This new video from AFL-CIO is a doozy: "I want people to see and understand what Mr. Trump is. I am only speaking up because most people won't."
See it here.
TPP Eats, Shoots & Leaves
During the debate leading up to the passage of NAFTA, the stationery of an outfit lobbying for the treaty trumpeted: “North American Free Trade Agreement -- Exports. Better Jobs. Better Wages.”
So close.
The correct punctuation, of course, is: “North American Free Trade Agreement -- Exports Better Jobs, Better Wages.”
Expect similar lapses in grammar and punctuation -- and accuracy -- during the upcoming consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Reading list:
TPP: What is it and why does it matter? (BBC News).
The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership 2016 also can be accessed in French and Spanish language versions on the site of New Zealand Foreign Affairs & Trade.
TPP is a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. The main problems are two-fold: (1) digital policies that benefit big corporations at the expense of the public and (2) lack of transparency (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
More Job Offshoring, Lower Wages, Unsafe Food Imports: It's Worse than We Thought (Public Citizen).
Second Thoughts
“I want to be the president for the struggling, the striving and the successful.” -- Hillary Clinton, before the Michigan primary
“I don’t want to be the president for those who are already successful — they don’t need me. I want to be the president for the struggling and the striving.” -- Hillary Clinton, after the Michigan primary
Extra credit:
Crushing it
If you look at its history, you see that Bernie Sanders fits more snugly into the traditions and policies of the Democratic Party than does the Clinton cohort. If you ask the liberal base of the party, you get the same answer: that's what cost Hillary Clinton the job in 2008, and it's why, despite incredible institutional advantages, she hasn't been able to knock Sanders out of contention.
In this election, what’s at stake is not which particular subset of the oligarchy gets to decorate the big corner offices on Capitol Hill or who gets to weekend at Camp David. This is a fight about the future of the country.
The Democratic Party is a vehicle, a tool. If that tool can be used to improve our people's lives, great. That's the measure of its success. Winning, alone, is not. But even for those for whom the only goal is thwarting the GOP, in this season of frustration and discontent, Sanders is more likely to win the general election than Clinton.
More important: if it is not an instrument for improving the lives of ordinary citizens, what good is any political party? Why should people fighting for a living wage vote for a party, whatever its rhetoric, that stands in its way? Why should people who value economic justice vote for a party that embraces giveaways to the economic elite? Why should people who want peace vote for the party of war?
Oh, yeah: the other guys are worse. Is that truly enough?
The young are rallying to Sanders because he is addressing their fears about the future. The economic policies pursued by the Democrats and Republicans over the past 30 years have hurt everyone (except the 1%) to one degree or another, but the young most of all. Crushing debt, joblessness, vanishing career paths, globalization, demographics, and the rising cost of housing are slamming the incomes and destroying the prospects of millions of young people, resulting in unprecedented inequality not just between the economic elite and everyone else, but between generations. Of course they want a leader who makes fixing the economic mess the first priority.
What is true for the young is true for nearly every other demographic (with the possible exception of the elderly, whose lives are cushioned somewhat by programs, like Social Security and Medicare, initiated by -- that’s right -- the New Deal and the Great Society), which is why Sanders’ appeal has such a wide reach. Everyone is mad as hell; maybe, for the first time since the plutocratic counter-revolution began in the early 1970s, they’re not going to take it anymore. In the end, if the duoparty nominees are a radical reactionary and an establishment factotum, the Green Party may be about to enjoy its best year ever.
In this election, what’s at stake is not which particular subset of the oligarchy gets to decorate the big corner offices on Capitol Hill or who gets to weekend at Camp David. This is a fight about the future of the country.
The Democratic Party is a vehicle, a tool. If that tool can be used to improve our people's lives, great. That's the measure of its success. Winning, alone, is not. But even for those for whom the only goal is thwarting the GOP, in this season of frustration and discontent, Sanders is more likely to win the general election than Clinton.
More important: if it is not an instrument for improving the lives of ordinary citizens, what good is any political party? Why should people fighting for a living wage vote for a party, whatever its rhetoric, that stands in its way? Why should people who value economic justice vote for a party that embraces giveaways to the economic elite? Why should people who want peace vote for the party of war?
Oh, yeah: the other guys are worse. Is that truly enough?
The young are rallying to Sanders because he is addressing their fears about the future. The economic policies pursued by the Democrats and Republicans over the past 30 years have hurt everyone (except the 1%) to one degree or another, but the young most of all. Crushing debt, joblessness, vanishing career paths, globalization, demographics, and the rising cost of housing are slamming the incomes and destroying the prospects of millions of young people, resulting in unprecedented inequality not just between the economic elite and everyone else, but between generations. Of course they want a leader who makes fixing the economic mess the first priority.
What is true for the young is true for nearly every other demographic (with the possible exception of the elderly, whose lives are cushioned somewhat by programs, like Social Security and Medicare, initiated by -- that’s right -- the New Deal and the Great Society), which is why Sanders’ appeal has such a wide reach. Everyone is mad as hell; maybe, for the first time since the plutocratic counter-revolution began in the early 1970s, they’re not going to take it anymore. In the end, if the duoparty nominees are a radical reactionary and an establishment factotum, the Green Party may be about to enjoy its best year ever.
It's not over 'til it's over.
There's more to the primaries than picking the nominee. The delegates to the convention will write, amend and approve the party platform. Speeches will be made to the nation in prime time. The party chair will be chosen and DNC positions filled. Whether the nominee is Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, the more progressives that are elected to the convention, the more likely that the Democratic Party will return to its historic role as the champion of social and economic equality.
"Why do so many Democrats hate Hillary Clinton?"
It's not personal.
Any other establishment neo-liberal who ran, especially this year with
so many citizens fed up with business-as-usual, would be drawing the same kind of fire.
It's intensified in her case by her identification with and participation in her husband's administration's policies -- militarization of foreign policy; NAFTA, the push toward deregulation, particularly of the banks (see, the Great Recession) and telecom companies; the Drug War and mass incarceration; the cruel welfare reforms; embracing austerity and fetishizing balanced budgets.
Additionally, there is her habit of seeing every foreign policy issue as a nail needing hammering by the military, and her close ties to Wall Street and the corporate elite. Finally, she lacks a natural politician's gift for retail politics; she isn't light enough on her feet to pirouette past repeated panders and policy shifts without anyone noticing; belated adoption of progressive positions doesn't play as evolving, it looks like cynicism and politics-as-usual:
Fair or not, many Democratic voters perceive her campaign as a con.
