- Words & writing news
- ESSAYS ON WRITING
- Post literate America
- Words & meaning
- SomeRulesForWriting
L.L.C. (SRFW)!
A few thoughts about writing - Words and cruelty
- What's
a humanities?
Cliche challenge - Harder to read than Ulysses
- Just words on words
- The politics of symbols
PLC? WDYMBT? - OTHER
- Pocket paradigms
August 21, 2017
Links: Words and writing
Improving public school reading with eye glasses
Politico - Beginning in May 2016, the city of Baltimore assembled a public-private coalition made up of its health department, the public school system, Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Education, eyeglass retailer Warby Parker, and a national nonprofit called Vision To Learn. The three-year program, called Vision for Baltimore, plans to visit 150 schools over the course of the study and screen 60,000 students, making it the biggest study of its kind. The data officials expect to glean could radically alter how school systems across the country approach one of the most difficult and consequential problems in modern education. It may well be that the solution to the persistent gap in reading proficiency is not instructional, but a simple health issue that could be addressed with a pair eyeglasses that could cost a couple of hundred dollars at the mall.
... About 100 students, a fourth of Worthy-Owens’ school’s total, received the glasses in March. Though there are no hard data yet on reading proficiency, Worthy-Owens said teachers at her school have noticed those students who received and regularly wear glasses from V4B have improved in the classroom. The glasses have even boosted student self-esteem: Her school spotlights the students for wearing their glasses on a bulletin board, she said, and none of them have been bullied. She attributes this to the way they promote the “coolness” of wearing them.
... About 100 students, a fourth of Worthy-Owens’ school’s total, received the glasses in March. Though there are no hard data yet on reading proficiency, Worthy-Owens said teachers at her school have noticed those students who received and regularly wear glasses from V4B have improved in the classroom. The glasses have even boosted student self-esteem: Her school spotlights the students for wearing their glasses on a bulletin board, she said, and none of them have been bullied. She attributes this to the way they promote the “coolness” of wearing them.
Flotsam & Jetsam
In September, my friends, Lou and Di Stovall, will be receiving an award from the Historical Society of Washington for distinguished artistic achievement. But they had some other skills that I described upon leaving as their next door neighbors
Sam Smith - One of the saddest parts leaving
Washington’s Cleveland Park in back in 2001 was that I wouldn't be living next
to Lou and Di Stovall anymore, which had gotten to be a 28 year habit. Lou,
black from Massachusetts, and Di, white from Georgia, were both artists but
they also served as the magnetic north of the neighborhood. Follow the compass
and that's where you'd end up. Our friendship endured even though Lou, who had
done silkscreen prints for over 70 artists, no longer asks my advice on art.
That ended after I wandered into his studio while he was working on a print of
a seascape and he recklessly inquired what I thought of it. I pointed to an
empty piece of sky and suggested that a plane towing a banner would look nice
there. Nonetheless, when we moved to Capitol Hill, he still had my cartoon
posted in his studio, showing a Lou type character saying, “Art is what I say
it is.” And next to him was a dog grumbling “I know Art and he won’t like that.”
And I did get into one of his works. Outside his Newark
Street house one day, he explained that he was working on prints for the Equal
Opportunities Commission and needed some quotes to use on them. "Got any
quotes, Sam?" he asked. "Look Lou," I replied, "writers
write things and then they get quoted; they don't just write quotes." But
for him, I thought of one anyway and he used it: "God is an equal
opportunity employer."
Nothing was too minor not to give it an artistic or literary
spin. Once Di asked me to feed their dog Ruby while they were away. I left her
a written report that read in part:
I went outside and said, “Ruby,
upstairs.” We stood eyeball to eyeball. She flinched. I pointed. “Upstairs,” I
repeated in a voice fraught with meaning. She lifted her lanky buff frame and
with a frantic kick of her left hind leg she hightailed it to the bedroom
faster than a hooker with a high roller from Dallas. . . Trouble is my business
but as I walked out into the sultry Cleveland Park night I thought there must
be more to this than that.”
Lou and Di also provided the neighborhood young with
counsel, refuge, laughs, food, a badminton court and their own box of art
supplies in the studio. Back when the street wasn't as busy as it became, Lou even
painted home plate in the middle of it for whiffle ball, the required afternoon
activity for anyone between the ages of 6 and 16. Since there weren't enough
kids to staff two full teams, every game involved innumerable "ghost
men," imaginary creatures whose precise accomplishments and locations at
any given moment were a matter of endless, loud debate after every play. Among
other services, Lou and Di provided advice on anger management. And one year,
four of Sidwell Friend School's starting nine were graduates of the Newark
Street field of screams.
00
Some years later, Lou and Di's own son went to Sidwell
Friends and, faced with having both Chelsea Clinton and Al Gore Jr as
schoolmates, rebelled in one of the few ways available to a black 7th grader
under such circumstances: he became a Republican. This revolt, mercifully
brief, included playing golf and arranging to have me sent a membership in the
GOP Gold Club complete with a welcoming letter from Haley Barber, as well
posting a Dole-Kemp sign on his bedroom window that looked directly down into our
living room.
