch a remake, no, I'm sorry, a re-imagination of Frank Schaffner's great movie The Best Man -- screenplay by Gore Vidal, starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson -- in time for this year's election? In the 1964 film, as IMDb puts it, "[t]he two front runners for their party's Presidential nomination, one principled and the other ruthless, vie for the ex-President's endorsement." Actually, the story's a lot more complicated and interesting than that, including the presence in the race of one Gov. John Merwin, a being so spectral even the actor who played him (William R. Ebersol) (or is it Eberson?) has vanished into the mists of time.

In the new version, the front runner, a seasoned center-right politician (Meryl Streep), is challenged from her left by an idealistic, small-state U.S. Senator (Larry David, because Sam Elliott or Tom Selleck wouldn't be believable). The race has its ups and downs -- shifting poll numbers, primaries won and lost, petty scandals, social-media hits and misses, staff screw-ups, family embarrassments, yada yada, but as we open act three, the major candidates arrive at the convention unexpectedly neck and neck.

The President (Will Smith), busy with drone targets and blueprints for his presidential library and frankly not really very interested, dithers until the day of the vote, then makes a brilliant address to convention delegates that leaves the decision up to them. The surging enthusiasm of the challengers' supporters seems to be tipping the balance his way.

The former front runner, sensing the tide has turned against her, realizing she must concede, is unable to forgive the competitor who has exposed her feet of clay. In the final moment, she throws her delegates to the third candidate in the race, the chimerical governor (Tim Daly) who is last seen for a heart-stopping ten seconds -- the mood: a new day? a perilous future? the loneliness of power? "Happy Days Are Here Again"? "Gonna Fly Now"? a lot is going to depend on the soundtrack here -- on an escalator to the convention floor to accept the nomination.

Reading list:
Eleven populist points about the Bernie blizzard: Berserk Clinton Bigwigs Launch Nixonian Attack Against Surging Sanders by Brent Budowsky (Observer)

Further viewing:
Theater Talk: Playwright Gore Vidal on "The Best Man" (YouTube).

Homework:
Buy The Best Man by Gore Vidal, directed by Franklin Schaffner, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson (Amazon).

Old Man Trump

You may know that Woody Guthrie despised Donald Trump's father for his racist real estate practices and wrote bitterly about them in some unpublished work.

Before he lived in a Trump-owned apartment in Brooklyn, however, Guthrie spent many years between the wars in Los Angeles. He wrote songs about those whose voices too often went unheard: the working people, the Dust Bowl refugees, the poor, the homeless, and the people of Skid Row.

The rest of the story:
Woody Guthrie and Skid Row in Los Angeles by Darryl Holter (KCET)

The New New Deal

"Sanders' populist surge naturally intrigues a wide range of free-thinking, truth-seeking voters, but we are being warned by the Democratic hierarchy that the only way to ward off the Halloween horror of a Donald Trump-Ted Cruz presidency is to set aside our populist idealism this year and stick with Barack Obama-style, don't-rock-the-corporate-boat liberalism offering small-step reforms. That's not exactly a turn-on for the majority of people fed up with business-as-usual politics — which is why so many Americans are hitching their populist hopes to Sanders' people-powered movement."

The rest of the story:
Something Is Happening by Jim Hightower (Common Dreams)

This was fun for a while

"What [the liberal establishment] argument really amounts to is an argument that Democratic Party politicians and the operatives who run their campaigns would be uncomfortable with talking openly about socialism because that would alienate the corporate interests they have cozied up to in order to win elections."

The rest of the story:
Liberals No Longer Amused by Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Campaign by Kevin Gosztola (Common Dreams)

Resource

From the early hours of the morning until late in the evening, politicians are breaking bread and sipping cocktails with donors. Political Party Time* lets you know who’s fundraising with whom, and where.

*Political Party Time is a project of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all.

Flushing the PACs is not enough

We need to look no further than the current political dysfunction in the U.S. to see that without equality democracy is not viable.

