Water, oil, food--will humankind cooperate together or fight to the death?

I saw this headline last evening and it rather concerns me:

Global Fight for Natural Resources 'Has Only Just Begun,' say Experts

From the article:

"Better economic incentives, rather than ethical considerations and appeals to human morality, are needed to encourage investment in a more sustainable economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.

Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen told the conference that governments would need to step in, to ensure resources were best distributed.

Speaking at the Re|source 2012 Conference in Oxford, Sen said that so-called 'free markets' could not be counted on to meet all fundamental human needs nor could the private sector be trusted to efficiently allocate the world's natural resources.

“The way to make the financial sector respond is not through moral exhortation, but by increasing incentives,” said Sen. 'The market will respond to price increases,' but world governments are required to intervene and address 'inequality and iniquity' that the market inherently generates."

The way our Capitalism is set up and the way the Republican Party, the Libertarians and far too many Right Wingers and Americans in general see the world and the world economy at present, they wouldn't get this.

Far too many of us wouldn't understand, at least at present, that whether you're talking about water or oil or corn or virtually any other commodity, once there are shortages, the item in concern can't be left to "free markets" alone unless we are willing to literally let people go without and that can, in fact, mean going without food.

Morally, we just can't let it end up being "every man--person--for themselves." We can't.

Besides being immoral, it would inevitably mean the deaths of at least thousands of us, if not millions, nation- and world-wide.

Surely we owe our fellow human beings more than that.

Rather naturally, it reminded me of this quote from the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr:

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

And the thing is, we'll have to agree to that cooperation across all nations, worldwide.

This will not be easy, ladies and gentlemen.

Link to original article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/12-5

Song dedication: To Mitt Romney

The headline:

Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated

The link: http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-12/politics/32633322_1_bain-capital-mitt-romney-financial-disclosure

That said, we "won't be sorry when we let you go" as the song might otherwise suggest.

Missouri in the news, for better or worse

Yes, we're in the news, all right:

Missouri town hopes to have first U.S. horse slaughter plant

Oh, joy.

(Reuters) - "A town in Missouri is trying to be the first of several in the United States to get a new plant to slaughter horses now that Congress has overruled animal rights groups to allow the killing for the first time in five years.

U.S. slaughter of horses ended in 2007 when Congress, at the urging of animal rights groups, halted funding to inspect processing plants. The unintended result was thousands of horses abandoned or neglected, and even more enduring hundreds of miles of travel to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

After a government report last year detailed the abuses of horses, Congress restored inspection money to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for this year.

"People are giving away horses every day because they can't sell them," said Wayne White, president of the Missouri Equine Council. "All the rescue places are over-populated."

Horse meat is sold for human consumption in China, Russia, Mexico and other foreign countries, according to Unified Equine, a Wyoming company proposing to open a horse-slaughter plant in Rockville, Missouri. Horse meat is also used for zoo animals...

...Residents of Rockville, a town of about 150 people 100 miles south of Kansas City, turned out in force at a meeting last month to support the new plant, said Mayor Dave Moore."

Face it, some of us will do anything for a job.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/us-usa-horses-idUSBRE86A1GT20120711

Entertainment overnight

Black in America

What it's been like--as near as I can tell, since I'm white--to be a Black American in the last 100 years, for a lot of them, if not all:

--You may, or may not, be hired for a job;

--If you are hired for a job, it may well be for an entry-level and/or low-paying job;

--The job may also be either dirty or looked down on or both (e.g., janitor, etc.);

--If you get hired, it is likely for low-paying work;

--Consequently, because you are quite likely paid little, you also likely can't afford much of a house for your home. It will not be big, it will not be grand and it cannot be in a more "exclusive" area, if you can even afford to buy. You may have to rent;

--If you need or want a loan for a home, the chances are high you could be charged a higher interest rate by the bank or financial company (see link below);

--If you want or need a car, the car dealer may well charge you a higher price than he or she would charge a white person--just because they can;

--Many white people in your country--and even Hispanics--may well assume you are "dirty" and/or threatening and/or ignorant, just because of your color;

--One religion, at minimum, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormons) had as their official policy, from the pulpit, until as late as 1979, that you, as a Black American, could belong to the religion, sure, and they'd take your money but you could never become part of their higher "priesthood" because of your color. Also, the reason is that it's based on a passage from the Bible (Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_and_mark_of_Cain). Further, some religions--mostly fundamentalist "Christian" ones, still believe this, either formally or informally;

--Finally, to cap all this off, as if all that isn't enough, far too many people of your own country is far too likely to think you are poor because you are lazy and that it's your own fault.

