And where we need to go and what we need to do.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
Quote of the day -- On Yesterday's US Senate Vote
"Anyone who still doubts there’s a difference between congressional Republicans and Democrats should note that yesterday the Senate voted down a constitutional amendment that would have overturned several Supreme Court decisions by declaring that money isn't speech and corporations aren't people, and limits on campaign donations and spending therefore are permissible. Democrats voted for the proposed amendment, but every Senate Republican voted against (it needed 60 votes).
Although most Americans say they want big money out of politics, Republicans aren’t worried about a public backlash against them for voting against the amendment. Polls show getting big money out of politics is low on the public’s list of concerns -- way behind the economy, jobs, health care, terrorism, immigration, education, and the environment. Yet it’s impossible to make real progress on any of these higher-ranking issues without getting big money out of politics. We need to get that fundamental point across to our fellow citizens. But how?"
--Robert Reich
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Quote of the Day -- on Common Sense
And contradictions. And inconsistencies. And hypocrisies.
We Americans still tend to think of ourselves as peaceful and a beacon of peace to and for the world.
If only.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
3 Simple, Intelligent Improvements/Soutions to Our Current Problems
So simple. So smart. So helpful. So important.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
World History That Just Isn't Taught in America
There's a great and even important article out from last Fall to which more Americans---young and old---should all be exposed:
I can't and won't post the entire article, of course, but this little snippet, on America alone, is pivotal:
Slavery transformed America into an economic power. The exploitation of black people for free labor made the South the richest and most politically powerful region in the country. British demand for American cotton made the southern stretch of the Mississippi River the Silicon Valley of its era, boasting the single largest concentration of the nation’s millionaires.
But slavery was a national enterprise. Many firms on Wall Street such as JPMorgan Chase, New York Life and now-defunct Lehman Brothers made fortunes from investing in the slave trade the most profitable economic activity in New York’s 350 year history. Slavery was so important to the city that New York was one of the most pro-slavery urban municipalities in the North.
According to Harper’s magazine (November 2000), the United States stole an estimated $100 trillion for 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865, with a compounded interest of 6 percent.
_______________________
This, I think, on top of what the Atlantic Monthly wrote some months ago, keeps making more and more powerful cases for reparations for blacks and African-Americans in this country.
On this, the 186th birthday of Leo Tolstoy, I'm reminded of this qutoe:
Monday, September 8, 2014
Quote of the day -- on wages and fairness
Besides being just wrong--that a person working 40 hours a week can't make a true, living wage--what's additionally outrageous and wrong, even morally, is that we have to actually DEBATE this.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
What our corporations---and our food--are doing to us, as a nation
A documentary from last year:
Get that?
"This is the first generation of American children expected to lead shorter lives than their parents."
And this:
"Over 95% of all Americans will be overweight or obese in 2 decades."
And "The government is subsidizing the obesity epidemic."
So you know.
So we know.
And act and react.
Kansas City and our Google in the news
Not bad news, exactly, but not great, either:
Cities Find Google Fiber Networks Giving Them Too Much Speed
Kansas City, both the one in Missouri and the smaller one in Kansas, has an unusual Internet problem — the Google Fiber network they fought to get is too fast, and nobody is really sure what to do with all that power.
Neither city is considered a prime location for technology company start-ups, reports The New York Times, and the average household doesn't need online speeds that can run at one gigabit a second, or about 100 times faster than the average connection elsewhere in the United States.
Neither city is considered a prime location for technology company start-ups, reports The New York Times, and the average household doesn't need online speeds that can run at one gigabit a second, or about 100 times faster than the average connection elsewhere in the United States.
The article goes on from there, of course, describing the situation and some ironies in all of this rather truthfully, however unfortunately but here's the really illuminating thing most people don't know and consider:
The company (Google) has expanded Fiber to Provo, Utah and Austin, Texas, and is discussing service with nine other metro areas, including Chattanooga, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Portland, Ore.
Chattanooga already has its own fiber network, Chattanooga Gig,which offers the same speeds as Google Fiber, but keeps the system under local control.