But the problem with the effort to place a limit on campaign spending by moneyed interests is that it doesn't take us nearly far enough toward restoring equality of access to our political system. The 1% is buying power by stuffing dollars into PACs, yes; but wealth also acquires power in many other ways, direct, through bribes (contributions to individual campaigns, padded honorariums for speeches, make-work consultancies, donations to pet foundations, etc.) and indirect, through influential fronts (funding think tanks, academic studies, laboratory research, academic chairs, and so on), corporate advertising, and control of the mainstream media.

By itself, overturning Citizens United will not check the influence of money on politics.

In the past, political organizing helped the majority to defend its interests, but organizing is a long and difficult process, and in the last 40 years many of the mechanisms that were depended on to generate, accumulate and deploy the power of communities have either atrophied or been systematically destroyed (labor unions, to take one example). Somehow we must restore organizing to its central place in the political landscape if the many are ever again effectively to counter the power of the few.

The foremost reason to support Sen. Sanders for president is that he is the only major candidate in the race who recognizes that political inequality and economic injustice are major obstacles to further progress for this nation. Win or lose, Sen. Sanders' campaign, with its millions of donors and its fired-up activists, could be the beginning of a new era of people power.

Reading list:
Forty-three percent of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers self-identify as socialist -- to be very clear, the question is not whether they would vote for a socialist or sympathize with socialism; it's whether they consider themselves socialist -- more, actually, than the number who identify themselves as capitalist (38 %). This number proves Bernie Sanders can win Iowa by Aaron Blake (The Washington Post).

Extra credit:

via GIPHY

The Bernie Beat Goes On

In 2008, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign was moved to share this picture of young Barack Obama with the voting public.

In 1987, while serving as Burlington’s mayor, Bernie Sanders recorded an album of folk classics for the defunct BurlingTown Recordings label. Vermont's Seven Days found it in an archive search for Bernie Beat, its digital guide to Sanders' colorful political career. Sen. Sanders better watch out; if the Clinton campaign decides to go after the folk music vote, you can bet this will be everywhere: Sanders sings The Banks Are Made of Marble, and it ain't pretty.

The leaders of both parties are underestimating Bernie Sanders

Now that the worried Clinton campaign has turned its guns on a surging Bernie Sanders, Clinton's supporters have begun to express concern that the Vermont senator will be especially vulnerable to attacks from the right (so vulnerable, in fact, that the Clinton campaign itself is using them).

What the Republicans will do, of course, is try to slime the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she is.

Barack Obama, who gave his enemies nothing to work with beyond the color of his skin, was vilified as an alien, Muslim, Socialist Pawn of Wall Street, and tyrant -- a weak one at that, but they rarely bothered to question his ethics, because no one would believe that he was personally corrupt. In Sanders' case, too, they have little to work with, now that it has become apparent that "socialism" is no longer frightening the horses, although the GOP will probably attempt to have the voters take notice of his age, as one Clinton surrogate is already trying to do, and his ethnicity.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is the best Democratic opponent you could wish for, if your only hope of winning is a smear campaign.

Reading list:
Democrats can't hold the White House forever. Losing in 2016 might make more strategic sense than losing in 2020. Fine, give the GOP four years: The liberal case for either Bernie Sanders, or electing a Republican president by Walker Bragman (Salon).

What kind of experience does Bernie Sanders have? Let's take a look. Bernie Gets It Done: Sanders' Record of Pushing Through Major Reforms Will Surprise You by Zaid Jilani (AlterNet).

Want specifics?: Bernie Sanders Releases Details on Health Plan That Would Raise Taxes but, He Argues, Save on Costs by Yamiche Alcindor and Alan Rappeport (The New York Times).

The Clinton camp is lambasting Bernie Sanders' health care plan, but its critique is blatantly dishonest. Clinton's Health Care Attack Makes No Sense by Pat Garofalo (U.S.News).

