---------- Forwarded
From John
From John
Paul Street and Mike Whitney take liberals to task – and it's about time they listened!
John
Links:
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Fwd: Something different, John's paper on money and debt
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John
Link to the paper in PDFFrom: John
This evening I am sending out a paper I wrote concerning the exciting topic of money and debt, why we don't understand it and why it's important that we do. In my opinion this is the most misunderstood concept in the nation today and one of the most destructive myths ever created. I hope that you will take the time to read this and let me know what you think. I have included some reference material at the end which may be of interest should you want to learn more.
John
Fwd: DNC Chairman Election
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John
From: John
If Thomas Perez wins the election as Democratic Party Chairman it is time to formally abandon all hope for a constructive reordering of Democratic Party priorities. It simply means that the corporate and financial titans have once again won the day and that the corporate centric policies which ruled Obama's presidency and led to Clinton's defeat in 2016 will continue unabated in the Democratic Party. This will insure continued Republican dominance in national elections. It's not clear where progressives and the left can turn, but it's certainly clear that continued support of DNC endorsed candidates will bring only more of the same and is not worth the time and effort involved. Until the Democratic Party is forced to recognize that it must cease being the party of corporate and financial plutocrats and return to its Middle American roots, there is no reason to vote for DNC endorsed Democrats.
John
Friday, February 24, 2017
Fw: Highmark Foundation Creating a Healthy School Environment Grant and Awards Program
Hello, PPS Healthy School Leaders-
I wanted to send a reminder about the Highmark Foundation Creating a Healthy School Environment Grant and Awards Program. The deadline to apply for the Building Sustainable and Lasting Changes in Schools grant is approaching soon – Friday, March 17th. There are additional grant opportunities to also consider. Please read below for more information…
|
If you are interested and need assistance with the application, let us know!
Best,
Britnee Nwokeji, MSEd
Health Promotion Program Manager
Healthy Schools, Out-of-School Time
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Lawrenceville Medical Building
4401 Penn Avenue
Second Floor, Suite 2104
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
(412) 692-8721 (Work)
(412) 692-7182 (Fax)
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Fwd: Excellent article on Debt
----- Forwarded message
From: John Hemington
Attached is a talk given by economist Dr. Michael Hudson at the Union Theological Seminary at Columbia in January including so commentary and questions by participants. It is one of the best discussions of credit, debt, poverty I have yet seen. It should be of particular interest to those Christian and Jewish believers who look to biblical scripture for guidance in living their lives. But, in fact, it should be of interest to all who are concerned with the political and economic trends in today's world. To quote from Dr. Hudson: : We're at a turning point in history. If we don't solve the problem of economic polarization, which is caused mainly by debt, we're going to go into another dark age. We're going to have neo-feudalism. We're going to have neo-serfdom, except that you're not going to be tied to the land like serfs were. Neoliberalism is the force driving us all toward this new dark age and some of those now in charge in this country truly believe that the wars of the end times are coming in this generation and are hoping to speed up their coming. Everyone should be taking this with the utmost of seriousness as the future of the planet is at stake.
John
NLA Contract
I did this work and never put in an invoice to get paid. I make it as my volunteer efforts at Westinghouse. NLA is Neighborhood Learning Alliance. Mt. A Church and Wesly ran the program.
For Fun and the season: Second Line, the Fifth,
Love the name and the beat:
Young Men Olympian Junior Social Aid and Pleasure Club.
How is your krewe?
Are you in the second line?
Young Men Olympian Junior Social Aid and Pleasure Club.
How is your krewe?
Are you in the second line?
Fwd: Trump and the Deep State
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington
From: John Hemington
I suspect that the first attachment will make a number either uncomfortable or angry as you may think that it is a defense of Donald Trump's presidency – it is not. However, I believe that it is a dead-on accurate reflection of what is now taking place in this country. The neoliberal wings of both the Democratic and Republican Parties – including all of the main stream and neoliberal media – are waging a full-court press to discredit and eliminate a sitting president. Regardless of one's feelings about Trump, and I find him to be despicable, the propaganda war which is being waged against him sets an exceedingly dangerous precedent – up to and including the suggestion that the 'Deep State' should act to "take him out." The tactics being employed are right out of the Joe McCarthy playbook from the 1950s. And, don't forget, if Trump is removed in one way or another, we are left with a much smoother, more devious version of Trump in Mike Pence. The Pence project will be no less destructive than the Trump project, but will be much more difficult to fight against.