Lou and I conspired on a number of matters, including one of
the city's first neighborhood crime watches. He designed the signs and hosted
meetings, while I served as crime statistician. Some of the watch's efforts
didn't work out all that well. At one meeting, Bishop John Walker complained
that a wanted poster drawn by a neighbor seemed racist to him. I told John that
he just didn't understand the difference between racism and bad art. John, the
black bishop of the Washington National Cathedral, had a sense of humor good
enough that Lou once loudly transmitted one of my recent jokes, from one
crowded supermarket checkout line across to another, and John, in the latter,
had the grace to laugh. The joke was that Moses had come down from the Mount
and told the people, "I've got some good news and some bad news. The good
news is I've talked him down from 100 to ten. The bad news is that adultery is
still one of them."
On another occasion, someone called the police around ten pm
to complain about people shining flashlights into their house. It was the
neighborhood watch on patrol, albeit a bit counterproductively. Then, on a
pleasant Saturday afternoon, the alarm went off at the house on the other side
of ours. The police responded, with Lou and I there to assist. Noting that the
kitchen window was unlocked, the officer pulled his revolver and announced,
with what struck me as excessive hubris, "Stand back, I'm going in."
He opened the window and crawled through, waving his revolver. A few minutes
later, he reappeared, announcing with even great import, "Stand back, this
could be dangerous." In his right hand he still held his revolver, but in
his left was a saucepan out of which all the water had boiled, leaving only one
perilously overheated and smoking egg.
On another occasion, I returned to find Lou in his front
yard. "Doesn't that car look like the one they're looking for in that rape
case?" he asked, pointing to a decrepit vehicle up the street. We went to
take a look, nodded thoughtfully at the decrepit contents, and then returned to
call the cops. Afterwards, we stayed on the sidewalk talking for about twenty
minutes, until Lou said, "Let's go take another look." After our
inspection, we returned to Lou's fence and our conversations. Some while later,
Lou said, "Where are those cops? I think I'll call again." When he
returned outside, he reported that the officer on duty had told him, "We
have the car under surveillance, sir, but it doesn't help much if citizens keep
looking in the window. Which one are you, the big white guy or the little short
bald black guy?"
"I resent that," said Lou. Replied the officer,
"We're paid to be observant."
It's was going to be rough not having Lou close at hand for
help in such matters. But then, maybe now he would be able to get more art
done.
Nearly half of women want Trump to be impeached
Maine Public Broacating - Women are more enthusiastic than men about the idea of a Trump impeachment, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Nearly half of women — 47 percent — believe President Trump should be impeached, compared with 32 percent of men. Not only that, but women are a big reason why his approval rating is so low, Gallup data show. Women approve of Trump far less than they have approved of any other president at this point in his administration in at least the last 64 years, according to data collected since Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House. Men, meanwhile, are within the historical norm.
Warming causes serious problem for walruses
Inside Climate News -A remote barrier island off Alaska's northwest coast has been mobbed by thousands of Pacific walruses in recent weeks in the earliest known "haul out" for the species.
Their arrival is tied to shrinking Arctic sea ice and follows one of the hottest months on record. It also comes as Arctic sea ice extent is near a record low for this time of year. Global Temperatures Rising
Last month, global temperatures tied July 2016 for the warmest July in 137 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
....Walruses rely on the ice as they hunt for food. They typically dive from floating blocks of ice to feed on clams on the ocean floor. As the ice floes melt, however, this vanishing habitat recedes farther north, beyond the shallow waters of the continental shelf and into Arctic waters too deep for the foraging animals. Then they haul up on shore, crowding together, sometimes in herds of thousands, where deadly stampedes can occur.
As of last week, approximately 2,000 of the marine mammals were on shore, U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Andrea Medeiros wrote in an email.
"This early haul out shows that Pacific walruses are in terrible trouble," Emily Jeffers, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity said in a written statement. "The walrus, within the foreseeable future, will be at risk of extinction due to the loss of sea ice."
Their arrival is tied to shrinking Arctic sea ice and follows one of the hottest months on record. It also comes as Arctic sea ice extent is near a record low for this time of year. Global Temperatures Rising
Last month, global temperatures tied July 2016 for the warmest July in 137 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
....Walruses rely on the ice as they hunt for food. They typically dive from floating blocks of ice to feed on clams on the ocean floor. As the ice floes melt, however, this vanishing habitat recedes farther north, beyond the shallow waters of the continental shelf and into Arctic waters too deep for the foraging animals. Then they haul up on shore, crowding together, sometimes in herds of thousands, where deadly stampedes can occur.
As of last week, approximately 2,000 of the marine mammals were on shore, U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Andrea Medeiros wrote in an email.
"This early haul out shows that Pacific walruses are in terrible trouble," Emily Jeffers, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity said in a written statement. "The walrus, within the foreseeable future, will be at risk of extinction due to the loss of sea ice."
August 20, 2017
What’s missing in this saga
Sam Smith
While there is a growing realization that the dysfunctional dictator
docent in the White House shouldn’t be in the job, there is a stunning lack of
alternative paths- save his impeachment
and replacement by the consistently wrong and frequently evil Michael Pence.