Extra credit:
Rant o' the Day: How the Democratic Establishment Manipulates Us by JosephK74 (Daily Kos).

quote unquote: James Madison on war

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison

(Political Observations (1795-04-20); also in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (1865), Vol. IV, p. 491.)

Robert Reich: Six Responses to Bernie Skeptics

1. “He’d never beat Trump or Cruz in a general election.”

Wrong. According to the latest polls, Bernie is the strongest Democratic candidate in the general election, defeating both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in hypothetical matchups. (The latest Real Clear Politics averages of all polls shows Bernie beating Trump by a larger margin than Hillary beats Trump, and Bernie beating Cruz while Hillary loses to Cruz.)

2. “He couldn’t get any of his ideas implemented because Congress would reject them.”

If both house of Congress remain in Republican hands, no Democrat will be able to get much legislation through Congress, and will have to rely instead on executive orders and regulations. But there’s a higher likelihood of kicking Republicans out if Bernie’s “political revolution” continues to surge around America, bringing with it millions of young people and other voters, and keeping them politically engaged.

3. “America would never elect a socialist.”

P-l-e-a-s-e. America’s most successful and beloved government programs are social insurance – Social Security and Medicare. A highway is a shared social expenditure, as is the military and public parks and schools. The problem is we now have excessive socialism for the rich (bailouts of Wall Street, subsidies for Big Ag and Big Pharma, monopolization by cable companies and giant health insurers, giant tax-deductible CEO pay packages) – all of which Bernie wants to end or prevent.

4. “His single-payer healthcare proposal would cost so much it would require raising taxes on the middle class.”

This is a duplicitous argument. Single-payer systems in other rich nations have proven cheaper than private for-profit health insurers because they don’t spend huge sums on advertising, marketing, executive pay, and billing. So even if the Sanders single-payer plan did require some higher taxes, Americans would come out way ahead because they’d save far more than that on health insurance.

5. “His plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules.”

Baloney. Three-quarters of college students today already attend public universities financed largely by state governments, and they’re not run by government rules. The real problem is too many young people still can’t afford a college education. The move toward free public higher education that began in the 1950s with the G.I. Bill and extended into the 1960s came to an abrupt stop in the 1980s. We must restart it.

6. “He’s too old.”

Untrue. He’s in great health. Have you seen how agile and forceful he is as he campaigns around the country? These days, 70s are the new 60s. (He’s younger than four of the nine Supreme Court justices.) In any event, the issue isn't age; it's having the right values. FDR was paralyzed and JFK had Crohn's disease, but they were great presidents because they fought adamantly for social and economic justice.

What do you think?

Six Responses to Bernie Skeptics by Robert Reich (RobertReich.org)

Here's hoping.

Beyond economic justice and affordable universal health care and the rest, the most compelling reason to vote for Bernie Sanders is hope, hope born of the belief that more good will rise from people's dreams and aspirations than can ever come from cold-hearted electoral calculation.

Essay question

Compare the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the Great Society with the records and policy proposals of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders: Who's the "real" Democrat? Discuss.

At the flicks

"The movie shows why Bernie Sanders’s plan to break up the biggest banks and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act (separating investment from commercial banking) is necessary – and why Hillary Clinton’s more modest plan is inadequate." — Robert Reich
The rest of the story:
'The Big Short' and Bernie Sanders' Plan to Bust Up Wall Street by Robert Reich (TruthDig)

If the U.S. was to take in its fair share of Syrian refugees, say something proportional to Germany's 300,000, we would be helping not only the particular families who came to us but also all our European friends and allies.

Fish Story

I'd bet the word I use most often in political discussions is "infrastructure." Along with education, it was infrastructure that gave us our biggest advantage over economic rivals in the 20th century. Natural resources are abundant in North America, of course, but it was government infrastructure spending in the form of railroads, electric grids, highways, port facilities, and so on (and a workforce trained and educated in publicly financed schools) that enabled us to convert resources into wealth. Forty years of feckless leadership has squandered this advantage; a succession of Democratic and Republican regimes has presided over the transfer of public wealth into private hands, leaving virtually nothing to spend on the commons.

