March 26, 2016

In France, a Retirement Co-op Ensures Seniors Are Not Treated as Commodities

In France, a Retirement Co-op Ensures Seniors Are Not Treated as Commodities

Saturday, 26 March 2016 00:00
By Sophie Chapelle and Translated by Leslie Thatcher, Basta! | Report


They didn't want to end up in a traditional retirement home. They wanted to remain the actors in their own lives. Seven years after their first discussions about how to age well, a group of retired people is starting to build the first co-op for the aging. Non-speculation, democracy and environmental concern are the foundations of the "Chamarel-Les Barges" project, located in a neighborhood of Vaulx-en-Velin, east of Lyon, France. The project is so inspiring that the bank has even conferred a 50-year loan to the founders, who are in their 60s.

The rendezvous was set for the 15th floor in a Vaulx-en-Velin apartment building in the suburbs of Lyon. That's the location for the headquarters of the Chamarel Association (also known as the Residents' Cooperative Housing Residence of East Lyonnais) created in 2010, prompted by the first French co-op for older people.

Patrick, Janine, Hélène, Luc and Jean finish up their meeting with a retired couple interested in their housing co-op project. The site where construction began in December 2015 is 10 minutes away on foot. The 16 accommodations and associated public spaces should be complete by mid-2017. It will be one of the first housing co-ops for retired people.

Everything began seven years earlier from a discussion between two friends about the problems of those they knew who had not made plans for their older years. "Soon, several of us got together saying that perhaps we needed to talk about it so as not to aggravate our kids," remembers Patrick, a retired elementary school teacher.

"The Elderly Become Commodities"

Around the table, everyone highlighted the lack of financing for independent living facilities and the long waiting lists for retirement homes. "All that was left were private residences for seniors that are prohibitively expensive for most people," Luc reported. "Old people become commodities and some people enrich themselves royally that way," Jean added, anxious to find a solution to eliminate the phenomenon. "All care decisions slip away from the family; one becomes helpless," Hélène said, "while we want to be the actors in our lives." Together, they initiated a reflection on how to age well. The group grew little by little around common values, in order to live their old age as well as possible, before jumping into the creation of a common living space. .........(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35369-in-france-a-retirement-co-op-ensures-seniors-are-not-treated-as-commodities

March 26, 2016

Free Enterprise vs. Socialism: A Brief History

from Dissent magazine:


Free Enterprise vs. Socialism: A Brief History
Lawrence B. Glickman ▪ March 25, 2016


[font size="1"]Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue and Senator Harry Reid, 2010 (Center for Am. Progress)[/font]


Thomas J. Donohue, the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is worried. In an article published on the Chamber’s website on March 7, he called the “debate over free enterprise versus socialism” engendered by Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign “a cause for real concern.” Assuring us that “the free enterprise system works,” Donohue claimed that “it is a system to celebrate, not vilify.” Denouncing socialism, he urged “all Americans to reject this failed, antiquated, and discredited economic system.”

The fear of socialism is nothing new for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, nor the celebration of free enterprise as an antidote to it. Since the 1930s, business conservatives have seen portents of the triumph of socialism in every piece of progressive legislation, every call for increased public spending, and every expansion of social insurance and the welfare state. Bernie Sanders, in identifying as a democratic socialist, has called their bluff. Having cried wolf and equated even mild reform with socialism for many generations, the Chamber has nothing new or different to say about the popularity of Sanders or the surprising acceptance of the socialist label as a form of political identification, especially for young adults. Sanders has essentially accepted the debate on the conservatives’ terms and shown that he can still win it.

Just as Sanders’s program is more liberal than socialist—even if he claims the label—right-wing redbaiting has long been aimed more at liberals than at actual socialists. The language of “free enterprise,” a hardy perennial on the American right, achieved wide currency in opposition not to socialism but to attempts by liberals to reform capitalism. (The current meaning of the word “liberal,” which in the nineteenth century suggested libertarianism, itself only dates back to the New Deal era, when Franklin Roosevelt recast liberalism as a movement to rescue capitalism with aggressive government action.) As early as 1936 the Republican Party platform pledged to “preserve the American system of free enterprise” which had been “displaced” by the New Deal. Advocates of free enterprise in the Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the business lobby, as well as the politicians, ministers, and pundits who supported them, described it somewhat paradoxically as simultaneously the nation’s firm foundation and a fragile flower. While they celebrated and even invented a tradition that dated back to the nation’s founding, they also employed an urgent, even apocalyptic tone, portraying what they called “the free enterprise system” as perpetually besieged.

