Desclasifican conversación inédita entre el Ché y Fidel.

Che: Fidel, will we ever have diplomatic relations with the Yanks again?

Fidel: Yes, when the U.S. President is black and the Pope is Argentine like you.

Scutage: $738.8 billion

Buried in the Magna Carta is the forgotten word scutage, a feudal tax to pay for war. With America in decline because more than half its taxes are thrown away on military expenditures, scutage should be revived. It has the perfect onomatopoeic ring to it.

The president draws a red line in the silicon

"Obama Vows a Response to Cyberattack on Sony" -- New York Times headline

Diary

21 Democrats plus Sen. Sanders (and 18 Republicans) tried to stop the giveback to the banksters and other bad stuff in the budget bill. Here they are:

Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hirono (D-HI)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Levin (D-MI)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Reed (D-RI)
Sanders (I-VT)
Tester (D-MT)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

You will note that Feinstein and Schumer are not among them.

"Oh, what fun!"

Really, Starbucks?

That's the best you can do? You paid big bucks for that?

Every Starbucks on the planet is packed with writers.

Any one of them would have come up gladly -- merrily -- with a more compelling slogan at no more cost to you than a free cup of coffee.

Washington is trying to drive down oil prices by flooding the market with crude but risks collateral damage to its own shale industry

The Long War: "U.S. powerbrokers have put the country at risk of another financial crisis to intensify their economic war on Moscow and to move ahead with their plan to 'pivot to Asia'....Washington has persuaded the Saudis to flood the market with oil to push down prices, decimate Russia’s economy, and reduce Moscow’s resistance to further NATO encirclement and the spreading of US military bases across Central Asia. The US-Saudi scheme has slashed oil prices by nearly a half since they hit their peak in June. The sharp decline in prices has burst the bubble in high-yield debt which has increased the turbulence in the credit markets while pushing global equities into a tailspin. Even so, the roiled markets and spreading contagion have not deterred Washington from pursuing its reckless plan, a plan which uses Riyadh’s stooge-regime to prosecute Washington’s global resource war."

The rest of the story:
The Oil Coup: US-Saudi Subterfuge Send Stocks and Credit Reeling by Mike Whitney (CounterPunch)
Stakes are high as US plays the oil card against Iran and Russia by Larry Elliott (Guardian)

Won't be fooled again?

According to Gallup, 60% of Americans want a third party candidate for 2016. Even so, in the fall of 2016, we will be warned once again (by The Nation, Daily Kos and their ilk) that -- once again -- we must must must vote for the Lesser-of-Two-Evils -- a Wall Street-militarist-security state Democrat -- or face Catastrophe -- a Wall Street-militarist-security state Republican.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result isn't really the definition of insanity. But it is the definition of stupidity.

See, In U.S., Perceived Need for Third Party Reaches New High: Twenty-six percent believe Democratic and Republican parties do adequate job (Gallup).

In your face, Little Drummer Boy

The Duopoly

A provision "Congress snuck into the spending the bill will be more galling to some, because it amounts to a pay raise for the two unpopular political parties: It raises the $32,400 maximum that donors could give the Democratic National Committee or Republican National Committee to a whopping $324,000 per year, gutting what’s left of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law. The Washington Post says this was inserted on page 1,599 of a 1,603-page bill."

The rest of the story: Sneak Attack? Congress Slips Controversial Measures Into Spending Bill (PopularResistance)

The United States of America is at moral crossroads

The CIA should be shut down.

The spy work, if there was any, can be carried on gamely by the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Air Force Intelligence, the FBI's National Security Branch, the Army Intelligence and Security Command, the Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, Coast Guard Intelligence, the Treasury's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (sic), the National Reconnaissance Office, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to say nothing of all the state and local police spooks.

Military operations should have been handled by the Department of Defense all along.

But it will be a further crime if all that happens now is that a few relatively-low level functionaries, however blood-soaked their uniforms, are scape-goated, Abu Graib-style. This fish was rotting from the head. The only way that these and other crimes can be prevented from happening in the future is to hold the perpetrators accountable. If this were some failing garrison in the Third World, instead of the failing Leader of the World, the State Department would be piously scolding them to clean-house. The United States needs to be live up to its ideals. If we can't clean our house, if we can't prosecute the criminals ourselves, as domestic and international law requires, then we should turn Bush, Cheney, and their co-conspirators over to the International Criminal Court and let the world community help us out.

More:
CIA tortured, misled, U.S. report finds, drawing calls for action by Mark Hosenball (Reuters)

Return of the CIA's 'Rogue Elephants': The Senate's report on torture shows U.S. intelligence agencies need to be reined in again by Peter Fenn (US News)

There Is Something Worse Than Torture in the Senate Torture Report: It's not the torture—it's the CIA lying by David Corn (Mother Jones)

U.S. under fire over Senate's report on CIA torture by Bill Trott (Reuters UK)

The Bush administration's response to the torture report is straightforward:

The CIA's actions were fully authorized. And we didn't know anything about them.

Every important movement faces significant push-back

That doesn’t mean it won’t succeed.

One of the hardest things for activists to hold in mind is that they are not alone. Most people, however well-intentioned, will wait for what Martin Luther King called a "more convenient season" to move to action. So the activist must not only organize but represent.

'It’s worth remembering that the civil rights protesters of the 1950s and ’60s faced as much derision then as the Ferguson and New York protesters do today … probably more. In 1964, the American National Election Studies, as part of its biennial survey, began asking Americans whether they thought civil rights leaders “are trying to push too fast, are going too slowly, or are … moving about the right speed.” The responses are most telling. Among whites, 84 percent of Southerners, and 64 percent of non-Southerners, said that civil rights leaders were pushing too fast."

The rest of the story: For most, there's never a right time to protest by Seth Masket (Pacific-Standard)

Rectal feeding and rehydration...

Something new to think about.

Oliver Laughland takes a look at some of the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ used by the agency: How the CIA tortured its detainees: Waterboarding, confinement, sleep deprivation (The Guardian).

Supply and Demand

'Lord o Lord, not
again,' sighed
the printer who set
Henry David
Thoreau's Walden, and kept
running out
of the letter
'I'...