Reading List:
-> The most surreal moment in the Democratic debates came when one of America’s most powerful insiders took umbrage at an accurate characterization of whom she represents. Of Course Hillary Clinton Exemplifies the Establishment by Conor Friedersdorf (The Atlantic).
-> How Neoliberal is Hillary Clinton? by Le Gauchiste (Daily Kos).
-> Neoliberalism from Reagan to Clinton by Gregory Albo (Monthly Review), a review of Surrender: How the Clinton Administration Completed the Reagan Revolution by Michael Meeropol (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).
-> Hillary Clinton isn’t a champion of women’s rights. She’s the embodiment of corporate feminism. Hillary Clinton’s Empowerment by Kevin Young & Diana C. Sierra Becerra (Jacobin)
-> David Harvey not only looks into the political and economic dangers that surround us now, but also examines the prospects for more socially just alternatives. A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey (Oxford University Press).
-> If the Democrats lose in November 2016, they can't say they weren't warned: Stop Hillary! by Doug Henwood (2014: Harper's) and Ready for Hillary? Really? by Pierre Guerlain (2013: Truthout).
Any other establishment neo-liberal who ran, especially this year with
It's intensified in her case by her identification with and participation in her husband's administration's policies -- militarization of foreign policy; NAFTA, the push toward deregulation, particularly of the banks (see, the Great Recession) and telecom companies; the Drug War and mass incarceration; the cruel welfare reforms; embracing austerity and fetishizing balanced budgets.
Additionally, there is her habit of seeing every foreign policy issue as a nail needing hammering by the military, and her close ties to Wall Street and the corporate elite. Finally, she lacks a natural politician's gift for retail politics; she isn't light enough on her feet to pirouette past repeated panders and policy shifts without anyone noticing; belated adoption of progressive positions doesn't play as evolving, it looks like cynicism and politics-as-usual:
Fair or not, many Democratic voters perceive her campaign as a con.
Reading List:
-> The most surreal moment in the Democratic debates came when one of America’s most powerful insiders took umbrage at an accurate characterization of whom she represents. Of Course Hillary Clinton Exemplifies the Establishment by Conor Friedersdorf (The Atlantic).
-> How Neoliberal is Hillary Clinton? by Le Gauchiste (Daily Kos).
-> Neoliberalism from Reagan to Clinton by Gregory Albo (Monthly Review), a review of Surrender: How the Clinton Administration Completed the Reagan Revolution by Michael Meeropol (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).
-> Hillary Clinton isn’t a champion of women’s rights. She’s the embodiment of corporate feminism. Hillary Clinton’s Empowerment by Kevin Young & Diana C. Sierra Becerra (Jacobin)
-> David Harvey not only looks into the political and economic dangers that surround us now, but also examines the prospects for more socially just alternatives. A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey (Oxford University Press).
-> If the Democrats lose in November 2016, they can't say they weren't warned: Stop Hillary! by Doug Henwood (2014: Harper's) and Ready for Hillary? Really? by Pierre Guerlain (2013: Truthout).
That Time Allen Ginsberg Wrote a Socialist Poem -- About Bernie Sanders
"Last June, while digging through 50 boxes of archival material about Bernie Sanders’s four terms as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, a reporter for the British newspaper the Guardian found a poem
 |
| (Illustration: Anya Ulinich/Forward) |
"Ginsberg wrote, 'Socialist snow on the streets / Socialist talk in the Maverick Bookstore / Socialist kids sucking socialist lollipops.' Then he turned outward, questioning with almost Elizabethan wit: '--aren’t the birds frozen socialists? / Aren’t the snowclouds blocking the airfield Social Democratic appearances?'
"After Ginsberg shares the city’s governing idea, the poem itself is shared: 'Isn’t this poem socialist? It doesn’t belong to me anymore.'”
That Time Allen Ginsberg Wrote a Socialist Poem -- About Bernie Sanders by Allan M. Jalon (Forward)
Carpe Diem
We miss this moment at our peril. Hope and change was the right choice in 2008. Hope and change is the right choice now.
"At this moment, in this time, we have a chance to rewrite history. To restore government to a role in which it assures an equitable economy and society; a role that isn’t one of a scapegoat, a punch line, or a tool of the Oligarchy; a role where once again, government is the vehicle we use to accomplish great things together."
The rest of the story:
Establishment Democrats Missing the Moment – And the Point by John Atcheson (Common Dreams)
"At this moment, in this time, we have a chance to rewrite history. To restore government to a role in which it assures an equitable economy and society; a role that isn’t one of a scapegoat, a punch line, or a tool of the Oligarchy; a role where once again, government is the vehicle we use to accomplish great things together."
The rest of the story:
Establishment Democrats Missing the Moment – And the Point by John Atcheson (Common Dreams)
Money for Nothing
One bulwark against the rise of oligarchy is the estate tax, a progressive tax on property (cash, real estate, stocks and bonds and other assets) left by dead people to their heirs. Only the wealthiest estates are affected because it’s levied only on the property in an estate that exceeds a specified exemption -- right now, $5.43 million per person (effectively $10.86 million per married couple). The estate tax helps to limit, a little, the large tax breaks that the extremely rich get on their wealth as it grows, income which otherwise can go untaxed.
Besides being an important source of revenue, estate taxes are intended to prevent gross economic inequality which, if left unchecked, can
poison a society. (Conservatives make a big deal about the “death tax,” but it affects very few people -- last year, because of the current high exemption, 99.8% of estates owe no estate tax -- by way of context, the exemption jumped from $650,000 per person in 2001 to $5.43 million per person now; even so, conservatives repeatedly try to get rid of it entirely).
The current exemption is too high, reflecting the influence of money on Congress, but, that aside, estate taxes are also too narrowly defined. If inequality is to be reduced, the tax on the transfer of wealth should be broadened to cover all wealth received in one’s lifetime, and taxed as income. This would reward people who give away their wealth broadly -- a social good -- and act as a brake on it piling up in the hands of the few.
If we as a nation want to counter inequality even more aggressively, we could use wealth transfer revenues to fund a minimal inheritance for every citizen to be paid when they come of age. Providing a more level starting point would result in a society with much greater opportunity.
Reading List:
-> "Let's be clear on this point. The tax burdens those who inherit the wealth, not those who produced it; it is a tax on Paris Hilton, not Conrad Hilton. And it does not conflict with the values of hard work, entrepreneurship and thrift.": It's Fair, and We Need the Revenue by Michael J. Graetz (Wall Street Journal).
-> The Three Fundamental Reasons Why We Need a Robust Estate Tax by Richard Phillips (Citizens for Tax Justice).
-> To Whom Much Is Given: Why We Need to Tax Inheritance by Jeffrey Mikkelson (Truthout).
