Progressive Calendar 04.25.11 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu) | |
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 03:15:09 -0700 (PDT) |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 04.25.11 1. Climate/lunch 4.25 12noon 2. Honduras 4.25 1pm 3. LatAm justice 4.25 2pm 4. Anti-nuke 4.25 5pm/7pm 5. Peace walk 4.25 6pm RiverFalls WI 6. Sock the GOP 4.25 6:30pm 7. Salon/poetry 4.26 6:30pm 8. Transition Town 4.26 6:30pm 9. Ralph Nader - Stripmining American jobs - is this patriotic? 10. Shamus Cooke - Deep collusion: the fake budget debate in DC --------1 of 10-------- From: Wanda Ballentine <wsb70 [at] comcast.net> Subject: Climate/lunch 4.25 12noon Sierra Club -- North Star Chapter Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet The University will be hosting input sessions to hear from students and faculty on which energy and carbon reduction solutions the campus should prioritize. Come to the input session on Monday to tell the University to get off of coal. Here are the details: University Students, Faculty, Staff and Alumni Climate Action Plan Input Sessions Monday, April 25 from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. Coffman Union Room 325 Questions: Contact Courtney Dowell at <mailto:dowe0031 [at] umn.edu>dowe0031 [at] umn.edu Let us know we can count on you to come and tell the university we need to move beyond coal as soon as feasibly possible if we're serious about sustainability. <http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=xWPjiDSNj7z7ETBjcWbfcw..>RSVP now for the climate action input session<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=xWPjiDSNj7z7ETBjcWbfcw..>. Need another reason to come to an input session? Lunch is provided! Joshua Low Sierra Club North Star Chapter P.S. Have a Monday class? There will be a second input session on Tuesday, April 26 from 2-4 p.m. in Carlson School of Management Building L118. If you plan on going on Tuesday, contact Courtney at <mailto:dowe0031 [at] umn.edu>dowe0031 [at] umn.edu, so we can give you a few talking points. --------2 of 10-------- From: Joseph Callahan <joepfaucal [at] gmail.com> Subject: Honduras 4.25 1pm Gerardo Torres, Leader of the Honduran National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) Coordinator, U.S. and Canada relations Minneapolis Community and Technical College Friday, April 25, 1:00pm, Science Building, Room 1120 1501 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis Honduran workers are still under attack following the 2009 U.S.-backed coup. Hear a leader of the resistance movement describe the continuing repression against teachers and campesinos as they ffight back against the oligarchy and its military, police and shadowy death squads. All events are free and open to the public: for more information : 612-702-5637 handsoffhonduras [at] gmail.com HondurasFreedom.blogspot.com --------3 of 10-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: LatAm justice 4.25 2pm A Talk by Baltasar Garzon: "Universal Jurisdiction and International Justice: An Inseparable Reality?" Monday, April 25, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. University of Minnesota, Mondale Hall, Room 25,229 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis. Baltasar Garzon, an investigating magistrate of the Spanish National Court, came to international attention in 1998 when he issued an international warrant for the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges. He has also presided over human rights cases against Argentine and Chilean military leaders and worked to unearth crimes committed during the Franco era in Spain. Sponsored by: European Studies Consortium, Spanish & Portuguese, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Global Studies, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC), Law School, Human Rights Program, Global Programs and Strategy Alliance. FFI: Email esc [at] umn.edu or call 612-625-6527. --------4 of 10-------- From: Christine Frank <christinefrank [at] visi.com> Subject: Anti-nuke 4.25 5pm/7pm anti-nuke protest no more nukes- not now, not ever! hell no, we won't glow! shut down prairie island & monticello! save mother earth with clean, renewable, non-radioactive energy! monday, april 25, 5:00 pm plaza mayday books 301 cedar avenue south west bank, minneapolis the next 3ctc environmental forum "from three mile island to chernobyl to japan- no more nukes!" april 26th is the 25th anniversary of the chernobyl nuclear disaster speakers: john laforge nuclear researcher & staff member of nukewatch quarterly christine frank coordiantor of the climate crisis coalition of the twin cities monday, april 25, 7:00 pm mayday books 301 cedar avenue south west bank, minneapolis sponsored by the climate crisis coalition of the twin cities For over a month since the 9.0 megaquake and tsunami that struck Northeast Japan, three nuclear reactors have been melting down and leaking radioactive isotopes, endangering the Japanese people as well as the rest of the world with dangerous radioactive fallout in the atmosphere, ocean and soil. The situation in Japan has been continually out of control and is slipping ever further away as the temporary contract workers, whose lives are being sacrificed, have struggled unsuccessfully to get the stricken plant's cooling systems back on line. The facility is in its death throes and TEPCO, the reckless