Progressive Calendar 08.27.09 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu) | |
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:27:59 -0700 (PDT) |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 08.27.09 1. MUHCC/Fair 8.28+ 9am 2. Mpls parks 8.28 9:30am 3. Health care/KFAI 8.28 11am 4. Single payer 8.28 12:30pm 5. Palestine vigil 8.28 4:15pm 6. Magers/Quinn bday 8.28 7. Peace walk 8.29 9am Cambridge MN 8. Art/cheap stuff 8.29 10am 9. Honduras 8.29 10am 10. Re:Activism game 8.29 12noon 11. Northtown vigil 8.29 2pm 12. Stillwater vigil 8.30 1pm 13. Barter market 8.30 1pm 14. Free Mpls! bash 8.30 2pm 15. Marty/health/fair 8.30 3pm 16. Immigrant rights 8.30 8pm 17. Stephen Lendman - Growing poverty and despair in America 18. Gabriel Kolko - Israel: a stalemated action of history --------1 of 18-------- From: Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition <info [at] muhcc.org> Subject: MUHCC/Fair 8.28+ 9am HEALTH CARE ON A STICK? No, But it is Time for "The Great Minnesota Get-Together" Volunteer at the Minnesota State Fair and Demonstrate Support for Single-Payer Health Care! August 27th- September 6th Shifts: 9-11:00 am, 11am-1 pm, 1-3 pm, 3-5 pm, 5-7 pm daily We will be writing postcards and collecting signatures on petitions. This is our best opportunity to talk to THOUSANDS of Minnesotan about the Minnesota Health Plan. Reply to info [at] muhcc.org and let us know how many shifts you are willing to volunteer and which times you are available. We will confirm your schedule. Training will be available. We regret that MUHCC is not able to provide or reimburse for entrance fees. [No phone or email given] --------2 of 18-------- From: Ted Dooley <614grand [at] winternet.com> From: "Save Our Parks Mpls" <saveourparksmpls [at] gmail.com> Subject: Mpls parks 8.28 9:30am Two weeks ago, the Citizens for Independent Parks submitted the signatures of over 17,000 individuals who believe that Minneapolis voters deserve the right to decide on creating a fully independent park board. Late last week, the City Elections Department confirmed that our petition contains the required number of valid signatures in order for the independent parks question to be placed on the November ballot. This is no small accomplishment, but our work is not yet done. Sadly, certain members of the City Council remain opposed to this effort, and will exhaust every opportunity to ensure that the public does not have the chance to vote on this question. It is imperative that we speak out now to ensure a proper public process and fair treatment for the 17,000 individuals who have requested the opportunity to vote on this issue. Here are two great ways that you can get involved: Contact Your Councilmember Letting your City Councilmember know that you support putting the independent parks question on the ballot is a great way to have an immediate impact. Remember that these individuals are your elected representatives in city government - the best messages are short, specific and respectful. It only takes a few phone calls or emails to get a councilmember's attention, so just a few seconds of your time could really make a difference. For a list of City Council members with contact info, please visit http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/. To find out who your councilmember is and how to contact them, visit the City of Minneapolis Ward Finder: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/about/maps/ ward-finder.asp. Attend a Public Meeting Several critical meetings will be taking place this week, and your attendance at one or all of these meetings would really make a signicant impact. A strong public presence at these meetings is necessary to ensure that our elected officials remain accountable to the public and adhere to a fair and open process: Friday, August 28 9:30am, City Hall room 317 Minneapolis City Council http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/2009-meetings/20090828/ Our petition is formally listed as an agenda item for each of these meetings. Make no mistake - certain individuals within City Hall will use any possible means of keeping this measure off the ballot, and your voices from being heard. By attending these meetings, you can help send a strong signal that we remain committed to seeing this process through to the only fair and reasonable conclusion - the independent parks question being put to the voters on November 3. (Please also note - due to the fact that these meetings are all scheduled during weekday hours, we understand that it is not feasible for volunteers who are MPRB employees to attend these meetings.) Thank you all for your support, and we look forward to working together as we continue our progress towards November 3. Justin Fay Campaign Manager Citizens for Independent Parks --------3 of 18-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Health care/KFAI 8.28 11am Fri.August 28,11am "Catalyst"/ KFAI Radio Listen to clear, plain-language, fact-based reality-check on the HEALTH CARE DEBATE with JOEL ALBERS Learn about HEALTH CARE CO-OPS, THE PUBLIC OPTION and separate fact from fear-mongering and falsehood. Albers is Pharm.D., Ph.D., Clinical Pharmacist, Health Economics Researcher, Universal Health Care Action Network - MNCommunity/University Collaborative Research. For more information, see: www.uhcan-mn.org. Catalyst is hosted/produced by Lydia Howell, an independent MInneapolis journalist, winner of the 2007 Premack Award for Public Interest Journalism. URGENT NOTE: Are you having difficulties HEARING KFAI'S SIGNAL? If so, please call KFAI Radio to report this! 612-338-3407 KFAI: 90.3 fm Mpls 106.7 fm St. Paul ALL shows archived for two weeks after broadcast: http://www.kfai.org/cagtalyst --------4 of 18-------- From: Joel Albers <joel [at] uhcan-mn.org> Subject: Single payer rally 8.28 12:30pm Pls tune in to KFAI friday at 11AM for Lydia Howell's Catalyst program, KFAI. I will be her guest to discuss the latest developments in the struggle for fundamental health care reform in the U.S./MN, and plug these actions. Following that, at 12:30PM, same day,August 28,Friday, our Universal HC Action Network of MN/ Soc. Alternative, and Vets for Peace is organizing a Rally for single-payer (Medicare for ALL), Right outside Sen. Al Franken's office 12:30pm, 316 Robert Street, Federal Bldg. From Mpls take I94 i believe to Kellogg str exit, go left at Robert street. We will have signs, huge banners, and singing many songs and chants, such as "The Blue Cross, Blue Shield Blues", "Health Care for Everyone" (to the tune of God Bless America) and much more. This is a crucial time for potential change. As the chant goes, " we dont have a vote, we dont have a seat, listen to the voices of the people on the street". Joel Albers Clinical Pharmacist, Health Economics Researcher Universal Health Care Action Network - MN Community/University Collaborative Research www.uhcan-mn.org email: joel [at] uhcan-mn.org phone: 612-384-0973 address: 3500 35th ave S Mpls, MN, 55406 --------5 of 18-------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Palestine vigil 8.28 4:15pm the weekly vigil for the liberation of Palestine continues at the intersection of Snelling and Summit Aves in St. Paul. the Friday demo starts at 4:15 and ends around 5:30. there are usually extra signs available. --------6 of 18-------- From: david unowsky <david.unowsky [at] gmail.com> Subject: Magers/Quinn b'day 8.28 Hi! Here at Magers and Quinn, we're celebrating our 15th birthday 6-9pm Friday, August 28. Please join us for food, wine, music, and hanging out with readers, writers, publishers and booksellers. Please let me know if you'll be stopping by. Thanks, David Unowsky 612-822-4611 --------7 of 18-------- From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Peace walk 8.29 9am Cambridge MN every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street --------8 of 18-------- From: Sue Horns Kolstad <2sorns [at] gmail.com> Subject: Art/cheap stuff 8.29 10am This weekend is LOLA - The League of Longfellow Artists art crawl. Come to the Longfellow Neighborhood and visit 20 sites to see art by 42 artists. C. Kim Pickering and I will be showing our work at Mill City Music. 