The second attachment deals with neoliberal/neoconservative effort to intensify the chaos and destruction of the Middle East, this time in Yemen. It focuses on the frightening silence of Western media concerning the devastation being wrought on millions of innocent civilians by US surrogates Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates using American weapons, planes and aerial refueling capacity. This is and has been for quite a long while an unconscionable operation aimed at supposed Iranian terrorism, which actually is virtually nonexistent in the current Middle East. Almost all real terrorist activity is Saudi inspired Sunni groups such as al Qaeda and other similar groups. These, of course, we fund and support while claiming to simultaneously be waging war against them. It is the murderous height of hypocrisy at its very worst and it is all transpiring in our name and the blood of innocents is on our hands.
John
Links
Fwd: Worthwhile presentation
---------- Forwarded message
The Summer King: The Josh Gibson Story
Thursday, February 23rd
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Steel Valley High School Auditorium
3113 Main St, Munhall, PA 15120
The very first world premiere in Pittsburgh Opera's distinguished 78 year history hits close to home. The Summer King tells the story of baseball legend Josh Gibson. Josh went from the sandlots of Pittsburgh's North Side to the pinnacle of greatness in the Negro Leagues, before ultimately being enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Join the The Josh Gibson Foundation, Pittsburgh Opera, The Battle of Homestead Foundation, and Steel Valley School District on Thursday, February 23, 2017, 7:00 PM, for a preview community event at the Steel Valley High School Auditorium featuring some of the cast, a few local pro athletes and a program about Homestead's role in fostering the Negro Leagues and stars like Hall of Famer Josh Gibson.
John
Fwd: [DW] Facebook: Building Global Community - What's your response to Mark Zuckerberg?
---------- Forwarded message
From: Steven Clift
From: Steven Clift
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Monday, February 20, 2017
Fwd: I keep searching . . .
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Link
Believe it or not, I keep searching for some good news to send around, but these are difficult to come by in this terrifying 'new world' of Trump & company. However, if you weren't already frightened sufficiently, the two articles included in the PDF file attached from Consortium News should rattle your cage just a bit more. It seems that ever since the election, Democratic Party elites are hoisting the banners for war just about anywhere it is not yet engulfing the world. Not being satisfied with most of the Middle East and Afghanistan already in flames and chaos – with millions of people dead, wounded and displaced – the Democratic Party elites are calling for more blood and destruction so as not to be outdone by their Republican colleagues on this score. Now legislation has been introduced in Congress, by a Democrat, to give Donald Trump unfettered authority, with no Congressional oversight, to attack and wage war on Iran any time he so pleases. If this doesn't make you a bit uncomfortable, then you may want to check out the fires we are attempting to set in Ukraine, another of our favorite war charities – oh, and yes, China too. It is true what the historians have said that dying empires are interesting places and times indeed.
Good night and good luck!
John
- Ex-Dove Dem, article in PDF
Friday, February 17, 2017
Fwd: Three must read posts . . .
---------- Forwarded message
From: John Hemington
For those of you who do not regularly check out Yves Smith's exceptional Web site Naked Capitalism, attached are three good reasons to do so regularly. Naked Capitalism regularly has some of the best and most well-reasoned evaluations of economic and political activities in the nation and the world. It also maintains a comment section where its posts are analyzed and debated in a rational, moderated and controlled manner by informed and intelligent readers. I don't generally include the comments when I send out articles from the site as they can frequently be quite extended, but they are usually well worth checking out to get a full-throated discussion of the particular topic. Yves Smith (pen name for Susan Webber) is a Wall Street veteran who understands well how things work economically to undermine both economic and democratic processes. I do hope you will follow and support Naked Capitalism and when you find it appropriate contribute your reasoned comment whether pro or con as well as a donation or two. It is an invaluable resource in this age of fakery.