and greedy utility that owns it, has admitted that its badly crippled reactors eventually will be scrapped. TEPCO acknowledged this week that it could take nine months to get the plant into cold shutdown, assuming that setbacks will not delay the process, and there have been plenty of those already. They must still pump out 18.5 million gallons of contaminated water from turbine buildings and nearby trenches before they can get the cooling systems back up & running. Because of widespread damage to the containments, storage pools, and pipes, enormous amounts of radioactive water are leaking everywhere and entering the sea, threatening marine ecosystems and the people, who depend upon the fisheries. One of Japan's most important farming regions is being completely irradiated. An ionizing plume has encircled Earth from the release of radioactive steam, three hydrogen explosions and a fire, putting everyone at risk for cancer and threatening unborn fetuses with birth deformities. We cannot afford to allow the capitalist system to play this deadly game of nuclear roulette with human lives and the biosphere, which as we know from the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster of 1986, will lose a tremendous amount of biodiversity. It is essential that we voice our opposition to this absurdly expensive and deadly form of energy, which threatens the health of the entire planet. There can be no such thing as "Atoms for Peace". That is a lie. Every dose of radiation is an overdose. There are no safe levels of exposure to mutagenic, carcinogenic ionizing radiation that penetrates living tissue and alters chromosomes, whatever its form-Iodine-131, Cesium-137 or Plutonium-239. Plus, the radioactive waste from the nuclear cycle will remain on the planet affecting life for thousands of generations in perpetuity. Because of the extremely long half-lives of some radioactive isotopes, there is virtually no "away". Radiation is forever. There is nothing "green" about nukes since every stage in the nuclear cycle is highly energy-intensive and generates greenhouse gases with the sole exception of the fission process used to heat water for steam. There is no need for this nuclear madness when we can harness the benign energy produced through nuclear fusion by the sun, using the clean technologies we already have at our disposal-wind turbines & solar arrays. We must demand that they shut down all nuclear reactors, whether they are on earthquake fault lines or not, and begin the lengthy process of decommissioning them immediately. That includes those at Prairie Island and Monticello. Both of these nuclear power stations are aging and dilapidated, yet the government has seen fit to extend their licenses and allow increased output, while the radioactive wastes continue to pile up with no solution for safe storage. ENOUGH OF THIS INSANITY! END THE NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE NOW! [On the other hand, the ruling class needs new longer spiffier yachts, second and third vacation mansions, and more more-servile servants. Who will win? -ed] --------5 of 10-------- From: Nancy Holden <d.n.holden [at] comcast.net> Subject: Peace walk 4.25 6pm RiverFalls WI River Falls Peace and Justice Walkers. We meet every Monday from 6-7 pm on the UWRF campus at Cascade Ave. and 2nd Street, immediately across from "Journey" House. We walk through the downtown of River Falls. Contact: d.n.holden [at] comcast.net. Douglas H Holden 1004 Morgan Road River Falls, Wisconsin 54022 --------6 of 10-------- From: Hilary Debler <hdebler [at] yahoo.com> Subject: Sock the GOP 4.25 6:30pm I just learned the GOP leaders in the Eagan area are holding a town hall meeting at Wescott Library at 6:30pm on Monday the 25th. Let's ask them about their morality and the job losses created with their plan to cut medical care for our citizens who need it. --------7 of 10-------- From: patty <pattypax [at] earthlink.net> Subject: Salon/poetry 4.26 6:30pm HI, This Tuesday, April 26, Media Mike (Mike Hazzard) is going to show us his video of Roy McBride, A Poet's Poet. It is a word ride of Roy, and he says it was labor of love videotaping him since 1986. He calls the labor and the video, "The Joy of Roy." And, don't forget to read the Little Book of the Odd Month Club for the last Tuesday of May. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. (the book reminds me of the new law being passed in Bolivia giving Nature equal rights with humans.) Pax Salons ( http://justcomm.org/pax-salon ) are held (unless otherwise noted in advance): Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Mad Hatter's Tea House, 943 W 7th, St Paul, MN Salons are free but donations encouraged for program and treats. Call 651-227-3228 or 651-227-2511 for information. --------8 of 10-------- From: "aleric [at] tcq.net" <aleric [at] tcq.net> Subject: Transition Town 4.26 6:30pm Northeast Minneapolis Library Tuesday, April 26th 2200 Central Ave NE 6:30 - 8:00 P.M. Can Minneapolis (and neighboring communities) not only survive Climate Change and Peak Oil, but adapt and thrive? The Transition Town movement thinks so - learn more about it from Tim Jordan and discuss possible plans of action with fellow Greens. (And see the newly remodeled Northeast Library.) First in a series of local issue discussions sponsored by the 5th CD Green Party of Minnesota. Everyone welcome, --------9 of 10-------- Is