Fwd: Time to reexamine where we are headed

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington

Two interesting articles in which Chris Hedges explains what must be done and Christian Parenti analyses what we missed, because the mainstream media failed to cover it, in Trump's campaign speeches. 

John

Articles

• We Are All Deplorables - PDF
• Listening to Trump - PDF

Fwd: Where to from here . . .?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington

No doubt the years ahead will be challenging for Americans of all political persuasions, but particularly for political progressives.  We have for so long voluntarily allowed ourselves to be shunted aside and ignored by main stream neoliberal "New Democrats" who focused on identity politics while cozying up to corporate America, Wall Street and the Military/Security/Contractor complex.  Time and time again we have fallen for the old "lesser evil" tout in a futile hope for change which never seems to come.  Well, now change has come starkly and darkly on the night of November 8^th and, if it was not clear before, it should now be clear that the path forward cannot be led by the New Democratic cabal of the Clintons and Obamas of the political world.  It is time to either purge the Democratic Party of these folks who have demonstrated a studied unwillingness to represent the people they promise to support every election cycle, or to fight for an alternative party structure.  Neither option will be simple or easy.  Either will require a dedicated and concerted effort on the part of progressives and closet progressive liberals to reset the political sentiments of the nation.

There is now an opportunity which we have not seen for the past forty years to push for a more rational Social Democratic policy structure capable of addressing the needs and desires of not just the left in America but also much of the populist right and working class Americans, many of whom voted for Donald Trump in a repudiation of the Republican neoliberal elite because they were fed up with their very real concerns being dismissed and ignored by both Parties.  To be sure there are many folks who are Trump supporters who are never going to support any sort of leftish ideas and those who support.  They are primarily the so-called "alt-right" and the historically upper middle class hard-core Republican elite base.  Even so, it is quite likely that a substantial number of the rest who have given up on the political establishment will switch sides if they can be shown that a viable alternative is available which truly addresses their needs.  Bernie Sanders exemplified this option in the primaries and it is highly likely that, had his candidacy not been shafted by the Clinton machine in cohorts with the DNC, he could have prevailed against Donald Trump.

However, it should be clear to all that the Democratic establishment and their billionaire bosses will not slink quietly off into the night.  And, it will not be possible to win over the Republican middle and the many union voters who have switched party loyalty unless and until we are willing to communicate with them as equals interested in changing the course of American politics.  It is critical that progressives and liberals get over our superiority complex in dealing with folks with whom we have political disagreements.  We need to stop and listen and learn because many of our complaints about the political establish running the nation and the world are shared by both groups.  There are and will be disagreements which will not be overcome; but many, if not most, can be put aside in the interest of overthrowing the power of the oligarchical structure we are now subject to.  The New Democrats put many of them off by focusing almost exclusively on identity politics while ignoring economic, social and community issues of grave concern and treating anyone whose beliefs or concerns differed from those of the liberal establishment as foolish uneducated boobs.  Thus completely alienating almost everyone not residing in elite liberal urban ghettos.  This strategy has backfired and it is long past time that we Americans organize around issues which most of us share and work toward educating one another in a positive rather than a negative manner.

In this endeavor the critical key is open communication – a willingness to talk with rather than past those with whom we don't fully agree and come to terms on those issues on which we do agree without becoming overly judgmental about the ones with which we do not.  This will not be easy for many of us as we have developed long-standing negative impressions of those whose cultural ideas differ from our own.  Most of all we have to recognize that most of these folks are good people with the same or similar goals, desires and ambitions as we have.  Unfortunately, over the years we have forgotten how to communicate with one another without being insulting or judgmental; without assuming that the other person must be stupid or hopelessly uneducated and therefore not worth the effort to hear out.  This is a serious mistake and it is one which has been carefully engineered by our current political masters to keep us apart, to keep us from organizing against the oligarchical system from which they profit outrageously at all of our expense.  Now is the time we must come together and recognize that our only hope for a reasonable future is to figure out how to cast our differences aside and work together for a better tomorrow.  This cannot succeed unless we can overcome our Pavlovian responses over identity issues and focus of issues of life and death for us all.

