The Last Geisha

A moving story of of an ancient Japanese tradition and the impact of the earthquake and tsunami.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/asia/05geisha.html?_r=1&ref=global-home (via Dianne Bazell)

Harassing WikiLeaks’ Jacob Appelbaum

Apparently the government is not too keen on WikiLeaks and its reps. Just one more blow, I guess, against freedom. What exactly does the Bill of Rights mean any more?
www.thestranger.com/seattle/obsessed-with-jacob/Content?oid=7560624

Koch Brothers’ Web of Influence

This provides an excellent overview of the Koch brothers’ industrial empire and their influence over U.S. politics.
www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/3120/

Wachovia Launders Drug Money

Not only do big banks screw homeowners over, invest in high-risk securities, treat regular people like chattel, and suck up taxpayer money, but we now learn that they launder drug money. Yes, further deregulation sounds like a great idea.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs (via Dianne Bazell)

Video of a Woman Evicted from Her Home and Handcuffed

Here watch a video of a woman taken from her home: another illustration of the abuses of our system of foreclosure and the mega-banks such as Bank of America. Is this really America?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/video-this-is-not-america

Syria and Israel Relations

This is a good analysis of possible scenarios for Israel and Syria:
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/03/29/3086621/unrest-in-syria-presents-israel-with-potential-dangers-and-opportunities

The Rise of Far-Right Terrorism

Many are focused on terrorism from the Middle East, but there is also a large trend in the US toward far-right terrorism, especially associated with the Sovereign Citizens movement:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/24/far-right-terrorism

For further discussion of these movements, see the following:
http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/hate-and-extremism/law-enforcement (with lots of links) and
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/scm.asp?xpicked=4

Afghanistan Kill Teams

Given the inherently dehumanizing character of war, especially in the long-term and without a clear sense of impending victory, this is not surprising. Because we are in this war in part to promote freedom, however, the US needs to constantly monitor the behavior of its soldiers. We failed here, and that is a deep disappointment.  Even worse the military tried to suppress the story, which only made the resultant perceptions even more negative. We need to redouble our efforts and focus on ethics and morality as a fundamental part of military training and leadership.

http://www.rollingstone.com/kill-team

Cutting Government Does Not Create Jobs

“Cutting government creates jobs.” A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. Cutting government does not create jobs.

I certainly believe that government needs cutting in many places, but not because it creates jobs.  We need to do so that we don’t waste money and drive ourselves into long-term, irreparable debt. But doing so has nothing to do with creating jobs. That’s just ridiculous. Many of these attempts are really about destroying government and the good that it does. There are people whose ideology requires this, no matter the consequences. It’s an article of faith, not a way to live.

http://robertreich.org/post/4031113622

Vermont Passes Single-Payer Health Insurance

An exciting development in a progressive state. Maybe Vermont can lead the nation. We desperately need some means for everyone to have access to reasonable health care.
http://www.reformer.com/news/ci_17695660

State Banks

Here’s more on how state banks can heal state budgets and provide liquidity for strapped homeowners:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/5423-local-economies-an-alternative-solution-to-the-budget-crisis

Drug Smuggling and Usage Increase Signficantly in Costa Rica and Honduras

This is a significant development in Central America, particularly Costa Rica and Honduras.  When we do something in one place (here Columbia and Mexico), it affects others.  Gee, does this remind me of the interconnected web in which we all live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/americas/24drugs.html?pagewanted=all

Massive Demonstrations Across Syria

Wow.  With crowds chanting, “No to Iran, no to Hezbollah,” no less.  This is something, even more amazing to me than Egypt. Of course, we have no idea what the outcome will be.  Also we have to be fearful that Assad might initiate violence against Israel (perhaps through Hezbollah or Hamas) in order to distract attention from his own people’s anger at him.  Christians in Syria are probably very worried, because they have done relatively well with the Assad/Alawite secular Baathist regime. There’s also the possibility of a religious Sunni regime coming to power. But Assad is one of the most brutal family dictatorships around, virulent hater of all things Israel, and a close ally of Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Again I recall Lenin’s quote: “Sometimes decades go by, and nothing happens. Sometimes weeks go by, and decades happen.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110325/wl_time/08599206136400

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/middleeast/26syria.html?_r=1&hp

Is Syria Next?