A main reason for this vacuum is the most apathetic, unimaginative, conservative and irresponsible Democratic Party in modern history. There is no way wrong can be effectively combatted without a decent alternative and the Democrats have been acting as though just finding fault with Trump will do the job.
A decade, writing about the threat of fascism, I noted:
Germany's willingness to accept Hitler was the product of many
cultural characteristics specific to that country, to the anger and
frustrations in the wake of the World War I defeat, to extraordinary inflation
and particular dumb reactions to it, and, of course, to the appeal of
anti-Semitism. Bearing in mind all the foregoing, there was also:
- A collapse of conventional liberal and conservative politics
that bears uncomfortable similarities to what we are now experiencing.
- The gross mismanagement of the economy and of such key worker
concerns as wages, inflation, pensions, layoffs, and rising property taxes.
Many of the actions were taken in the name of efficiency, an improved economy
and the "rationalization of production." There were also bankruptcies,
negative trade balance, major decline in national production, large national
debt rise compensated for by foreign investment. In other words, a hyped
version of what America and its workers are experiencing today.
But the Germans didn’t invent fascism. It was the Italians:
One needs to separate Hitler, Nazism and fascism. Conflating these
leads the unwary to assume easily that all three are inevitably characterized
by anti-Semitism, when in fact only the first two are. By avoiding this
distinction we don't have to face the fact that America is closer to fascism
than it has ever been in its history.
To understand why, one needs to look not at Hitler but at the
founder of fascism, Mussolini. What Mussolini founded was the estato
corporativo - the corporative state or corporatism. Writing in Economic Affairs
in the mid 1970s, R.E. Pahl and J. T. Winkler described corporatism as a system
under which government guides privately owned businesses towards order, unity,
nationalism and success. They were quite clear as to what this system amounted
to: "Let us not mince words. Corporatism is fascism with a human face.”
Adrian Lyttelton, describing the rise of Italian fascism in The Seizure of Power, writes: "A good example of Mussolini's new views is provided by his inaugural speech to the National Exports Institute on 8 July 1926. . . Industry was ordered to form 'a common front' in dealing with foreigners, to avoid 'ruinous competition,' and to eliminate inefficient enterprises. . . The values of competition were to be replaced by those of organization: Italian industry would be reshaped and modernized by the cartel and trust. . .There was a new philosophy here of state intervention for the technical modernization of the economy serving the ultimate political objectives of military strength and self-sufficiency; it was a return to the authoritarian and interventionist war economy."
Adrian Lyttelton, describing the rise of Italian fascism in The Seizure of Power, writes: "A good example of Mussolini's new views is provided by his inaugural speech to the National Exports Institute on 8 July 1926. . . Industry was ordered to form 'a common front' in dealing with foreigners, to avoid 'ruinous competition,' and to eliminate inefficient enterprises. . . The values of competition were to be replaced by those of organization: Italian industry would be reshaped and modernized by the cartel and trust. . .There was a new philosophy here of state intervention for the technical modernization of the economy serving the ultimate political objectives of military strength and self-sufficiency; it was a return to the authoritarian and interventionist war economy."
Lyttelton writes that "fascism can be viewed as a product of
the transition from the market capitalism of the independent producer to the
organized capitalism of the oligopoly." It was a point that Orwell had
noted when he described fascism as being but an extension of capitalism.
Lyttelton quoted Nationalist theorist Affredo Rocco: "The Fascist economy
is. . . an organized economy. It is organized by the producers themselves, under
the supreme direction and control of the State."
This is a potentially mortal mistake. It merely provides recruiting assistance for the white nationalists, not to mention the corporatist elite and the Trump administration.
A striking exception to this dismal pattern in left of center America is the program espoused by Bernie Sanders. Far from being radical it is reminiscent of policies Democrats used to support but have, for several decades, either forgotten about or dismissed. And the beauty of these policies is that they are ones not only appealing to the white working class but to blacks, latinos, women, labor unions, and the young – in short aimed at a coalition that we desperately need but is currently missing.
Let’s run through some examples
:
· Demanding
that the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
Corporations must stop shifting their profits and jobs overseas to avoid paying
U.S. income taxes.
· Increasing
the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2020.
· Putting
at least 13 million Americans to work by investing $1 trillion over five years
towards rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, railways, airports, public
transit systems, ports, dams, wastewater plants, and other infrastructure
needs.
· Reversing
trade policies like NAFTA, CAFTA, and PNTR with China that have driven down
wages and caused the loss of millions of jobs. If corporate America wants us to
buy their products they need to manufacture those products in this country, not
in China or other low-wage countries.
· Creating
1 million jobs for disadvantaged young Americans by investing $5.5 billion in a
youth jobs program. Today, the youth unemployment rate is off the charts.
· Fighting
for pay equity by signing the Paycheck Fairness Act into law. It is an outrage
that women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns.
· Making
tuition free at public colleges and universities throughout America. Everyone
in this country who studies hard should be able to go to college regardless of
income.