3820 East Lake St. Come see us and visit. The Kolstads are also hosting a garage sale on the second floor where you can find a variety of items. [Students: where to find that cheap cheap cheap furniture for your pad! Don't let less-deserving students get there before you and make off with all the good stuff! You deserve the best!] Saturday and Sunday August 29 and 30 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM both days. (If you want to see John, come before 2:00 on Sunday because he will be at Club Jager from 2 to 10.) --------9 of 18-------- From: Stephanie Bates <Stephanie.Bates [at] americas.org> Subject: Honduras 8.29 10am Life on the Nicaraguan/Honduran Border in a time of Crisis Resource Center of the Americas 10:00am-11:30am 3019 Minnehaha Ave S Javier Aguilar Cordoba is the Nicaragua Coordinator for Interfaith Services to Latin America, a Twin-Cities based Non-Profit that undertakes health, education and construction projects with the help of visiting volunteers. He will describe both ISLA's role and growing up in a community that perseveres despite the ravages of civil war, poverty and environmental degradation, sexual politics and most-recently disruptions caused by the military coup in nearby Honduras. --------10 of 18-------- From: Melissa <smilyus [at] msn.com> Subject: Re:Activism game 8.29 12noon Saturday, August 29 12:00 - 4:00pm Black Dog Cafe: meet up to form teams 308 Prince Street (corner of 4th and Broadway), St. Paul Come commemorate the one-year anniversary of the RNC by running around St. Paul, revisiting sites of big events during the RNC, and learning about the struggles that have taken place there in the past. Some of our comrades have done a great job of organizing this kick ass event, so come on out! What is Re:Activism, you ask? Re:Activism is a game. And a scavenger hunt. And a history lesson. And an expression of solidarity across struggles. And street theater. And disruption. Participants visit sites of local struggle and resistance, performing challenges at each to earn points. These could be historical re-enactments relevant to the site, interviews with passersby, or staged protests, among other possibilities. The point is to draw parallels between struggles, to unearth moments of local radical history, and to theatrically subvert business-as-usual. Oh, and to run around in the street. Re:Activism is a big-urban-game that revisits locations of historic and present day protests to teach game participants and developers about activist events and related social causes. In order to progress through the game, the game-players learn about and raise awareness of protest events and movements by creating present day interventions and public interactions. Teams of game-players race to different challenge sites to complete challenges and use activist tactics to increase their score. Each challenge site is themed around a different protest or social cause and the challenges at each site help the players learn more about the theme. Re:Activism was originally designed and played in New York City to raise awareness of the historical strife of the lower east side, touching on events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist fires, the Stonewall Riots, Union Square anti-war protests, and many more. For more information, visit http://reactivismtc.tumblr.com/ or email reactivismtwincities [at] gmail.com. --------11 of 18-------- From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 8.29 2pm Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm --------12 of 18-------- From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net> Subject: Stillwater vigil 8.30 1pm A weekly Vigil for Peace Every Sunday, at the Stillwater bridge from 1- 2 p.m. Come after Church or after brunch ! All are invited to join in song and witness to the human desire for peace in our world. Signs need to be positive. Sponsored by the St. Croix Valley Peacemakers. If you have a United Nations flag or a United States flag please bring it. Be sure to dress for the weather . For more information go to <http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/>http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/ For more information you could call 651 275 0247 or 651 999 - 9560 --------13 of 18-------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Barter market 8.30 1pm The Midway Barter Market, every Sunday, 1-3 pm, boulevard in front of 1724 Englewood Ave. Barter Market on Wednesdays at SuperUSA are cancelled. Community Gathering and Exchange at the "Midway Barter Market"! Bring something to share if you can; we've seen CSA and urban farm produce, jam, bread, fruits, homemade candles and soap, jewelry, cassette tapes, clothes, anything that's in good condition that someone else may want. Labor exchanges are good too (i.e. I will fix your bike if you make me lunch). It's an informal gathering that's lots of fun, and you get to take home stuff you want that someone else has too much of. A folding chair and maybe a folding table are good to bring, or even just a blanket for the boulevard. Contact Nine at mightymidway [at] gmail.com or 651.319.2241 with questions, or Kathy at kathysphotos [at] mindspring.com or 651.645.1492. --------14 of 18-------- From: Melissa Hill <melissa4citycouncil [at] gmail.com> Subject: Free Mpls! bash 8.30 2pm A Concert & Rally to Free Minneapolis Sunday, August 30, 2009 from 2pm to 10pm Club Jager, 923 Washington Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN MEDIA CONTACT: Sue Kolstad 612.321.2007 2sorns [at] gmail.com The Coalition to Free Minneapolis Concert & Rally Minneapolis, MN [08/24/2009] A coalition of candidates for Minneapolis municipal offices, joined by many well-known local musicians and activists, is holding a free concert & rally this Sunday in downtown Minneapolis, to inform Minneapolis citizens of the problems in our city and the need to elect new leadership to Minneapolis government this November. "The City of Minneapolis is a great city and my home for over 30 years" said Mayoral Candidate Papa John Kolstad, "but the city has significant problems that have not been addressed by the current mayor and city council, and as a result our residents and small businesses are hurting badly due to severe tax increases every year and aggressive inspection and regulation activities by the city." "I believe the city has been mismanaged," he said, "and we need new leadership to solve the problems of our city. If we don't make significant changes our city will continue to suffer more foreclosures and business closures. We need to take our city back!" Musical acts will include Javier Trejo, Willie