              -- Mark Ford

 

Just read, at Bartleby.com,

that "The Second Book of Moses, Called Exodus," in preparation for a screening tonight of the new Hollywood version, just called "Exodus" in deference to Tinseltown's love of one-word titles. I'm above all looking forward to digitally rendered plagues. I'm wondering, though, should it have happened, as is likely, that the filmmakers have taken liberties with the story and characters, whether the Writers Guild will be forced to negotiate between God and the screenwriters over credits. Also wondering, if "Exodus" the movie is a hit and there are x-rated spin-offs, will one be entitled "Aaron's Rod"?

High note

New Hampshire license plates instruct you to "Live Free or Die."

You aren't allowed to do both things at once, however: It's illegal in the Granite State to inhale bus fumes with the intent to induce euphoria.

Do your job

Challenges facing the next do-nothing Congress: “Absent congressional action, a host of business and personal tax breaks expires on Jan. 1. The government’s borrowing limit is reinstated on March 16, although the government might not actually hit the ceiling until August. On March 28, unless lawmakers act, physician reimbursements from Medicare drop off a cliff. On May 31, the highway trust fund runs out of money. In June, the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance overseas purchases of American exports, might shut in the face of conservative opposition to its mission. Then on Sept. 30, the entire Children’s Health Insurance Program faces its expiration. A few days later, across-the-board spending cuts loom once again.” -- The New York Times

The Future of Wi-Fi Could Run Through Old TV Infrastructure

Free, high-capacity Internet access using old television frequencies

"Two academics are recommending that governments develop free, public Wi-Fi networks using obsolete TV frequencies. The researchers believe this could potentially lead to 'Super Wi-Fi' systems popping up across the globe.

"Broadcasting TV via old-school frequencies received through antennas has almost entirely given way to digital services, leaving blank channels or 'white spaces' -- TV frequencies that are no longer in use. In a new study, researchers suggest transforming these abandoned frequencies into a 'wireless commons.'

"Distributing public Wi-Fi through underused TV infrastructure, they say, has many potential benefits: Wi-Fi traveling through antenna and radio frequencies can extend beyond six miles, according to a recent report. Moreover, it may have the capacity to penetrate through walls, buildings, vegetation, and other obstacles that often disrupt current Wi-Fi infrastructure. This range, coupled with public access, could result in 'unprecedented low-cost,' the new study suggests, because 3G and household wireless services would likely be less in demand.

"'Individuals, institutions, and companies would be far less dependent on expensive mobile communications networks in conducting their digital communication,' says Arnd Weber of Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a co-author of the new report."

The rest of the story: http://www.citylab.com/tech/2014/11/the-future-of-wi-fi-could-run-through-old-tv-infrastructure/383231/

Elizabeth Warren on Reagan-Clinton

Santa Monica: Roll back executive pay

The hiring of a replacement for exiting city manager Rod Gould provides Santa Monica with the chance to begin -- at the top -- the difficult but necessary task of reducing the outrageous salaries paid at upper levels of city staff.  

Gould's annual haul -- at least $352,889 -- beggars the imagination. For comparison, the compensation paid the mayor of the City of New York -- you know, with its $70 billion budget and its 325,000 employees -- is $225,000, and the People get to do the hiring! In 2012, Governor Jerry Brown took home $165,288  -- it shouldn't require a sacrifice to go from running the City of Santa Monica to governing the State of

California. Even limiting comparison to other charter cities, Santa Monica's salary schedule is out of whack: the city manager in Culver City, for example, tops out at $256,139.00 and Newport Beach's at $282,318.00. The National League of Cities latest figures (for 2009 -- five years ago, so inflation may have pushed some numbers higher; but, also, not reflecting the implosion and stagnation of the economy since) show the national average remuneration for chief administration officer/city manager as $106,408 and, by way of comparison, for chief law enforcement official as $82,015, in stark contrast to pay in Santa Monica for jobs like city attorney -- $294,878 -- and assistant city attorney -- $295,243, or assistant city manager -- $283,312 (not to mention a police sergeant racking up $293,264 with overtime). While the League of Cities averages include municipalities in areas of the country that have lower costs of living than west Los Angeles, they also include towns that are much bigger, much more problem-riddled, and much less pleasant and prestigious to work in. 

Typically, when a city bureaucracy tries to lower its costs of doing business, it begins by cutting services, reducing staff or getting lower-level employees to accept less in pay and benefits. With the change of administration, Santa Monica has a unique opportunity: reducing the burden of staffing at the executive level is -- economically, politically, morally -- the right thing to do.

2016: Winning

The Daily News reports that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, moving ahead with his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination -- "It's Jeb's turn!" bumper stickers are already at the printers, is meeting with potential donors and lining up support in the downtown Manhattan financial community. Since Hillary Clinton has also been engaged for many months in regular seances in the offices of Goldman Sachs, it's already clear who is not going to lose the 2016 election: Wall Street.

No learning curve. None. Zip. Zero.

The New York Times reports that "people familiar with the president’s thinking say that in 2015 he might use Keystone as a bargaining chip: He would offer Republicans approval of it in exchange for approval of one of his policies."

Charades

The New York Times says that "people familiar with the president’s thinking say that in 2015 he might use Keystone as a bargaining chip: He would offer Republicans approval of it in exchange for approval of one of his policies."

No learning curve. None. Zero. Zip. 

To run or not to run, that is the question

As Sen. Bernie Sanders considers a run for president, his big concern is whether the infrastructure exists to support an independent candidacy. It seems to me that his decision to run would be favorably influenced if the Peace & Freedom Party were to endorse him now. Not only would it nudge him in the right direction, but the fact that he would be on the ballot in the nation's largest state would encourage third parties in other region's to get on board.

The Long War

In Julius Caesar, Brutus argues that "Th'abuse of greatness is when it disjoins / Remorse from power." Thus Lincoln, in whose character cohabited forcefulness, caution and morality, will be honored through generations, long after Bush and Obama, the facilitators of endless war and apologists for the slaughter of innocents, are mercifully consigned to oblivion.

Oh, the humanity

"... all the folks agree that this is terrible, this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world. It's–it's–it's the flames, oh, four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it ... it's a terrific crash, ladies and

gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's flames now ... and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. Oh, the humanity and all the passengers screaming around here. I told you, I can't even talk to people whose friends are on there. Ah! It's–it's–it's–it's ... o–ohhh! I–I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk, and the screaming. Lady, I–I'm sorry. Honest: I–I can hardly breathe. I–I'm going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah—I can't. I, listen, folks, I–I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed."