The penalty for allowing our government to devolve into kleptocracy is coming due, however.

Take water as an example. Even though it is more important to life than any other factor, we treat it with about as much consciousness as goldfish in a bowl. Even now, with two-thirds of the country in severe drought, with aquifers, lakes, reservoirs and rivers drying up -- even the Mississippi is close to being unnavigable for lack of water -- we routinely waste unconscionable quantities of H2O. And the crumbling infrastructure is making a bad situation worse. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, we "lose" 1.7 trillion gallons of water each year -- enough to supply 68 million people -- to aging, leaky pipes (650 water mains burst on the average day). As the population grows and the supply of water declines, we will be forced to make changes in everything from agriculture to personal hygiene. And security planners say international tensions caused by water disputes will be a further burden on our ability to be the World's Policeman. Upgrading our water infrastructure will cost a bundle, at least $1 trillion, probably a lot more, but the costs of not doing anything -- in disease, productivity, unrest, and so on, are sure to be far greater. If we fail to act, and access to clean water dries up, we won't last much longer than goldfish flopping next to a broken bowl.

Like all our infrastructure problems, we have to resources to set this right, but doing so would require two seemingly impossible changes in our politics: we would need to raise taxes significantly and we would have to reorient our national priorities away from militarism and corporate welfare and toward spending for the common good. Neither of these outcomes is possible unless there is a radical updating of our political system to make it more democratic.

Constitution 2.0 is long past due.

Bike Way or the Highway

The only proposal I've seen for the Lincoln Blvd redesign (I hope there are others) has no bike lane, isolated or not.

One mainstay of anti-bike arguments holds that converting general road space into a bike lane is bad for traffic. But location after location proves this isn't true.

A better plan

New York City recently installed bike lanes on Columbus and Eighth avenues that, by reducing the width of car lanes from 12 to 10 feet -- a well-documented safer width anyway -- and adding protected left turns, not only preserved vehicle volume, but actually reduced travel times by 35 and 14 percent, respectively.

Let's Start the New Year Right

Who are the "good Germans" now?

Germany is hiring more teachers -- probably 20,000 by the end of next year -- to teach refugee children than the total number of refugees that will be admitted by the U.S.

About 196,000 children fleeing war and poverty will enter the German school system this school year, and 8,264 “special classes” have been created to help them catch up with their peers, according to a survey carried out in 16 German federal states. Germany’s education authority says 325,000 school-aged children reached the country in 2015 during Europe’s worst migration crisis since WWII.

Germany didn't create this mess. We did. Where is our sense of justice? Just how morally bankrupt are we?

FDR: Live Like Him

Letting Big Money and the mainstream media narrow our presidential choice to Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber is the electoral version of letting the terrorists win. We should be asking not who stands a hair taller than Donald Trump but who comes closest to measuring up to Franklin Roosevelt.

"How easily some folks forget that FDR is arguably America's greatest president ever and was an avowed Democratic Socialist. He understood that capitalism can only provide a thriving middle class if there is a mixed economy with 'socialist' programs to provide a safety net for the less fortunate and an even playing field for the rest." -- Occupy Democrats

A failure to communicate

Let me see if I have this straight.

Hillary Clinton must be supported for president -- just because, despite a lifetime of carrying water for some of the most destructive and rapacious agents of American capitalism, from Walmart to Goldman Sachs.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, must be rejected, because some of his supporters, at risk of harming no one beyond themselves, are rude and immature.

Is that about it?

You have to wonder

To teach a huge influx of immigrant children, Germany is hiring more teachers -- probably 20,000 by the end of next year -- than the total number of refugees that will be admitted by the U.S. About 196,000 children fleeing war and poverty will enter the German school system this school year, and 8,264 “special classes” have been created to help them catch up with their peers, according to a survey carried out in 16 German federal states. Germany’s education authority says 325,000 school-aged children reached the country in 2015 during Europe’s worst migration crisis since WWII.