The indignity.

Try understanding all this, let along living with those kinds of pressures.

This, then, is why far too many people just don't "get it" about discrimination and the status of Black Americans in the United States.

Links: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/fi-mo-wells-bias-20120712,0,4185138.story

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/18/us-usa-farmers-pigford-idUSTRE61H5XD20100218

http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/

Quote of the day

“Don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world.” --Martin Luther King

The Road to More Jobs (guest post)

From a New York Times op/ed piece today:

"How different would conditions be today economically and politically if unemployment were 7 percent instead of its current 8.2 percent? For one thing, some two million unemployed workers would have jobs, and the rate of economic growth would be comfortably above 2 percent, instead of below that pace. This scenario could have been possible if federal aid to states had been bolstered, saving hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs.

Mr. Obama can make a convincing case that his policies — especially the stimulus and auto industry rescue — helped cushioned the effects of the recession he inherited, which pushed the jobless rate from an already elevated 7.8 percent in January 2009 to 10 percent by October 2009. It has come down, more or less, steadily since then. But it is still higher than when he took office — a point that Mitt Romney and Congressional Republicans have seized upon as evidence of failed policies.

Actually, it was the Republicans’ relentless opposition to constructive policies that has kept unemployment high, from their resistance to the 2009 stimulus to their blockage of Mr. Obama’s proposed $450 billion jobs bill in late 2011. Federal aid to states was a mainstay of both of those efforts. As the stimulus ended and further aid was delayed and denied, the effect on state budgets — and on jobs — has been catastrophic.

A recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the loss of public-sector jobs, largely because of state budget cuts, has been the biggest hit to job growth over the past three years.

The direct jobs lost — 627,000 since June 2009 — understates the drag because population growth alone suggests that the public sector should have added nearly 500,000 jobs over that time simply to restore government employment to its norm of the last 20 years. In all, the public sector is coming up short by 1.1 million jobs, including positions for teachers, social workers, public health officials and other professions that would have been filled by many of today’s unemployed college graduates.

Worse, the public-sector gap of 1.1 million jobs has translated into some 750,000 lost jobs in the private sector, the result of contractors losing government business and less spending by laid-off government workers. In addition, another 400,000 or so jobs have been lost because of cutbacks in state aid to the poor and unemployed, which reduce consumer spending.

The effects from an ailing public sector are profound because state and local spending on employees, contractors and beneficiaries reverberates swiftly through the economy. When that spending is depressed, the entire economy suffers.

The bottom line of the institute’s report is that if it weren’t for state and local budget austerity, the economy would have 2.3 million more jobs today, and the unemployment rate would be around 7 percent, not 8 percent. The lesson is that the best and easiest way to reverse job losses would be for Congress to provide fiscal aid to states. Thwarting such aid, as Republicans have done, is a way to keep unemployment elevated and their hopes to win the White House alive. Jobless Americans, struggling businesses and hard-pressed communities are hostages in the fray."

Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/opinion/the-road-to-more-jobs.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share

Entertainment overnight

Final Part 3: "Public Lands, Private Profits"

Write your senators and members of Congress. Tell them to stop this mining in our national parks.

Link: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/public_lands_private_profits.Html

Part 2: Public lands, private profits

Link: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/public_lands_private_profits.Html

The Grand Canyon, under siege

Part two of the video on our national parks:



Link: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/public_lands_private_profits.Html

What's happening to "our" national parks and lands

Yet more proof of the results of our government being owned by the wealthy and corporations, due to campaign contributions.

Link: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/public_lands_private_profits.Html

Entertainment overnight

A Philip Glass "flash choir" in New York City's Times Square:



Happy 75th birthday, Mr. Glass.

And once again, thank you, NPR, for bringing the arts to us.

Low-class Country singer

Nice.

Nice touch.

First, he wears a t-shirt--an untucked t-shirt, at that--and blue jeans to sing the National Anthem at the 2012 Major League Baseball Allstar Game.

Way to show respect for the event.

Way to show respect for the National Anthem.

Way to show self-respect. (Not).

Second, has to read the national anthem off his hand.

Nice job, Lukester. Way to not prepare.