Blue pencil

The Times, keeping it real:

"An earlier version of this post misidentified Boniface VIII as Boniface VII."

We're not only criminalizing poverty.

We're criminalizing compassion and generosity.

Arnold Abbott being arrested on November 2, 2014

90-year-old Florida man faces 60 days in jail for feeding the homeless by Eric W. Dolan (Raw Story)

Sen. Sanders and the Democrats

Centrist Democrats would like nothing better than to have independent socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries.

But the effect of drafting the Vermont senator into the Democratic competition would be to neutralize him.

If he runs, Sen. Sanders will be forced to pledge allegiance to the party's eventual nominee and we will enter the fall of 2016 with the strongest voice on the left either silenced or looking like a hypocrite by shilling for Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo or some other servant of the corporate elite.

The way to maximize Sander's influence is to give all-out support for a run as an independent so that in the fall of 2016 in the debates and in the media he can continue to educate the public on alternatives to the status quo and to reveal that the emperor's surrogates have no clothes.

Bernie Sanders will never be the Democratic nominee.

But he can play an important and honorable role in building support for progressive policies in state and local elections, in congressional contests, and for a serious try for the White House from the left in the future by someone else. All a Democratic primary challenge by Sen. Sanders will achieve this round is to help the presidential Democrats maintain the illusion that they are an instrument of change.

Voting made simple

The midterms are not about whether or not the president is a doing a good job.

They're about whether or not you want a legislature made up of people who think that facts are stupid; that Obamacare caused Ebola; that Al Qaeda has camps on the Mexican border; that George Washington authorized wide-scale electronic surveillance; that there is such a thing as legitimate rape; that taxing tanning salons is racist discrimination against pale Americans; that something isn't necessarily constitutional just because the Supreme Court says it is; that Roe v. Wade led to gun massacres; that equal rights for women is a socialist, anti-family plot to get women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians; that Tinky Winky is gay; that marriage equality will result in people having sex with their dogs; that Democrats want everyone dependent on crack cocaine; that the biblical Great Flood is proof that global warming is a natural phenomenon; that wind farms are using up the wind; that Christopher Columbus was a great American; and that immigrants should be forced to learn English, just like Jesus.*

*All opinions above expressed by Republicans, not Democrats.

What about Santa Monica?

Okay, since you asked:

Although the campaign against Pam O'Connor has been so extreme and unfair as to almost make you want to vote for her in protest, I intend to cast ballots tomorrow for Frank Gruber, Mike Feinstein and Richard McKinnon. I decided against a protest vote for O'Connor for the same reason I wouldn't vote for Kevin McKeown: I think the council will benefit from some new blood. Gruber and McKinnon in their service on the planning commission -- and Gruber in his writing -- have demonstrated they can bring both experience and reasonableness to the council chamber. While Feinstein is not exactly new blood, during his previous council tenancy he showed a capacity to learn from experience, and his time away from city government has given him the opportunity to reflect on policy decisions past and future.

As far as the local measures, my votes will be no, no, no, no and no.

With all the spending for and against measures D and LC, you'd think they actually mean something. They don't. Santa Monica's agreement with the FAA expires at the end of June. When the smoke clears from the current battle, the City will still need to negotiate with the FAA and it is the federal agency that will have the final say in what changes there will be at the airport. While both measures are pointless, D has the added negative of challenging the idea of representative government; elected officials and city staff negotiating with the Feds have disadvantages enough without having their authority undermined further. The likelihood that the FAA will agree to close Santa Monica Airport is close to nil. (As an aside, current FAA rules have two interesting side effects: the presence of the airport forces planes flying to LAX to approach at a higher altitude, cutting noise; and take-off and landing regulations near Clover Field limit building heights.)

Measures H and HH would raise the city’s real estate transfer tax for commercial and non-commercial parcels selling for $1 million or more -- that's pretty much everything in Santa Monica -- from $3 per $1,000 of sales price to $9 per $1,000. We need more affordable housing in Santa Monica, but we need to find a less regressive way to pay for it. Meanwhile, measure FS would take the local rent control department's current maximum annual registration fee of $174.96 per controlled rental unit to $288 (reality check: Los Angeles' rent control stabilization fee is $67.83 per unit), 50% of which a landlord can (and any rational landlord will) pass on to tenants. The effect of all three measures would be to make Santa Monica an even more expensive place to live.

See no evil

"The U.S. government agreed to a police request to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August for safety, but audio recordings show that local authorities privately acknowledged the purpose was to keep away news helicopters during violent street protests." -- AP news report

Where have you gone, Herbert Hoover?

"It is inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service, for news, for entertainment, and for vital commercial purposes to be drowned in advertising chatter." -- Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, in 1922, commenting on Radio, um, Neutrality.

Asking for a friend

How are laws against impersonating a police officer affected by Halloween?

Man Bites Dog

 A homeless guy came into Pitfire Pizza at L.A.'s Main & Second about 10 p.m. tonight looking for water. It's probably sufficiently noteworthy to be worth reporting that he was treated by the staff with the respect.

Regressive Tax

I am in downtown L.A. On the block I'm visiting, there are several restaurants and at least four clubs with live performances. The parking meters went off duty at 8 p.m. and, yet, there appears to be no parking shortage, as compared to downtown Santa Monica where nothing much happens and the punitive parking tax devices are not deactivated until 2 a.m.

2Gary Gordon and Paul Lyons

It's turned out to be a dark and stormy night.

How about that?

Ted Cruz staffer:

'Before Obamacare, there had never been a confirmed case of Ebola in U.S.'

These people can say anything that pops into their heads, however idiotic.

It must be really easy to get a GOP staff job, though.

I could listen to Fats Waller all day.

Oh, wait. That's what I'm doing.

quote unquote James Baldwin

“Americans are the youngest country, the largest country, and the strongest country, we like to say, and yet the very notion of change, real change, throws Americans into a panic.” -- James Baldwin (November 1963)

Give 'em hell, Harry!

