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)
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.
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
"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.
Duke Ellington, Charlie Mingus, Max Roach: Money Jungle
He's the Willie Nelson of jazz.
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| (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
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.
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)
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)
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)
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
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.
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.
Want to know more about why the F-35 is a bad deal for America? Check out Brave New Films new video here.
IP
It has always been common for retailers of a stripe to cluster together (think music instrument vendors and diamond merchants in midtown). There are several mega-projects in the development stage around the city. Why not hold one condition of project approval to be the inclusion of a street with, say, half the retail space reserved at affordable rents for booksellers? Rent control for bookstores.
Disservice animals
Service dogs transform the lives of many thousands of people with disabilities.
Why would you undermine that essential service by ordering fake collars and harnesses from mail-order companies just so your little shit-su doesn't have to wait outside for five minutes while you get your grande double-shot soy green tea latte with no sweetener?
Unintended Consequence, type 3: Perverse result
The State Department needs to be careful in its reaction to the Crimean situation. We don't want to box ourselves into having to oppose the secession of Texas on principle.
What's at stake
"The torture was widespread, vicious and conducted in secret 'black sites' around the globe. This is what is being lost in the Beltway power struggle between Sen Feinstein and the CIA. Lives have been ruined; some in US detention died violent deaths at the hands of their captors. In the grim American gulag at Guantanamo Bay, hunger-striking prisoners charged with no crime, some of whom have been cleared for release for more than a decade, are subjected to vicious force-feeding and torture techniques that date back to the Spanish Inquisition.
"Let's hope Feinstein's indignation is not quickly salved, and that the Intelligence Committee's oversight of the sprawling US intelligence agencies is invigorated, with real teeth. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden weighed in from political asylum in Russia, saying, 'We're seeing another "Merkel Effect", where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it's a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them." -- Amy Goodman in The Guardian (UK) March 13, 2014
"Let's hope Feinstein's indignation is not quickly salved, and that the Intelligence Committee's oversight of the sprawling US intelligence agencies is invigorated, with real teeth. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden weighed in from political asylum in Russia, saying, 'We're seeing another "Merkel Effect", where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it's a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them." -- Amy Goodman in The Guardian (UK) March 13, 2014
Barbarism in Louisiana
Glenn Ford, a black man wrongfully convicted of murder by an all-white jury in Louisiana in 1984, a man who has spent the last 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit following a trial filled with constitutional violations, is on the verge of being set free. Once that happens (and it could happen as soon as tomorrow after a hearing in the case) he will become one of the longest-serving death row inmates in modern American history to be exonerated and released.
Ford’s dogged lawyers and enlightened parish prosecutors in Shreveport both filed motions late last week informing a state trial judge that the time has come now to vacate Ford’s murder conviction and death sentence. Why? Because prosecutors now say that they learned, late last year, of “credible evidence” that Ford “was neither present at, nor a participant in, the robbery and murder” of the victim in his case, a man named Isadore Rozeman. -- Andrew Cohen (The Atlantic)“After 30 years, Louisiana’s longest-serving death row prisoner will get his freedom soon. Glenn Ford is living proof of just how flawed our justice system truly is. We are moved that Mr. Ford, an African American man convicted by an all-white jury, will be able to leave death row a survivor. We are more determined than ever to put an end to the death penalty, once and for all.” -- Thenjiwe Tameika McHarris, Amnesty International USA Senior Campaigner
The rest of the story:
✓ Death Penalty (Amnesty International)
✓ A case involving a black man convicted by an all-white jury in Louisiana decades ago may be reopened: Freedom After 30 Years on Death Row by Andrew Cohen (The Atlantic)
Third Parties Can Win
"When the major parties agree, as they often do in supporting, say, corporate-style education reform, a third party can promote ideas and issues that would be otherwise neglected. In Oregon, for example, the [Working Families Party] worked with local student groups to put forward a plan for rethinking college funding. They found a WFP-backed Democrat to sponsor it, and the measure wound up passing unanimously in the state legislature. The party is now working on a bill that would
create a state bank to invest Oregon’s public money at home instead of with Wall Street and provide cheaper loans to state residents. Such proposals are unlikely to come from the major parties, which each receive massive campaign contributions from big banks, even at the state level.
"Around the country, the party also backs familiar proposals like paid sick leave and an increase in the minimum wage. Though these initiatives didn’t originate with the WFP, the party’s 15 years of clout has given it enough leverage in the states where it works to demand politicians take a position. Elected officials who have had or want the WFP’s backing— which means on-the-ground support come election time as well as a stamp of progressive approval—have an incentive to back its policies.