Is Syria the next country to join the freedom movement?  That would be a major breakthrough for what amounts to one of the most totalitarian states in the already totalitarian Middle East.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/world/middleeast/21syria.html?hp

Al Qaeda Sees History Fly By

Al Qaeda sees history fly by:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/world/middleeast/28qaeda.html?_r=1&hp

Frank Rich: GOP Post-Tuscon PTSD

This is an excellent essay by Frank Rich, describing the popularity free falls of leading conservatives (e.g. Beck and Palin) and the inanity and emptiness of conservative policy.  While many rightly note how little progressives have to offer, conservatives have becomes voices of even less. We are in a state not only of empty rhetoric from all ideological vantage points, but of political triviality.  We need grassroots leadership somewhere.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20rich.html

Cutting Government Strategically

This is a good, little essay, emphasizing the importance of thinking about the purpose of government and then cutting strategically.
http://www.vpr.net/episode/50628/

European Pessimism

Here is the state of politics in Europe:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/guardian-icm-europe-poll-2011/print

Bank Criminals Get Off–Only Regular People Get Punished

The pillaging of the middle class continues: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/opinion/14krugman.html?_r=1

Don Banks on NFL Labor Talks

This is a devastating piece on this sports war between the rich and richer.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/don_banks/03/11/nfl.labor.front.ap/index.html

The Shameful Treatment of Bradley Manning

We are supposed to be the land of the free.  In this case, our behavior sound more like that of a tin-pot dictatorship.  Instead of being a beacon of light to the world, we are acting shamefully.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/11/bradley-manning-wikileaks

Here’s a version of a description by Manning himself:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-bradley-manning-prison

Christ Christie and Labor

As I read this, we can see how much the unions in Wisconsin learned from the mistakes of the New Jersey unions.  They agreed to concede wages and benefits in order to keep more fundamental rights.  The result is thus far remarkable, even though the legislature passed the bill in what amounted to a coup against freedom.  What worked for Christie in New Jersey has been up till now politically damaging for Republican governors and legislators in Wisconsin and Ohio.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/magazine/27christie-t.html?hp

Fox Not News

How is Fox News called “News”?  Its purpose is not news, but spreading corporate ideology.  Calling it news is Orwellian.  Fundamental dishonesty is a core element of morality, and what Fox promotes is counter to basic ideals of integrity.

And Media Matters reports how Fox lied about the Wisconsin situation:
http://mediamatters.org/print/research/201103020013

And now we find that the head of Fox news, Roger Ailes, asked an employee to lie:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/nyregion/25roger-ailes.html?hp

Prime Minister’s Harper’s attempt to repeal the Canadian law that prevents false and misleading news information is rejected.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/fox-news-will-not-be-moving-into-canada-after-all_b_829473.html

The Reinvention of Silk

An intriguing discussion of the variegated uses of silk, particularly spider silk. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/science/08silk.html?hp=&pagewanted=al

Malaysia Gambles on Rare Earths and the Environment

A fascinating discussion of attempting to mine rare earths in an environmentally responsible way: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/business/energy-environment/09rare.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

Assad as Style-Setter

In what will no doubt be a future embarrasment for Vogue Magazine, its current issue profiles the lovely Asma al-Assad, the wife of Mr. Benevolent himself, Bashar al-Assad.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506004576174623822364258.html

How to Fight the Power of Corporate Wealth

Take your money out of the bank!  That hits them in the way they understand best.  Plus it’s peaceful, and you can do it very quietly.
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/11/955214/-Were-Going-To-Destroy-A-Bank>http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/11/955214/-Were-Going-To-Destroy-A-Bank

Wealth and the Middle Class

What’s happened to the middle class?  That’s the question we need to ask in light of the bailouts and the crushing of workers’ unions in Wisconsin.  Does work matter any more or only shuffling paper?  Those of us committed to spiritual exploration need to recognize that the exploration of meaning and purpose in life requires that people are not always in survival mode. Spiritual truth is also connected to justice.