Murphy, Eskit's Political Cabaret, Nikki & The Ruemates, Steve Kaul & The Brass Kings, and Papa John and His Hot Swing Band featuring John Devine. Local issue activists groups like End The Fed and FairVote MN have also been invited to set up information tables and give short presentations about their causes. The concert & rally is free of charge. A variety of food and beverages will be available to purchase all day. From: Niklas Ludwig <kreuzauge [at] gmail.com> Also, all insurgent candidates are welcome regardless of the color of your party flag or, in Meliss's case the color of her black flag ;). You can set up a table, hand out lit, recruit helpers, and give a speech. From: John Kolstad <jkolstad [at] millcitymusic.com> Reminder of the event this weekend at Club Jager, 10th and Washington Ave North, Sunday, August 30 from 2 to 10 PM. Music, speeches by insurgents and tabling by Issues Orgs. I am helping to contact more Issues Groups to let them know that they can Table at this event free and each issues group can have an opportunity to speak if they wish. There is a long list of fine music makers. Papa John Kolstad, the Coalition candidate for Mayor of Minneapolis is the political headliner, that is unless Jesse the Body shows up and he may. I just might challenge Jesse to a "body contest". If you know any Issues Groups that would like to Table or speak at this event, contact Nik Ludwig at 612/386-0811 or email at "diogenes [at] inbox.com". Or John Kolstad 612/722-6649 "jkolstad [at] millcitymusic.com" or home 612/321-2007. This is a kick off for those who have had it with the City Council and the Mayor. Please help us spread the word for people to attend and for getting as many Issue Groups as we can find to be there. Thanks Papa John Kolstad --------15 of 18-------- From: "Of the People" <info [at] jamesmayer.org> Subject: Marty/health/fair 8.30 3pm HEALTH Of the People with James Mayer and Senator John Marty at the MN State Fair This Sunday at 3:00 P.M. AM950ktnf or: www.am950ktnf [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102683078269&s=163&e=001bqn79p7pBinxy6Uy1C3bP_wyJvlwaHW6Zeqq-Fhj_mpCT8qOi68oTvUC2e8ILXOgZJfIAaFQrJ1cjh5VUYUDsaGTSVb5UVyTfIbgWRhp2tc=] Sunday, August 30, 2009 Keep Building Momentum: Health Care for All. Do the States have to lead the way? As we noted in our last edition, the People have Single Payer Health Care (HR676 - Medicare for all of us) more within our reach now than ever before. We have 2 time sensitive opportunities right now, to push on to a victory for Single Payer which you can check on in Numbers, II, and III, below: Again we urge you to please help to make this E-blast and information reach an audience as "far and wide" as possible! I. Minnesota may end up leading the way in health care once againwhile we wait for and push for National (real Single Payer) Health Care, held up by congressmen and senators doing the bidding of big insurance and corporate medicine and selling the lie that alienates us from one another: that we cannot afford health care for all of us. But we can! In Minnesota we have the Minnesota Health Act - everybody in; nobody out, except the health care profiteers - authored by Senator John Marty, who may well become the next Governor of Minnesota. Join us and bring everybody out to AM950's booth to talk to Senator John Marty on Of the People at the Minnesota State Fair this Sunday, if you are in the area on August 30, 2009 at 3 p.m. or tune into AM950 KTNF (formerly Air America Minnesota). --------16 of 18-------- From: Amanda Luker <amanda [at] pinkslipmedia.org> Subject: Immigrant rights 8.30 8pm In an annual tradition, Arise! Bookstore will be hosting a series of free weekly events throughout the summer, each with a different theme reflecting the diverse interests of volunteers at the collectively run bookstore. The events will take place each Sunday night at 8pm, opening with a speaker or performance, and ending with the screening of a film after sundown. August 30 Performances by rappers Fresh Squeeze & Palabristas, a Latino/a spoken word and poetry group + a discussion of local immigrant struggles work with local immigrant rights activists. FILM Welcome - The tale of a young Kurdish immigrant's all-or-nothing swim across the Channel to enter Britain. Arise! Bookstore is a volunteer-run collectively owned and operated independent bookstore in south Minneapolis. It has served the radical and progressive community as a resource center since 1993. Arise! Bookstore 2441 Lyndale Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55406 www.arisebookstore.org --------17 of 18-------- Growing Poverty and Despair in America Stephen Lendman August 27th, 2009 Dissident Voice In 1962, Michael Harrington's The Other America exposed the nation's dark underside enough for John Kennedy to ask his Council of Economic Advisor chairman, Walter Heller, to look into the problem and for Lyndon Johnson to say (on January 8, 1964) that his administration "today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America". In fact, it was little more than a skirmish that fell way short of addressing the real problem in the world's richest nation. Today it's even greater and increasing exponentially under a president who, unlike Johnson, declared war on the poor and disadvantaged to favor privilege over growing needs and essential social change. In his book, Harrington wrote: "In morality and in justice every citizen should be committed to abolishing the other America, for it is intolerable that the richest nation in human history should allow such needless suffering. But more than that, if we solve the problem of the other America we will have learned how to solve the problems of all of America". Sadly, we didn't then nor have we now. Perhaps more than anything, increasing homelessness and hunger highlight the growing problem as, in the face of deteriorating economic conditions and growing human needs, administration policies are indifferent, counterproductive, uncaring and hostile. In December 2008, Reuters reported that "Homelessness and demand for emergency food are rising in the United States as the economy founders," according to a December 2008 US Conference of Mayor's Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness survey of 25 American cities. Chief causes cited were growing poverty, unemployment, and unaffordable housing costs with greater than ever expected challenges in 2009. At the time, it was reported that "Cities continue to develop aggressive strategies to prevent homelessness" and provide other essential services, but that was then and this is now. An Epidemic of State Budget Shortfalls As economic conditions deteriorate, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)'s July 29 report highlighted the growing problem. Titled "New Fiscal Year Brings No Relief from Unprecedented State Budget Problems," it cited the following issues: . at least 48 states "addressed or still face shortfalls in (their FY 2010) budgets," the result of "the worst decline in tax receipts in decades;" . at issue is a $163 billion deficit or 24% of their budgets, and these numbers keep rising as conditions worsen; . at least 33 states "already anticipate" 2011 deficits that may exceed 2010 ones; and . for FYs 2010 and 2011, shortfalls of at least $350 billion are expected, and FY 2012 may bring little or no relief. In response, deep social service cuts are being implemented, putting