Advocates of free enterprise understand every effort to constrain capitalism as dangerous. Minimizing the force of corporate power, they condemn the bureaucratic state and economic “planning” as the only obstacles to freedom in the modern world. They claim that reformist liberalism is what Herbert Hoover, the former president and leading free-enterprise critic of the New Deal, called “a disguise for the totalitarian state.” Hoover and others questioned the long-term viability of a mixed economy. “The American system of freedom” and “a planned society,” the ex-president declared, “cannot be mixed.” For Hoover, the country faced a stark and consequential choice: it could revive the “free enterprise” that produced wealth and freedom or continue on the path to “collectivism” that inexorably tended toward political slavery and economic deprivation. ...............(more)

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/free-enterprise-vs-socialism-brief-history-bernie-sanders-chamber-commerce

March 26, 2016

Arizona Official: Blame The Voters For Getting In Line

Published on Mar 24, 2016

Arizona was ill-equipped for this primary vote. A tea party member of government drastically reduced the polling locations, despite signs of increased turnout. It was a total disaster. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.

"The phrase #AZElectionFraud trended on Twitter on Thursday as thousands of users across social media accused Arizona of sabotaging the March 22 primary election.

Thousands of Arizonan voters were stuck in long lines for hours on Tuesday night after county officials decreased the number of polling locations in Maricopa County — the most populous area in the state, with more than half of the population — by more than two-thirds, from 200 four years ago to just 60.”*

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/24/voters_accuse_arizona_of_election_fraud_as_phoenix_mayor_requests_federal_investigation/

March 26, 2016

Chris Hedges on the Culture of War

March 25, 2016

Man crashes car after finding Taco Bell closed

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Police in Massachusetts have charged a man they say got so angry when he found out that Taco Bell was closed that he sped off in his car, crashed into a free-standing ATM building, and knocked himself unconscious.

Police say Derrick LaForest pulled up to the drive-thru in Pittsfield at 1:30 a.m. Thursday and when no one came to serve him, honked his horn for two minutes.

The Berkshire Eagle reports that after a worker told him the restaurant was closed, he tore away at high speed, struck a curb, lost control, and smashed into the building. He refused medical attention. ..........(more)

http://www.freep.com/story/news/nation/2016/03/25/man-crashes-car-taco-bell-closed/82247918/

March 25, 2016

Glenn Greenwald: Hillary Clinton Has Embraced Some of the Most Brutal Dictators in the World

Published on Mar 24, 2016

http://democracynow.org - With the Republican establishment attempting to stop real estate mogul Donald Trump from receiving the GOP nomination, a new anti-Trump ad produced by the Emergency Committee for Israel alleges that Trump supports dictators. But what about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s record on dictators? Earlier this week, Clinton addressed the annual AIPAC conference, seeking to cast herself as a stronger ally to Israel than Donald Trump. We examine her record on Israel and U.S. foreign relations at large with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept.

March 25, 2016

Chris Hedges, Michael Hudson Discuss How We Got to Junk Economics

‘Days of Revolt’: Chris Hedges, Michael Hudson Discuss How We Got to Junk Economics (Video)
Posted on Mar 24, 2016


In this episode of teleSUR’s “Days of Revolt,” Chris Hedges interviews Michael Hudson on the history of classical economics and explores Marx’s interpretation of capitalism as exploitation.

Hudson is a professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of “Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy.” Before becoming a professor, Hudson worked for many years on Wall Street.

“The essence of classical economics was to reform industrial capitalism, to streamline it, and to free the European economies from the legacy of feudalism,” Hudson said. “The legacy of feudalism was landlords extracting land-rent, and living as a class that took income without producing anything.”

Wall Street and the big-banking system have inverted classical economics. America is now over $19 trillion in debt, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that the debt will rise to $26.3 trillion by 2020. How did we get to this point? ...........

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/days_of_revolt_how_we_got_to_junk_economics_video_20160324

March 24, 2016

The Pot Business Is Starting Off Even Better in Oregon and Washington Than It Did In Colorado

(Bloomberg) The cannabis industry is on a roll, according to the latest survey from brokerage firm Convergex.