The Republicans … will try to make people believe that everything the Government has done for the country is socialism. They will go to the people and say: "Did you see that social security check

you received the other day—you thought that was good for you, didn't you? That's just too bad! That's nothing in the world but socialism. Did you see that new flood control dam the Government is building over there for the protection of your property? Sorry—that's awful socialism! That new hospital that they are building is socialism. Price supports, more socialism for the farmers! Minimum wage laws? Socialism for labor! Socialism is bad for you, my friend. Everybody knows that." And here you are, with your new car, and your home, and better opportunities for the kids, and a television set -- you are just surrounded by socialism! Now the Republicans say, "That's a terrible thing, my friend, and the only way out of this sinkhole of socialism is to vote for the Republican ticket." -- Harry S Truman, 1948

Universitäten wollen frei sein

At the same time that the U.S. government is raking in huge profits from usurious loans to America's young people, all German universities are now free to Americans and all other international students.

The last German state to charge tuition at its universities struck down the fees this week. In explaining why Germany made this move, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a Hamburg senator, called tuition fees "unjust," adding that "they discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany."

You Can Now Go to College in Germany for Free, No Matter Where You’re From By Rebecca Schuman (Slate)
How US students get a university degree for free in Germany by Franz Strasser (BBC)

Those Randy conservatives

Conservatives employ Ayn Rand the way they do Jesus. You take any damn-fool position you want and then say, "because, you know, Ayn Rand." Nobody over 15 actually reads her stuff.

Where is Big Bill Haywood when you need him?

The Wobblies were right.

Workers of the world, and nearly everyone else, must unite against the predator class that will otherwise enslave and finally destroy the planet.

From the American Exceptionalism Desk:

“America leads. We are the indispensable nation. We have capacity no one else has. Our military is the best in the history of the world. And when trouble comes up anywhere in the world, they don't call Beijing. They don't call Moscow. They call us.” -- Barack Obama, last Sunday

"If that statement were a vehicle, it would be a Hummer with chrome-plated bumper nuts. It’s belligerent. It’s remarkably tone-deaf, coming from a man whose words are typically finely crafted. And it is, yes, stupid. There is a truth in it – no denying that. Given the amount of money we pour into our military, it certainly has the capacity to bomb, shoot, and generally wreck vast swathes of the world. We have enough nuclear weapons to ignite the Earth’s atmosphere. Our capacity is huge. We are freaking awesome." -- Akira Watts

Mantra

There are no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue,
no body, mind; no color, sound, or smell;
no taste, no touch, no thing; no realm of sight,
no realm of thoughts; no ignorance, no end
to ignorance; no old age and no death;
no end to age and death; no suffering,
nor any cause of suffering, nor end
to suffering, no path, no wisdom and no fulfillment.
                                    -- The Heart Sutra

The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism by Kazuaki Tanahashi

Thinking about Ferguson:

Tear gases are not merely irritating, they are nerve agents that, except for the objections of the US, would have been outlawed when the Chemical Weapons Convention was adopted in 1993. Legal or not, their use against protesting citizens is evidence of moral bankruptcy.

Good news:

LAUSD is giving up its grenade launchers. Bloomberg.

Labor Day!

“Never forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday.” — Rebecca Gordon

This poster is from the fabulous Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio.

From the Unintended Consequences Desk:

Sadam Hussein would have kicked. ISIS'. Ass.*

On the other hand, without the Gulf War, there'd be no ISIS. That aside, America's evil, gutless, directionless military adventurism rolls on.

It was not even a year ago when we were bombarded with messaging that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a Supreme Evil and Grave Threat, and that military action against his regime was both a moral and strategic imperative. The standard cast of “liberal interventionists” – Tony Blair, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Nicholas Kristof and Samantha Power – issued stirring sermons on the duties of war against Assad. Secretary of State John Kerry actually compared Assad to (guess who?) Hitler, instructing the nation that “this is our Munich moment.” Striking Assad, he argued, “is a matter of national security. It’s a matter of the credibility of the United States of America. It’s a matter of upholding the interests of our allies and friends in the region.”

U.S. military action against the Assad regime was thwarted only by overwhelming American public opinion which opposed it and by a resounding rejection by the UK Parliament of Prime Minister David Cameron’s desire to assume the usual subservient British role in support of American wars.

Now the Obama administration and American political class is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the failed “Bomb Assad!” campaign by starting a new campaign to bomb those fighting against Assad – the very same side the U.S. has been arming over the last two years.

It’s as though the U.S. knew for certain all along that it wanted to fight in the war in Syria, and just needed a little time to figure out on which side it would fight.

The rest of the story:
The Fun of Empire: Fighting on All Sides of a War in Syria by Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept).

*Just sayin'.

Oh, say...

Because of the upcoming anniversary of its creation, we will have to endure endless twaddle for the next year or so about "The Star Spangled Banner." It will be useful to recall that the only reason this difficult to sing and ideologically compromised ditty was belatedly adopted as the national theme song was that news reached the capital in 1931 that pinkos on the Erie, PA city council were opening meetings with rousing renditions of “The Internationale."

'This is the Story of Power in this Country'

"The quiet militarization of police departments began in 1990, when Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, a provision of which — known as the 1033 program — allowed the Secretary of Defense to 'transfer to Federal and State agencies personal property of the Department of Defense, including small arms and ammunition.'

"In 1996, during the peak of the War on Drugs, Congress expanded the program and incentivized active use of the equipment, making it free for recipient agencies and simultaneously requiring them to use it within a year. The expansion of the 1033 program also required agencies to give preference to transferring equipment for 'counterdrug and counterterrorism activities.' And it hasn’t stopped there.

The rest of the story:
Ferguson, Institutionalized Racism and the Militarization of Police: 'They're willing to sacrifice the lives of the community members based on the actions of a few' by Nadia Prupis (Common Dreams)

Just spent

...an awesome couple of hours immersed in Charles Bradley (thank you, Amazon Prime) after watching the live-stream Roseanne Cash-Buddy Miller-Jim Lauderdale concert in NYC (thank you, Lincoln Center). But felt terrible for the local band that stole the Lincoln Center show. I realize that we ran out of band names around the time of Vanilla Fudge. But, The Lone Bellow? Really? Would you walk across the street to see an outfit called The Lone Bellow? You know you wouldn't, unless you thought you were going to see a Shel Silverstein cover band or a reading of Humboldt's Gift. Maybe, before they release their new album, they could sponsor a naming contest. The Zach Williams Band would work (he's the band's leader). "The Zach Williams Band stole the show at Lincoln Center last night." See? Or, if there's never been a band named Brooklyn, like Boston or Kansas, that'd work: "Brooklyn stole the show at Lincoln Center last night." The Lone Bellow? Not so much. In any case, if you're a Prime member, add Charles Bradley to your Amazon Music playlist now, and get the several Anthony Hamilton albums while you're at it. And, at least for now, it's still possible to watch Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Roseanne Cash and, yes, The Lone Bellow at Lincoln Center.org.