"'Power has both an ideological element and a straight political muscle element,' says [WFP co-founder Dan] Cantor. 'Can you actually deliver the energy, ideas, troops, money, tactics, morale, volunteers that are needed in any given fight? The fight might be an issue campaign or an electoral campaign. What I think is quite delightful about Working Families is we do both.'”
The rest of the story:
With new strategies, the Working Families Party is shaking up the two-party system: The Third Party That’s Winning by Sarah Jaffe (In These Times)
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| The Working Families Party's Sauda Baraka |
"Around the country, the party also backs familiar proposals like paid sick leave and an increase in the minimum wage. Though these initiatives didn’t originate with the WFP, the party’s 15 years of clout has given it enough leverage in the states where it works to demand politicians take a position. Elected officials who have had or want the WFP’s backing— which means on-the-ground support come election time as well as a stamp of progressive approval—have an incentive to back its policies.
"'Power has both an ideological element and a straight political muscle element,' says [WFP co-founder Dan] Cantor. 'Can you actually deliver the energy, ideas, troops, money, tactics, morale, volunteers that are needed in any given fight? The fight might be an issue campaign or an electoral campaign. What I think is quite delightful about Working Families is we do both.'”
The rest of the story:
With new strategies, the Working Families Party is shaking up the two-party system: The Third Party That’s Winning by Sarah Jaffe (In These Times)
Bernie Sanders for President!
I'm taken to task as impractical, unfairly I think, for suggesting Bernie Sanders and Bill Moyers should be president and vice-president.
But I was being practical.
If I was being idealistic, I'd have suggested Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader for those jobs.
But I was being practical.
If I was being idealistic, I'd have suggested Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader for those jobs.
Snews
The State Department reported Thursday that an increasing number of governments are suppressing political opponents and restricting freedom of assembly. Somehow it did so without mentioning the United States' huge gulag of minor drug offenders, capital punishment, routine solitary confinement, declining press freedom, the war on whistle blowers, political prisoners and mass deportations. Can you say hypocrisy?
Climate change.
Australia is going to burn to cinder. All those little island nations are going to be Atlantisized.
We've got gobs of land. Let's give them space to relocate.
The population of Australia would fit comfortably in Kansas. The entire nation of Kiribati could disappear into Queens or Brooklyn without a trace.
The first generation would work hard, vastly increase the number of neighborhood retailers and food shops, and send all their kids to college. And the second generation would move to Manhattan or L.A. or the Bay Area and become programmers, artists and stand-up comedians.
Win-win.
We've got gobs of land. Let's give them space to relocate.
The population of Australia would fit comfortably in Kansas. The entire nation of Kiribati could disappear into Queens or Brooklyn without a trace.
The first generation would work hard, vastly increase the number of neighborhood retailers and food shops, and send all their kids to college. And the second generation would move to Manhattan or L.A. or the Bay Area and become programmers, artists and stand-up comedians.
Win-win.
Third party? Now? How about now? No? Maybe now?
The arguments for a People's Party become ever more compelling. Clinging to the faith that the Democrats any more than the Republicans will dismantle the corporate-security state is like believing in angels.
In a new book, Ralph Nader reminds us that the militarization of American diplomacy began with Bill Clinton and that Obama has doubled down on the excesses of George Bush and Dick Cheney. In Unstoppable, Nader demands an end to “unconstitutional wars and unchecked militarism.” Barack Obama, he writes, “has extended the Bush doctrine by declaring his unilateral right, as secret prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner, to destroy anybody, anywhere in the world, including American citizens, suspected to be engaged in alleged terrorist activities, all this vaguely and loosely defined as anti-U.S. security," extending the illegal reach of wars of choice, invasions, incursions, and drone attacks, without regard for international law or national boundaries.
For the average citizen, the growth of corporate power bolstered by the security apparatus has been matched by a corresponding decline in quality of life. Enough is enough. Building new organizations, like a third party, and restoring old ones, like the Labor Movement, to challenge the status quo will not be easy. But without that effort, our national decline, now in its fifth decade. will continue until it is irreversible.
Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State by Ralph Nader (Amazon Kindle).
In a new book, Ralph Nader reminds us that the militarization of American diplomacy began with Bill Clinton and that Obama has doubled down on the excesses of George Bush and Dick Cheney. In Unstoppable, Nader demands an end to “unconstitutional wars and unchecked militarism.” Barack Obama, he writes, “has extended the Bush doctrine by declaring his unilateral right, as secret prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner, to destroy anybody, anywhere in the world, including American citizens, suspected to be engaged in alleged terrorist activities, all this vaguely and loosely defined as anti-U.S. security," extending the illegal reach of wars of choice, invasions, incursions, and drone attacks, without regard for international law or national boundaries.