John

Readings:

1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByN94c3Pp4Bpc3pseU00MzBVcU9nOUF2UTZGSGdyTEZoMVlV/view?usp=sharing = Progressive Wake Up Call (PDF)
2. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByN94c3Pp4BpYkVVdG5WV1RjSmtmZC0yazRmcFlyYWkxeWpn/view?usp=sharing = Winning Back the Working Class (PDF)

Pitt students, police and dorm entry pushing

Accurate? Truthful? I'm not sure. But, here is a statement worth reading.

Thomas Merton Center Blog
Dear Dean of Students, Apologize for Lying about the Litchfield Towers Protest
Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:45 PM PST
November 18, 2016
By Tallon Kennedy

On November 17th, a group of protesters took to the streets of Pitt’s campus to rally against tuition hikes, to voice support for making the University of Pittsburgh a sanctuary campus, as well as to voice concerns for the wave of racism and alt-right ideologies surfacing throughout the country as a result of Trump’s election to the presidency.

The students went into the Towers Residence Hall on campus, and according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, police forces ordered the students to leave the residence hall, and when the protesters refused, the police got violent, pushing the demonstrators out of the dormitory, and using batons against them. The Post-Gazette also reported that the students began pushing back, and claimed that since they pay tuition to the University, that they have a right to protest in a residence hall they help pay for.

Since the incident, the response from the campus authorities has been less than admirable. Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner sent out a statement to the student body, saying that, while the University wants to protect the students’ rights to protest on campus, that “protesters do not have the right to act in a manner that disregards the safety of others or damage property,” and that students who do protest without following the law “risk losing the great privilege of attending” the University.

The problem with this statement is that no reports indicate that the protesting students were damaging property as Bonner claims, or were acting in any manner that would make them a genuine risk to the safety of others, as Bonner also claims. This blatant lie from the Vice Provost is reprehensible, and is no doubt attempting to raise fear and antipathy of protests across campus, and is attempting to quell any protests from breaking out in the future. I believe Bonner has a moral obligation to retract his statement and to clear up the lies that he has espoused. University officials must be held accountable for their falsehoods and for promoting antipathy towards peaceful protests.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s report indicates that the protest didn’t become violent until the police started to use force. By all means, up until that point, the protest was a peaceful one, and while it’s fine to argue that Litchfield Towers is private property, and thus the protesters didn’t have a right to protest there, to suggest that the protesters were damaging property or compromising the safety of others is a blatant falsehood. If anything, the actions of the police in the situation were more damaging to the safety of community members than anything else.

Kenyon Bonner, Vice Provost, Dean of Students, if you want to take the moral high ground, you should apologize for lying about the Litchfield Towers protest.

To contribute to the bail of the students arrested at the peaceful protest, you can go here: https://fillerpgh.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/anti-fascist-legal-defense/

Pittsburgh's cleaner air and school bus worries of GASP

What about school buses?

In June, Pittsburgh Public Schools entered into new contracts
with the school bus carriers they use. The contracts
included language where the carrier agrees to only use buses
that are 2007 or newer, or if older they must be equipped
with diesel particulate filters and closed crankcase ventilation
systems. In combination, these devices greatly reduce
diesel particulate emissions, thus decreasing student and
driver exposure to diesel pollution. Great news, right? Yes,
except the district actually had similar language in place in
previous agreements. Some school bus companies hadn’t
been providing newer or retrofit buses as promised and the
school district wasn’t enforcing the cont–ract. How can we
trust the situation will improve this time around? Right
now, we are ascertaining how many new or retrofit school
buses are serving Pittsburgh, and we are encouraging fleet
owners to take advantage of competitive funding programs
to clean up their buses if they still need to.
More updates to come as we continue to follow these two
efforts intended to minimize diesel emissions in the city.