David Koch and Rupert Murdoch battle the middle class through Fox and the Wall Street Journal
http://www.alternet.org/story/150047/rupert_murdoch_and_david_koch_collude_against_wisconsin_workers?page=entire

The Wisconsin battle is part of a 150-struggle to break unions, now with the Koch Brothers leading the charge: http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/gov_walker_does_something_big_20110304

Bob Herbert discusses the financial crises facing ordinary, working, middle-class Americans:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/opinion/26herbert.html

This essay argues that we need to increase upper income tax brackets in order to prevent the concentration that would destroy democracy in this country.  While I do not agree with the authors (and others) that decreasing government waste is not an important issue and that we need to figure out how to make medicare work more efficiently (social security is in fact basically sound), I cannot fathom why we keep lowering tax rights on the wealthy.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/022411.html

Robert Reich makes a similar argument:  http://robertreich.org/post/3591689800

Ellen Brown argues that a state bank would solve many of Wisconsin’s and other states budget/pension issues–of course, that presumes that Walker and others are actually concerned about the budget rather than crushing labor http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/wisconsin.php

In the meantime, the percentage of underwater mortgage are on their way up:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_underwater_mortgages

Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO lauds the 14 Wisconsin Senators who stood up for workers’ rights:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-trumka/todays-heroes-the-wiscons_b_831749.html

More and more cities are broke:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06Muni-t.html?_r=1 (via Dianne Bazell)

Jackob Hacker and Paul Pierson, in their book, “Winner Take-All Politics,” discuss the rising inequalities in the US economic system: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/inequality-and-political-power/?scp=8&sq=middle%20class&st=cse (via Dianne Bazell)

Robert Reich argues that the real issue is not jobs, but wages:  http://robertreich.org/post/3638565075

Gold Wars in Columbia

Old conflicts over coca morph into new ones over gold.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/world/americas/04colombia.html

Qadaffi: His Toady Supporters in the West and His Murderous Benefactors in Africa

A wonderful article, written with flair and sardonic elegance, skewering numerous, Western individuals and organizations for serving as toadies to a brutal dictator, the “loon of loons”:  http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/03/03/the-mead-list-worlds-top-ten-gaddafi-toads/

Qadaffi has apparently supported a wide array of corrupt, violent, genocidal dictators throughout Africa, as well as several dubious leaders in Central and South America:  http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/04/harvard_for_tyrants?page=full

Natural Gas and the Environment

Natural gas water recycling from hydrofacking is not always effective:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html

In the meantime, political pressures effectively prevent the EPA from regulating natural gas hydrofracking:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/us/04gas.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1299182443-NixtuTtKRONgUcRrCHY2eQ

WikiLeaks documents reveal that the EPA wanted to regulate hydrofacking waster water, but political pressures prevented them from acting in Pennsylvania and New York.  Now in New York there is an opportunity to exert regulatory pressure
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/leaked_epa_documents_expose_decades_old

The Contentious Quest for Truffles in North Carolina

Trying to grow truffles in the US is an arduous, competitive, and uncertain business.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/us/04truffles.html?hp

The Odd Couple: Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry

This is a wonderful story about a friendship through baseball.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/sports/baseball/24yogi.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

Theories about the Origins of Life

This is fun (via Nelson French).  Where and how did life originate on earth?.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/science/22origins.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210&pagewanted=all

Muffin Wars

The muffin biz is top secret.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/business/07muffin.html?hp

Food and Farming Problems in India

India is having serious problems in feeding its own people.  This article touches both on weather changes (global warming) and on modern farming technology.  (via Nelson French)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/business/global/12food.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

Prisoners Close Budget Gaps and Learn Skills By Working

This has support from both conservative deficit hawks and liberals who believe that prisoners are much less likely to commit crimes after release if they have employable skills.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/us/25inmates.html?_r=1&hp

Arizona Bill Would Ban Foreclosues Without Full Title History

A positive development that would diminish the overwhelming power of banks in the housing loan industry:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-23/arizona-bill-would-void-home-foreclosures-without-complete-title-history.html

John Galliano and Antisemitism

Chief designer for Christian Dior, John Galliano, is fired for antisemitic remarks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/fashion/02dior.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all

Saudi Arabia and Revolution

The situation is ripe for change in Saudi Arabia, but the country could end up divided between young, tech-savvy, democratic secularists, anti-democratic Wahabi Islamists, and restless Shiites:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/28/yes_it_could_happen_here

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