Progressive Calendar 08.13.10 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu) | |
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:03:56 -0700 (PDT) |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 08.13.10 1. Palestine vigil 8.13 4:15pm 2. Yard sale drop off 8.13 6pm 3. Working Democracy 8.13 7pm 4. AWC yard sale 8.14 8am 5. Peace walk 8.14 9am Cambridge MN 6. CUAPB 8.14 1:30pm 7. Northtown vigil 8.14 2pm 8. Iraq film 8.14 8pm 9. Stillwater vigil 8.15 1pm 10. AI/Palestine 8.15 3pm 11. Organic/Ritchie 8.15 6pm 12. Erich Pica - Climate ostriches: extreme weather about to become norm 13. Alan Fisher - Ignoring the obvious: floods fires droughts disasters 14. Amy Goodman - News at 11: how climate change affects you 15. Ian Sinclair - Documentary review: Conversations on climate 16. ed - Promising sin (haiku) --------1 of 16-------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Palestine vigil 8.13 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. --------2 of 16-------- From: Meredith Aby <awcmere [at] gmail.com> Subject: Yard sale drop off 8.13 6pm Yard sale: Drop off your items for our sale Friday, August 13th 6 - 8pm@ Bethany Lutheran Church, 2511 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis Looking for an excuse to clean out your closets, garage, basement, porch? Stop by on Friday night drop off your gently-used items, so they can find a new home with one of our Saturday yard sale shoppers. Feel free to spread the word to neighbors, co-workers and friends. VOLUNTEERS needed - help us sort and price donated items. All proceeds will benefit the AWC. --------3 of 16-------- From: jtmiller jtmiller <jtmiller [at] minn.net> Subject: Working Democracy 8.13 7pm Working Democracy Book Club Friday, August 13, 7:00 pm MayDay Bookstore, 3rd & Cedar, West Bank - 612-333-4719 At this special Working Democracy Book Club Meetup, we look at the Program of Working Democracy, what it is, how it works, and how it will solve the now intractable problems of capitalism and statism. Read it at: http://www.meetup.org/working-democracy-meetup-group and attend the Meetup for the in-depth discussion. --------4 of 16-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: AWC yard sale 8.14 8am AWC Yard Sale Saturday, August 14, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Bethany Lutheran Church, 2511 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis. Recycle and support the Anti- War Committee (AWC)! Come and buy items that have been donated from a lot of families in the movement and give them a new life! Find your "new" furniture, kids toys, clothes, etc. at the AWC yard sale. Come shop and support peace. All proceeds will benefit the AWC. Sponsored by: the AWC. Endorsed by: WAMM. --------5 of 16-------- From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Peace walk 8.14 9am Cambridge MN every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street --------6 of 16-------- From: Michelle Gross <mgresist [at] visi.com> Subject: CUAPB 8.14 1:30pm Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South http://www.CUAPB.org Communities United Against Police Brutality 3100 16th Avenue S Minneapolis, MN 55407 Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867) --------7 of 16-------- From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 8.14 2pm Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm --------8 of 16-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: Iraq film 8.14 8pm Film about Displaced Iraqis: "The Unreturned" Saturday, August 14, 8:00 p.m. Tarnish and Gold Gallery, 1511 Marshall Street Northeast, Minneapolis. Screening of Nathan Fisher's film on the displaced Iraqi middle class. Part of "The Art of Conflict" exhibit. Sponsored by Iraq American Reconciliation Project (IARP). Endorsed by: WAMM. FFI: www.theartofconflict.org. --------9 of 16-------- From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net> Subject: Stillwater vigil 8.15 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 --------10 of 16-------- From: Gabe Ormsby <gabeo [at] bitstream.net> Subject: AI/Palestine 8.15 3pm GROUP 37 MONTHLY MEETING: SUNDAY, AUGUST 15 - 3 TO 5 P.M. Join us for our regular meeting on Sunday, August 15th, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. This month, our presenters will be Sylvia Schwarz and Susie Gad, who will talk about the conflict in Israel/Palestine in their presentation, "Myths of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict." Sylvia Schwarz is a Jewish resident of St. Paul and a wastewater and water engineer. She has been interested in the Palestine/Israel issue since the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and especially the massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. At that time the defense minister, Ariel Sharon, was found personally responsible for the massacres, but instead of spending time in prison for his culpability he was rewarded with the Ministry of Housing in the Israeli Knesset. It became clear that Israel was not the moral bastion that Sylvia had grown up believing. In 2008 she visited parts of the West Bank and Israel and saw first hand some of the human rights abuses that Palestinians have been contending with since before 1948. 