-> Taxing Privilege More Effectively: Replacing the Estate Tax with an Inheritance Tax by Lily L. Batchelder (Brookings).
-> "Inheritance not only hands people valuable income in return for something we don't really want to further reward -- being born lucky -- but also, in doing so, it entrenches the least attractive feature of our economy: the fact that people who are born to affluent parents are much more likely to themselves be affluent than children born to the less well-heeled. Lack of economic mobility is generally regarded as a bad thing that we should combat.": Why Do We Allow Inheritance at All? by Megan McCardle (The Atlantic).
Extra Credit:
By not dealing promptly with his Cliven Bundys, Founding Father #1 wound up with the Whiskey Rebellion: How Former President Washington Dealt With The First Real Tax Crisis In America by Kelly Phillips Erb (Forbes).
The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution by Thomas P. Slaughter (Amazon).
Besides being an important source of revenue, estate taxes are intended to prevent gross economic inequality which, if left unchecked, can
The current exemption is too high, reflecting the influence of money on Congress, but, that aside, estate taxes are also too narrowly defined. If inequality is to be reduced, the tax on the transfer of wealth should be broadened to cover all wealth received in one’s lifetime, and taxed as income. This would reward people who give away their wealth broadly -- a social good -- and act as a brake on it piling up in the hands of the few.
If we as a nation want to counter inequality even more aggressively, we could use wealth transfer revenues to fund a minimal inheritance for every citizen to be paid when they come of age. Providing a more level starting point would result in a society with much greater opportunity.
Reading List:
-> "Let's be clear on this point. The tax burdens those who inherit the wealth, not those who produced it; it is a tax on Paris Hilton, not Conrad Hilton. And it does not conflict with the values of hard work, entrepreneurship and thrift.": It's Fair, and We Need the Revenue by Michael J. Graetz (Wall Street Journal).
-> The Three Fundamental Reasons Why We Need a Robust Estate Tax by Richard Phillips (Citizens for Tax Justice).
-> To Whom Much Is Given: Why We Need to Tax Inheritance by Jeffrey Mikkelson (Truthout).
-> Taxing Privilege More Effectively: Replacing the Estate Tax with an Inheritance Tax by Lily L. Batchelder (Brookings).
-> "Inheritance not only hands people valuable income in return for something we don't really want to further reward -- being born lucky -- but also, in doing so, it entrenches the least attractive feature of our economy: the fact that people who are born to affluent parents are much more likely to themselves be affluent than children born to the less well-heeled. Lack of economic mobility is generally regarded as a bad thing that we should combat.": Why Do We Allow Inheritance at All? by Megan McCardle (The Atlantic).
Extra Credit:
By not dealing promptly with his Cliven Bundys, Founding Father #1 wound up with the Whiskey Rebellion: How Former President Washington Dealt With The First Real Tax Crisis In America by Kelly Phillips Erb (Forbes).
The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution by Thomas P. Slaughter (Amazon).
This is what it looks like when people are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
 |
| Roberta Penn @StellaDean |
"Organized by the Move Forward Together Movement and the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP, led by Rev. William Barber III, the demonstration attracted a diverse coalition of individuals and organizations who say the systematic attack on state services—including healthcare and education—along with eroded democratic control and new voting restrictions, have disempowered and further marginalized the state's most vulnerable populations.
"'The right to vote is at the heart of our democracy,' Rev. Barber told the crowd."
The rest of the story:
Thousands Rally in North Carolina for 'Moral Imperative' of Voting Rights by Jon Queally (Common Dreams)
Sen. Sanders foreign policy experience
The author, a former Asst. Secretary of Defense (under Reagan!), who advised Reagan, Kerry, George HW and Obama, is the guy who was publicly surprised when Sanders cited him as someone he listens to re. foreign policy, as they had only met once during the campaign. Sanders was mocked for this, but the author actually believes Sanders is strong and experienced in the foreign policy realm. -- Andrew J. Lederer
Bernie Sanders Is More Serious on Foreign Policy Than You Think by Lawrence Korb (Politico)
Bernie Sanders Is More Serious on Foreign Policy Than You Think by Lawrence Korb (Politico)
From the Makes Sense To Me Desk:
“Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists.” -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Poor me
Apparently, so desperate is the Hillary Clinton campaign it has decided to play the victim card. But if that's going to be our criterion for choosing the president, shouldn't we go with Joe Biden? He's had it a lot rougher than she has.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words Dept.:
-> make it easier for big corporations to ship our jobs overseas, pushing down our wages and increasing income inequalityReading List:
-> flood our country with unsafe imported food
-> jack up the cost of medicines by giving big pharmaceutical corporations new monopoly rights to keep lower cost generic drugs off the market
-> empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards
-> ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs
-> roll back Wall Street reforms
-> sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom and
-> undermine human rights.
The Government of Canada is committed to being transparent, open and consultative with Canadians on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
"TPP raises significant concerns about citizens’ freedom of expression, due process, innovation, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and the right of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws that best meet their domestic priorities. In sum, the TPP puts at risk some of the most fundamental rights that enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens:" What is TPP? (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
Provisions that allow foreign investors to bypass the federal courts could undermine U.S. legal protections: Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Unconstitutional? by Alan Morrison (The Atlantic).
The “Investor-State Dispute Settlement,” or ISDS, may sound mild, but don’t be fooled. Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty: The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Washington Post).
So it goes
As the senator from Vermont likes to say, let's be perfectly clear about this: "Bernie Sanders swept to a massive victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary on Tuesday in a stunning win over Hillary Clinton that will send shockwaves through her campaign and give the Vermont senator much needed momentum as he heads for tougher states further south" (The Guardian).
Trending
All nine eligible residents of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, have voted, and it's looking grim for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Ohio governor John Kasich was the Republican winner, beating Donald Trump by three votes to two, while Senator Bernie Sanders swept with all four of the Democratic votes.
Just curious #67,233
If Bernie Sanders' understanding of economics is so inconsiderable, why have the Democrats made him the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee? Just curious.
"Thank you, enemy."
On Obama: "And he, who would negotiate deals, kind of with the skills of a community organizer maybe organizing a neighborhood tea, well, he deciding that, 'No, America would apologize as part of the deal,' as the enemy sends a message to the rest of the world that they capture and we kowtow, and we apologize, and then, we bend over and say, 'Thank you, enemy.'” -- Sarah Palin
Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed --
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek --
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean --
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home --
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay --
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again --
The land that never has been yet --
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME --
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose --
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath --
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain --
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
-- Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967
From the essential Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Vintage Classics, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.), a volume that belongs in every library.