the burden on vulnerable Americans to cope and survive. The situation is grave and worsening with at least 21 states cutting "low-income children's or families' eligibility for health insurance or reduce their access to health care services". Elderly and disabled persons programs are also being reduced or eliminated. So are services for home and child care, rehabilitation, and other essential needs for the poor and low-income households. The most vulnerable of all are affected, yet more cuts are expected as new budget pressures arise. Pre-school, K-12, and higher education cuts are being made as well. Public payrolls and hours worked are being slashed, exacerbating the growing unemployment problem, worse still by cutting pay for the still-employed. Tax increases may also be considered at the worst possible time. "Expenditure cuts and tax increases are problematic policies during an economic downturn because they reduce overall demand and can make the downturn deeper. When states cut spending, they lay off employees, cancel contracts with vendors, eliminate or lower payments to businesses and nonprofit organizations that provide direct services, and cut benefit payments to individuals". Demand is then reduced because households have less to spend. As a result, the economic crisis deepens. CBPP said federal assistance is crucial, yet the Obama administration declined while providing trillions to Wall Street and other corporate favorites. That's the state of governance in America today under Republican and Democrat administrations, each no different from the other. Hunger in America On its web site, Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest) said in "the land of plenty," one in eight Americans (meaning millions) face growing hunger problems, and not just the poor and unemployed. They're "often hard-working adults, children and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet" and have to forego meals at times, even for days. Hunger and Poverty Facts . in (pre-crisis) 2007, 37.5 million people were impoverished; they comprised: . 12.5% of the population and 9.8% of families; . 20.3 million or 10.9% of people aged 18 - 64; . 13.3 million or 18% of children under age 18; and . 3.7 million or 9.7% of seniors aged 65 or older who benefit from Social Security and Medicare. In addition: . 36.2 million Americans are food insecure, including 12.4 million children; . they comprise 13 million or 11.1% of households; . 4.7 million households experience "very low food security" meaning hunger is a persistent problem; . households with children have double the food insecurity as ones with none; . single women-headed households are worst off with 30.2% of them insecure; and . 53.9% of food-insecure households rely on one or more of the following federal programs - food stamps, the National School Lunch Program, and the Special Supplement Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC); in addition, Feeding America (in 2007) provided emergency food aid to about 25 million low-income people, 8% more than in 2001. On August 6, the US Department of Agriculture reported a record 34.4 million Americans (one in nine) receiving food stamps in May as unemployment keeps surging. It was the sixth consecutive monthly record, and every state showed an increase as economic conditions worsen. On September 10, the Commerce Department will release 2008 census data expected to show around another 1.5 million people added to the poverty rolls over 2007 figures - a total of nearly 39 million representing 12.7% of Americans. According to Rebecca Blank, Economic Affairs Undersecretary, final numbers aren't yet in and may be worse than expected because of how bad things are for growing numbers in the country. She believes if (U-3) unemployment hits 10% (up from 9.4% now), poverty could reach 14.8% this year and rising because of jobs and homes lost, savings exhausted, and the sharpest ever decline in personal wealth between mid-2007 and December 2008. Worst of all, conditions for most people are deteriorating as businesses, states, and local governments shed workers and cut budgets at the worst possible time. It promises harder times ahead and potentially millions more impoverished. Homelessness Facts Annually, two-three million Americans, including 1.3 million children, experience homelessness and many more are at risk. Most vulnerable are those losing jobs, homes, and the millions of low-income workers paying 50% or more of their income in rent so that a missed paycheck, health emergency, or unexpected financial burden makes them vulnerable to homelessness at a time government aid is being cut. Criminalizing the Homeless In the face of a growing burden on society's most needy, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty reported that "many cities use the criminal justice system to punish people living on the street for doing" what they must to survive. Local ordinances prohibit sleeping, camping, eating, sharing food, sitting, loitering, and/or begging in public places with criminal penalties imposed on offenders. Some cities even punish organizations and individuals for helping, and the idea always is to keep the unwanted out of sight, mind, and preferably out of cities, at least in or near more affluent areas or business districts. As economic conditions deteriorate, the problem will grow and so will the plight of the homeless as cities crack down harder in violation of constitutional and international human rights laws. The OECD's 2008 Report, "Growing Unequal?: Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries" It states that America "is the country with the highest inequality level and poverty rate" among the 30 OECD countries, ranking only ahead of Mexico and Turkey. In addition, since 2000, inequality grew rapidly, "continuing a long-term trend (going) back to the 1970s" when inflation-adjusted household incomes began falling. Other data cited includes: . the gap between rich and middle and poorer income groups widened; . government redistribution of income "plays a relatively minor role in the United States," partly because social service spending is low and falling; in 2008 America, it was 9% of household incomes compared to 22% on average in OECD countries; . social mobility in America is low, and children of poor families are less likely to become rich; and . "wealth is distributed much more unequally than income: the top 1% controls some 25-33% of total net worth and the top 10% holds 71%;" other estimates place these disparities much higher and widening as social inequalities increase, high-paying jobs disappear, the middle class keeps shrinking, poverty grows, and federal and state governments cut essential services in the face of increasing need among greater numbers of people. The Working Poor Keep Getting Poorer The Working Poor Families Project October 2008 study highlighted similar problems from 2002 through 2006. Titled "Still Working Hard, Still Falling Short: New Findings on the Challenges Confronting America's Working Families," it reported: . jobs paying poverty-level wages rose by 4.7 million; . low-income working families (earning less than double the Census definition of poverty) increased by 350,000; . below poverty-level jobs rose to 29.4 million and comprise 22% of all jobs compared to 19% in 2002; . most disturbing is that this happened during a period of economic growth, but at the same time wages haven't kept pace with the cost of living; . low income family numbers rose to nearly 9.6 million or 28% of the population; . children in them number 21 million; . 