· Expanding
Social Security by lifting the cap on taxable income above $250,000. At a time
when the senior poverty rate is going up, we have got to make sure that every
American can retire with dignity and respect.
· Guaranteeing
healthcare as a right of citizenship by enacting a Medicare for all
single-payer healthcare system. It’s time for the U.S. to join every major
industrialized country on earth and provide universal healthcare to all.
· Requiring
employers to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave; two
weeks of paid vacation; and 7 days of paid sick days. Real family values are
about making sure that parents have the time they need to bond with their
babies and take care of their children and relatives when they get ill.
· Enacting
a universal childcare and prekindergarten program. Every psychologist
understands that the most formative years for a human being is from the ages
0-3. We have got to make sure every family in America has the opportunity to
send their kids to a high quality childcare and pre-K program.
· Making
it easier for workers to join unions by fighting for the Employee Free Choice
Act. One of the most significant reasons for the 40-year decline in the middle
class is that the rights of workers to collectively bargain for better wages
and benefits have been severely undermined.
·
Breaking up huge financial institutions
so that they are no longer too big to fail. Seven years ago, the taxpayers of
this country bailed out Wall Street because they were too big to fail. Yet, 3
out of the 4 largest financial institutions are 80 percent bigger today than
before we bailed them out.
Compared
with legislation passed in the New Deal and Great Society, there is nothing
radical about this. These are issues that can bring the white working class
into progressive politics creating fairness by common goals.
Of
course, listening to the media and conventional Democratic leaders these days one has little notion that such
ideas even exist. The mass media has given us two choices: support Donald Trump
or oppose him. The thought that the ideas of America are vastly broader that
this is kept concealed from the public. This must change.
While
little hope can be expected from the Democratic elite, there is nothing
stopping the young, the wise, the varied genders, the imaginative and those of
all ethnicities from coming together in a coalition for an America that works
better for everyone.
This
is an opportunity especially for the young.
Remember
that during much of the primaries last year, Bernie Sanders was getting more
votes from young people than Trump and Clinton put together.
The
young did it in the 1960s and they can do it again. Whites and blacks, men and
women, and other groups the media likes to keep divided can come together as well.
The
story is there. It’s just waiting for some to make it real.
Polls
Politico - President Donald Trump’s job approval is sagging in three crucial states that helped secure him the presidency last year, according to new NBC News/Marist polls released Sunday. Trump’s approval is below 40 percent in Michigan (36 percent), Pennsylvania (35) and Wisconsin (34), according to the surveys, conducted in the four days after a violent white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The story the media has mostly ignored for decades
Intercept - An investigation, published Saturday by the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation in collaboration with The Intercept, punctures the wall of
secrecy surrounding Pine Gap, revealing for the first time a wide range
of details about its function. The base is an important ground station
from which U.S. spy satellites are controlled and communications are
monitored across several continents, according to classified documents
obtained by The Intercept from the National Security Agency
whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Together with the NSA’s Menwith Hill base in England, Pine Gap has in recent years been used as a command post for two missions. The first, named M7600, involved at least two spy satellites and was said in a secret 2005 document to provide “continuous coverage of the majority of the Eurasian landmass and Africa.” This initiative was later upgraded as part of a second mission, named M8300, which involved “a four satellite constellation” and covered the former Soviet Union, China, South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and territories in the Atlantic Ocea
Progressive Review, 1998 - A story in the London Daily Telegraph confirms what TPR and a few other alternative news sources have been reporting for some time: that the National Security Agency routinely eavesdrops on telephone, e-mail and fax communications around the world. A recent report of the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament notes that "within Europe all email telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency transferring all target information from the European mainland by satellite to Fort Meade in Maryland via the crucial hub at Menwith Hill in the North York moors in the UK." The report continues:
"Unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the Cold War, ECHELON is designed primarily for non-military targets: governments, organizations and businesses in virtually every country. The ECHELON system works by indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications and then siphoning out what is valuable using artificial intelligence aids like MEMEX to find key words."
The Daily Telegraph notes that:
"The NSA, the world's biggest and most powerful signals intelligence organization, received approval to set up a network of spy stations throughout Britain. Their role was to provide military, diplomatic and economic intelligence by intercepting communications from throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The NSA is one of the shadowiest of the US intelligence agencies."
Progressive Review, 1998 - The Washington Post has finally told its readers about NSA's massive electronic spying, but only after the agency itself admitting having 1,056 pages of classified information on the late Princess Diana. Until now, NSA's practice of spying on global communications has been reported largely by alternative media such as the Progressive Review.
Using the sort of sophistry honed by the CIA in its denial of involvement in the drug trade, NSA denied that Diana was ever a "target." Wrote the Post, "The NSA system sucks up millions of electronic signals from around the world every hour, but only 'targeted' communications are actually analyzed and deciphered after a vast array of supercomputers sort them out on the basis of programmed search terms, such as 'Saddam Hussein.'
Last January, the European Parliament reported that all "e-mail, telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency" by a system called Echelon. The operation is carried out in Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, because American law doesn't permit it on US soil. NSA claims it does not monitor American conversations.