Langston Hughes (Poetry Foundation).
Langston Hughes Biography (Bio.).
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes (Poets.Org).
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed --
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek --
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean --
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home --
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay --
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again --
The land that never has been yet --
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME --
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose --
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath --
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain --
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
-- Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967
Langston Hughes (Poetry Foundation).
Langston Hughes Biography (Bio.).
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes (Poets.Org).
Helen Keller on the $10
Part of the reason for redesigning our paper currency is to make it accessible to people with difficulty seeing (also, to make it harder to counterfeit). We are one of only two nations whose bills are the same size no matter what the denomination; most countries also vary the colors to make bills more detectable to people who are sight-impaired but not totally blind.
The next bill due for a redo is the $10, and the Treasury has announced that it intends to replace the current occupant, Alexander Hamilton, with a woman.
That being the case, although the women on the front page of today's New York Times -- Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks -- are all admirable, it seems to me that there is one stand-out candidate: Helen Keller (1880–1968).
Struck totally deaf and blind by a childhood illness when she was 19 months old, before she'd learned to speak, she overcame the adversity of being unable hear or see anything to become one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, an international champion for the disabled, a feminist, a socialist, a teacher and lecturer, a journalist, the first deaf-blind person to earn a BA, and a co-founder of the ACLU.
Parenthetically, it's not too late to erase autocratic, slave-trading, Indian-relocating, populist Andrew Jackson from our currency, instead of Hamilton who, as founder of the nation's financial system (not to mention a far better human being), has a more direct connection to our currency.
The rest of the story:
A Woman on the $10 Bill, and Everyone Has 2 Cents to Put In by Jackie Calmes (New York Times).
Reading list:
What Helen Keller Saw: The making of a writer by Cynthia Ozick (The New Yorker).
Three Days to See by Hellen Keller (1933; The Atlantic Monthly).
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (Amazon).
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Amazon).
Extra credit:
The Water Scene and the Breakfast Scene from The Miracle Worker (Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke; directed by Arthur Penn; written by William Gibson)(YouTube).
Buy The Miracle Worker (Amazon).
Helen Keller Speaks Out (YouTube)
Hamilton - Original Broadway Cast Recording: book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer Lin Manuel Miranda, who also plays the title role; directed by Thomas Kail; choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler; music direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. The show was inspired by Chernow's biography (Amazon).
The next bill due for a redo is the $10, and the Treasury has announced that it intends to replace the current occupant, Alexander Hamilton, with a woman.
That being the case, although the women on the front page of today's New York Times -- Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks -- are all admirable, it seems to me that there is one stand-out candidate: Helen Keller (1880–1968).
Parenthetically, it's not too late to erase autocratic, slave-trading, Indian-relocating, populist Andrew Jackson from our currency, instead of Hamilton who, as founder of the nation's financial system (not to mention a far better human being), has a more direct connection to our currency.
The rest of the story:
A Woman on the $10 Bill, and Everyone Has 2 Cents to Put In by Jackie Calmes (New York Times).
Reading list:
What Helen Keller Saw: The making of a writer by Cynthia Ozick (The New Yorker).
Three Days to See by Hellen Keller (1933; The Atlantic Monthly).
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (Amazon).
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Amazon).
Extra credit:
The Water Scene and the Breakfast Scene from The Miracle Worker (Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke; directed by Arthur Penn; written by William Gibson)(YouTube).
Buy The Miracle Worker (Amazon).
Helen Keller Speaks Out (YouTube)
Hamilton - Original Broadway Cast Recording: book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer Lin Manuel Miranda, who also plays the title role; directed by Thomas Kail; choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler; music direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. The show was inspired by Chernow's biography (Amazon).
Just Curious #27,632
So you've tweeted, "Bernie Sanders is a do-nothing failure."
Mayor. Member of the House of Representatives. U.S. Senator.
What have you done lately? Just curious.
Mayor. Member of the House of Representatives. U.S. Senator.
What have you done lately? Just curious.
The nation’s largest private-sector employer is told to obey the law
A federal administrative law judge has ordered
Wal-Mart to offer 16 former workers their previous jobs and to make them "whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits suffered as a result of the discrimination against them." The company must also hold meetings in more than two dozen stores to inform workers of their rights to organize under U.S. labor law.
The rest of the story:
Wal-Mart strikes lawful, must reinstate workers: NLRB judge by Nathan Layne (Reuters).
Further reading:
How Walmart Keeps an Eye on Its Massive Workforce: The retail giant is always watching by Susan Berfield (Bloomberg Businessweek).
Life as a Wal-Mart worker -- and how its employees are monitored at all times: America’s real-life dystopia: Wal-Mart is straight out of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley by Aaron R. Hanlon (Salon).
“We are not anti-union; we are pro-associate”: A Manager's Toolbox To Remaining Union Free ("CONFIDENTIAL" Wal-Mart document) (source: ReclaimDemocracy.org).
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman (Amazon). "[T]he story of Wal-Mart is really the story of the transformation of the American economy over the past 20 years." Fishman is "careful to present the consumer benefits of Wal-Mart's staggering growth and to place Wal-Mart in the larger context of globalization and the rise of mega-corporations. But he also presents the case against Wal-Mart in arresting detail, and his carefully balanced approach only makes the downside of Wal-Mart's market dominance more vivid." -- Publisher's Weekly
The discount giant is closing 269 stores worldwide—and not even bothering to build stores it promised in poor neighborhoods: Can Cities Afford to Trust Walmart? by Kriston Capps (CityLab)
Extra credit:
This video is shown to all "associates" at on-boarding: it's imperative that everyone working for Wal-Mart understands that s/he is "better off" without a union.
The parody t-shirt at the top of this post and other merchandise is available from Reclaim Democracy!: "Reclaim Democracy! is dedicated to restoring democratic authority over corporations, reviving grassroots democracy, and establishing appropriate limits on corporate influence. We work for systemic change, instead of reacting to corporate agendas."
The rest of the story:
Wal-Mart strikes lawful, must reinstate workers: NLRB judge by Nathan Layne (Reuters).
Further reading:
How Walmart Keeps an Eye on Its Massive Workforce: The retail giant is always watching by Susan Berfield (Bloomberg Businessweek).
Life as a Wal-Mart worker -- and how its employees are monitored at all times: America’s real-life dystopia: Wal-Mart is straight out of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley by Aaron R. Hanlon (Salon).
“We are not anti-union; we are pro-associate”: A Manager's Toolbox To Remaining Union Free ("CONFIDENTIAL" Wal-Mart document) (source: ReclaimDemocracy.org).