What a low-class jerk.

If his mother is alive, I hope she didn't see this nightmare.

If this had been a national anthem singing class, he would have failed it with an F.

"AIDS in Black America"

If you're not watching the Major League Baseball Game tonight, out of Kauffman Stadium here in town, you might be the type person that, instead, would watch and want to watch the "Frontline" special on PBS "AIDS in Black America:



It's one of the biggest killers of Black Americans today. It's important we recognize where this came from, where we are and where it's going.

It begins this evening at 8 pm.

Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame-aids-in-black-america/

Entertainment overnight

The failing American experiment (guest post)

"The narrative of openness and talent obscures the bitter truth of the American experience. Talents are costly to develop, and we refuse to socialize these costs. To be an outstanding student requires not just smarts and dedication but a well-supported school, a safe, comfortable home and leisure time to cultivate the self. These are not widely available. When some students struggle, they can later tell the story of their triumph over adversity, often without mentioning the helping hand of a tutor. Other students simply fail without such expensive aids.

These are more than liberal platitudes. Look at who makes up the most “talented” members of society: the children of the already advantaged. Today America has less intergenerational economic mobility than almost any country in the industrialized world; one of the best predictors of being a member of the elite today is whether your parents were in the elite. The elite story about the triumph of the omnivorous individual with diverse talents is a myth. In suggesting that it is their work and not their wealth, that it is their talents and not their lineage, elites effectively blame inequality on those whom our democratic promise has failed."

"Elites today must recognize that they are very much like the Gilded Age elites of old. Paradoxically the very openness and capaciousness that they so warmly embrace — their omnivorousness — helps define them as culturally different from the rest. And they deploy that cultural difference to suggest that the inequality and immobility in our society is deserved rather than inherited. But if they can recognize the class basis of their success, then perhaps they will also recognize their class responsibility. They owe a debt to others for their fortunes, and seeing this may also help elites realize that the poor are ruled by a similar dynamic: their present position is most often bound to a history not of their own choosing or responsibility.

It is past time for elites to give up the cultural project of showing how different they are from others. They should commit themselves instead to recognizing that there is a commonweal that we all have a responsibility to improve."

Link to original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-new-elitists.html?pagewanted=all

It seems we all want our country back

This seems to be a recurring--very recurring--theme in our country.

If you feel, like so many do, that we need "our country back," help push to kill campaign contributions.

With them, the wealthy and corporations are able to buy their--our--representatives and so, their legislation, our laws and finally, our government.

If we don't get the big, ugly, corrupting money out of our election system, it will never get out of our government and nothing will change.

It's simple as that.

Thanks to Donna over at her "Just Me" blog for this video and link: http://donna-justme.blogspot.com/

Is China fighting "the next war" while the US is fighting the "last war"?

For anyone who's read about or studied war, there is a famous line of thought that too many losing sides were always fighting the "last war", the previous war.

With the US still spending at least $711 million dollars per year on war and weapons of war, I think the likelihood is high that the US is still, in fact, fighting World War II or Vietnam or something, while China realizes that spending on their people and society and business and their economy is the "next war."

China is working hard and spending big on manufacturing, period, but on photovoltaic cells and solar technology, specifically, apparently and that may be, in fact, that "next war" at present.

It's fairly well accepted as truth that China is, right now, manufacturing lots of solars panels and dumping them on our American market.

The fact is, it's been widely accepted that whatever country owns solar energy in general, but photovoltaic cells, specifically, owns the next century.

Maybe we need to wise up.

And fast.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31825

Entertainment overnight

Ernest Borgnine (1917-2012) Rest in peace

Quote of the day

"Happiness does wonders to one's face." --Stephanie Marsilia (a friend)

Entertainment overnight, Sunday edition

Happy birthday to a local, fellow blogger

A very happy birthday wish to "Just Me" blogger, Donna.

I hope it's a great one for you, filled with family, friends, great food and some terrific memories.

Enjoy.

Allstar weather forecast for us holding!

Really, this is some good news.

We need the lower temperatures, period, along with slow, very wet, soaking rains, but if lower temperatures is all we can get, so be it. At least for now.

And with our Major League Baseball Allstar Game Week from Kauffman Stadium coming up, this forecast is a gift from the heavens--literally and figuratively.

Now, about that rain...

Great Depression coincidences

I've been thinking of this for some time.