72% of low-income families with working adults in them performed the equivalent of one and one-quarter jobs - a far greater burden than in other OECD countries; and . income inequality is highest in New York; California is fourth, but all states are in a race to the bottom as conditions deteriorate everywhere, so all rankings are disturbing compared to the late 1990s. The US Labor Department's latest productivity report highlights the plight of workers even more. It rose 6.4% in Q 2, the largest gain since 2003, while workers' compensation fell sharply, 2.2% on an annualized basis. According to Mark Vitner of Wells Fargo Bank, the productivity increase "is almost entirely the result of cost-cutting, not improved ways of producing goods and providing services". It also shows how powerless workers are at a time of massive job cuts, so staying employed takes precedence over wages paid and benefits. The result is profits up, pay down, benefits disappearing, and American workers transitioning to serfs. More confirmation comes from the latest Internal Revenue Service statistics for 2007 showing that the income disparity between the top 10% and bottom 90% reached "a higher level than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of the stock market bubble in the 'roaring' 1920s," according to data from University of California economist Emmanuel Saez. He noted that "2007 was an incredibly good year for the super rich" and added: "Based on the US historical record, falls in income concentration due to recessions are temporary unless drastic policy changes such as financial regulation or significantly more progressive taxation are implemented and prevent income concentration from coming back". But these are no ordinary times as the US sinks slowly into depression. The super-rich are exploiting it to their advantage, while millions of working Americans are losing jobs, homes, benefits, savings, futures, and safety net protections. The 2007 data reflected the peak of the current cycle. What's ahead will be far more grim, disturbing, and reflective of an America that is no more. The Economic Policy Institute's (EPI) State of Working America: 2008-2009 As the economy contracted in 2008, job losses and unemployment accelerated, but EPI.s report missed the worst of it from early 2009 to the present. It cited: . wages losing ground to inflation; . high energy costs; . the burst housing bubble; . millions of defaults on home loans followed by foreclosures; . declining financial markets and frozen credit; . less health care coverage and fewer higher-paying jobs with good benefits; and . "for the first time since the mid-1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of this business cycle than they were when it started;" as a result, "prosperity is eluding working families" as they fall further behind, now more than ever as depression takes hold. EPI calls family income "the core building block of American living standards". Yet during the last business cycle, significant productivity growth was accompanied by stagnant or falling real incomes. "That has never happened before". The latest economic recovery bypassed the middle class and created greater income inequality. The Bush administration's tax cuts exacerbated the problem by helping the top 1% mostly, the middle class marginally, and low-income families not at all. Clear racial disparities show whites consistently better off than blacks and Hispanics, men doing better than women, huge class distinctions, and mobility up the income ladder bypasses most at lower levels. One study showed that about 60% of families starting out in the bottom fifth stratum were still there a decade later. At the same time, over half the top income ones kept their position. EPI concludes that "where you start out in the income scale has a strong influence (over) where you end up (so) the rate of economic mobility is low" in the richest country in the world where the select few alone benefit. All others lose out as their incomes don't keep pace with inflation and their living standards erode. Another study implies that a poor family of four with two children needs nine to 10 generations to reach middle-income status. It means where you're born is where you'll stay. So-called rags-to-riches tales are just folklore, and stagnant or downward mobility today is more serious than ever. Wages and salaries comprise three-fourths of family income, and for the middle class, it's even higher. Yet since 2002, they didn't grow at all despite historically high productivity, meaning business benefitted, not workers who fell further behind. Women and minorities fare worst plus everyone in lower income categories. During the 2002 - 07 recovery, no progress was made "in reducing the share of workers with low earnings (in) all race/ethnic groups and for both genders... The very highest earners have done considerably better than other workers for at least (the past) 30 years, but they (did) extraordinarily well over the last 10 years". In addition, eroding "employer-provided benefits, most notably pensions and health insurance, is an important aspect of the deterioration in job quality (and economic security) for many workers". Most harmed are young workers facing bleak prospects, older ones losing jobs and not wanted, and the erosion of unionization since the 1950s, especially since the late 1970s. Overall, 2002-07 growth was a jobless recovery followed by the subsequent wiping out of five years of modest gains. From 2000-2007, average annual job growth was an anemic 0.6%, well below the 1990s 1.8% figure. In addition, the unemployment rate rose 0.7% from March 2001 (the last business cycle's peak) to December 2007 even though average workers age increased and the labor force participation rate shrank - both of which should have put downward pressure on the unemployment rate. The great American job creation machine faltered badly in the new millennium and now has collapsed. Net family wealth also determines household well-being, particularly from income and financial assets, including real estate. Yet in America, the top 1% controls more than the bottom 90% combined and the disparity is growing. In 1962, the bottom 80%'s share was 19.1%. In 2004, it was 15.3%, the difference shifting to the top 5%. In addition, until the current downturn, average household debt grew much faster than income, fueled by increases in mortgages, home equity loans, and high credit card balances. Since the housing bubble burst and home prices collapsed, the damage done has been enormous with still more to come. The result is growing poverty levels as discussed above with numbers increasing as economic conditions weaken. "The backsliding against poverty in the 2000s is most notable among the least advantaged," especially blacks, Hispanics, mother-only families, and the poor unable to keep pace. It shows up in inequality in health security in the form of inadequate or no insurance, lower life expectancies for poor and lower income households, and an eroding safety net for the most needy. Rising health care costs, lost or no benefits, and an economic crisis have increased the plight of millions of the country's least advantaged. EPI's report highlights a nation of growing