Germany didn't create this mess. We did. Europe in general, and Germany in particular, would shame us with their generosity if we were capable of. Where is our sense of justice? Just how morally bankrupt are we?

Leonard Peltier, too

President Obama has greatly underused his power to pardon. Here's one way he can make up for it.

Why President Obama should pardon Edward Snowden by Anthony Romero (Los Angeles Times)

Power to the People!

Laugh while ye may

You know your drunk buddy who always says what he’d do if he was president? Turns out he is actually running this time!

On the road again,

Driving across the country, for hundreds of miles at a stretch with no company but country music stations and christian broadcasting, a question occurs:

Why is it that no one can write a country song in which righteous Yankee soldiers kick the ass of traitorous Confederate militia?

Waiter!

It is reported that our medieval European ancestors were far more adventuresome eaters than are we, feasting as they did on delicacies like Living Eels in Roasted Pig. 

How did we lose that?

New New Dealer Same As The Old New Dealer

"Sanders is reminding people that he's part of not only important political tradition in American history, but a winning one. Remember, F.D.R. won four times as essentially a democratic socialist." -- Historian Douglas Brinkley

Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie

Is there anyone on these shores who is not an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants or slaves? Even so-called Native Americans migrated -- from Polynesia or Siberia, the jury's out, but, in any case, did not originate here. And so many of us came to escape religious intolerance, authoritarianism, political chaos, hunger, or just to live a better, freer life. To now lock our doors to people who want the same things we wanted or our forbears sought seems to offer a new measure of ingratitude and callousness.

When the Statue of Liberty (originally, Liberty Enlightening the World: La Liberté éclairant le monde) dedicated on October 28, 1886, it was a gift to the United States from the people of France to celebrate the outcome of the Civil War and the end of slavery. On the tablet cradled in Liberty's left arm is inscribed "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" to honor the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Ironically, given the current parlous state of liberty in this country, one of sculptor Frédéric Auguste Barthold's inspirations was in the sketches and models he made for a plan, never executed, to build a huge lighthouse in the form of an ancient Egyptian female fellah or peasant, robed and holding a torch aloft, at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal. Female figures often served as cultural symbols of a nation, as Britannia is identified with the UK and Marianne is with France. One symbol, the personified Columbia, was often used by early artists and illustrators to embody the United States. In a further irony, as the model for the Statue of Liberty, Columbia supplanted an earlier figure of an Indian princess that had come to be regarded as uncivilized and thus derogatory toward Americans.

This is a good time to pause over the words by Emma Lazarus, a New York-born Sephardic Jew whose family had emigrated from Portugal before the American Revolution, that appear on the statue's pedestal. The last words -- "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" -- are the most frequently quoted, but the entire text, titled "The New Colossus," written by Lazarus in 1883, should be remembered:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name,
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

If we're not careful, the French may ask for the lady back. There are probably plenty of Americans these days who'd be glad to let them have her.

War here, war there, pretty soon it's war everywhere all the time

Does John Kerry ever wake up in the darkest hours before the dawn and wonder, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Organize!

Business as usual, which as each election day approaches expresses itself by the two major parties asserting to their constituencies that to vote for their nominee is to choose the lesser of two evils, has not served us well. For the past 40 years, as the Republicans and Democrats have traded control of the White House and Congress, the middle class has declined precipitously and millions of people have been recruited into the army of the poor, the infrastructure has decayed, and the quality of life of nearly all our citizens has declined, while billions of dollars of the nation's wealth has been transferred into private hands and squandered in military adventures. This state of affairs will be stopped, only can be stopped, when a majority of Americans refuses to join in this game, as 50% of potential voters who choose not to participate have already done. The problem with abstention, of course, is that someone wins anyway. This time around we have been offered a better way to break up the duopoly's hold on power. We ignore it at our peril.