For the average citizen, the growth of corporate power bolstered by the security apparatus has been matched by a corresponding decline in quality of life. Enough is enough. Building new organizations, like a third party, and restoring old ones, like the Labor Movement, to challenge the status quo will not be easy. But without that effort, our national decline, now in its fifth decade. will continue until it is irreversible.
Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State by Ralph Nader (Amazon Kindle).
Tipping point?
A lot of Americans aren't just fearful; they are hopeless.
And while our circumstances do appear dire, there are several things worth remembering. One is that we can't predict future, so really we have no certainty that our nation's reversal of the last four decades will continue. Another thing to keep in mind is that when change does happen, it's often quick and unexpected.
We know that there are activists around the world working to make the place healthier and fairer; it's possible that their labors will come to nothing, that global capitalism and climate change will put an end to our little Enlightenment experiment.
But what if the failures of capitalism and the efforts to create alternatives are each reaching critical mass? What if change is going to come?
When you get involved in your community to build democratized economies, you are part of the global transformation: There's a Broad Consensus Among Activists Across the Country — Is Social Change Around the Corner? by Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers (AlterNet).
And while our circumstances do appear dire, there are several things worth remembering. One is that we can't predict future, so really we have no certainty that our nation's reversal of the last four decades will continue. Another thing to keep in mind is that when change does happen, it's often quick and unexpected.
We know that there are activists around the world working to make the place healthier and fairer; it's possible that their labors will come to nothing, that global capitalism and climate change will put an end to our little Enlightenment experiment.
But what if the failures of capitalism and the efforts to create alternatives are each reaching critical mass? What if change is going to come?
When you get involved in your community to build democratized economies, you are part of the global transformation: There's a Broad Consensus Among Activists Across the Country — Is Social Change Around the Corner? by Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers (AlterNet).
Just Do It
Devo "inspired us by demonstrating that art is all about conception, execution comes last." - Bob Lefsetz
Yes, You Will Be Able to Print Food with Your 3-D Printer
Interviewer: "... I know you have the necklace here made from 3D printer, and you have the purse over there. What other things down the road do you think 3D printing can really help with?"
ing: "The area that I'm very excited about is certainly metal to produce materials that are lighter and stronger and more flexible. Ceramic -- anything that you use ceramic to do can all be changed into 3D printing. It's exciting.
"And medical and bioscience, like one of the companies I'm involved with as advisor is printing meat and leather with slaughterhouses. So if one cow can feed an entire nation, we can produce high-quality protein to developing countries without having this unsustainable way of raising cows."
Interviewer: "How does that work? It still sounds like science fiction."
Ping: "Those will take longer. It's already possible today to print ground meat, but it's not quite there yet to print the consistency of steak or chicken or pork. But there are lots of hamburger patties and dumpling fillings, right?...The way it works is it uses stem-cell tissue engineering and in-vitro technology to print the structure of those natural meats and then let it grow. It's very exciting." -- from an interview with Ping Fu, author of Bend, Not Break - A Life in Two Worlds.
ing: "The area that I'm very excited about is certainly metal to produce materials that are lighter and stronger and more flexible. Ceramic -- anything that you use ceramic to do can all be changed into 3D printing. It's exciting.
"And medical and bioscience, like one of the companies I'm involved with as advisor is printing meat and leather with slaughterhouses. So if one cow can feed an entire nation, we can produce high-quality protein to developing countries without having this unsustainable way of raising cows."
Interviewer: "How does that work? It still sounds like science fiction."
Ping: "Those will take longer. It's already possible today to print ground meat, but it's not quite there yet to print the consistency of steak or chicken or pork. But there are lots of hamburger patties and dumpling fillings, right?...The way it works is it uses stem-cell tissue engineering and in-vitro technology to print the structure of those natural meats and then let it grow. It's very exciting." -- from an interview with Ping Fu, author of Bend, Not Break - A Life in Two Worlds.
It didn't take
It hasn't escaped notice that the folks at The Nation don't carry on so much anymore about how Nick Clegg once upon a time interned there.
$15.15 or Fight!
As with affordable health care (and countless other matters), the job of moderate Democrats is to release the build up of pressure for real change (such as universal affordable health care insurance aka single-payer aka Medicare for All) by promoting incremental improvements. The president tonight will call for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Context: Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently cited a study that suggested the federal minimum wage would be nearly $22 an hour today if it had kept up with increased rates in worker productivity. Progressives should be chary of embracing the president's proposal, because, as with health care reform, we have one shot at getting it right. $10.10 will lock millions of American workers in poverty forever, even if, as is unlikely, future increases are tied to the cost of living. Restaurant workers were on the money in calling for a $15 minimum in actions this year, but that won't fly politically. The president's $10.10 needs to be answered with something more just. Instead of $10.10, how about $15.15?