The Lone Bellow, Mill City Nights 10/29/13 (full concert):


Turns out, there has never been, apparently, a band named Brooklyn. There was, however, Brooklyn Bridge.

From the Nanny State desk:

An elderly scofflaw just moved a table and a chair from shadows of the cold coastal fog on Main Street to the bright warm sun around the corner on Hill, despite the Santa Monica Fun Police's strictures against such an action. The old reprobate is no doubt unaware that his transgression may cause the store owner to suffer a $1000 fine for public amenity abuse.

Who are the animals?

The cynical campaign to turn the "actor and model" Jiff into a media star came to Main Street this week with a visit to one of the local coffee shops for a photo shoot with the mini-dog for which it appeared that the little critter's entourage of six to eight photographers, videographers and hangers-on had no permits. With typical self-absorbed Hollywood arrogance, his handlers had him prancing around on tables and slopping up whip cream-topped drinks in blatant disregard for common sense, public sanitation, and health and public safety regs. Are there no "jackie cooper laws" to prevent the exploitation of defenseless pets? Does PETA think dancing monkeys are "adorable"?

Factoid

21% Of Americans Spend More On Their Cell Phones Than On Groceries.

Don't know what it means, but it's not good.

This Exists:

Citizens united against Citizens United

This is the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment passed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee:

SECTION 1: To advance democratic self-government and political equality, and to protect the integrity of government and the electoral process, Congress and the States may regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections.

SECTION 2. Congress and the States shall have power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation, and may distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence elections.

SECTION 3. Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress or the States the power to abridge the freedom of the press.

Economic Populism at Heart of Emerging Debate Among Democrats

Published on Friday, July 11, 2014 by

Campaign for America's Future Blog

[Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), center, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, make statements introducing Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) seated at left, to the committee during his confirmation hearing to become secretary of state, replacing Clinton, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)]

by Robert Borosage

Over at The Washington Post, the usually sensible Greg Sargent endorses the notion that divisions among Democrats are “mostly trumped up.” The tension between the Wall Street wing of the party and the Warren (as in Elizabeth) wing is an overblown fiction of a press corps desperate for some action.

It’s true that the prior divisions on social issues have dissipated, as liberals have swept the field. Obama’s halting attempts to wean the US from its foreign wars have garnered widespread support. And on economics, Sargent argues that Democrats “largely agree on the menu of policy responses to the economic problems faced by poor, working and middle class Americans — a higher minimum wage, universal pre-K, higher taxes on the wealthy to fund a stronger safety net, job creation and job training — whatever the broader rhetorical umbrella is being used.” Even Hillary says she agrees with Thomas Piketty that extreme inequality is a “threat” to our democracy.

There are differences on how aggressively to go after the big banks or whether to expand Social Security, Sargent admits, and a debate underway about “whether to push the Democratic Party in a more populist direction,” which he declines to define. But generally, he argues, there’s broad agreement that Hillary or any Democratic candidate will run on.

All of this is true except the conclusion. There is a broad agreement on what might be called a “populist lite” agenda — one that has been put forth repeatedly by Obama and frustrated by Republican obstruction. And the reforms — from the minimum wage to universal pre-K — are important and will make a difference.

But it strikes me as bizarre to suggest that there is no serious debate among Democrats when the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country and a key power in Democratic circles, has just called for the resignation of Obama’s education secretary. Democratic House and Senate leaders refuse to allow even a vote on fast-track trade authority sought by the president, and a majority of the Democratic caucus lines up against Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. Progressives in both houses demand bold action on jobs, on taxing and investing that the president resists. Democrats revolt against the White House desire to trim Social Security benefits.

In fact, there is a fundamental debate brewing in the party, grounded on very different perspectives that lead in significantly different directions.

On one side are the passive voice populists, which include both Clintons and Obama. They argue that our Gilded Age inequality is the product of technology and globalization, as if these were autonomous forces like the weather. The effects — a declining middle class, stagnant wages, spreading misery — can be ameliorated by sensible policies, like the agenda Sargent ticks off. Most of all, Americans need to make certain the next generation gets better education and training so they can better compete in the global marketplace. Universal preschool is a first step to that. But the largest thrust — driven by the party’s deep pocket donors — is an assault on teacher’s unions and public schools, investment in charters, public and private, and a focus on high-stakes testing to measure teacher and school performance.

Undergirding this is an acceptance that we can’t really afford to do even the minimum in public education or child poverty, so the focus has to be on cheaper ways to make progress. This assumption also fuels the interest in cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits, experimenting with public-private partnerships to raise funds, and so on. All this assumes that we’re close to the limits on taxes, that corporate tax reform should be “revenue neutral,” (that is, companies should not contribute one dime more to our investment or budget needs), and that taxes on the wealthy can’t produce much additional revenue.

The activist-voice populists disagree fundamentally with both the analysis and the prescription. They argue that extreme inequality results from rules that were rigged to benefit the few and not the many. That leads to the demand for structural reforms to change the rules: fair and balanced trade and tax policies to replace those created by and for the multinationals; breaking up big banks and curbing Wall Street’s casino as opposed to accepting banks that are too big to fail and too big to save; progressive tax reforms to create revenue for the public investments that we need in everything from education to infrastructure to an expanded safety net; empowering workers and curbing CEO license to ensure workers share in the profits they help to produce; expanding Social Security and public pensions while moving further towards true universal, affordable health care.

These differences are only now emerging, as the failure of the recovery forces a bigger debate about our economy. The Wall Street wing presses forward with corporate trade deals that are opposed by a growing majority of voters. The bankers bear no accountability for their pervasive frauds and lawlessness, while most Americans are looking for perp walks. Well-heeled lobbies block any sensible tax reform, while polls show Americans strongly want the rich and the corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Obama has already felt the revolt of the Democratic base against his plans to pare Social Security benefits. Clinton and Obama have been essentially AWOL in the war on labor and collective bargaining, essential elements of any strategy to rebuild the middle class.