Marijuana for both medical and recreational purposes is seeing "vibrant" growth as more U.S. states have opened legal markets, Convergex wrote. The team, led by analyst Jessica Rabe, says, "Our Colorado contacts reported steady pricing and customer traffic compared to three months ago, and brought in $576 million in retail marijuana sales last year – 84 percent more than in 2014."

According to an earlier report from Bloomberg, some experts believe this will be a $20 billion industry by 2020 as more states legalize pot.



In fact, Washington and Oregon, which started selling retail cannabis in July 2014 and October 2015, respectively, have seen even quicker adoption than in Colorado.

Convergex found that Oregon brought in $3.5 million in tax revenue during the first month that cannabis sales were taxed, which tops what Colorado or Washington saw in their first months of operation. "[This] exceeded the $2.9 million in taxes collected for both medical and retail marijuana sales in Colorado when stores were first able to sell the drug recreationally in January 2014. Washington also received less, only $1 million in August 2014." Washington also collected $486 million in total sales last year, nearly as much as Colorado despite having less time to mature as a market. ..............(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-24/the-pot-business-is-starting-off-even-better-in-oregon-and-washington-than-it-did-in-colorado

March 24, 2016

Koch Brothers Attempt to Kill Single-Payer Health Care in Colorado

Koch Brothers Attempt to Kill Single-Payer Health Care in Colorado

Thursday, 24 March 2016 09:47
By Michael Corcoran, Truthout | Report


Colorado's efforts to become the first state to pass a public, universal health care system are facing stiff opposition from right-wing organizations, many of which are funded by or affiliated with brothers Charles and David Koch.

As expected, these moneyed interests are doing everything they can to stop the state from amending its constitution with a ballot referendum, Amendment 69, which would implement a statewide version of "single-payer" health care. If approved, ColoradoCare would cover every resident, regardless of employment or ability to pay. In October, organizers submitted enough signatures to put the amendment on the ballot. The vote will take place on Election Day this year.

If the opposition groups succeed, they would not only be depriving Colorado of universal health care, but also would be serving another destructive blow to single-payer activists across the country. The single-payer movement saw a similar effort in Vermont fail in 2015, and its activists were shunned by the White House during federal reform discussions in 2010.

These groups and their tactics demonstrate how progressive state policies are opposed -- and often defeated -- with the help of a vast and impressive network of free market groups in all 50 states. Many of these groups have ties to the billionaire Koch brothers, who have vigorously resisted health care reform in Washington and in the states. Opposition is also coming from the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and is expected from the health insurance and drug industries. Combined, these forces will be an extremely difficult obstacle for advocates of health care justice, who hope Colorado can create health care history.

Given the wealth and organization of the opposition, if Colorado is to become the first state to pass universal, guaranteed health care, it will require a massive effort: strong coalitions, lots of education and as many resources as possible, possibly including support from outside of the state. This is because if ColoradoCare becomes a reality, there is hope that it could create momentum for single-payer health care across the country -- and this is exactly why the right is so rigorously opposed to these kinds of plans. .................(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35353-koch-brothers-attempt-to-kill-single-payer-health-care-in-colorado

March 24, 2016

U.S. Faces Flood of Internal Climate Refugees

This piece first appeared at Climate News Network.

LONDON—By the century’s end, millions of US citizens could become climate refugees. A study of US counties vulnerable to sea level rise warns that if the coasts are not protected, the movement of people could match the scale of the 20th-century “Great Migration” of African-Americans from the south to the northern states.

Altogether, the new research concludes, more than 13 million people could be affected by a sea level rise of 1.8 metres. This is the high end of climate science projections for sea level rise, but even at the low end a rise of 0.9 metres will put more than 4 million people at risk.

And another study of vulnerability worldwide suggests that, everywhere, the chance of being affected by sea level rise has been underestimated. What matters in such calculations are the concentrations of population in the coastal zones.

High-tide mark

Finnish scientists report that 1.9 billion people live within 100kms of the coast and lower than 100 metres above sea level. By 2050, this number will have increased to 2.4 billion, and 500 million will dwell less than 5 metres above the high-tide mark.

.....(snip).....

Some of the fastest-growing communities face the highest risks. More than a quarter of all the people living in major cities such as Miami and New Orleans could face coastal flooding by 2100, unless steps are taken. In the Florida Keys, and parts of North Carolina, four-fifths of the population could be affected. .............(more)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/us_faces_flood_of_internal_climate_refugees_20160323