The real state of the union:
From Business Insider:
1. New income generated since 2009 that has gone to the top 1 percent: 95 percent
2. Financial wealth controlled by the bottom 60 percent of all Americans: 2.3 percent
3. Record combined wealth of the top 400 richest Americans: $2,000,000,000,000
4. Real decline in median middle-class incomes since 1999: $5,000
5. Percentage of Hispanic and African-American children living in poverty, respectively: 33.8 percent; 36.7 percent
6. Amount that food stamps will be cut in 2014: $5 billion
7. Federal minimum wage: $7.25
8. What the minimum wage would be if it had kept pace with gains in worker productivity since 1968: $21.72
9. Number of U.S. workers laboring at or below minimum wage: 3.6 million – the near equivalent of the population of Los Angeles.
10.Stealth taxpayer subsidy to the fast-food industry, paid out as safety-net benefits to McWorkers earning poverty wages: $7 billion
11. Global carbon dioxide levels measured in parts per million: 397
12. Maximum concentration of the greenhouse gas that scientists deem sustainable: 350
13. Years since the turn of this century that have ranked among the warmest 15 on record: All 13
14. Rank of 2013 on that list of the warmest years on record: Number Four
15. U.S. defense spending as of 2012: $682 billion
16. Dollar amount by which that surpassed our nearest plausible military rival, China: $516 billion
17. Federal deficit last year: $680 billion
18. Number of Americans disenfranchised from voting for felony convictions: 5.9 million
19. Share of those disenfranchised voters who are African-American: 37 percent
20. Number of Americans arrested annually for marijuana possession: 658,000
21. Total incarcerated U.S. population: 2.3 million
22. Total population on probation/parole: 4.8 million
23. States that could be entirely filled by all of the Americans under correctional supervision: Nevada and Kentucky
24. Official unemployment rate: 6.7 percent
25. Alternate rate including Americans who've given up looking for work, or have only been able to secure part-time employment: 13.1 percent
26. Number of jobs the United States is still down from 2008 employment peak: 1.69 million
27. Number of Americans who were cut off from long-term unemployment benefits at the turn of the year: 1.3 million
1. New income generated since 2009 that has gone to the top 1 percent: 95 percent
2. Financial wealth controlled by the bottom 60 percent of all Americans: 2.3 percent
3. Record combined wealth of the top 400 richest Americans: $2,000,000,000,000
4. Real decline in median middle-class incomes since 1999: $5,000
5. Percentage of Hispanic and African-American children living in poverty, respectively: 33.8 percent; 36.7 percent
6. Amount that food stamps will be cut in 2014: $5 billion
7. Federal minimum wage: $7.25
8. What the minimum wage would be if it had kept pace with gains in worker productivity since 1968: $21.72
9. Number of U.S. workers laboring at or below minimum wage: 3.6 million – the near equivalent of the population of Los Angeles.
10.Stealth taxpayer subsidy to the fast-food industry, paid out as safety-net benefits to McWorkers earning poverty wages: $7 billion
11. Global carbon dioxide levels measured in parts per million: 397
12. Maximum concentration of the greenhouse gas that scientists deem sustainable: 350
13. Years since the turn of this century that have ranked among the warmest 15 on record: All 13
14. Rank of 2013 on that list of the warmest years on record: Number Four
15. U.S. defense spending as of 2012: $682 billion
16. Dollar amount by which that surpassed our nearest plausible military rival, China: $516 billion
17. Federal deficit last year: $680 billion
18. Number of Americans disenfranchised from voting for felony convictions: 5.9 million
19. Share of those disenfranchised voters who are African-American: 37 percent
20. Number of Americans arrested annually for marijuana possession: 658,000
21. Total incarcerated U.S. population: 2.3 million
22. Total population on probation/parole: 4.8 million
23. States that could be entirely filled by all of the Americans under correctional supervision: Nevada and Kentucky
24. Official unemployment rate: 6.7 percent
25. Alternate rate including Americans who've given up looking for work, or have only been able to secure part-time employment: 13.1 percent
26. Number of jobs the United States is still down from 2008 employment peak: 1.69 million
27. Number of Americans who were cut off from long-term unemployment benefits at the turn of the year: 1.3 million
Remember.
The mainstream obits for Pete Seeger are as irritating as the ones for Nelson Mandela and as the encomia for Martin Luther King on his feast day. These men were radicals. Anyone of them would have been happy to pull the plug on capitalism. Oligarchs try to control the future by controlling the past. Don't let them.