Obviously, many of these questions pit the wealthy Wall Street and Silicon Valley donor class against the vast bulk of Democratic voters who are struggling in this economy. It’s not surprising that smart politicians have moved to adopt the populist lite agenda to appeal to the latter without offending the former.

But the divisions are likely to grow because most Americans are struggling in this economy. (Most still think it is in recession.) And with the deck still stacked against most Americans, little is likely to change without a new deal (to borrow a phrase).

And in addition to this is Hillary’s apparent intent to run to the right of Obama on foreign policy — to champion more interventionist and hawkish views at a time when Americans want to rebuild at home. If she pursues this course, it will likely spark a new debate around foreign policy that Obama’s relative caution largely avoided.

Democrats have always been a big-tent party. The divisions between Southern segregationists and Northern liberals were apparent. The battles over civil rights, women’s rights, choice, wars and gays and guns were fierce. Many of these debates now have largely dissipated as liberals have won and the party’s base has evolved. The New Dem scorn for traditional liberals and labor drove big primary fights.

But the new debates over economic direction and the likely battle over policing the world are just beginning to take shape. And if the economy continues to reward the few and not the many, the divisions won’t need to be trumped up.

[Robert L. Borosage is the founder and president of the Institute for America’s Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America’s Future. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.]

Won't Be Fooled Again #257,963

Hey, you! Yeah, you with your "It's Hillary's Turn" bumper sticker. Has Obama taught you nothing? The Neolibs -- knowing which side of the bread is buttered -- are lining up for jobs in the next Clinton administration, the one that will make Obama's look like the New Deal. It's not Hillary's turn. The One Percenters don't get another turn. It's the turn of the American people.

See, Hillary Clinton Flaunts Her Surveillance State Baggage by Robert Scheer (TruthDig).

Damaged Collateral

U.S. banks are getting out of the business of international remittances -- cash transfers -- because law enforcement requirements to prevent and monitor terror funding and drug money laundering are becoming too irksome. Guess who will be hurt by this. Drug smugglers? Nope. Terrorists? Uhn-unh. Mexicans and to a lesser extent Central Americans? Yep. Because cash transfers to Latin America make up by far the largest share of remittances. And ordinary people are far less apt to have the resources to negotiate around petty bureaucratic obstructions.

Swamp in the Desert

As the course of events in the Middle East twists and turns, it's going to be fun to listen to the White House and the State Department try to explain how the Assad regime in Syria, less than a year ago so pestilent we were prepared to bomb it out of existence; Iran, charter member of the Axis of Evil, Assad's primary backer and, until just the other day, "the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism;" Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese sidekick; and expansionist Russia, in the gunsights of US sanctions over its bullying of Ukraine, became our new best friends, and why our "ally," the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is on the opposite side of nearly every fight we pick.

Burger king

Worth noting: If you're headed out for fast food, keep in mind that In-and-Out Burger, whose fresh ground chuck burgers Consumer Reports lauds as "standouts," pays its workers at least $10.50/hour, well above the minimum wage and the White House's proposed boost to $9/hour.

Aaachtung!

Extremely rude Santa Monica building inspector just came into Starbucks on Main Street to issue a "second warning" about verboten chairs and tables outside the store. Aside from the absurdity of the city's attitude toward commercial activity on sidewalks (amenities that enhance the quality of urban life, btw), there is no reason for a public functionary to take an aggressive attitude toward a citizen at all, let alone over a minor infraction of an arbitrary rule. Is Starbucks dissing petty authority? The republic's foundations shudder.

The month my bathtub made more than I did

The bathtub of my $35 a month Lower East Side walk-up on the cover of National Lampoon. That's coffee, by the way: this was art directed (it was bad, but not that bad).

The Long War: Endless. Pointless.

"Ultimately, the public is at fault for this catastrophe in Afghanistan, where more than 1,000 G.I.’s have now lost their lives. If we don’t have the courage as a people to fight and share in the sacrifices when our nation is at war, if we’re unwilling to seriously think about the war and hold our leaders accountable for the way it is conducted, if we’re not even willing to pay for it, then we should at least have the courage to pull our valiant forces out of it." -- The Courage to Leave by Bob Herbert (New York Times 2010-06-11)

President Obama and I are both in Palm Springs today, with the not insignificant difference that no one has offered me $38,000 to have dinner with them.

'Bout sums it up

 

Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars...

Talk about disruptive technologies.

Not only is SpaceX's new Dragon V2 space transport able to carry up to seven astronauts to and from the international space station, not only is its thermal protection system sufficient for the spacecraft to be capable of lunar missions, not only will it be able to return to earth with the precision of a helicopter (paving the way for interplanetary tourism), but its eight SuperDraco engines were produced entirely with a 3-D printer (using a super-alloy called Inconel), making it the first 3-D printed rocket engine to take flight.

Dragon V2 will begin shuttling passengers to and from the space station in late 2016.

Welcome to Tomorrowland.

Act like a national party

The Democrats should use their pac money for a national congressional campaign; instead of backing a few potential "winners" here and there, they should tie the GOP's reactionary majority to its truly lunatic fringe, turn every vote in the country into a judgement on Republican radicalism, make it clear that you can't have that nice Monica Wehby in Oregon, say, without getting Joni Ernst, the new Republican nominee for Iowa’s Senate seat, who is anti-amnesty for immigrants, hates the Nixon-backed Clean Water Act, and wants to privatize Social Security.

Actually, Monica Wehby doesn't seem that nice, but you get my point.

The Beat Goes On

“So today, Mosul fell. Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq. The Iraqi government we 'installed,' has now 'lost' Fallujah, Ramadi, Mosul and other large swaths of the country we invaded at the cost of thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and a couple trillion dollars. (What could your school district do with a trillion dollars?).

"One more maddening day in this 11-year illegal, immoral, greedy and stupid war. Today in Mosul, that Iraqi Army YOU pay for, freaked out, threw down their guns, and literally RAN away. I have friends and acquaintances who lost sons in all three of those cities. I can only imagine what they're feeling tonight. FOR WHAT? FOR WHAT! I am so sorry we couldn't do anything to stop this when it started. A few million of us tried. Last week, Richard Clarke, Bush's former head of counter-terrorism, said he now believes that his fellow members of the Bush administration committed 'war crimes.'