This Patriotic? Stripmining American Jobs By RALPH NADER April 22 - 24, 2011 CounterPunch It is time to apply the standard of patriotism to the U.S. multinational corporations and demand that they pledge allegiance to the United States and "the Republic for which is stands.. with liberty and justice for all." This July 4, 2011 would be good day for Americans to demand such a corporate commitment. Born and chartered in the U.S.A., these corporations rose to their giant size on the backs of American workers and vast taxpayer-subsidized research and development handouts. When they got into trouble, whether through mismanagement or corruption, these companies rushed to Washington, D.C. for bailouts from American taxpayers. When some were challenged in foreign lands, the U.S. marines came to their rescue, as depicted decades ago by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Marine General Smedley Butler. So what is their message to America and its workers now? It is not gratitude or loyalty. It is "we're outta here, with your jobs and industries" to dictatorial or oligarchic regimes abroad, such as China, that know how to keep their impoverished, and abused workers under control. Note that these company bosses have no compunction replacing U.S. workers with serf-labor, but they never replace themselves with bi-lingual executives from China, India and elsewhere who are willing to work for one-tenth or less of the huge pay packages executives get from their rubber-stamp boards of directors in the U.S. Just this week, the Wall Street Journal headlined "Big U.S. Firms Shift Hiring Abroad." Veteran reporter, David Wessel writes: "U.S. multinational corporations, the big brand-name companies that employ a fifth of all American workers, have been hiring abroad while cutting back at home, sharpening the debate over globalization's effect on the U.S. economy. The companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show." While Mr. Wessel acknowledges that other economies, especially in Asia, are growing rapidly, he noted that "The data also underscore the vulnerability of the U.S. economy, particularly at a time when unemployment is high and wages aren't increasing." Keep in mind that, while receiving all the public services, subsidies and protections in this country, large corporations have been abandoning America by shifting jobs overseas and by making our country perilously and unnecessarily dependent on foreign governments that naturally put their own interests first. For example, the drug companies no longer have any plant in the U.S. to manufacture essential raw ingredients for important antibiotics like penicillin. In 2004, Bristol-Myers Squibb closed the last such factory in East Syracuse, N.Y. The drug industry always made lots of money here. One of every two Americans are on a prescription medicine. But the pharmaceutical companies want to make more so they have moved their production to Asia. In 2009, The New York Times reported that "the critical ingredients for most antibiotics are now made almost exclusively in China and India. The same is true for dozens of other crucial medicines, including the popular allergy medicine prednisone; metformin, for diabetes; and amlodipine, for high blood pressure. This flight to Asia raises serious questions. Senator Sherrod Brown (Dem. Ohio) held hearings because he accurately believed that "the lack of regulation around outsourcing is a blind spot that leaves room for supply disruptions, counterfeit medicines, even bioterrorism." Industrial scale production of Penicillin was developed by the U.S. war production board in World War II and many drug companies made it in U.S. plants, until the Chinese government lured the industry there with many freebies and weak safety regulations. A few years ago 95 Americans died from a Chinese produced counterfeit ingredient in the drug heparin, an anticlotting drug needed for surgery and dialysis. As Belgium drug industry consultant, Enrico Polastro, told The New York Times: "If China ever got very upset with President Obama, it could be a big problem." The Times concluded: "So for now, like it or not, China has the upper hand." Who gave China that dominant position? U.S. multinational drug companies, who along with other big U.S. companies, pushed through Congress, with Bill Clinton's support, ratification of both NAFTA's and the World Trade Organization's "pull down" trade agreements. They created the very globalized structure that they now claim they are beholden to in order to meet the global competition. Clever, aren't they? Other unpatriotic acts include the oil companies who, despite being given a rich oil depletion tax allowance to invest in energy in the U.S., invested in oil production overseas. The U.S. is now dependent on foreign sources for most of its petroleum. Don't forget the military-industrial giants that thrive on U.S. military expansion abroad and sell modern weapons to many dictatorial regimes which they use to oppress their people and endanger our own national security. U.S. multinationals that export jobs abroad, show too little regard for our country, or to the U.S. communities that sustained them for decades. Greedy corporate lobbyists continue to press for more privileges and immunities, over those held by real humans, so as to be less accountable under U.S. law for corporate crimes and other mis-behaviors. If