Said the report: "Each of the five [countries] supply 'dictionaries' to the other four of keywords, phrases, people and places to 'tag,' and the tagged intercept is forwarded straight to the requesting country," according to the report."
News of the Diana file came out after a Freedom of Information request was made of the agency. While admitting it had the files, NSA denied the request because "because their disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security."
Together with the NSA’s Menwith Hill base in England, Pine Gap has in recent years been used as a command post for two missions. The first, named M7600, involved at least two spy satellites and was said in a secret 2005 document to provide “continuous coverage of the majority of the Eurasian landmass and Africa.” This initiative was later upgraded as part of a second mission, named M8300, which involved “a four satellite constellation” and covered the former Soviet Union, China, South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and territories in the Atlantic Ocea
Progressive Review, 1998 - A story in the London Daily Telegraph confirms what TPR and a few other alternative news sources have been reporting for some time: that the National Security Agency routinely eavesdrops on telephone, e-mail and fax communications around the world. A recent report of the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament notes that "within Europe all email telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency transferring all target information from the European mainland by satellite to Fort Meade in Maryland via the crucial hub at Menwith Hill in the North York moors in the UK." The report continues:
"Unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the Cold War, ECHELON is designed primarily for non-military targets: governments, organizations and businesses in virtually every country. The ECHELON system works by indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications and then siphoning out what is valuable using artificial intelligence aids like MEMEX to find key words."
The Daily Telegraph notes that:
"The NSA, the world's biggest and most powerful signals intelligence organization, received approval to set up a network of spy stations throughout Britain. Their role was to provide military, diplomatic and economic intelligence by intercepting communications from throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The NSA is one of the shadowiest of the US intelligence agencies."
Progressive Review, 1998 - The Washington Post has finally told its readers about NSA's massive electronic spying, but only after the agency itself admitting having 1,056 pages of classified information on the late Princess Diana. Until now, NSA's practice of spying on global communications has been reported largely by alternative media such as the Progressive Review.
Using the sort of sophistry honed by the CIA in its denial of involvement in the drug trade, NSA denied that Diana was ever a "target." Wrote the Post, "The NSA system sucks up millions of electronic signals from around the world every hour, but only 'targeted' communications are actually analyzed and deciphered after a vast array of supercomputers sort them out on the basis of programmed search terms, such as 'Saddam Hussein.'
Last January, the European Parliament reported that all "e-mail, telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency" by a system called Echelon. The operation is carried out in Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, because American law doesn't permit it on US soil. NSA claims it does not monitor American conversations.
Said the report: "Each of the five [countries] supply 'dictionaries' to the other four of keywords, phrases, people and places to 'tag,' and the tagged intercept is forwarded straight to the requesting country," according to the report."
News of the Diana file came out after a Freedom of Information request was made of the agency. While admitting it had the files, NSA denied the request because "because their disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security."
Word: Dick Gregory, 1932-2017
Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten.
Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said: 'We don't serve colored people here.' I said: "that's all right, I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken."
In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.
I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.
Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten.
Love is very dangerous if you just have love and don't have the ability to be lovable.
I am really enjoying the new Martin Luther King Jr stamp - just think about all those white bigots, licking the backside of a black man.
If democracy is so good why do we have to go to other countries and try and jam it down their throats with a gun? Stay here and make democracy work. If it's good you don't have to force it on others; they'll steal it.
Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said: 'We don't serve colored people here.' I said: "that's all right, I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken."
In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.
I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.
Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten.
Love is very dangerous if you just have love and don't have the ability to be lovable.
I am really enjoying the new Martin Luther King Jr stamp - just think about all those white bigots, licking the backside of a black man.
If democracy is so good why do we have to go to other countries and try and jam it down their throats with a gun? Stay here and make democracy work. If it's good you don't have to force it on others; they'll steal it.
Jefferson Bauregard Sessions shutting down true marijuana research
Daily Beast - Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to continue to hinder what limited scientific research can be conducted in America into marijuana’s effects. According to The Washington Post, quoting one senior Drug Enforcement Agency official, Sessions’ Department of Justice “has effectively shut down” an Obama administration initiative to expand the number of suppliers of marijuana for scientific research.
“The standoff is the latest example of the nation’s premier narcotics enforcement agency finding itself in disagreement with the new administration,” the Post reports, noting that “The DEA is no shrinking violet when it comes to marijuana enforcement.”
It might surprise you to learn that, as far as the federal government is concerned, cocaine is less dangerous than marijuana. Cocaine is a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning the government recognizes both a high potential for abuse and legitimate medical uses, while marijuana is Schedule I, meaning it has no recognized legitimate medical uses—just a potential for abuse.
“The standoff is the latest example of the nation’s premier narcotics enforcement agency finding itself in disagreement with the new administration,” the Post reports, noting that “The DEA is no shrinking violet when it comes to marijuana enforcement.”
It might surprise you to learn that, as far as the federal government is concerned, cocaine is less dangerous than marijuana. Cocaine is a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning the government recognizes both a high potential for abuse and legitimate medical uses, while marijuana is Schedule I, meaning it has no recognized legitimate medical uses—just a potential for abuse.