"I continue to await the perp walk.” -- Michael Moore

Take the "D" Train

Despite his own modest appraisal of his piano playing, Duke Ellington did fantastic duos and trios with Jimmy Blanton, Louis Armstrong, Mulgrew Miller, Billy Strayhorn, Max Roach, Charlie Mingus, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.

He's the Willie Nelson of jazz.

                                                       (Richard Avedon, 1963)

Duke Ellington, Charlie Mingus, Max Roach: Money Jungle

Living big at $7.25 an hour

The Times spent a few column inches yesterday mulling over the mystery of why the poverty rate hasn't budged in 30 years. Gosh. I don't know. I'm sure it can't have anything to do with the systematic decimation of organized labor and the shipping of American jobs to China and Mexico. Can't see how starving the free universal education system could have anything to do with it. It can't be because of all that expenditure of public wealth on the liberal project of empire-building instead of on the building roads and bridges and harbors and airports and hospitals and schools and housing here at home. Can't be that. You can't blame the war on drugs, or the creation of a vast army of former inmates without jobs, or the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars on incarceration instead of education, on building prisons instead of schools. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Bill Clinton's welfare reforms. Surely it wasn't because the minimum wage wasn't linked to inflation or to worker productivity so that as the decades rolled by low end jobs were worth less and less. Couldn't be that. Certainly it had nothing to do with the mortgage crisis. Or allowing the banks to bleed us dry. Or slashing services for the poor and middle class so that taxes for the very wealthiest could be slashed, too. I can't think what the reason might be. Can you?

“The most valuable sense of humor is the kind that enables a person to see instantly what it isn't safe to laugh at.” -- Donald Rumsfeld

Many of you frequent flyers will recall that for a time TSA had signs and loudspeakers prohibiting humor attacks at security checkpoints. “You are reminded that any inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning security may result in your arrest,” warned one loudspeaker message in Dallas last fall. It's ironic that a sign at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport should say, "No jokes."

This came to mind because of the announcement this week by the U.S. Secret Service that it has issued an RFP for software that can detect sarcasm. Since we are decades from producing a computer with a sense of humor, it's likely the service will have to make do with a program that sorts through a giant database of pre-screened tweets and emails looking for tells: wannabe terrorists would do well to get in the habit now of putting smiley faces and LOLs in all their social media posts.

The fact that no one can be absolutely certain the Secret Service itself isn't kidding is evidence of how difficult a task deciphering snide remarks will be. The safest thing is probably to assume that, like TSA, the service is deficient in the skill set needed to detect and catalog gradations of wit, and to try to help them out with some practical alternatives. I started to suggest that, instead of wasting resources developing software that will never be operational, the service ask working comics to apply their expertise to the problem, until I remembered that the functionaries interviewing prospective government humor analysts would be the same ones who can't see the whimsy in an airport sign prohibiting jokes; they'd just end up with a government facility full of Dennis Millers.

More effective might be a change in staffing practices: the service should immediately stop hiring seminary dropouts and returning Mormon missionaries and limit their recruiting to inner city Jews, blacks, Irish and Italians.

This is a serious problem needing serious attention. We certainly don't want anyone arrested at a fund-raising dinner or a Fourth of July picnic for asking the agent groping him, "Do you want me to do you now?," let alone for bringing up his fling with Hitler's mother.

“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.” -- William James

Clarification

The government of China is charged with spying on behalf of companies it owns. This is completely different from the American government's spying on behalf of companies that own it.

The War Party outvotes the Democrats and Republicans

This is not an endorsement of his candidacy -- no doubt there are other issues to consider, but it's worth noting that in his campaign Ted Lieu, one of the horde running to succeed Henry Waxman, has taken a stand against unconstitutional domestic spying.

That this is important is demonstrated by the fact that Jim Sensenbrenner's Orwellian USA Freedom Act just breezed through the House, 303-121 (here's the roll, if you want to see how your rep voted). Most members from both parties are eager to continue unconstitutional, warrant-less bulk spying against U.S. citizens. Leaders of the opposition included the reliable Florida firebrand Alan Grayson and our own Zoe Lofgren, who in debate said "regrettably, we have learned that if we leave any ambiguity in the law, the intelligence agencies run a truck right through that ambiguity."

Only 70 Democrats and 51 Republicans voted against the bill, which enables and codifies large-scale, unconstitutional domestic spying. No incumbent who voted for this monstrosity (looking at you, Nancy Pelosi) deserves your vote on June 3rd or in November. Many CA Democrats did vote to protect constitutional rights, but citizens in places like Mill Valley, the Bay Area, Davis, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, the Coachella Valley and San Diego need to ask themselves if they are outraged enough to withhold their support from the likes of Pelosi, Jared Huffman, John Garamendi, Mike Thompson, Doris Matsui, Ami Bera, Jim Costa, Lois Capps, Julia Brownley, Judy Chu, Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Grace Napolitano, Raul Ruiz, Linda Sánchez, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Maxine Waters, Juan Vargas, Scott Peters and Susan Davis.

With so many candidates in contention, the open primary next month gives you an opportunity to express your support for constitutional government.

Ain't it the truth

"From our use of drones to the detention of terrorist suspects, the decisions we are making will define the type of nation and world that we leave to our children." -- President Barack Obama, 2013-05-23

Know your place

I realize it was unseemly for irascible congressman Alan Grayson to openly lobby for a seat on John Boehner's select committee to "investigate" the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!, and no doubt speaker-in-exile Nancy Pelosi saw it as a test of her authority (what isn't?), but it's counterproductive not appoint the aggressive former prosecutor to challenge what he called the GOP's "dredging up one fake scandal after another fake scandal"? Pelosi's selection of Elijah Cummings, the ranking member on Darrell Issa's out-of-control and off-the-wall House Oversight Committee, was probably unavoidable, but the rest of the choices -- Adam Smith, Adam Schiff, Linda Sanchez and Tammy Duckworth -- are reliable backbenchers who can be trusted not to make too much of a fuss over GOP bullshit.

What would Eugene Debs do?

The Democrats are attempting to con Bernie Sanders into running for president as a Democrat.

This would have two salient benefits for the Party of Wall Street.

First, it would shore up its quadrennial marketing hustle as the champion of economic justice for working people and the middle class.