Search me
Google "Nuclear accidents?"
Nuclear accidents - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"war machine?"
war machine - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Hillary Clinton?"
Hillary Clinton - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Toe cheese?"
Toe Cheese - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better. Shop for Toe Cheese at Walmart.com and save. Buy great products at a great price.
Nuclear accidents - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"war machine?"
war machine - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Hillary Clinton?"
Hillary Clinton - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Toe cheese?"
Toe Cheese - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better. Shop for Toe Cheese at Walmart.com and save. Buy great products at a great price.
Anals of the 4th Estate
Here's how the media is handling the atomic wedgie murder according to TheWire):
Avoiding the issue:
Man Arrested In Murder Of Stepfather In McLoud -- News9
Murder arrest: Stepson jailed in death of stepfather in McLoud -- The Shawnee News-Star
Saying what happened, but being classy:
Authorities: Okla. Man Suffocated With Underwear -- Associated Press
Using passive voice:
Oklahoma man dies from atomic wedgie -- NY Daily News
Putting 'atomic wedgie' in 'quotes' for 'distance':
Police: 'Atomic wedgie' led to man's death -- KOCO
Police: Man Killed Stepfather With ‘Atomic Wedgie’ Days Before Christmas -- CBS Houston
Oklahoman given 'atomic wedgie' died from suffocation, trauma to head -- NewsOK
Oklahoma man charged with 'atomic wedgie' murder of stepfather -- Reuters
Talking it to death:
Atomic Wedgie Murder: Denver St. Clair Choked From Underwear Around His Head; Stepson Brad Lee Davis Charged In Killing [PHOTO] - International Business Times
Going for it:
'This was more than just a fight': Ex-Marine, 33, 'kills stepfather by ATOMIC WEDGIE' -- Daily Mail
En français:
Oklahoma: un homme meurt asphyxié par son propre sous-vêtement -- Le Journal de Québec
Avoiding the issue:
Man Arrested In Murder Of Stepfather In McLoud -- News9
Murder arrest: Stepson jailed in death of stepfather in McLoud -- The Shawnee News-Star
Saying what happened, but being classy:
Authorities: Okla. Man Suffocated With Underwear -- Associated Press
Using passive voice:
Oklahoma man dies from atomic wedgie -- NY Daily News
Putting 'atomic wedgie' in 'quotes' for 'distance':
Police: 'Atomic wedgie' led to man's death -- KOCO
Police: Man Killed Stepfather With ‘Atomic Wedgie’ Days Before Christmas -- CBS Houston
Oklahoman given 'atomic wedgie' died from suffocation, trauma to head -- NewsOK
Oklahoma man charged with 'atomic wedgie' murder of stepfather -- Reuters
Talking it to death:
Atomic Wedgie Murder: Denver St. Clair Choked From Underwear Around His Head; Stepson Brad Lee Davis Charged In Killing [PHOTO] - International Business Times
Going for it:
'This was more than just a fight': Ex-Marine, 33, 'kills stepfather by ATOMIC WEDGIE' -- Daily Mail
En français:
Oklahoma: un homme meurt asphyxié par son propre sous-vêtement -- Le Journal de Québec
All Mart
Search for almost anything today, and your likely to get a link to Wal-Mart. Nuclear accidents? "Nuclear accidents - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better." war machine? "war machine - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better." Hillary Clinton? "Hillary Clinton - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better." Toe cheese? "Toe Cheese - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better. Shop for Toe Cheese at Walmart.com and save. Buy great products at a great price."
If Obama really wants to look tough, he should break a union.
Is Chris Matthews' mouth disconnected from his brain or is he just not a liberal?: "I think actions speak louder than words. And I got to tell you something. When Reagan broke the PATCO strike and fired them all for breaking their oaths, everybody in the world, including the people in Moscow, got the word…. It's one of the reasons we ended the Cold War, because they knew we had a strong president."
Parenthetically
Secretary of State John Kerry says the US will help Iraq with its Al-Qaeda problem, but not with "boots on the ground."
Because that would be a cliché.
What we don't get with pinpoint accuracy is reporting
When it looked like the US would carry out a military attack on Syria, CNN reporters stepped right into their roles as Pentagon flacks. Anchor Brooke Baldwin declared that US warships "can carry cruise missiles able to strike targets more than 1,000 miles away with pinpoint accuracy" (8/30/13). Correspondent Tom Foreman told viewers: "Cruise missiles are extraordinary weapons. They're very reliable. They have pinpoint accuracy" (9/2/13).
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