U.S. companies continue to expand their rights of personhood through U.S. Supreme Court's political decisions (eg. the latest being the notorious 5 to 4 Citizens United case opening up the floodgates of corporate cash against or for electoral candidates), then, they should be judged as "persons" and evaluated for their loyalty to their country of creation. Since corporations are clearly "artificial" entities and not real human beings, narrower civil liberties standards can be applied to the impersonal and massive concentrations of power, capital and technology known as corporations Independence Day July 4th presents an opportunity for a national attention to the need for calling out these runaway corporate giants who exploit for profit the patriotic sensibilities of Americans, but decline to be held any patriotic expectations or values. Readers interested in joining such an effort for July 4, 2011 contact info [at] csrl.org. Ralph Nader is the author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, a novel. --------10 of 10-------- Deep Collusion The Fake Budget Debate in DC By SHAMUS COOKE April 22 - 24, 2011 CounterPunch By definition, a "debate" requires two opposing sides holding mutually exclusive opinions. In the U.S. Congress, however, real debate has all but vanished. Instead, we are subjected to endless blather that - if you listen closely - is a simple discussion over splitting hairs. There can be no U.S. budget debate when both sides have already agreed that massive cuts to social programs - including Medicare and Social Security - will be the foundation of any plan. With this fundamental agreement already in place, Democrats and Republicans are pathetically trying to create a division where none exists. The right wing looks especially foolish, since Obama has been furiously sprinting to the political right throughout the budget "debate," having already overtaken the right-wing deficit hawks; in response, the hawks have gotten more hawkish and restarted their rightward dash in a desperate attempt to appear in "opposition" to the right-wing President. For example, the Republicans originally demanded that an astonishing $4 trillion be cut from the U.S. budget, mainly through cuts to social programs. Not to be outdone, Obama presented a plan that would cut $4 trillion, mainly through cuts to social programs. The furthest right are the so-called Tea Party Republicans, who want to cut $10 trillion by essentially privatizing the entire U.S. Government. But, back to the hair splitting. Obama calls the $4 trillion Republican plan "radical," and he's right; the plan seeks to privatize Medicare, destroy Medicaid, gut other social programs, lower corporate tax rates, etc. But Obama is a radical budget cutter too; he seeks to gut Medicare/Medicaid by $480 billion(!), slash spending for many crucial programs for the poor, and privatize public education through his corporate-sponsored Race to the Top program. Obama is trying to make his plan seem progressive by talking about "taxing the rich," but this is a lie. Finally allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire is not "taxing the rich" (Bush himself planned for the cuts to have expired already, but Obama agreed to extend them.) Obama's recent tough speech against the Republicans was the first sign of life for the President, just in time for him to begin his presidential run for 2012, which will surely be full of promises that will never see the light of day. As the President wages a "battle" over secondary budget issues, such as how best to make $4 trillion in cuts, the main issues are already agreed upon. Economist Richard Reich helps explain: "...the Democratic leadership in Congress refuse to refute the Republicans' big lie - that spending cuts will lead to more jobs. In fact, spending cuts now will lead to fewer jobs. They'll slow down an already-anemic recovery. That will cause immense and unnecessary suffering for millions of Americans" "The president continues to legitimize the Republican claim that too much government spending caused the economy to tank, and that by cutting back spending we'll get the economy going again." (April 10, 2011). This two-party big lie is not an accident, but an expression of a deeper held belief: that the U.S. government must be directed to meet the needs of the super wealthy who own U.S. corporations. Holding this belief requires that you gut social programs (since corporations hate paying taxes) and privatize everything publicly owned (so corporations can own them for profit). As long as both Democrats and Republicans agree to these deeper beliefs, the country will shift continually to the right, with social programs and living standards evaporating. However, the stronger that labor and community groups unite and fight to save these social programs, the harder will it be to cut them; out of such a struggle will emerge practical solutions to solving the deficit problems of the country, such as dramatically increasing the taxes on the rich and corporations so that jobs can be created and social programs saved. Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org) He can be reached at shamuscooke [at] gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - 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 Impeach Obama 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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