Below is a particular example on one of the comments to a post, it's a bit long, but well worth your time:
January 27, 2017 | reader James F. Hoisted from comments
I, too, am worried by our descent into prewar hatred. I had a friend from Dubrovnik in the'80s. She was a typical Yugoslav – half Croatian, quarter Serbian, and a quarter Russian. She was full of hope, smart, pretty, and heartbreakingly naïve. If she survived the war, I'm pretty sure my friend lost what made her a beautiful human being. She haunts me. Civil wars seem implausible until they start and then they follow the devil's logic. People like my friend tend to die in them or turn into something less than they were in order to survive.
I'm an old man now working on my doctorate through a senior citizens' scholarship. I grew on the North-East Coast. I live in the rural South now. I know people from everywhere because I've been around a long time. Comfortable people from the cities, Democrat or Republican, want to hit someone, hard… but they have by and large never worn a uniform or had a gun pointed at their heads. They're frustrated which makes sense but they don't know when a bloody fight is coming. You can smell it coming like folks down here can smell a tornado or like mothers smell death on its way and snatch their children off the front porch.
Here in Flyover Country things are bad, really bad. I recently visited family in Northern California. Things were pretty nice. Not opulent by any means but the shelves were stocked. Security guards in Target let the kids play around. Around here – not so much. Not so much as a Target. We have long lines, empty shelves, and the kids, black and white, always seem aware that they're not safe. Comfortable people in cities worry about reproductive health care. We worry about getting a four-dollar antibiotic for pneumonia at Wal-Mart without having to spend several hundred bucks for the prescription (real life experience with insurance). Our mean income is about a quarter of Northern California's. Housing is cheaper but it's not cheap and it's a lot worse housing. Food and utilities are a lot more expensive. Everything including food and medicine is taxed. We're dying here, slowly perhaps but we're dying none the less.
Even so, my Democrat and Republican friends and family from the coasts couldn't care less about my neighbors. They couldn't care less about fifteen years of war or the kids we send to fight it or the kids our kids kill. I understand. It's only natural to look to one's own interests and what happens in Natchez or Mosul doesn't hit home. However, they're all angry – angry at Flyover people for being sick and poor and tired of being cannon fodder. And so I have to listen to why we don't deserve jobs or health care because we're stupid. We should move or die because markets [rule]. I had to justify FDR, religion, the very idea of peace, and social solidarity. I have to defend unions and explain why my state voted for Trump – sometimes to the same person. I have to advocate for veterans, the majority of cops that don't murder kids and BLM while I'm trying to eat my potatoes. It's exhausting. It's depressing.
Statistics show that urban areas are 'bluer'. They have better health care, better functioning government, and better opportunities. However, not all urban dwellers are comfortable. Chicago has world class hospitals, universities, and pizza. It also has an astronomical murder rate and a police force that got caught torturing its citizens. It has a deep blue machine that excels in privatization. Blue cities are rough with their mostly black and brown poor citizens but poor whites suffer too. I know. I spent decades doing social work in city hellscapes. I know what it's like to step over bodies and have people bleed all over me. Crime isn't out of control when statistics say so. Crime is out of control when you or people you love get hurt. Likewise, cops shooting unarmed black people is a problem; cops shooting unarmed white people is a problem; people deciding to start an idiosyncratic revolution by shooting cops is a problem; criminals killing kids is also a problem. Statistics and social theory don't really matter at a child's funeral. Life is statistically better in blue enclaves but there is a difference between Compton and Hollywood, Brookline and Dorchester, Harlem and Manhattan. That's a brute fact that uncomfortable people face every day.
Flyover people and the uncomfortable urban poor fight the never-ending wars. We provide commodities like food and coal and oil and metals. We provide cheap labor. Comfortable people have decided that most of us aren't really needed. Immigration, free trade, and automation have made us redundant but we're not going away. At least we're not going away fast. Flyover people and the uncomfortable urban poor have no real place in establishment –Democratic or Republican – thinking. We are the establishment's problem and the establishment is our problem.