The ever-estimable Sam Gross

 

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try everyone's patience again.

quote unquote: J.D. Salinger

“I’ll read my books and I’ll drink coffee and I’ll listen to music, and I’ll bolt the door." -- J.D. Salinger

A rose is a rose is a rose

Finding Ben Carson acceptable and Donald Trump abominable is a lesson in shallow political thinking.

It values style over substance.

It's like loving squirrels and hating rats.

They're both rodents.

But one is "cute."

As Columbus Day approaches,

...it's worth giving a thought to following the example of Nicaragua by replacing celebration of European exploitation of the Americas with Indigenous Resistance Day, a national holiday commemorating the battle waged by indigenous peoples against European colonialism.

In a democracy, it's no one's "turn." In politics, nothing is "inevitable."

Hillary Clinton was the inevitable candidate in 2008.

But the more progressive elements of the Democratic Party united on Super Tuesday to stop her; nearly accidentally -- nobody really knew who Barack Obama was, we ended up with a better candidate and arguably a better chief executive. There's no reason this can't happen again, and, this time, because of Bernie Sanders' consistent thirty-year record of service, we know that we'd get not only a better candidate but also an immeasurably better president.

We are told we must support Clinton because it is "her turn," and because she will inevitably win (of course, the same promise was made for John Kerry and Mike Dukakis). But, since she is a militarist and a prime defender of her class' interests, how is that even a good thing?

You don't just get to break things

Since the Middle East refugee crisis is a consequence of America's militarized foreign policy, doesn't it follow that we have a moral responsibility to lend a hand to its victims?

Germany, with a population of about 80 million, is admitting between 200,000 and 300,000 displaced persons; since we are about four times bigger (and have a lot more room), in fairness, shouldn't we invite 800,000 and 1,200,000 souls to relocate here?

Alternatively, or additionally, shouldn't we mount a Marshall Plan-style program targeted on Greece, which not only is suffering the most from the influx of refugees but is also the victim of the predator banks that we unleashed?

The Long War is almost exclusively a U.S. project. Don't we have an obligation to take responsibility for what we've wrought?

FIGHT WAGE THEFT! Support garment workers organizing!

Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles invites all to join September 9, 2015 press conference and benefit performance of award winning play "Real Women Have Curves" at Pasadena Playhouse. FIGHT WAGE THEFT! Support garment workers organizing!

Oh, the horror!

The nadir of the Obama administration. So grateful the free press was there to cover it.



Rep. Peter King Is Angry President Obama Wore A Tan Suit

The duopoly is a flop

The Republican Party is a reactionary enterprise, with a few die-hard old-school conservatives -- a minority within a minority -- waiting around to die. The Democratic Party is a center-right operation, with its own minority -- progressives, powerless and frustrated -- with no place else to go. The Right and Center have their bases covered. We need a party of the Left, and we need it bad.

God made me do it

This is from Naked Capitalism:

In her radio show, Dr. Laura Schlesinger (a popular conservative radio talk show host in the USA) said that homosexuality is an abomination according to the Bible Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, and was attributed to a James M. Kauffman, Ed. D.

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination… end of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.

Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual unseemliness – Lev. 15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev. 1:9. The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination – Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev. 24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan,

James M. Kauffman, Ed. D. Professor Emeritus Dept. of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia

Let's just say that her partisans are right that she plans to take the corporations' money and then sell them out ("If she doesn't take their money, she won't get elected."). Is that kind of person you want for president?

Political "best practices"

"A combination of the best features of capitalism and socialism has seemed to work well for the United States." -- online comment

That was true through the early 1970s; at least, up until then, we were headed in the right direction. But Richard Nixon was the last president to accept the goals and parameters of the New Deal.

Since then, the country has been in decline, with political power ceded to the corporate sector; infrastructure in decay; social services atrophying, including, appallingly, those provided by public institutions like libraries and schools; income stagnation for poor and working people and an ever smaller middle class; the creation of a prison-industrial matrix and the militarization of law enforcement; a kleptocratic transfer of public wealth into private hands (socialism -- but for the rich); a directionless militarization of foreign policy; the emplacement of a rigid, secret security state.