2008 was also the beginning of Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign and Sylvia will discuss this campaign and our role as Minnesotans in ending human rights abuses and international law violations in Israel and Palestine. Susie Gad grew up in an Egyptian household and recently graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Law. She took the bar exam in July. She has been active in the University chapter of Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign, helping to plan some of the fantastic events that have taken place on campus, and she is active in the Legislative Committee of MN BBC. This presentation will present some of the more common myths that Americans hear regarding the conflict, and correct some of the misconceptions. Some of these misconceptions include: - Israel is building the separation wall for security - The conflict is between Jews and Muslims - Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East - Palestinians need to find their "Gandhi" - United States news media coverage of the conflict has generally been fair and balanced Their presentation will begin promptly at 3:00. In our second hour, we will discuss recent developments in our particular areas of focus and in human rights in general. All are welcome, and refreshments will be provided. Location: Center for Victims of Torture, 717 E. River Rd. SE, Minneapolis (corner of E. River Rd. and Oak St.). Park on street or in the small lot behind the Center (the Center is a house set back on a large lawn). A map and directions are available on-line: http://www.twincitiesamnesty.org/meetings.html --------11 of 16-------- From: Erin Parrish <erin [at] mnwomen.org> Subject: Organic/Ritchie 8.15 6pm August 15: Women's Environmental Institute Organic Farm School. "The Future of Alternative Farming and Food Justice in Minnesota" with Mark Ritchie, Minnesota Secretary of State. 6 - 8 PM at Midtown Global Market. $20. Register. --------12 of 16-------- Climate Ostriches: Why Russia's and Pakistan's Extreme Weather Is About To Become the Norm by Erich Pica Thursday, August 12, 2010 Huffington Post Common Dreams Record-setting temperatures in Russia, floods in Pakistan: it's tempting to categorize these as simply fluke weather events. And many media outlets are doing just that. But to do so is a disservice to the public. Acting like ostriches won't help us solve the problem. The media should be helping to connect the dots: what seems extreme now will be tomorrow's norm if we continue to ignore that these events are harbingers of climate change, and they're patterns with real human consequences. If Moscow were in the United States, it would be located somewhere just south of Juneau, Alaska. Yet since July 29, Muscovites have endured at least five days that have been hotter than the previous record of 99 degrees, set back in the 1920s. Prior to this summer, Moscow had never seen a day with triple-digit temperatures. Now, it's seen several. These are more than just a few hot days that can be endured by camping out near an air conditioner. The extreme heat - the worst weather to occur in Russia in 1,000 years - and the resulting acute air pollution, have caused the death rate in Moscow to double. Over 15,000 people are likely to have died in this summer's heat wave. Wildfires are burning rampantly, releasing more carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that does the most to cause climate change, into the air. A section of the Siberian tundra one-and-a-half times the size of Texas continues to thaw out. Potentially more devastating is the effect the heat has had on Russia's grain harvest. Nearly a third of it will be lost from drought and wildfires. This loss will be felt globally; Russia is currently the world's third-largest exporter of grain, and some analysts expect its export to be halved this year, causing prices to skyrocket. The floods in Pakistan have been equally devastating. They're "worse than the Southeast Asia tsunami ... and the Haiti earthquake." 14 million people have been affected by the flooding, and several thousand have died. Villages that had yet to fully recover from a devastating 2005 earthquake have been essentially washed away. And the rain continues to pour, destroying more lives and keeping rescue efforts from proceeding. Food prices in Pakistan have quadrupled, making basic nutrition unattainable for many. As Lester Brown explains in Plan B 4.0, climate disruption will have a devastating effect on our food supply. Two different and catastrophic weather patterns in two totally different parts of the world have resulted in the decimation of harvests and widespread food shortages. Even after the temperature in Moscow goes down or the rain stops in Pakistan, these tragic events will continue to pile up casualties from starvation. As grain prices rise around the world and extreme weather patterns become the norm, starvation and malnutrition, already an overwhelming problem, will become more persistent and farther reaching. The scope of climate change goes far beyond simple environmentalism - it's a fundamental question of how we power ourselves, or grid, and our economy. The other day, I heard a news story that made reference to the "debate" on climate change. The only "debate" is the willful deception funded by Exxon and peddled by science-denying ideologues like Sen. James Inhofe, Lord Monckton and Glenn Beck. These ideologues, for example, used last winter's vicious snowstorms in Washington, DC to mock those who have been pushing for strong action on climate disruption, not recognizing that those storms were another example of the weather we will soon be forced to accept as normal if we do nothing about climate disruption. While some are starting to change their tune, the media continues to give the more stubborn ideologues credence and legitimize the fallacy of their "debate." The connection between these weather events and climate change couldn't be