See the Fall 2016 issue of GASP's newsletter, the Hotline, available online as a PDF:
http://gasp-pgh.org/wp-content/uploads/hotline-2016fall-web.pdf

Open source government

Launch

code.gov is the next milestone in federal open source code
This month, U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott announced the launch of code.gov, another important milestone in the federal government’s adoption of open source code. The new site provides access to more than 50 open source projects from 13 federal agencies.

Fwd: 2016 Dirty Dozen Bicycle Ride

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Daniel Chew" <danchew@yahoo.com>
Date: Nov 16, 2016 6:28 PM
Subject: 2016 Dirty Dozen Bicycle Ride
To: <danchew@yahoo.com>
Cc:

Dear cycling friends:

This is a reminder that the annual Dirty Dozen ride is in ten days, on Saturday, November 26th. Most of you may have learned by now that Danny Chew was seriously injured in September and is focused on his rehabilitation. The Dirty Dozen is being held in tribute to him and to raise funds to help defray his considerable current and future medical expenses.

There are a few changes this year, affecting the route, starting times and the points competition. The details can be found at the usual page: http://www.dannychew.com/ddinfo.html

The deadline for pre-registration is Monday, November 21st. Paper entries must be received by this date. Online registration is possible until Thursday, November 24th.

Please consider joining us for this classic Pittsburgh cycling event.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Pratt

2016 Ride Director

P.S. Send a reply if you'd like your address removed from this list.

Fwd: November High School Today Now Available!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "NFHS, National Federation of State High School Associations" <info@nfhs.delsend.com>
Date: Nov 16, 2016 1:57 PM
Subject: November High School Today Now Available!
To: "Mark Rauterkus" <mark@rauterkus.com>
Cc:

High School Today Delivered to your Inbox!

View as a Web page

Share this email:       Why do you participate in high school sports and activities? Share your story!         Understanding Snapchat and How Schools can Utilize the App These days, teachers, coaches and principals are facing an ever-present challenge. No matter how many rules they create or punishments they hand out, school administrators can't seem to get students to put down their cell phones...  Read More       Connecticut's 'Class Act Sportsmanship' Promotes Positive Cheers Positive student cheering is getting revolutionized with a new program by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) set to launch this month. Read More     High School Athletics and the Effect on At-risk Students Dwayne is a 17-year-old junior with high hopes that football will finally make his mother proud.  As a junior high school student, he was labeled by the school district as "at-risk"... Read More     Read Full Magazine

Forward to a Friend | Modify Profile or Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy This email was sent to: mark@rauterkus.com This email was sent by: National Federation of State High School Assoc. 690 West Washington Street Indianapolis, IN 46204

Entrepreneurs benefit society

Think about how entrepreneurs benefit society and the many challenges they face.

Free Market Economics: Uber, Airbnb, & Feastly vs Government Regulation (video) Chris Koopman of the Mercatus Center explains the tensions between entrepreneurs in the sharing economy and government regulations.

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Why Enterprise Is an Honorable Calling(blog) Professor Richard Ebeling’s take on the moral virtue of entrepreneurship.

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Let’s tax the iPhone to save BlackBerry(blog) Chris Koopman asks why we should protect taxis, but not the BlackBerry.

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Running a Food Truck Shouldn’t be this Hard (video from the Institute for Justice) Discover just how hard it is to navigate the regulations for running a food truck in this video from the Institute for Justice.

Obama Academy Varsity Swim Calendar - weekly view

Obama Academy Varsity Swim Calendar

Tips:

When in doubt, call. Coach Mark is 412-298-3432. Okay to text, but the text messages are not seen as quickly.

You can bookmark this page, or get the google calendar to work with your set up on your phone and computer. Subscribe to it.

Another google calendar is the one at CLOH.org.

Fwd: Post-race analysis

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington

One thing which has been clear to many Americans for some time now is that the "liberal" New Democrat" establishment has been out of step with many if not most of the nation's voters.  In past years this elitist group has been able to cobble together sufficient support from various parts of the old New Deal coalition to achieve a sufficient level of support in elections to convince themselves that they were in fact a true representative of the will of the nation, even though they had lost Congress and most of the governors races in recent years.  This year has been different.  This year it has become clear that the Democratic Party, as currently structured, no longer represents much more than an elitist establishment ruling class, comprised mainly of financial, media, corporate, military-industrial, academic and technology elites, combined with pockets of minority voters who seem to be voting more out of habit than conviction.