The network is already paying off. "When Volkswagen announced Chattanooga as its headquarters for North American manufacturing, and Amazon.com chose our city for their new distribution centers, it was a nice confirmation that we're on the right track," the network says on its website.
So Chattanooga, Tennessee has a lower cost internet, just as fast as the "big boys", the corporate internet that's so bloody, unreasonably and unnecessarily expensive (thank you, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc.) and in addition to all that, THE PEOPLES'/USERS' INFORMATION ISN'T CAPTURED AND SOLD.
Chattanooga already has its own fiber network, Chattanooga Gig,which offers the same speeds as Google Fiber, but keeps the system under local control.
The network is already paying off. "When Volkswagen announced Chattanooga as its headquarters for North American manufacturing, and Amazon.com chose our city for their new distribution centers, it was a nice confirmation that we're on the right track," the network says on its website.
So Chattanooga, Tennessee has a lower cost internet, just as fast as the "big boys", the corporate internet that's so bloody, unreasonably and unnecessarily expensive (thank you, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc.) and in addition to all that, THE PEOPLES'/USERS' INFORMATION ISN'T CAPTURED AND SOLD.
Tell me again why government running things is bad?
One More Reason for a New, Single-Terminal Airport
Yessir, here we are. Yet one more reason for a new, single terminal airport at KCI, tearing down and walking away from our existing terminals:
FLASH MOBS!
Think about it!
As it stands now, with those pesky, ultra-convenient, already-built terminals we have and enjoy, with a gleaming, shiny, new single terminal, the airport authority could hire people like this and film a "spontaneous" dancing, flash mob. And if you're lucky enough to be there, you'll get to see and enjoy it.
Worst case scenario? You'll get to watch it, after the fact, on KMBC-TV and KCTV-5 "news", along with the daily YouTube catch-up and cat and dog video segments.
It'll go viral and JUST THINK OF ALL THE GREAT MEDIA ATTENTION KANSAS CITY AND KCI WILL GET.
Sure, it'll cost us millions and it's stupid to tear down good, working, again, convenient, existing buildings--that we actually enjoy and appreciate--and it's horrible for the environment, what with throwing two entire terminals in a dump somewhere and the airlines don't want or recommend it and, oh, sure, our price per ticket of flying in and out of that new airport will go WAY up, as other cities that have done this have learned, to their shame, expense and frustration but...
WE'LL HAVE FLASH MOBS!!
AND A SHINY NEW AIRPORT!
More of our bought and paid for government
It's bad enough we even allow campaign contributions, since they make it possible for the wealthy and corporations to buy our government representatives and so, their legislation, our laws and ultimately, as we have found and as we are living now, our government. Here is yet more of the ramifications of allowing all this money to flood into our country and that government:
"The New York Times reports this morning that more than a dozen prominent Washington think tanks have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign sources in recent years while pushing U.S. government to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities. But the Times misses the really big story about foreign influence in Washington: Global corporations owned and run largely or partially by non-Americans that since the Supreme Court’s shameful “Citizen’s United” decision have been pouring unlimited sums into election campaigns. This includes major foreign-based banks, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies, as well as American-based global companies whose management and shareholders are substantially non-American. It’s a back door for non-Americans to have their way in our nation’s capital. In 2012 they began donating big-time to SuperPACs and secret 501-c-4 “social welfare” entities that don’t have to disclose sources of their money, and the sums are increasing. It's exactly what Justice John Paul Stevens anticipated in his prescient dissent in the case.
This is why all political expenditures must be fully disclosed, why public corporations must report all campaign contributions, and 'Citizens United' must be reversed if not by the Court then by constitutional amendment. It's also why corporations using tax inversions to desert the United States must no longer have a voice in American politics."
--Robert Reich, today, on FB
Link to referenced article:
Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Washington Think Tanks
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Why we need to reign in the wealthy and corporations in America
And to do it, we need, yes, more regulation(s), not less. Not "big government." Not at all. Just sensible, logical, intelligent restraints on greed.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
To those against government and regulations
Want to be like China?
And this applies to their pollution too.
Do we really want to do away with the EPA?
I know I don't.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Monday, September 1, 2014
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