DC bar offers specials each time a staffer leaves the White House
Washington Examiner - A Washington, D.C., bar is offering drink specials every time a staffer departs President Trump's White House.
The Bird, located in the Shaw neighborhood, said it would offer $4 drinks during happy hour after news broke that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon had been fired.
The promotion was started after former communications director Anthony Scaramucci was fired on July 31, USA Today reported.
The Bird, located in the Shaw neighborhood, said it would offer $4 drinks during happy hour after news broke that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon had been fired.
The promotion was started after former communications director Anthony Scaramucci was fired on July 31, USA Today reported.
August 19, 2017
The issue the Democrats ignored: the collapse of the white working class
To understand the rise of white nationalism, it helps, although Democrats show little interest in it, to understand what has been happening to the white working class. Beginning in the 70s, the Democrats lost interest in America's working class and have paid a considerable price for it. It's not an error too hard to correct. For example, Bernie Sanders' campaign revived economic issues and, according to a report last year, by June 2016 Sanders had gained more young people's votes than Trump and Clinton combined. And in the end economic fairness supports ethnic and gender equality. The fairer the economic system the less anger and prejudice drive politics.
Atlantic, March 2017 - A new study by the Brookings Institution finds that mortality rates are rising for those without a college degree.
Nearly 20 years ago, the mortality rate for high-school-educated white Americans ages 50 to 54 was 30 percent lower than the rate for all black Americans in the same age group. As of 2015, the rate was 30 percent higher. “This is a story of the collapse of the white working class,” Angus Deaton, the study’s co-author, told The New York Times. “The labor market has very much turned against them.” (Conversely, mortality rates are falling among middle-age white Americans with college degrees.)
It’s not just that lack of education has led to declining incomes, although that is certainly the case. The authors find that white men of all ages without a four-year college degree are less likely to participate in the labor force. But there seems to be a broader effect among white Americans in middle age: Not having a college degree often results in fewer economic opportunities, which in turn may trigger things like divorce, poor health, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, or raising children in unstable conditions.
The study’s authors say that working-class whites have faced “a long-term process of decline, or of cumulative deprivation.” This process, they argue, started with “those leaving high school and entering the labor force after the early 1970s—the peak of working-class wages, and the beginning of the end of the ‘blue-collar aristocracy.’”
As economic opportunities have dwindled for those without higher education, marriage rates have declined and divorce rates have risen, causing more men to lose regular contact with their children. These social trends promote distress—and in many cases, the effects are fatal. Since 1999, middle-age white Americans with only a high-school degree have seen a steep increase in “deaths of despair”—suicide, drug overdose, or alcohol abuse. Although opioids are not the primary cause of rising mortality rates, the authors say they are certainly adding “fuel to the flames.” Additional research finds that half of all working-age, unemployed men in America are taking pain medication—and two-thirds of them are taking prescription painkillers. Meanwhile, for middle-age white Americans of all educational backgrounds the average mortality rates from heart disease and cancer have slowed to just 1 percent per year.
Overall, rising mortality rates were most pronounced in states with large rural populations like Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, though the authors find this to be both a rural and urban phenomenon. It is also, for reasons uncertain, a racial phenomenon. The study finds a decline in mortality rates among black and Hispanic Americans, despite seeing little difference in their income profiles.
Atlantic, March 2017 - A new study by the Brookings Institution finds that mortality rates are rising for those without a college degree.
Nearly 20 years ago, the mortality rate for high-school-educated white Americans ages 50 to 54 was 30 percent lower than the rate for all black Americans in the same age group. As of 2015, the rate was 30 percent higher. “This is a story of the collapse of the white working class,” Angus Deaton, the study’s co-author, told The New York Times. “The labor market has very much turned against them.” (Conversely, mortality rates are falling among middle-age white Americans with college degrees.)
It’s not just that lack of education has led to declining incomes, although that is certainly the case. The authors find that white men of all ages without a four-year college degree are less likely to participate in the labor force. But there seems to be a broader effect among white Americans in middle age: Not having a college degree often results in fewer economic opportunities, which in turn may trigger things like divorce, poor health, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, or raising children in unstable conditions.
The study’s authors say that working-class whites have faced “a long-term process of decline, or of cumulative deprivation.” This process, they argue, started with “those leaving high school and entering the labor force after the early 1970s—the peak of working-class wages, and the beginning of the end of the ‘blue-collar aristocracy.’”
As economic opportunities have dwindled for those without higher education, marriage rates have declined and divorce rates have risen, causing more men to lose regular contact with their children. These social trends promote distress—and in many cases, the effects are fatal. Since 1999, middle-age white Americans with only a high-school degree have seen a steep increase in “deaths of despair”—suicide, drug overdose, or alcohol abuse. Although opioids are not the primary cause of rising mortality rates, the authors say they are certainly adding “fuel to the flames.” Additional research finds that half of all working-age, unemployed men in America are taking pain medication—and two-thirds of them are taking prescription painkillers. Meanwhile, for middle-age white Americans of all educational backgrounds the average mortality rates from heart disease and cancer have slowed to just 1 percent per year.