more unambiguous. But the mainstream media first avoided referencing climate change, when it should be the headline. CNN, for example, at first seemed to care more about the political fallout from the Russian heat wave. Instead of simply remarking how unprecedented these weather events are, outlets should be asking why they're happening now and what it means for our future, and that means pointing readers to the many scientific studies that help contextualize this activity and show that climate destabilization will cause more extreme weather. That's not advocacy of one viewpoint or another, it's journalism. (Despite some encouraging signs that the media has finally begun to wake up to the relationship between this summer's brutal weather and climate change, this report by the New York Times shows that some editors are still asleep at the wheel.) We can keep our heads stuck in the sand and pretend what's happening will go away. Or we can disabuse ourselves of any responsibility, just to say "I told you so." Or we can, for once, look at what's happening now and do what's necessary to mitigate and adapt to the forces of our changing planet. It's clear what our choice has to be. 2010 Huffington Post Erich Pica is President of Friends of the Earth. [With malice aforethought, global warming is poo-pooed by the ruling class and its drooling lackeys in politics and the media. Fixing the problem would cost the rich lots of money; forcing it go on will make them richer. So these social criminals are lying and cheating and bribing away our future. They're not stupid - they know it and don't give a damn; they are hardened sociopaths. It is time, NOW, to declare all-out class war on these smarmy bastards, or see the earth and our life on it die. Tax away their money and power; expose away their sociopathic evil; learn not to respect or allow a billionaire class. Eat the rich. Next time you go by a country club, give 'em the finger. -ed] --------13 of 16-------- Ignoring the Obvious: The Floods and Fires, the Droughts and Disasters Will Continue by Alan Fisher Thursday, August 12, 2010 Al Jazeera Common Dreams You may know I've just returned from Niger. There, tens of thousands of people are facing extreme hunger because of the droughts of the last two years. The rainy season is under way but the rains around the capital of Niamey have been torrential and persistent. It's not what is needed. The water is not nourishing the soil. It's washing away the crops. It's washing away homes. It is destroying lives. The trouble there comes as Pakistan struggles to cope with the worst floods since the creation of the state. Millions of people are homeless. The UN predicts the devastation will be worse than the Asian Tsunami, which struck several countries. Torrential rain has swept through China. The official death toll is creeping up all the time. It is going to be in the thousands. Mudslides have brought havoc to many places across the country's northwest. In Russia's capital, Moscow, forest fires - started in scorching hot temperatures - have left the air quality so poor, the authorities are telling people who cannot leave the city to stay indoors. In Greenland, a mass of ice has broken away from a glacier. Four times the size of Manhattan Island; it's the biggest iceberg in more than half a century. Scientists say arctic ice is melting at record pace and 16 countries have recorded record temperatures this year. Yet despite the evidence of floods and flames, of drought and danger, there is no concerted international action towards reaching an agreement on the best way to fight climate change. Most countries of the world gathered in Denmark in December. I know because I was there. They left after ten days suggesting there had been substantial progress, that things were moving in the right direction and it takes time for an international agreement to be hammered out. There were hopes that a comprehensive, legally binding deal could be reached when the next round of talks convened in Cancun in Mexico in November 2010. That was both optimistic and unlikely. The politicians smiled and used honeyed words of good intention, but already the process leading up to Cancun is, in the words of a leading environmental journalist, in "semi-crisis". There is a preparatory meeting scheduled for China in October. What should happen there is that a draft text is agreed so that the politicians can roll up, sign the deal and depart looking like they've saved the world. Sound familiar? Well, that was what was meant to happen in Barcelona last year. Instead, what we have is a forty page document which has to be negotiated line by line. And there simply isn't the time to do that. There is an optimistic idea that with countries suggesting things to be added to the text, it means they are now fully engaged in trying to reach a balanced agreement. In Copenhagen last year, developing countries reacted angrily to the deal, which was tabled. The idea was the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding agreement on reducing carbon emissions, would be scrapped, replaced by a new agreement which would allow industrialised countries to set their own targets and timetables to make the changes needed. The countries most at risk raised their voices loud. They felt they were being told that they must reduce their minor emissions and deprive their people of developing a stronger economy while richer nations did little to minimise the impact of more than 100 years of mass industrialisation. The US is the largest historical emitter and the second biggest carbon polluter in the