inequality, lower wages, fewer benefits, diminished worker bargaining power, and disempowered unions v. market fundamentalists, complicit government officials, and their "You're-on-Your-Own" (YOYO) ideology against which they're powerless. They believe markets know best so let them, arguing that alternatives "will create the wrong incentives". Recent decades reveal the folly of this approach on American workers' living standards. Exposing the "ownership society" myth, all household security measures, including net worth, have fallen despite a few years of late 1990s progress. Today, "The macro-economy is in serious disrepair, beset by the spillovers from the bursting... housing bubble, high energy prices, and unsustainable levels of household indebtedness. causing economic collapse and the possibility of a deep, protracted depression. So far, remedial measures have been patchwork and counterproductive as growing millions face greater uncertainties with no imminent signs of relief and federal and state governments not caring or helping. In 2009, the State of Working America is dire and worsening enough for millions of households to face greater than ever challenges on their own with government indifferent to their plight. Concluding an early 1980s edition of his book, Michael Harrington sensed what "Other Americans" were up against in writing: "I end this review, then, on an ambivalent note. There was progress; there could have been more progress; the poor need not always be with us. But it will take political movements much more imaginative and militant than those in existence in 1980 to bring that progress about. Until that happens, the poor will be with us". And today, in exponentially growing far greater numbers because nothing is being done to reverse them. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. Contact him at: lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM-1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests. All programs are archived for easy listening. Read other articles by Stephen, or visit Stephen's website. --------18 of 18-------- Israel: A Stalemated Action of History By GABRIEL KOLKO August 25, 2009 Dissident Voice In late 1949 I worked on a boat taking Jews from Marseilles to Haifa, Israel. Jews from Arab nations were in the front of the boat, Europeans in the rear. I was regarded by many of the Europeans as some sort of freak because I had a United States passport and so could stay in the land of milk and honey. One man wanted me to marry his daughter . which meant he too could live in the land of milk and honey. My Hebrew became quite respectable but the experience was radicalizing or, I should say, kept me radical, and I have stayed that way. Later I learned from someone who ran a displaced persons camp in Germany that the large majority of Jews wanted to go anywhere but Palestine. They were compelled to state Palestine or else risk receiving no aid. I understood very early that there was much amiss in the countless Arab villages and homes I saw destroyed, and that the entire Zionist project . regardless of the often venal nature of the Arab opposition to it . was a dangerous sham. The result of the creation of a state called Israel was abysmal. Jews from Poland have nothing in common with Germans and neither has anything to do with those from the Arab world. It is nationality, not religion, that counts most. Jews in Israel, especially the Germans, largely ghettoized themselves by their place of origin during the first generation, when a militarized culture produced the mixed new breed called sabras . an essentially anti-intellectual personality far different from the one the early Zionists, who were mostly socialists who preached the nobility of labor, expected to emerge. The large majority of Israelis are not in the least Jewish in the cultural sense, are scarcely socialist in any sense, and daily life and the way people live is no different in Israel than it is in Chicago or Amsterdam. There is simply no rational reason that justifies the state.s creation. The outcome is a small state with a military ethos that pervades all aspects of Israel.s culture, its politics and, above all, its response to the existence of Arabs in its midst and at its borders. From its inception, the ideology of the early Zionists . of Labor Zionism as well as the rightist Revisionism that Vladimir Jabotinsky produced . embodied a commitment to violence, erroneously called self-defense, and a virtual hysteria. As a transcendent idea, Zionism has no validity because the national differences between Jews are overwhelming. What Zionism confirmed, if any confirmation were needed, is that accidents are more important in shaping history than is all too often allowed. Here was the intellectual caf, which existed in key cities . Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century or the Lower East Side of New York before World War I . filled with immensely creative people full of ideas and longing for a golden era to come. Ideas . good, bad, and indifferent . flourished. In this heady atmosphere, Zionism was born. But Zionism has produced a Sparta that traumatized an already artificially divided region partitioned after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during World War I led to the Versailles Treaty and the creation of the modern Middle East. The state of Israel has always relied on military solutions to political and sociological problems with the Arabs. The result is constant mobilization. Even more troublesome for peace and stability in the vast Middle East, Zionism has always been symbiotic on some great power for the security of its national project, realized in a state called Israel. Before 1939 it was the British; during the 1950s it was France. Israel has survived since the late 1960s on the influx of US arms and money, and this has allowed it to encourage its fears of annihilation . a fate its possession of nuclear weapons makes most unlikely. But Israel also has an importance far beyond the fantasies of a few confused literati. Today its significance for American foreign policy is far greater because the Soviet Union no longer exists and the Middle East provokes the fear so essential to mobilizing Congress and the US public. .The best hopes and the worst fears of the planet are invested in that relatively small patch of earth. . as George Tenet, the former head of the CIA, put it in his memoir . and so understanding how and why that patch came into being, and the grave limits of the martial course it is following, has a very great, even transcendent value. In July 2003 Foreign Minister Shalom predicted that Iran would have nuclear bomb capability by 2006. It did not have nuclear weapons in 2006, though in fact a successful strike by conventional missiles on Dimona, Israel.s nuclear facility, would radioactivate a good part of Israel . and both Iran and Syria have such missiles. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, during Vice-President Dick Cheney.s visit in late March 2008, stated that .Iran.s weapons program threatens not only the stability of the region, but of the whole world,. and he did not rule out a war with it. By spring 2008 Israel was also very concerned about the growing ascendancy of Hizbollah in Lebanon and its greatly increased firepower . mainly in the form of rockets capable of striking much of Israel. It regards Hizbollah as a tool of Iran, and its focus on Iran concerns its control over Hizbollah as well as its ability to challenge Israel.s nuclear monopoly. But there can be no doubt that Hizbollah.s strength has only grown since Israel attacked it in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israel now has an enemy that can inflict immense damage on it, probably resulting in highly skilled Jews migrating far faster than they already are at present . even now, more Jews are leaving Israel than migrating to it. The existence of Israel is scarcely the only reason American policy in the region is as bad as it is. After all, it did not take Zionism to encourage Washington to seek the elimination of British influence in the region, and today no one can tell how long the US will remain mired in the affairs of the Middle East. But Israel is now a vital factor. While the extent of its role can be debated, without it the politics of the entire Middle East would be different . troubled but very different. At least equally nefarious in the long run, Israel.s existence has radicalized . but in a negative sense . the Arab world, distracting it from natural class differences that often overcome religious and tribal ties. It has fanned Arab nationalism abysmally and given it a transcendent negative identity. I am very realistic . and pessimistic . about an eventual negotiated solution to the crisis that has surrounded Palestine and Israel. Given the magnitude of the changes needed, the present situation justifies the most dismal conclusions. After all, the Arabs that live under Israeli control will quite soon outnumber the Jewish population, leaving a de facto Jewish state in which Jews are a minority! This fact is becoming deeply troublesome within Israeli politics today, causing former expansionists to reverse their position and leading to more and more internal controversy. Nor will there ever be an administration in Washington ready to do diplomatically what none has ever dared do since 1947, namely compel Israel to make an equitable peace with the Arabs. Neither a one- nor two-state solution will come to pass. But the Jewish population is very likely to decline, and if it falls sufficiently then demography may prove to be a crucial factor. The ratio of Jews to Arabs would then become highly significant. The Jews in Israel are highly skilled and many have gotten out, migrating abroad. The Israeli military is the most powerful in the region because it has been deluged with American equipment, which it has learned to service. But US forces need repairmen to service the very same equipment, more than ever because recruitment into the American military is now lower than it has been in a quarter-century (not to mention its astronomical suicide rate), and skilled Israelis can take jobs with America.s armed forces that they are eminently qualified to fill. Moreover, Iran and the other Arab states will eventually develop or acquire nuclear weapons, making Israel incredibly insecure for its highly mobile Jewish population . one exhausted by regular service in compulsory reserves. And as already suggested, destroying Dimona with conventional missiles or mortars would be a cheap way to radioactivate a good part of Israel. Even worse, Osama bin Laden, or someone like him, may acquire a nuclear device, and one nuclear bomb detonated in or near Israel will effectively destroy what is a tiny area. Whoever destroys Israel will be proclaimed a hero in the Arab world. To those with skills, the answer is clear: get out. And getting out they are. There are also Orthodox Jews in Israel but Israeli mass culture is now virtually indistinguishable from consumerism anywhere . in many crucial respects, there is more Judaism in parts of Brooklyn or Toronto than in most of Israel. The Orthodox too may be ready to leave behind the insecurity and troubles confronting those who live in a nation that is, after all, a part of a highly unstable region. Sober and quite rational Israelis exist, of course, and I cite them often enough, but American policy will be determined by factors having nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, rational Israelis are an all too small minority. Gabriel Kolko is the leading historian of modern warfare. He is the author of the classic Century of War: Politics, Conflicts and Society Since 1914, Another Century of War? and The Age of War: the US Confronts the World and After Socialism. He has also written the best history of the Vietnam War, Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the US and the Modern Historical Experience. His latest book is World in Crisis, from which this essay has been excerpted. August 25, 2009 Israel: A Stalemated Action of History By GABRIEL KOLKO In late 1949 I worked on a boat taking Jews from Marseilles to Haifa, Israel. Jews from Arab nations were in the front of the boat, Europeans in the rear. I was regarded by many of the Europeans as some sort of freak because I had a United States passport and so could stay in the land of milk and honey. One man wanted me to marry his daughter . which meant he too could live in the land of milk and honey. My Hebrew became quite respectable but the experience was radicalizing or, I should say, kept me radical, and I have stayed that way. Later I learned from someone who ran a displaced persons camp in Germany that the large majority of Jews wanted to go anywhere but Palestine. They were compelled to state Palestine or else risk receiving no aid. I understood very early that there was much amiss in the countless Arab villages and homes I saw destroyed, and that the entire Zionist project . regardless of the often venal nature of the Arab opposition to it . was a dangerous sham. The result of the creation of a state called Israel was abysmal. Jews from Poland have nothing in common with Germans and neither has anything to do with those from the Arab world. It is nationality, not religion, that counts most. Jews in Israel, especially the Germans, largely ghettoized themselves by their place of origin during the first generation, when a militarized culture produced the mixed new breed called sabras . an essentially anti-intellectual personality far different from the one the early Zionists, who were mostly socialists who preached the nobility of labor, expected to emerge. The large majority of Israelis are not in the least Jewish in the cultural sense, are scarcely socialist in any sense, and daily life and the way people live is no different in Israel than it is in Chicago or Amsterdam. There is simply no rational reason that justifies the state.s creation. The outcome is a small state with a military ethos that pervades all aspects of Israel.s culture, its politics and, above all, its response to the existence of Arabs in its midst and at its borders. From its inception, the ideology of the early Zionists . of Labor Zionism as well as the rightist Revisionism that Vladimir Jabotinsky produced . embodied a commitment to violence, erroneously called self-defense, and a virtual hysteria. As a transcendent idea, Zionism has no validity because the national differences between Jews are overwhelming. What Zionism confirmed, if any confirmation were needed, is that accidents are more important in shaping history than is all too often allowed. Here was the intellectual caf, which existed in key cities . Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century or the Lower East Side of New York before World War I . filled with immensely creative people full of ideas and longing for a golden era to come. Ideas . good, bad, and indifferent . flourished. In this heady atmosphere, Zionism was born. But Zionism has produced a Sparta that traumatized an already artificially divided region partitioned after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during World War I led to the Versailles Treaty and the creation of the modern Middle East. The state of Israel has always relied on military solutions to political and sociological problems with the Arabs. The result is constant mobilization. Even more troublesome for peace and stability in the vast Middle East, Zionism has always been symbiotic on some great power for the security of its national project, realized in a state called Israel. Before 1939 it was the British; during the 1950s it was France. Israel has survived since the late 1960s on the influx of US arms and money, and this has allowed it to encourage its fears of annihilation . a fate its possession of nuclear weapons makes most unlikely. But Israel also has an importance far beyond the fantasies of a few confused literati. Today its significance for American foreign policy is far greater because the Soviet Union no longer exists and the Middle East provokes the fear so essential to mobilizing Congress and the US public. .The best hopes and the worst fears of the planet are invested in that relatively small patch of earth. . as George Tenet, the former head of the CIA, put it in his memoir . and so understanding how and why that patch came into being, and the grave limits of the martial course it is following, has a very great, even transcendent value. In July 2003 Foreign Minister Shalom predicted that Iran would have nuclear bomb capability by 2006. It did not have nuclear weapons in 2006, though in fact a successful strike by conventional missiles on Dimona, Israel.s nuclear facility, would radioactivate a good part of Israel . and both Iran and Syria have such missiles. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, during Vice-President Dick Cheney.s visit in late March 2008, stated that .Iran.s weapons program threatens not only the stability of the region, but of the whole world,. and he did not rule out a war with it. By spring 2008 Israel was also very concerned about the growing ascendancy of Hizbollah in Lebanon and its greatly increased firepower . mainly in the form of rockets capable of striking much of Israel. It regards Hizbollah as a tool of Iran, and its focus on Iran concerns its control over Hizbollah as well as its ability to challenge Israel.s nuclear monopoly. But there can be no doubt that Hizbollah.s strength has only grown since Israel attacked it in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israel now has an enemy that can inflict immense damage on it, probably resulting in highly skilled Jews migrating far faster than they already are at present . even now, more Jews are leaving Israel than migrating to it. The existence of Israel is scarcely the only reason American policy in the region is as bad as it is. After all, it did not take Zionism to encourage Washington to seek the elimination of British influence in the region, and today no one can tell how long the US will remain mired in the affairs of the Middle East. But Israel is now a vital factor. While the extent of its role can be debated, without it the politics of the entire Middle East would be different . troubled but very different. At least equally nefarious in the long run, Israel.s existence has radicalized . but in a negative sense . the Arab world, distracting it from natural class differences that often overcome religious and tribal ties. It has fanned Arab nationalism abysmally and given it a transcendent negative identity. I am very realistic . and pessimistic . about an eventual negotiated solution to the crisis that has surrounded Palestine and Israel. Given the magnitude of the changes needed, the present situation justifies the most dismal conclusions. After all, the Arabs that live under Israeli control will quite soon outnumber the Jewish population, leaving a de facto Jewish state in which Jews are a minority! This fact is becoming deeply troublesome within Israeli politics today, causing former expansionists to reverse their position and leading to more and more internal controversy. Nor will there ever be an administration in Washington ready to do diplomatically what none has ever dared do since 1947, namely compel Israel to make an equitable peace with the Arabs. Neither a one- nor two-state solution will come to pass. But the Jewish population is very likely to decline, and if it falls sufficiently then demography may prove to be a crucial factor. The ratio of Jews to Arabs would then become highly significant. The Jews in Israel are highly skilled and many have gotten out, migrating abroad. The Israeli military is the most powerful in the region because it has been deluged with American equipment, which it has learned to service. But US forces need repairmen to service the very same equipment, more than ever because recruitment into the American military is now lower than it has been in a quarter-century (not to mention its astronomical suicide rate), and skilled Israelis can take jobs with America.s armed forces that they are eminently qualified to fill. Moreover, Iran and the other Arab states will eventually develop or acquire nuclear weapons, making Israel incredibly insecure for its highly mobile Jewish population . one exhausted by regular service in compulsory reserves. And as already suggested, destroying Dimona with conventional missiles or mortars would be a cheap way to radioactivate a good part of Israel. Even worse, Osama bin Laden, or someone like him, may acquire a nuclear device, and one nuclear bomb detonated in or near Israel will effectively destroy what is a tiny area. Whoever destroys Israel will be proclaimed a hero in the Arab world. To those with skills, the answer is clear: get out. And getting out they are. There are also Orthodox Jews in Israel but Israeli mass culture is now virtually indistinguishable from consumerism anywhere . in many crucial respects, there is more Judaism in parts of Brooklyn or Toronto than in most of Israel. The Orthodox too may be ready to leave behind the insecurity and troubles confronting those who live in a nation that is, after all, a part of a highly unstable region. Sober and quite rational Israelis exist, of course, and I cite them often enough, but American policy will be determined by factors having nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, rational Israelis are an all too small minority. Gabriel Kolko is the leading historian of modern warfare. He is the author of the classic Century of War: Politics, Conflicts and Society Since 1914, Another Century of War? and The Age of War: the US Confronts the World and After Socialism. He has also written the best history of the Vietnam War, Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the US and the Modern Historical Experience. His latest book is World in Crisis, from which this essay has been excerpted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments vote third party for president for congress now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8
- (no other messages in thread)
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.