Overall, rising mortality rates were most pronounced in states with large rural populations like Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, though the authors find this to be both a rural and urban phenomenon. It is also, for reasons uncertain, a racial phenomenon. The study finds a decline in mortality rates among black and Hispanic Americans, despite seeing little difference in their income profiles.
Women links
- Women's news
- MEDIA
MS MAGAZINE
WOMEN'S E-NEWS
WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS
SINGLE WOMEN
MS MAGAZINE
WOMEN'S E-NEWS
FEMINIST NEWS
FEMINIST ACTIVISM
FEMINIST ECONOMICS
FEMINIST MAJORITY FOUNDATION
INTNL ASSN FOR FEMINIST ECONOMICS
MS FOUNDATION
NARAL
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN
NATIONAL WOMEN'S LAW CENTER
NOW
UN DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN
WOMEN'S MARCH
No good idea is too small for Trump to kill
Eco Watch - The National Park Service (NPS) announced Wednesday that it has rescinded the 2011 "Water Bottle Ban" that allowed parks to prohibit the sale of disposable plastic water bottles. That same day, news emerged that the Trump administration removed a nine-slot Capital Bikeshare station at the White House that was requested and installed during the Obama years and used by staffers.
The NPS said that the bottled water ban "removed the healthiest beverage choice at a variety of parks while still allowing sales of bottled sweetened drinks."
According to the Wilderness Society, 23 national parks had adopted the policy, including Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Zion National Park. The group said the Water Bottle Ban—an effort under President Obama's Green Parks Plan to promote the use of tap water and refillable bottles on federal lands—helped parks "simultaneously reduce park waste and carbon emissions."
The NPS said that the bottled water ban "removed the healthiest beverage choice at a variety of parks while still allowing sales of bottled sweetened drinks."
According to the Wilderness Society, 23 national parks had adopted the policy, including Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Zion National Park. The group said the Water Bottle Ban—an effort under President Obama's Green Parks Plan to promote the use of tap water and refillable bottles on federal lands—helped parks "simultaneously reduce park waste and carbon emissions."
August 18, 2017
Ex-Trump business partner reportedly talking about prison for POTUS
Alternet - Felix
Sater, one of Donald Trump’s shadiest former business partners, is
reportedly preparing for prison time — and he says the president will be
joining him behind bars.
Sources told The Spectator‘s Paul Wood that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s deep dive into Trump’s business practices may be yielding results.
Trump recently made remarks that could point to a money laundering scheme, Wood reported.
“I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?” the president said.
Sater, who has a long history of legal troubles and cooperating with law enforcement, was one of the major players responsible to for selling Trump’s condos to the Russians.
And according to Wood’s sources, Sater may have already flipped and given prosecutors the evidence they need to make a case against Trump.
MORE
Sources told The Spectator‘s Paul Wood that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s deep dive into Trump’s business practices may be yielding results.
Trump recently made remarks that could point to a money laundering scheme, Wood reported.
“I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?” the president said.
Sater, who has a long history of legal troubles and cooperating with law enforcement, was one of the major players responsible to for selling Trump’s condos to the Russians.
And according to Wood’s sources, Sater may have already flipped and given prosecutors the evidence they need to make a case against Trump.
MORE
The huge ignored bias in the Senate
Nine states, with over half the population of the United States, have only 18% of Senate seats. The other half have 82%.
Why we need multi-seat House districts
Fair Vote - Most voters are locked in congressional districts that are increasingly skewed toward one party. With no power to affect outcomes, too many votes simply do not matter. The problem goes beyond gerrymandering, redistricting, and money. The problem is districting itself. The zero-sum, winner-take-all system in which only one person is elected to represent each district no longer works in this era of hardened partisanship.
The Fair Representation Act gives voters of all backgrounds and all political stripes the power to elect House Members who reflect their views and will work constructively with others in Congress. Under the Fair Representation Act, there will be more choices and several winners elected in each district. Congress will remain the same size, but districts will be larger, each electing 3, 4, or 5 winners. Voters will be free to rank their choices without fear of "spoilers." No district will be “red” or “blue.” Every district will fairly reflect the spectrum of voters.
The U.S. Constitution does not say how states should elect their Members of the House of Representatives, and states used a variety of methods for most of the nation's history. However, since 1970, every state has elected only one per district in a winner-take-all election, due to a federal law passed in 1967. After nearly half a century of exclusive use of single-winner districts, we need a new standard.
More than 85% of U.S. House districts are completely safe for the party that holds them. and only 4% were true toss-ups in 2016. As a result, millions of Americans are perpetually represented by politicians they oppose, with little hope of changing things at the polls. Outcomes are distorted. Massachusetts Republicans haven't elected a House Member in more than 2 decades. Oklahoma Democrats are similarly shut out. Minor parties are nearly always shamed as "spoilers." One party can run the House even when the other earns more votes. In fair elections, those with the most votes should win the most seats, but every American deserves a fair share.
By electing candidates from multi-winner districts with at least three seats each, fair representation voting would allow every voter to elect someone from the major party they support. And, more of each party's "big tent" would have the opportunity to support - and even elect - a candidate in the general election.