If there are models for societies that combine the best features of capitalism and socialism they reside in the social democratic areas of Western Europe and Scandinavia, not here.

Further reading:
Wealth and Power: The Bias of the System -- summary by Russ Long (Del Mar College) -- "Problems of U.S. Society result from the distribution of power and the form of the economy."
The Class-Domination Theory of Power by G. William Domhoff, extracted by the author from his book, first published in 1967 and now available in its 7th edition, is presented as a summary of some of the main ideas in that book (WhoRulesAmerica.net).
What is the Prison Industrial Complex? by Rachel Herzing. "'Prison Industrial Complex' is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to what are, in actuality, economic, social, and political 'problems.'" (Political Research Associates).

Extra credit: Double Standard: Social Policy in Europe and the United States by James W. Russell analyzes how and why social policy and welfare states evolved differently in Western Europe and the United States. Exploring common social problems -- from poverty to family support to ethnic and racial conflict -- the book shows the disparate consequences of these different approaches. Frances Fox Piven calls it "a sober, well-informed, and temperate overview of the divergent development of social welfare programs" in the two regions.

What happens if Hillary Clinton stalls or stumbles?

At this point, with the Republicans in chaos and Bernie Sanders' insurgency her only significant Democratic opposition, Hillary Clinton should be dominating the polls. That she's not must be scaring the bejesus out of the Democratic establishment. But what are they going to do about it? It's not like they have a deep bench. They don't want Elizabeth Warren or Sanders, though either of them would be electoral gold in November. Joe Biden is older than dirt and goofier than a Shmoo. Andrew Cuomo gives cynicism a bad name and has not been seasoned by a previous national run. The idea of drafting Al Gore is fantastical, as is the thought that they'd find Jim Webb or Martin O'Malley fit to run (who's Lincoln Chafee, again?). That the party kingmakers should have seen this coming is beside the point. What are they going to about it now?

Here's the breakdown:
Bush leads Clinton 41-36 in Colorado; 42-36 in Iowa; and 42-39 in Virginia.
Walker leads Clinton 47-38 in Colorado; 45-37 in Iowa; and 43-40 in Virginia.
Rubio leads Clinton 46-38 in Colorado; 44-36 in Iowa; and 43-41 in Virginia.

These are all states Obama won both times and they are essential components of a Democratic victory next year. "Trustworthiness," or lack thereof, seems to be what's doing Clinton in, and there's little about her halting, content-less campaign so far to indicate she can overcome people's distrust and dislike. Instead of trying to protect Clinton in the primaries, the Democrats should designate a substitute now or face having her drag the rest of the party's congressional and state candidates down with her when she whiffs in November 2016.

The rest of the story: Hillary Clinton is trailing the 3 strongest Republican candidates in 3 key swing states by Brett LoGiurato (Business Insider).

Reading list: Why Liberals Have to Be Radicals by Robert Kuttner: The reforms needed to restore the country's shared prosperity are to the left of all the candidates, including Sanders.

Addendum: I am asked what I have against former Senator Jim Webb. I don't have any particular issues with Webb that I don't have with any likely Democratic nominee; but I think the party poohbahs would regard him as a minor candidate, too independent, too unseasoned, too Southern, too identified with the military to please the party base, and probably a little too difficult to brand plausibly as a progressive (despite the fact that he voted with the party most of the time that he was in the Senate), something any Democratic Party nominee will have to pretend to be in 2016.

A night to remember on Playboy After Dark

Accompanied by the Count Basie Septet, Annie Ross sings "Twisted," with her lyrics set to a Wardell Gray tune. Then Ross, Dave Lambert & Jon Hendricks draw the great Joe Williams into a definitive version of the classic "Everyday I Have The Blues."

The best of many great recordings by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross: The Hottest New Group in Jazz (Columbia/Legacy 1996; remastered).
Also unbeatable: Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (Verve 1956).