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman (Amazon). "[T]he story of Wal-Mart is really the story of the transformation of the American economy over the past 20 years." Fishman is "careful to present the consumer benefits of Wal-Mart's staggering growth and to place Wal-Mart in the larger context of globalization and the rise of mega-corporations. But he also presents the case against Wal-Mart in arresting detail, and his carefully balanced approach only makes the downside of Wal-Mart's market dominance more vivid." -- Publisher's Weekly
The discount giant is closing 269 stores worldwide—and not even bothering to build stores it promised in poor neighborhoods: Can Cities Afford to Trust Walmart? by Kriston Capps (CityLab)
Extra credit:
This video is shown to all "associates" at on-boarding: it's imperative that everyone working for Wal-Mart understands that s/he is "better off" without a union.
The parody t-shirt at the top of this post and other merchandise is available from Reclaim Democracy!: "Reclaim Democracy! is dedicated to restoring democratic authority over corporations, reviving grassroots democracy, and establishing appropriate limits on corporate influence. We work for systemic change, instead of reacting to corporate agendas."
On the Democratic candidates and the credibility gap
"Having learned from 2008, she's got the best ground operation in the history of Iowa caucuses that still may rescue her there. But she's sinking rapidly against a 73-year-old political maverick who is still just introducing himself to the American people."
The question is: Why is that so?
The rest of the story:
As Panic Grips Clinton Campaign, The Real Question: What's Wrong with Hillary? by Robert Borosage (Common Dreams)
The question is: Why is that so?
The rest of the story:
As Panic Grips Clinton Campaign, The Real Question: What's Wrong with Hillary? by Robert Borosage (Common Dreams)
"The Best, uh, Person"
Is it too late to pitch a remake, no, I'm sorry, a re-imagination of Frank Schaffner's great movie The Best Man -- screenplay by Gore Vidal, starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson -- in time for this year's election? In the 1964 film, as IMDb puts it, "[t]he two front runners for their party's Presidential nomination, one principled and the other ruthless, vie for the ex-President's endorsement." Actually, the story's a lot more complicated and interesting than that, including the presence in the race of one Gov. John Merwin, a being so spectral even the actor who played him (William R. Ebersol) (or is it Eberson?) has vanished into the mists of time.
In the new version, the front runner, a seasoned center-right politician (Meryl Streep), is challenged from her left by an idealistic, small-state U.S. Senator (Larry David, because Sam Elliott or Tom Selleck wouldn't be believable). The race has its ups and downs -- shifting poll numbers, primaries won and lost, petty scandals, social-media hits and misses, staff screw-ups, family embarrassments, yada yada, but as we open act three, the major candidates arrive at the convention unexpectedly neck and neck.
The President (Will Smith), busy with drone targets and blueprints for his presidential library and frankly not really very interested, dithers until the day of the vote, then makes a brilliant address to convention delegates that leaves the decision up to them. The surging enthusiasm of the challengers' supporters seems to be tipping the balance his way.
The former front runner, sensing the tide has turned against her, realizing she must concede, is unable to forgive the competitor who has exposed her feet of clay. In the final moment, she throws her delegates to the third candidate in the race, the chimerical governor (Tim Daly) who is last seen for a heart-stopping ten seconds -- the mood: a new day? a perilous future? the loneliness of power? "Happy Days Are Here Again"? "Gonna Fly Now"? a lot is going to depend on the soundtrack here -- on an escalator to the convention floor to accept the nomination.
Reading list:
Eleven populist points about the Bernie blizzard: Berserk Clinton Bigwigs Launch Nixonian Attack Against Surging Sanders by Brent Budowsky (Observer)
Further viewing:
Theater Talk: Playwright Gore Vidal on "The Best Man" (YouTube).
Homework:
Buy The Best Man by Gore Vidal, directed by Franklin Schaffner, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson (Amazon).
In the new version, the front runner, a seasoned center-right politician (Meryl Streep), is challenged from her left by an idealistic, small-state U.S. Senator (Larry David, because Sam Elliott or Tom Selleck wouldn't be believable). The race has its ups and downs -- shifting poll numbers, primaries won and lost, petty scandals, social-media hits and misses, staff screw-ups, family embarrassments, yada yada, but as we open act three, the major candidates arrive at the convention unexpectedly neck and neck.
The President (Will Smith), busy with drone targets and blueprints for his presidential library and frankly not really very interested, dithers until the day of the vote, then makes a brilliant address to convention delegates that leaves the decision up to them. The surging enthusiasm of the challengers' supporters seems to be tipping the balance his way.
Reading list:
Eleven populist points about the Bernie blizzard: Berserk Clinton Bigwigs Launch Nixonian Attack Against Surging Sanders by Brent Budowsky (Observer)
Further viewing:
Theater Talk: Playwright Gore Vidal on "The Best Man" (YouTube).
Homework:
Buy The Best Man by Gore Vidal, directed by Franklin Schaffner, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson (Amazon).
Old Man Trump
You may know that Woody Guthrie despised Donald Trump's father for his racist real estate practices and wrote bitterly about them in some unpublished work.
Before he lived in a Trump-owned apartment in Brooklyn, however, Guthrie spent many years between the wars in Los Angeles. He wrote songs about those whose voices too often went unheard: the working people, the Dust Bowl refugees, the poor, the homeless, and the people of Skid Row.
The rest of the story:
Woody Guthrie and Skid Row in Los Angeles by Darryl Holter (KCET)
Before he lived in a Trump-owned apartment in Brooklyn, however, Guthrie spent many years between the wars in Los Angeles. He wrote songs about those whose voices too often went unheard: the working people, the Dust Bowl refugees, the poor, the homeless, and the people of Skid Row.
The rest of the story:
Woody Guthrie and Skid Row in Los Angeles by Darryl Holter (KCET)
The New New Deal
"Sanders' populist surge naturally intrigues a wide range of free-thinking, truth-seeking voters, but we are being warned by the Democratic hierarchy that the only way to ward off the Halloween horror of a Donald Trump-Ted Cruz presidency is to set aside our populist idealism this year and stick with Barack Obama-style, don't-rock-the-corporate-boat liberalism offering small-step reforms. That's not exactly a turn-on for the majority of people fed up with business-as-usual politics — which is why so many Americans are hitching their populist hopes to Sanders' people-powered movement."
The rest of the story:
Something Is Happening by Jim Hightower (Common Dreams)
The rest of the story:
Something Is Happening by Jim Hightower (Common Dreams)
This was fun for a while
"What [the liberal establishment] argument really amounts to is an argument that Democratic Party politicians and the operatives who run their campaigns would be uncomfortable with talking openly about socialism because that would alienate the corporate interests they have cozied up to in order to win elections."