This election has exposed the Democratic Party as fundamentally shallow and hollow shell of what it once was, casting a smokescreen of so called "lesser evil" options as a reason for the American voter to stay loyal.  So now the question is can this mirage of political concern for the "average voter" survive the dismal results from this election – an election which, as we now know, saw the Democratic National Committee elite actively, in violation of its own rules, conspire against a quasi-populist run by Bernie Sanders.  A Party which saw an ongoing massive defection of historically Democratic voting Middle American White working class voters quicken its trend to voting Republican and elect a most implausible candidate in Donald Trump running an overtly populist campaign.  What is clear from all of this is that a significant majority of Americans have lost all faith in the political establishment as represented by both main political parties.

Given all of this people are asking where does the blame for this lie.  What happened to change the Democratic Party from the post-Depression "Party of the People" into the Party of the establishment elite?  Attached are two articles which attempt to address this.  I encourage you to read both of them as they take somewhat different angles on this issue.  As one of the articles points out in this election cycle the DNC Democrats did not even deign to support the needs of "working people", instead spoke of helping the "Middle Class" voter which does not really in their minds relate to those earning less than fifty or sixty thousand dollars annually.  It was left to the Sanders folks to address this cohort of voters – and they did this quite well.  Unfortunately, as mentioned, Sanders was driven from the race by slimy DNC tactics leading to the coronation of HRC. 

Perhaps the bigger question which folks must grapple with is whether the Democratic Party is worth saving at all, or should people be working to replace it on the political stage?  Only time will tell, but the elites and their media cohorts are operating in near panic mode in an effort to reconsolidate their power and control of the Party.  If any real and meaningful change is to happen within that Party structure it will have to happen soon.

John

 Links to articles:

• Blame Everybody
• Smug Style
• Other suggested readings in the suite of clips from John H.

Fwd: You're Invited to the 19th Annual Summit Against Racism

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Summit Against Racism 2017" <summitagainstracism@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 11, 2016 12:08 PM
Subject: You're Invited to the 19th Annual Summit Against Racism
To: "*|FNAME|* *|LNAME|*" <Mark@rauterkus.com>
Cc:

SAVE THE DATE The date for the 19th annual Summit Against Racism will be Saturday, January 21, 2017.  We will return to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 616 North Highland Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15206.   The Summit will be held snow or shine!   Pre-Register for the Summit here! Visit SummitAgainstRacism.org for more info. To join the Planning Committee e-mail: summitagainstracism@gmail.com We look forward to having you join us in 2017!   Submit a Workshop for the 19th Summit Against Racism   The Summit Planning Committee invites your vision, expertise, and imagination! Please consider hosting a presentation, panel, dialogue, or workshop. This year's theme is: Polarization to Cooperation:  HOW Do We Get There? We welcome workshops on any topic that help answer this question.  Based on past feedback from previous Summit workshops we are seeking workshops that particularly address these topics: Police Brutality Equitable Community Design Immigration Politics Health Inequities Deadline to submit is Thursday, December 1, 2016. Please buy an Ad in our Program Book!           The monies we receive from program book advertisements are the primary funding source for the Jonny Gammage Scholarships.  Last year we gave out 600 program books.  These Scholarships are awarded to law students of color who win our essay contest.  In 2015 we were able, in partnership with NEED, to offer three $2,500 scholarships to assist three students on their journey to becoming attorneys working for justice.  Submit Your Ad Online!   THANK YOU!! Copyright © 2016 Summit Against Racism, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you attended the Summit Against Racism either this year or years prior. We are just getting our contact list together so if you don't wish to be on this list please find the unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email. This intends to be a relatively low volume email list with announcements about local organizing around police brutality and the annual summit against racism. Our mailing address is: Summit Against Racism P. O. Box 4783 Pittsburgh, PA 15206 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list