Second, it would destroy Sen. Sanders reputation as an independent social democrat, effectively silencing the most effective opponent of political business-as-usual; in order to run in the party's primaries he would be required to pledge to support the eventual nominee -- if that is Hillary Clinton or someone of her ilk, as it will be, he would be committing himself to backing a politician who stands in contradiction to everything he has fought for politically.

Even if he didn't actively campaign for the Democratic ticket in the fall, his silence would undermine his credibility, and hurt the cause of reform by allowing the issues he has championed -- jobs, infrastructure, progressive taxes, fair treatment for veterans, affordable universal health care, energy efficiency, etc. -- to be ignored, and the campaign to once again to hang on the question of which candidate is the lesser evil.

Democrats Need Bernie Sanders to Run for President by Michael Kazin (The New Republic)

Heh heh

Lowering the Bar

On that day when Cyrus Vance the Enumerated, whose father was likewise a patrician Democratic Party hack, inevitably seeks higher office, he will put himself forward at best as a proponent of economic justice, at worst as the lesser of evils. Will you believe him?

The Disturbing Verdict Against Cecily McMillan by Maurice Isserman (Dissent)

Pass

The only solace I take from the news that Matt Miller is running for Congress is that I can't imagine anyone -- Left, Right or Center -- voting for him.

From the Kleptocracy Desk:

This is how American democracy is done now: To the tune of $1,000,000, according to Bloomberg News, two childhood friends of Florida state representative Paige Kreegel are bankrolling his bid for a U.S. House seat.

Danish Exceptionalism

We spend our lives swimming in a sea of propaganda about American exceptionalism, bullshit that gets in the way of our demanding benefits of citizenship that are rightfully ours.

Papa and Me

Came to my attention this morning that Ernest Hemingway and I both worked for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Just sayin'.

A little history never hurt anybody

[Striking families at Ludlow before the massacre, April 20, 1914]

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre, described by Howard Zinn as “the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history. This was the Colorado coal strike that began in September 1913 and culminated in the ‘Ludlow Massacre’ of April 1914.” Zinn first learned of the Ludlow Massacre from a song by Woody Guthrie. The song inspired Zinn to learn more about the massacre that “nobody had ever mentioned in any of my history courses [and] which no textbook of mine had ever mentioned.”

For the centennial of this major event in labor history, the Zinn Education Project is offering resources to teach outside the textbook about the Ludlow Massacre here.

Resource: The Zinn Education Project

RIP

I can't quote a single sentence from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, yet I remember whole worlds.

Our political theater

Fred Dalton Thompson, who never quite filled the role of Senator and failed to be convincing even as a candidate for President, was "type cast" as avuncular senators, presidents and district attorneys on video and celluloid? Well, in his post-Senate career, Randal Howard "Rand" Paul looks to be a natural to play weasels, gunsels and con men.

Parthenon of Books

In December 1983 artist Marta Minujin and several helpers spent 17 days building a full-scale model of the Parthenon in a public park in Buenos Aires. It was made almost entirely of books which had been banned by the country’s former dictatorship. “The Parthenon of Books/Homage to Democracy,” as it was titled, stood for about three weeks, after which the public was permitted to disassemble the piece and keep the books.

Movement politics may be the only route to social and economic justice.

Both parties having become irrelevant and unresponsive to the majority's political needs, and with neither seemingly capable of learning from experience, the time seems ripe for a new politics. Or, more likely, a new politics is inevitable. The Greens are still active and the Working Families Party is demonstrating growing strength and relevance. The question for the Big Two is whether they will adopt the demands of a growing popular resistance -- the GOP by becoming more rightwing, the Democrats more progressive -- or, like the Whigs, to resist change and wither away.

How much better we would be served as voters, if there were -- at least -- three parties: a reactionary Republican Party (to absorb the anger and frustration of the tea party and provide a vehicle for the fantasies of libertarian fundamentalists and the brotherhood of Ayn Rand); the centrist Democrats as currently configured (to represent the interests of militarists and security staters, neoliberals and the free markets cohort, and conservatives-formerly-known-as-Republicans); and on the left a Progressive People's Party (for the middle class and working poor, New Dealers, traditional liberals, progressives, social democrats and the rest of the 90% or so of the people presently unrepresented by the two establishment parties).

It has been more than 40 years since the U.S. began its long, slow decline into militarism, corporatism and the cult of laissez-faire, and it's unlikely that the Republicans and Democrats can fix problems they made. Decades of austerity for the poor and socialism for the rich have left them compromised and bloated by self-interest. It is now up to an angry citizenry to compel change.

The rest of the story:
-> "Today, the labor movement has been largely subdued, and social activists have made their peace with neoliberalism and adjusted their horizons accordingly. Within the women’s movement, goals have shifted from practical objectives such as comparable worth and universal child care in the 1980s to celebrating appointments of individual women to public office and challenging the corporate glass ceiling. Dominant figures in the antiwar movement have long since accepted the framework of American military interventionism. The movement for racial justice has shifted its focus from inequality to 'disparity,' while neatly evading any critique of the structures that produce inequality. The sources of this narrowing of social vision are complex. But its most conspicuous expression is subordination to the agenda of a Democratic Party whose center has moved steadily rightward since Ronald Reagan’s presidency." -- Nothing Left: The long, slow surrender of American liberals by Adolph Reed Jr. (Harper's).
-> "[I]f f there’s one thing the left needs, it’s a serious talk about its future. The alternative is the continued fragmentation of an inchoate movement, accompanied by a never-ending rightward shift in American politics and the continued ascendancy of corporate economic power." -- Has the Left Surrendered? The Overdue Conversation We Need by Richard Eskow (OurFuture).
"We need to talk about transformation – social, economic, and political." Enough Recrimination. Let’s Build a Populist Movement. by Richard Eskow (OurFuture).

Jazzcats Crossing the Hudson

Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, Steve Kuhn, Phil Ranelin, Emuir Deodato and John Coltrane crossing the Hudson in a painting by Emanuel Leitze.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month.

Time to kick out the War Party.

If neither major party candidates in races for Senate, House or Prez in 2014 and 2016 will commit clearly and unequivocally to slashing military spending, vote for a third party or independent who will. If there isn't one in a particular race, don't vote; your abstention in protest will mean more than your endorsement of Business As Usual. The only way to force radical change is the behave radically.

Want to know more about why the F-35 is a bad deal for America? Check out Brave New Films new video here.