Where do we go from here? Bernie had some good answers to some burning questions. Trump has some very questionable answers to the same problems. I don't know if the Anarchists on Inauguration Day had any answers but they recognized the problem. The comfortable people who posed with pussy hats leave me questioning whether this country can or even should be saved. The comfortable protesters certainly have the legal right to their comfortable lives and they have the legal right to advocate for war with Russia and they have the legal right to hate the President and wear silly hats. They have a legal right to despise the Deplorables and to petition to have sleeping homeless people removed from their places of business. They have the legal right to demand respect for their sexual choices. They have these legal rights because the government guarantees them and if they tear down the civic peace of government, who will protect these rights? I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I see the postmodern farce of Madonna in an orange prison jumper. Is she supposed to be King Christian wearing the Star of David during Nazi occupation? Are Ashley Judd and Julia Roberts supposed to be our Red Emma and our pistol packing Connie Markowitz? Is Lena Durham supposed to be our Marianne or our Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi? What I really want to know is will those people drinking Starbucks die with us on the barricades because the differences between guerrilla theater and guerrilla war are getting really blurry.
I don't want to get too snarky but I am getting pretty cranky. Revolutions, as Lenin insisted, are not tea parties. In revolutions resisters get shot for showing courage; in films about revolutions actors get applause for making a courageous performance. The Democratic Resistance may be as silly looking as Teapartiers dressed in revolutionary drag but it is much more dangerous. In 2008, Obama was really popular and he had the support of his own party. Obama failed to ram through his agenda because he refused to rally the people who put him into office. By the time the Republicans hamstrung his administration, he had already lost his momentum. Obama was defeated in the Massachusetts senatorial campaign and by his failure to support Wisconsin's unions. McConnell's obstructionism and Trump's birtherism were obnoxious but they didn't destroy Obama's agenda. Failure to push for card check, Medicare for all, voter registration, prosecuting Wall Street fraud and war crimes, new trade deals, authorizing the extra-judicial murder of US citizens, and overthrowing the government in Guatemala, Ukraine, and Libya were the real disasters.
In 2016, Trump is much less popular than Obama in 2008. His most progressive polices (which he shared with Sanders) like reversing trade agreements, renegotiating drug prices, building infrastructure, and stopping a war with Russia depend on Democratic support. His own party hates him. Impeaching or (God forbid) assassinating Trump would throw the entire government into the hands of Pence and Ryan. That would re-gear the war on Russia, reinstate the trade deals and guarantee the end of the New Deal and the Civil Rights era. Does anyone on the so-called Left really think that's a good idea? There'd be a real fight then; the kind where lots of people die in loud and messy ways. Who is going to do the fighting and dying then? I don't think it's going to be the people in pussy hats but I'm sure I'll be going to plenty of funerals if I live that long.
John
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Fwd: Every so often . . .
---------- Forwarded message
From: John Hemington
From: John Hemington
Every so often someone writes a column which cuts through the fog and clearly identifies what is really going on and what must be done in response. This is the case by Peter Gaffney in the first attachment. Gaffney understands just why the great risk we now face is organizing resistance in support of the failed Democratic Party policies which led us to Trump. Read this article, it is important.
The second attachment by Ramzy Baroud presents the face of Israel as it has always been, one of destruction, devastation and dismemberment of the Palestinian people which will now clearly result in a purely apartheid structure in what will be known as 'Greater Israel' for those deemed suitable to remain in the 'Jewish state' – the rest will, as is ever the case, be uprooted and exiled or killed. And, as always, Israel will do this with our blessing and our help. Such is the state of the world these days.
John
- Article 1 by Peter Gaffney, PDF
- Article 2 about Israel, PDF
Fwd: Registration for 2017 Codefest is Open
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Sara from Steel City Codefest" <hello@steelcitycodefest.com>
Date: Feb 16, 2017 7:14 AM
Subject: Registration for 2017 Codefest is Open
To: <mark@rauterkus.com>
Cc:
From: "Sara from Steel City Codefest" <hello@steelcitycodefest.com>
Date: Feb 16, 2017 7:14 AM
Subject: Registration for 2017 Codefest is Open
To: <mark@rauterkus.com>
Cc:
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