world. China overtook it in 2007. Its plan to help remains essentially the same - cut emissions by four per cent on the 1990 figure; a suggestion widely derided in Copenhagen, and a sign the US isn't quite ready to face the pain of significant changes to the lifestyle its people enjoy or the way it uses fuel. The poorest countries are getting angry again. More than 100 of them are now calling for any future climate change agreement to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C - not the 2C everyone has been talking about. They are demanding more money to help with fighting the costs of climate change - saying the $100bn a year already suggested simply isn't enough. And they want much more from richer countries that aren't willing to give. And that's where the basis of future disappointment in Cancun lies. If the rich don't want to do anything - despite the howls of protests outside the halls and the demands for action from charities and non-governmental organisations - then nothing will happen. And Cancun will be remembered for failure in the same way that Copenhagen is remembered. The countries will leave, claim they're taking important steps and push for agreement in 2011, or 2012 or 2013. And the whole process starts again. Meanwhile, the floods and fires, the droughts and disasters will continue. 2010 Al Jazeera Alan Fisher is an award-winning correspondent who has reported from across the world. [And the horrendous heat and humidity here in dear old MN. Millions of us suffer so a few arch criminals can have longer yachts. They're lucky I/we don't have our hands on their neckties. -ed] --------14 of 16-------- News at 11: How Climate Change Affects You by Amy Goodman Thursday, August 12, 2010 Truthdig Common Dreams Our daily weather reports, cheerfully presented with flashy graphics and state-of-the-art animation, appear to relay more and more information. And yet, no matter how glitzy the presentation, a key fact is invariably omitted. Imagine if, after flashing the words "extreme weather" to grab our attention, the reports flashed "global warming." Then we would know not only to wear lighter clothes or carry an umbrella, but that we have to do something about climate change. I put the question to Jeff Masters, co-founder and director of meteorology at Weather Underground, an Internet weather information service. Masters writes a popular blog on weather, and doesn't shy away from linking extreme weather to climate change: "Heat, heat, heat is the name of the game on planet Earth this year," he told me, as the world is beset with extreme weather events that have caused the death of thousands and the displacement of millions. Wildfires in Russia have blanketed the country with smoke, exacerbating the hottest summer there in 1,000 years. Torrential rains in Asia have caused massive flooding and deadly landslides in Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan and China. An ice shelf in Greenland has broken off, sending an ice island four times the size of Manhattan into the ocean. Droughts threaten Niger and the Sahel. Masters relates stark statistics: .2010 has seen the most national extreme heat records for a single year: 17. .The past decade was the hottest decade in the historical record. .The first half of 2010 was the warmest such six-month period in the planet's history. .The five warmest months in history for the tropical Atlantic have all occurred this year (likely leading to more frequent and severe Atlantic hurricanes). "We will start seeing more and more years like this year when you get these amazing events that caused tremendous death and destruction," Masters said. "As this extreme weather continues to increase in the coming decades and the population increases, the ability of the international community to respond and provide aid to victims will be stretched to the limit." And yet the U.N. talks aimed at climate change seem poised for collapse. When the Copenhagen climate talks last December were derailed, with select industrialized nations, led by the United States, offering a "take it or leave it" accord, many developing nations decided to leave it. The so-called Copenhagen Accord is seen as a tepid, nonbinding document that was forced on the poorer countries as a ploy to allow countries like the U.S., Canada and China to escape the legally binding greenhouse-gas emissions targets of the Kyoto Protocol, which is up for renewal. Bolivia, for example, is pursuing a more aggressive global agreement on emissions. It's calling for strict, legally binding limits on emissions, rather than the voluntary goals set forth in the Copenhagen Accord. When Bolivia refused to sign on to the accord, the U.S. denied it millions in promised aid money. Bolivia's United Nations ambassador, Pablo Solon, told me: "We said: 'You can keep your money. We're not fighting for a couple of coins. We are fighting for life.'" While Bolivia did succeed in passing a U.N. resolution last month affirming the right to water and sanitation as a human right, a first for the world body, that doesn't change the fact that as Bolivia's glaciers melt as a result of climate change, its water supply is threatened. Pacific Island nations like Tuvalu may disappear from the planet entirely if sea levels continue to rise, which is another consequence of global warming. The U.N. climate conference will convene in Cancun, Mexico, in December, where prospects for global consensus with binding commitments seem increasingly unlikely. Ultimately, policy in the United States, the greatest polluter in human history, must be changed. That will come only from people in the United States making the vital connection between our local weather and global climate change. What better way than through the daily drumbeat of the weather forecasts? Meteorologist Jeff Masters defined for me the crux of the problem: "A lot of TV meteorologists are very skeptical that human-caused global climate change is real. They've been seduced by the view pushed by the fossil-fuel industry that humans really aren't responsible ... we're fighting a battle against an enemy that's very well-funded, that's intent on providing disinformation about what the real science says." It just may take a weatherperson to tell which way the wind blows. Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. Copyright 2010 Truthdig, L.L.C. Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 800 stations in North America. She was awarded the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the .Alternative Nobel. prize, and received the award in the Swedish Parliament in December. --------15 of 16-------- Documentary review: Conversations on climate, action and the future. Directed by Stefan Skrimshire By Ian Sinclair Source: Morning StarThursday, August 12, 2010 Z magazine How do those interested and active in stopping man-made climate change get everybody else to realise the urgency of the threat and change their behaviour accordingly? It is a question that has generated a lot of discussion in the Green movement, the outcome of which will have profound consequences for the entire planet. Speaking at a public meeting organised by the World Development Movement in May 2008 newly elected Green MP Caroline Lucas noted that the language of fear and disaster surrounding climate change is both "deeply scary and deeply unhelpful". According to Lucas "trying to terrify people into action" simply doesn.t work. To illustrate her argument Lucas mentioned the discourse of tipping points, the topic of Beyond the Tipping Point, a short documentary directed by Stefan Skrimshire, a Research Associate in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Manchester. "At certain points in time elements of the Earth's system, triggered by positive feedback loops, can switch from small changes to huge ones", Skrimshire, the narrator of the film, explains. Huge changes in this case meaning accelerated, uncontrollable and importantly, irreversible, climate change. An increase in 4 degrees, according to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will likely lead to a marked decrease in global food production, "major extinctions around the globe", a 2-7 metre sea level rise and more frequent and severe flooding, heatwaves, droughts and water pollution. There is little agreement about where these tipping points are precisely located, although many climatologists believe we may have passed a number already. For example, as early as 2005 the respected NASA climate scientist James Hansen warned. "We are on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption". Bypassing the science of these thresholds and choosing to focus on "impact on our imaginations" the film is broken up into a series of easily digestible sections dealing with questions such as "Do tipping points generate action or apathy?", "Are we trying to prevent climate change or adapt to it?" and "Are the challenges too great?". All huge topics taken on their own, but the experts, academics and activists interviewed give incisive answers that both lay persons and experienced campaigners will be able to engage with and debate. What effect does this looming point of no return have on those involved in climate protest and action? Leo Murray of direct action group Plane Stupid argues the climate science of tipping points and feedbacks means there is a limited time period available for effective action against climate change. "If ever we are going to act on climate change, we need to do it now", he says. Polyp, an activist and political cartoonist, continues this line of thinking, highlighting how the end of slavery and civil rights for African-Americans took decades to achieve. "It's no longer viable for that sort of social justice to happen at that sort of pace", he notes. "It's got to start happening much more quicker". Raising more questions than it answers, Beyond the Tipping Point is a refreshing take on an issue that will only grow in importance in the future. One thing missing is a discussion of the corporate forces involved in deliberately planting doubt and uncertainty in the public debate, surely a key reason behind the general public's relative inaction on climate change. But this is a minor criticism of a film that, considering it focuses in part on the very survival of the human species, is surprisingly positive and hopeful. "We must try as that is what it is to be human", concludes the University of Southampton's Dr Mark Levene at the film;s close. To request a free copy of the DVD to show in your community visit www.beyondthetippingpoint.com. *Ian Sinclair is a freelance writer based in London, UK. ian_js [at] hotmail.com. --------16 of 16-------- Forgive me, Devil, I have not sinned today. Just watch me tomorrow. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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 for governor now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8 Research almost any topic raised here at: CounterPunch http://counterpunch.org Dissident Voice http://dissidentvoice.org Common Dreams http://commondreams.org Once you're there, do a search on your topic, eg obama drones
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