The rest of the story:
Liberals No Longer Amused by Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Campaign by Kevin Gosztola (Common Dreams)
The rest of the story:
Liberals No Longer Amused by Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Campaign by Kevin Gosztola (Common Dreams)
Resource
From the early hours of the morning until late in the evening, politicians are breaking bread and sipping cocktails with donors. Political Party Time* lets you know who’s fundraising with whom, and where.
*Political Party Time is a project of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all.
*Political Party Time is a project of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all.
Flushing the PACs is not enough
We need to look no
further than the current political dysfunction in the U.S. to see that without equality democracy is not viable.
But the problem with the effort to place a limit on campaign spending by moneyed interests is that it doesn't take us nearly far enough toward restoring equality of access to our political system. The 1% is buying power by stuffing dollars into PACs, yes; but wealth also acquires power in many other ways, direct, through bribes (contributions to individual campaigns, padded honorariums for speeches, make-work consultancies, donations to pet foundations, etc.) and indirect, through influential fronts (funding think tanks, academic studies, laboratory research, academic chairs, and so on), corporate advertising, and control of the mainstream media.
By itself, overturning Citizens United will not check the influence of money on politics.
In the past, political organizing helped the majority to defend its interests, but organizing is a long and difficult process, and in the last 40 years many of the mechanisms that were depended on to generate, accumulate and deploy the power of communities have either atrophied or been systematically destroyed (labor unions, to take one example). Somehow we must restore organizing to its central place in the political landscape if the many are ever again effectively to counter the power of the few.
The foremost reason to support Sen. Sanders for president is that he is the only major candidate in the race who recognizes that political inequality and economic injustice are major obstacles to further progress for this nation. Win or lose, Sen. Sanders' campaign, with its millions of donors and its fired-up activists, could be the beginning of a new era of people power.
Reading list:
Forty-three percent of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers self-identify as socialist -- to be very clear, the question is not whether they would vote for a socialist or sympathize with socialism; it's whether they consider themselves socialist -- more, actually, than the number who identify themselves as capitalist (38 %). This number proves Bernie Sanders can win Iowa by Aaron Blake (The Washington Post).
Extra credit:
But the problem with the effort to place a limit on campaign spending by moneyed interests is that it doesn't take us nearly far enough toward restoring equality of access to our political system. The 1% is buying power by stuffing dollars into PACs, yes; but wealth also acquires power in many other ways, direct, through bribes (contributions to individual campaigns, padded honorariums for speeches, make-work consultancies, donations to pet foundations, etc.) and indirect, through influential fronts (funding think tanks, academic studies, laboratory research, academic chairs, and so on), corporate advertising, and control of the mainstream media.
By itself, overturning Citizens United will not check the influence of money on politics.
In the past, political organizing helped the majority to defend its interests, but organizing is a long and difficult process, and in the last 40 years many of the mechanisms that were depended on to generate, accumulate and deploy the power of communities have either atrophied or been systematically destroyed (labor unions, to take one example). Somehow we must restore organizing to its central place in the political landscape if the many are ever again effectively to counter the power of the few.
The foremost reason to support Sen. Sanders for president is that he is the only major candidate in the race who recognizes that political inequality and economic injustice are major obstacles to further progress for this nation. Win or lose, Sen. Sanders' campaign, with its millions of donors and its fired-up activists, could be the beginning of a new era of people power.
Reading list:
Forty-three percent of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers self-identify as socialist -- to be very clear, the question is not whether they would vote for a socialist or sympathize with socialism; it's whether they consider themselves socialist -- more, actually, than the number who identify themselves as capitalist (38 %). This number proves Bernie Sanders can win Iowa by Aaron Blake (The Washington Post).
Extra credit:
The Bernie Beat Goes On
In 2008, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign was moved to share this picture of young Barack Obama with the voting public.
In 1987, while serving as Burlington’s mayor, Bernie Sanders recorded an album of folk classics for the defunct BurlingTown Recordings label. Vermont's Seven Days found it in an archive search for Bernie Beat, its digital guide to Sanders' colorful political career. Sen. Sanders better watch out; if the Clinton campaign decides to go after the folk music vote, you can bet this will be everywhere: Sanders sings The Banks Are Made of Marble, and it ain't pretty.
The leaders of both parties are underestimating Bernie Sanders
Now that the worried Clinton campaign has turned its guns on a surging Bernie Sanders, Clinton's supporters have begun to express concern that the Vermont senator will be especially vulnerable to attacks from the right (so vulnerable, in fact, that the Clinton campaign itself is using them).
What the Republicans will do, of course, is try to slime the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she is.
Barack Obama, who gave his enemies nothing to work with beyond the color of his skin, was vilified as an alien, Muslim, Socialist Pawn of Wall Street, and tyrant -- a weak one at that, but they rarely bothered to question his ethics, because no one would believe that he was personally corrupt. In Sanders' case, too, they have little to work with, now that it has become apparent that "socialism" is no longer frightening the horses, although the GOP will probably attempt to have the voters take notice of his age, as one Clinton surrogate is already trying to do, and his ethnicity.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is the best Democratic opponent you could wish for, if your only hope of winning is a smear campaign.
Reading list:
Democrats can't hold the White House forever. Losing in 2016 might make more strategic sense than losing in 2020. Fine, give the GOP four years: The liberal case for either Bernie Sanders, or electing a Republican president by Walker Bragman (Salon).
What kind of experience does Bernie Sanders have? Let's take a look. Bernie Gets It Done: Sanders' Record of Pushing Through Major Reforms Will Surprise You by Zaid Jilani (AlterNet).
Want specifics?: Bernie Sanders Releases Details on Health Plan That Would Raise Taxes but, He Argues, Save on Costs by Yamiche Alcindor and Alan Rappeport (The New York Times).
The Clinton camp is lambasting Bernie Sanders' health care plan, but its critique is blatantly dishonest. Clinton's Health Care Attack Makes No Sense by Pat Garofalo (U.S.News).
Extra credit:
Rant o' the Day: How the Democratic Establishment Manipulates Us by JosephK74 (Daily Kos).
What the Republicans will do, of course, is try to slime the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she is.
Barack Obama, who gave his enemies nothing to work with beyond the color of his skin, was vilified as an alien, Muslim, Socialist Pawn of Wall Street, and tyrant -- a weak one at that, but they rarely bothered to question his ethics, because no one would believe that he was personally corrupt. In Sanders' case, too, they have little to work with, now that it has become apparent that "socialism" is no longer frightening the horses, although the GOP will probably attempt to have the voters take notice of his age, as one Clinton surrogate is already trying to do, and his ethnicity.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is the best Democratic opponent you could wish for, if your only hope of winning is a smear campaign.