Because election results with ranked choice voting would be proportional within each district, the skewed outcomes of our current system would be a thing of the past. Voters that are now shut-out, like Republicans in Massachusetts or Democrats in Oklahoma, would win their fair share of representation. In every state, the number of seats earned by each party would align far more closely to their share of the vote.
How multi-seat districts would work in your state
The Fair Representation Act gives voters of all backgrounds and all political stripes the power to elect House Members who reflect their views and will work constructively with others in Congress. Under the Fair Representation Act, there will be more choices and several winners elected in each district. Congress will remain the same size, but districts will be larger, each electing 3, 4, or 5 winners. Voters will be free to rank their choices without fear of "spoilers." No district will be “red” or “blue.” Every district will fairly reflect the spectrum of voters.
The U.S. Constitution does not say how states should elect their Members of the House of Representatives, and states used a variety of methods for most of the nation's history. However, since 1970, every state has elected only one per district in a winner-take-all election, due to a federal law passed in 1967. After nearly half a century of exclusive use of single-winner districts, we need a new standard.
More than 85% of U.S. House districts are completely safe for the party that holds them. and only 4% were true toss-ups in 2016. As a result, millions of Americans are perpetually represented by politicians they oppose, with little hope of changing things at the polls. Outcomes are distorted. Massachusetts Republicans haven't elected a House Member in more than 2 decades. Oklahoma Democrats are similarly shut out. Minor parties are nearly always shamed as "spoilers." One party can run the House even when the other earns more votes. In fair elections, those with the most votes should win the most seats, but every American deserves a fair share.
By electing candidates from multi-winner districts with at least three seats each, fair representation voting would allow every voter to elect someone from the major party they support. And, more of each party's "big tent" would have the opportunity to support - and even elect - a candidate in the general election.
Because election results with ranked choice voting would be proportional within each district, the skewed outcomes of our current system would be a thing of the past. Voters that are now shut-out, like Republicans in Massachusetts or Democrats in Oklahoma, would win their fair share of representation. In every state, the number of seats earned by each party would align far more closely to their share of the vote.
How multi-seat districts would work in your state
Washington DC links
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- DC MOMENTS: A timeline
- ESSAYS ON DC
- DC HISTORY
- DC BLACK HISTORY
- DC ALMANAC
- DC STATISTICS
- CONVERSATION
- LAST CALL: LEAVING DC
- DC QUOTES
TUNES FROM A DC MUSICAL: Sam & Kathy Smith, along with Becky Brown, wrote a musical revue of DC history that was performed by the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in 1978. The Washington Times listed the show as one of the "Sure Things" for the week. Mayor Marion Barry attended one performance Unfortunately, no recording was made, but years later Sam made a rough recording of some of the tunes for a curiuous reporter. - THE ATTICA THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN One year after Attica, there was a prisoner revolt at the Washington, DC Jail during which the director of DC Corrections and a number of guards were taken hostage. But, unlike Attica, no one was killed. Perhaps this is why so few remember what happened on a night when judges, politicians, U.S. Marshals, prisoners, and hostages all gathered in Courtroom 16 to see what could be done - brought together by a single judge who wasn't afraid o talk when others wanted to shoot.
- 1950s
- THE CANARIES IN STUDIO A in which a young radio reporter learns a lot about Washington
- 1960s & 1970s
- SEEDS The 60s before they became the 60s
- HOW THE TROUBLE BEGAN: A long adventure in alternative journalism began in the mid-sixties
- FIRE: The Washington riots and other suspensions of hope
- PLACE: The battle for local power
- SNCC in DC
- DC DIARY: THE 70s
- DC DIARY: THE 80s
- DC DIARY: THE 90s
- DC DIARY: A NEW CENTURY
- CAPITOL HILL IN THE 60s A joint lecture by Kathy and Sam Smith. Kathy's talk Sam's talk
- HILL TALES
- POLICE RIOT OF MAY 1971
- 1980s & 1990s
- DC DIARY: THE 80s
- DC DIARY: THE 90s
- THE LONELIEST MILE IN TOWN: An adventure in apostasy -- drinking upstream from the Clinton herd
- The new century
- Neighborhoods
- NO DREAMS ON H STREET
- TALES OF THE HILL - Excerpts from the memoirs containg stories about Capitol Hill in the 1950s and 1960s.
- BIRTH OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSIONS
- People
- The Petey Greene story on film
- BARRY, MARION
- ELIAN COMES TO THE 'HOOD
- HOBSON, JULIUS: Hobson tells what he would tell the maker if there turns out there is one
- DC Statehood
- THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DC DEMOCRACY & DC REPRESENTATION
- HOW LOCAL LEADERS HELP KEEP DC A COLONY
- A SHORT HISTORY OF HOME RULE
- THE FIRST ARTICLE CALLING FOR STATEHOOD
- MEMOIR OF THE FIRST DAYS OF THE STATEHOOD PARTY
- EXCERPTS FROM THE 1972 STATEHOOD PARTY PLATFORM
- WHO KILLED DC?
- THE END OF HOME RULE
SEX AND CRIME IN DC
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)