We have the worst economy in 80 years, since the 2008 financial collapse (thank you, Wall Street) so it's the worst downturn since the 30's, since the Great Depression. They've called this one a few things like the "Great Recession" and the "Great Mancession" since so many men, proportionately, lost their jobs. It's even been referred to as the "Second Great Depression."

And now?

Now, the worst drought and heat wave since the 30's, at the same time. (See links below).

What are the odds?

1934 and 1936, specificially, were the worst drought and heat years of that time.

I tell you, the similarities and attributes these 2 economic downturns share are pretty uncanny.

Here's hoping it gets no worse. Let's hope there are no worse bread lines, like those of the 30's, etc., etc.

I don't think we're as tough now as those people were then. We aren't as close to poverty, as a group, as a nation, as a people, as they were then.

We aren't good at living without, I suspect.

Links: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48076883/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/05/12579687-drought-hits-56-percent-of-continental-us-significant-toll-on-crops?lite

Parody, right out of the heartland

A great parody for you from the heartland. Guys, celebrating the family farm, not corporate ones.

While you're at it, note those K-State t-shirts, too. What a hoot.

A great way to spend 17 minutes

An education on the 2008 national and international near-total financial and economic collapse due to American bankers and banking and where we are now.

You owe it to yourself--and the nation, your country--to see this documentary: http://www.insidejobmovie.com.au/

Entertainment overnight

Wonderful new performer, made aware to me by NPR and their music site.

Secrecy of "being on the DL" and "no snitching" killing African-Americans

I've written here about the insanity of the "no snitching" code in the black community in the US, generally, but here in Kansas City, specifically, when people--usually always young men--shoot and/or kill other blacks yet witnesses say nothing to the police. It's this "no snitching" rule that keeps the shooters out on the streets, in the communities, shooting still others and impervious to the police or justice.

It is insanity.

A second ugly reality struck me today, having listened to NPR's "Fresh Air" program by Terri Gross, et. al about how the secrecy of men in the black community being "on the DL" or "down-low" about either being gay and/or participating in gay sex yet not being honest about it is also killing black men and women, both.

Some statistics:

--In 1986, roughly 20 percent of all of the people in the United States who were living with AIDS were African-American," Robert Fullilove, professor of clinical sociomedical studies at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and chairman of the HIV/AIDS advisory committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that 45 percent of all the new cases of HIV infection are amongst African-Americans."

--In 2009, black men accounted for 70% of the estimated new HIV infections among all blacks. The estimated rate of new HIV infection for black men was more than six and a half times as high as that of white men, and two and a half times as high as that of Latino men or black women.

--In 2009, black men who have sex with men (MSM)1 represented an estimated 73% of new infections among all black men, and 37% among all MSM. More new HIV infections occurred among young black MSM (aged 13–29) than any other age and racial group of MSM. In addition, new HIV infections among young black MSM increased by 48% from 2006–2009.

--In 2009, black women accounted for 30% of the estimated new HIV infections among all blacks. Most (85%) black women with HIV acquired HIV through heterosexual sex. The estimated rate of new HIV infections for black women was more than 15 times as high as the rate for white women, and more than three times as high as that of Latina women.

--Blacks are 13% of the US population but make up 49% of the AIDS cases in the country.




I wasn't personally aware that AIDS in the black community is epidemic and that it's killing both black men and women at record rates.

It's a horrible, unnecessary tragedy and it needs to stop.

And one of the ways it can and must stop is for all blacks in America--those of faith and those without--to stop thinking or believing that same-sex attraction is new to humanity, that it's "against nature" and "God's will" and that it's wrong. The homophobia and fear and even hate, must end.

This will be asking a great deal, at least, I know.

The social stigma of being both black and gay in the US is so strong and heavy that it's not only keeping people from being who they actually are, it's also killing these men and women.

The radio show today also pointed out that the "corrections" system in America and drug use as well as poverty is also propelling the incidents of AIDS to these record levels.

This situation has many roots. America needs to start addressing this problem, these problems, and all their sources so we can halt these unnecessary illnesses and tragic deaths.

Links: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/05/156292172/aids-in-black-america-a-public-health-crisis

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame-aids-in-black-america/

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/

http://www.avert.org/hiv-african-americans.htm

http://www.womenshealth.gov/minority-health/african-americans/hiv-aids.cfm/

http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/content.aspx?ID=3019