Reading list:
Democrats can't hold the White House forever. Losing in 2016 might make more strategic sense than losing in 2020. Fine, give the GOP four years: The liberal case for either Bernie Sanders, or electing a Republican president by Walker Bragman (Salon).
What kind of experience does Bernie Sanders have? Let's take a look. Bernie Gets It Done: Sanders' Record of Pushing Through Major Reforms Will Surprise You by Zaid Jilani (AlterNet).
Want specifics?: Bernie Sanders Releases Details on Health Plan That Would Raise Taxes but, He Argues, Save on Costs by Yamiche Alcindor and Alan Rappeport (The New York Times).
The Clinton camp is lambasting Bernie Sanders' health care plan, but its critique is blatantly dishonest. Clinton's Health Care Attack Makes No Sense by Pat Garofalo (U.S.News).
Extra credit:
Rant o' the Day: How the Democratic Establishment Manipulates Us by JosephK74 (Daily Kos).
quote unquote: James Madison on war
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
(Political Observations (1795-04-20); also in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (1865), Vol. IV, p. 491.)
Robert Reich: Six Responses to Bernie Skeptics
1. “He’d never beat Trump or Cruz in a general election.”
Wrong. According to the latest polls, Bernie is the strongest Democratic candidate in the general election, defeating both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in hypothetical matchups. (The latest Real Clear Politics averages of all polls shows Bernie beating Trump by a larger margin than Hillary beats Trump, and Bernie beating Cruz while Hillary loses to Cruz.)
2. “He couldn’t get any of his ideas implemented because Congress would reject them.”
If both house of Congress remain in Republican hands, no Democrat will be able to get much legislation through Congress, and will have to rely instead on executive orders and regulations. But there’s a higher likelihood of kicking Republicans out if Bernie’s “political revolution” continues to surge around America, bringing with it millions of young people and other voters, and keeping them politically engaged.
3. “America would never elect a socialist.”
P-l-e-a-s-e. America’s most successful and beloved government programs are social insurance – Social Security and Medicare. A highway is a shared social expenditure, as is the military and public parks and schools. The problem is we now have excessive socialism for the rich (bailouts of Wall Street, subsidies for Big Ag and Big Pharma, monopolization by cable companies and giant health insurers, giant tax-deductible CEO pay packages) – all of which Bernie wants to end or prevent.
4. “His single-payer healthcare proposal would cost so much it would require raising taxes on the middle class.”
This is a duplicitous argument. Single-payer systems in other rich nations have proven cheaper than private for-profit health insurers because they don’t spend huge sums on advertising, marketing, executive pay, and billing. So even if the Sanders single-payer plan did require some higher taxes, Americans would come out way ahead because they’d save far more than that on health insurance.
5. “His plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules.”
Baloney. Three-quarters of college students today already attend public universities financed largely by state governments, and they’re not run by government rules. The real problem is too many young people still can’t afford a college education. The move toward free public higher education that began in the 1950s with the G.I. Bill and extended into the 1960s came to an abrupt stop in the 1980s. We must restart it.
6. “He’s too old.”
Untrue. He’s in great health. Have you seen how agile and forceful he is as he campaigns around the country? These days, 70s are the new 60s. (He’s younger than four of the nine Supreme Court justices.) In any event, the issue isn't age; it's having the right values. FDR was paralyzed and JFK had Crohn's disease, but they were great presidents because they fought adamantly for social and economic justice.
What do you think?
Six Responses to Bernie Skeptics by Robert Reich (RobertReich.org)
Wrong. According to the latest polls, Bernie is the strongest Democratic candidate in the general election, defeating both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in hypothetical matchups. (The latest Real Clear Politics averages of all polls shows Bernie beating Trump by a larger margin than Hillary beats Trump, and Bernie beating Cruz while Hillary loses to Cruz.)
2. “He couldn’t get any of his ideas implemented because Congress would reject them.”
If both house of Congress remain in Republican hands, no Democrat will be able to get much legislation through Congress, and will have to rely instead on executive orders and regulations. But there’s a higher likelihood of kicking Republicans out if Bernie’s “political revolution” continues to surge around America, bringing with it millions of young people and other voters, and keeping them politically engaged.
3. “America would never elect a socialist.”
P-l-e-a-s-e. America’s most successful and beloved government programs are social insurance – Social Security and Medicare. A highway is a shared social expenditure, as is the military and public parks and schools. The problem is we now have excessive socialism for the rich (bailouts of Wall Street, subsidies for Big Ag and Big Pharma, monopolization by cable companies and giant health insurers, giant tax-deductible CEO pay packages) – all of which Bernie wants to end or prevent.
4. “His single-payer healthcare proposal would cost so much it would require raising taxes on the middle class.”
This is a duplicitous argument. Single-payer systems in other rich nations have proven cheaper than private for-profit health insurers because they don’t spend huge sums on advertising, marketing, executive pay, and billing. So even if the Sanders single-payer plan did require some higher taxes, Americans would come out way ahead because they’d save far more than that on health insurance.
5. “His plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules.”
Baloney. Three-quarters of college students today already attend public universities financed largely by state governments, and they’re not run by government rules. The real problem is too many young people still can’t afford a college education. The move toward free public higher education that began in the 1950s with the G.I. Bill and extended into the 1960s came to an abrupt stop in the 1980s. We must restart it.
6. “He’s too old.”
Untrue. He’s in great health. Have you seen how agile and forceful he is as he campaigns around the country? These days, 70s are the new 60s. (He’s younger than four of the nine Supreme Court justices.) In any event, the issue isn't age; it's having the right values. FDR was paralyzed and JFK had Crohn's disease, but they were great presidents because they fought adamantly for social and economic justice.
What do you think?
Six Responses to Bernie Skeptics by Robert Reich (RobertReich.org)
Here's hoping.
Beyond economic justice and affordable universal health care and the rest, the most compelling reason to vote for Bernie Sanders is hope, hope born of the belief that more good will rise from people's dreams and aspirations than can ever come from cold-hearted electoral calculation.
Essay question
Compare the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the Great Society with the records and policy proposals of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders: Who's the "real" Democrat? Discuss.