"Centrist:"

The results of a major poll commissioned by the Progressive Change Institute in January underscore the need to change the way we label political policies. PCI solicited ideas online through an open submission process -- more than 2,600 specific proposals were submitted -- and then let people vote on them; more than a million did. A national poll was then conducted; here are proposals that received more than 70% support:

Allow Government to Negotiate Drug Prices (79%)
Give Students the Same Low Interest Rates as Big Banks (78%)
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (77%)
Fair Trade that Protect Workers, the Environment, and Jobs (75%)
End Tax Loopholes for Corporations that Ship Jobs Overseas (74%)
End Gerrymandering (73%)
Let Homeowners Pay Down Mortgage With 401k (72%)
Debt-Free College at All Public Universities (71%)
Infrastructure Jobs Program — $400 Billion / Year (71%)
Require NSA to Get Warrants (71%)
Disclose Corporate Spending on Politics/Lobbying (71%)
Medicare Buy-In for All (71%)
Close Offshore Corporate Tax Loopholes (70%)
Green New Deal — Millions Of Clean-Energy Jobs (70%) Full Employment Act (70%)
Expand Social Security Benefits (70%)

It doesn't need to be pointed out that these results are in line with Bernie Sanders’ politics and not with Hillary Clinton's. For example, the infrastructure jobs program (a key element of Sanders’ platform) had 91% support from Democrats, 61% from independents and even 55% support from Republicans, compared to only 28% opposed.

Who's the centrist?

The Dark And Racist History Of Why Cocaine Is Illegal

Zooey and Andria Green, who are seven and eight respectively, only look innocent. With their baby faces and cunning, they managed to lure patrons to their illicit enterprise: a lemonade stand outside their home in Overton, Texas.

The girls were in business for about an hour in June, selling popcorn and lemonade to raise money for a Father’s Day gift, before local police shut the operation down. Not only were they hawking without a $150 “peddler’s permit,” but also the state requires a formal kitchen inspection and a permit to sell anything that might spoil if stored at the wrong temperature.

As authorities are meant “to act to prevent an immediate and serious threat to human life or health,” the officers understandably had to move swiftly. -- The Economist

Is lemonade legal? Testing the limits of silliness in east Texas (The Economist)

Books: Gaza Unsilenced

During and after Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza, voices within and outside Gaza bore powerful witness to the Israeli attacks -- and to the effects of the crushing siege that continued to strangle Gaza's people long thereafter. Refaat Alareer and Laila El-Haddad are distinguished Palestinian writers and analysts from Gaza. In Gaza Unsilenced, they present reflections, analysis, and images -- their own, and those of other contributors -- that record the pain and resilience of Gaza's Palestinians and the solidarity they have received from the Palestinian diaspora and from others around the world. Contributors include: Ali Abunimah, Ramzi Baroud, Diana Buttu, Jonathan Cook, Belal Dabour, Richard Falk, Chris Hedges, Hatim Kanaaneh, Rashid Khalidi and Eman Mohammed.

Gaza Unsilenced, edited by Refaat Alareer and Laila El-Haddad (Just World Books).

GOP to raise standards for office holders.

The Republicans are worried that having too many candidates in the race for president will confuse voters. The party had planned to use the low standing in the polls of some contenders to exclude them from the debates. But polls, especially at such an early stage in a campaign, are notoriously inaccurate yardsticks.

Something more precise was needed.

Since there is no way to gauge hypocrisy, two other widely used and accepted methods of gauging suitability are being proposed: all candidates must submit to drug and IQ tests. Only contestants with IQs over 70 and measurable amounts of cannabis in their blood streams will be permitted to compete. In the event that none of the current aspirants can meet these standards -- not likely in the case of cannabis, the GOP will have time to recruit replacements.

Since all the candidates have supported the use of such determinations by employers, there is little doubt that they won't welcome the application of the same standards to their own jobs. If some do object, perhaps that can be considered as the missing hypocrisy test.