At the flicks
"The movie shows why Bernie Sanders’s plan to break up the biggest banks and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act (separating investment from commercial banking) is necessary – and why Hillary Clinton’s more modest plan is inadequate." — Robert Reich
The rest of the story:
'The Big Short' and Bernie Sanders' Plan to Bust Up Wall Street by Robert Reich (TruthDig)
The rest of the story:
'The Big Short' and Bernie Sanders' Plan to Bust Up Wall Street by Robert Reich (TruthDig)
Fish Story
I'd bet the word I use most often in political discussions is "infrastructure." Along with education, it was infrastructure that gave us our biggest advantage over economic rivals in the 20th century. Natural resources are abundant in North America, of course, but it was government infrastructure spending in the form of railroads, electric grids, highways, port facilities, and so on (and a workforce trained and educated in publicly financed schools) that enabled us to convert resources into wealth. Forty years of feckless leadership has squandered this advantage; a succession of Democratic and Republican regimes has presided over the transfer of public wealth into private hands, leaving virtually nothing to spend on the commons.
The penalty for allowing our government to devolve into kleptocracy is coming due, however.
Take water as an example. Even though it is more important to life than any other factor, we treat it with about as much consciousness as goldfish in a bowl. Even now, with two-thirds of the country in severe drought, with aquifers, lakes, reservoirs and rivers drying up -- even the Mississippi is close to being unnavigable for lack of water -- we routinely waste unconscionable quantities of H2O. And the crumbling infrastructure is making a bad situation worse. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, we "lose" 1.7 trillion gallons of water each year -- enough to supply 68 million people -- to aging, leaky pipes (650 water mains burst on the average day). As the population grows and the supply of water declines, we will be forced to make changes in everything from agriculture to personal hygiene. And security planners say international tensions caused by water disputes will be a further burden on our ability to be the World's Policeman. Upgrading our water infrastructure will cost a bundle, at least $1 trillion, probably a lot more, but the costs of not doing anything -- in disease, productivity, unrest, and so on, are sure to be far greater. If we fail to act, and access to clean water dries up, we won't last much longer than goldfish flopping next to a broken bowl.
Like all our infrastructure problems, we have to resources to set this right, but doing so would require two seemingly impossible changes in our politics: we would need to raise taxes significantly and we would have to reorient our national priorities away from militarism and corporate welfare and toward spending for the common good. Neither of these outcomes is possible unless there is a radical updating of our political system to make it more democratic.
Constitution 2.0 is long past due.
Bike Way or the Highway
The only proposal I've seen for the Lincoln Blvd redesign (I hope there are others) has no bike lane, isolated or not.
One mainstay of anti-bike arguments holds that converting general road space into a bike lane is bad for traffic. But location after location proves this isn't true.
New York City recently installed bike lanes on Columbus and Eighth avenues that, by reducing the width of car lanes from 12 to 10 feet -- a well-documented safer width anyway -- and adding protected left turns, not only preserved vehicle volume, but actually reduced travel times by 35 and 14 percent, respectively.
One mainstay of anti-bike arguments holds that converting general road space into a bike lane is bad for traffic. But location after location proves this isn't true.
 |
| A better plan |
New York City recently installed bike lanes on Columbus and Eighth avenues that, by reducing the width of car lanes from 12 to 10 feet -- a well-documented safer width anyway -- and adding protected left turns, not only preserved vehicle volume, but actually reduced travel times by 35 and 14 percent, respectively.
Who are the "good Germans" now?
Germany is hiring more teachers -- probably 20,000 by the end of next year -- to teach refugee children than the total number of refugees that will be admitted by the U.S.
About 196,000 children fleeing war and poverty will enter the German school system this school year, and 8,264 “special classes” have been created to help them catch up with their peers, according to a survey carried out in 16 German federal states. Germany’s education authority says 325,000 school-aged children reached the country in 2015 during Europe’s worst migration crisis since WWII.
Germany didn't create this mess. We did. Where is our sense of justice? Just how morally bankrupt are we?
About 196,000 children fleeing war and poverty will enter the German school system this school year, and 8,264 “special classes” have been created to help them catch up with their peers, according to a survey carried out in 16 German federal states. Germany’s education authority says 325,000 school-aged children reached the country in 2015 during Europe’s worst migration crisis since WWII.
Germany didn't create this mess. We did. Where is our sense of justice? Just how morally bankrupt are we?
FDR: Live Like Him
Letting Big Money and the mainstream media narrow our presidential choice to Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber is the electoral version of letting the terrorists win. We should be asking not who stands a hair taller than Donald Trump but who comes closest to measuring up to Franklin Roosevelt.
"How easily some folks forget that FDR is arguably America's greatest president ever and was an avowed Democratic Socialist. He understood that capitalism can only provide a thriving middle class if there is a mixed economy with 'socialist' programs to provide a safety net for the less fortunate and an even playing field for the rest." -- Occupy Democrats
"How easily some folks forget that FDR is arguably America's greatest president ever and was an avowed Democratic Socialist. He understood that capitalism can only provide a thriving middle class if there is a mixed economy with 'socialist' programs to provide a safety net for the less fortunate and an even playing field for the rest." -- Occupy Democrats
A failure to communicate
Let me see if I have this straight.
Hillary Clinton must be supported for president -- just because, despite a lifetime of carrying water for some of the most destructive and rapacious agents of American capitalism, from Walmart to Goldman Sachs.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, must be rejected, because some of his supporters, at risk of harming no one beyond themselves, are rude and immature.
Is that about it?
You have to wonder
To teach a huge influx of immigrant children, Germany is hiring more teachers -- probably 20,000 by the end of next year -- than the total number of refugees that will be admitted by the U.S. About 196,000 children fleeing war and poverty will enter the German school system this school year, and 8,264 “special classes” have been created to help them catch up with their peers, according to a survey carried out in 16 German federal states. Germany’s education authority says 325,000 school-aged children reached the country in 2015 during Europe’s worst migration crisis since WWII.
Germany didn't create this mess. We did. Europe in general, and Germany in particular, would shame us with their generosity if we were capable of. Where is our sense of justice? Just how morally bankrupt are we?
Germany didn't create this mess. We did. Europe in general, and Germany in particular, would shame us with their generosity if we were capable of. Where is our sense of justice? Just how morally bankrupt are we?
Leonard Peltier, too
President Obama has greatly underused his power to pardon. Here's one way he can make up for it.
Why President Obama should pardon Edward Snowden by Anthony Romero (Los Angeles Times)
Laugh while ye may
You know your drunk buddy who always says what he’d do if he was president? Turns out he is actually running this time!
On the road again,
Driving across the country, for hundreds of miles at a stretch with no company but country music stations and christian broadcasting, a question occurs:
Why is it that no one can write a country song in which righteous Yankee soldiers kick the ass of traitorous Confederate militia?
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