February 5, 2015

Update re Brownsville: Vidal meets the President

I first wrote about Brandon (Humans of New York), Vidal, and Ms. Lopez here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026129259

Recently they were all on Ellen's show and now this. It has been an amazing story.

February 5, 2015

Ford Raises Pay for 500 Workers

Ford Raises Pay for 500 Workers as Demand Grows for F-150 Pickup
By BILL VLASICFEB. 4, 2015


DETROIT — Growing demand for Ford Motor’s new pickup truck will prompt a transition to higher wages for up to 500 of the company’s entry-level union workers.

On Wednesday, Ford said that it would add 1,550 new jobs at four plants in the United States to increase production of the latest version of its top-selling F-series pickup.

By adding the jobs, Ford said, it will exceed its nationwide cap on entry-level workers, who earn about $19 an hour. And as a result, 300 to 500 of the company’s entry-level employees will transition to the $28-an-hour wage earned by longtime factory workers.

The transition is the first time that any entry-level workers at the three domestic carmakers have moved up to the higher wage scale since the companies agreed to a two-tier system in their 2007 contract with the United Automobile Workers union ...

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/business/demand-for-ford-truck-means-higher-wages-for-500-workers.html?hpw&rref=business&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

February 3, 2015

Connecting the dots re Measles (toon)

Daily Cartoon
February 2, 2015
the New Yorker
By Emily Flake

January 24, 2015

How One Person Can Make A Difference

I've talked about Brandon before (the blogger who does Humans of NY and has the very popular Facebook page). Today he accomplished something really special by highlighting a hard-working principle in one of the most crime-ridden areas of NYC.

‘Humans of New York’ blog raises over $350K to send inner-city kids to Harvard
By Nicole Bogart Tech Reporter Global News

TORONTO – The “Humans of New York” blog has been sharing stories of New York City residents for over four years. But now the blog is helping provide once-in-a-lifetime experiences for inner-city youth.

An Indiegogo campaign started by Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton has raised over US$350,000 to fund a trip to Harvard University for sixth graders from Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

The initial goal of the campaign was US$100,000 – enough to fund one trip a year for three years.

That goal was met in less than an hour.

It all started when Stanton posted the portrait of a young boy on his blog. When asked who has influenced his life the most the boy responded, “My principal, Ms. Lopez.”

“When we get in trouble, she doesn’t suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built,” the boy told Stanton.

“And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter.”

Much more here: http://globalnews.ca/news/1789515/humans-of-new-york-blog-raises-over-350k-to-send-inner-city-kids-to-harvard/

HUNY website: http://www.humansofnewyork.com/

January 10, 2015

Net Neutrality

I don't have to explain to other activists how important it is for the Internet to remain open. Now, we have some support in the Obama administration ~ and I will take the good news and amplify it whenever I can:


Breaking news: At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler signaled that he will move to protect Net Neutrality by reclassifying Internet-access service under Title II of the Communications Act.

This is huge — and it’s exactly what all of us have been asking for.

Wheeler delivered his remarks almost one year to the date that a federal court struck down the agency’s Open Internet Order. In the aftermath of that ruling, Wheeler released rules that would have allowed rampant discrimination online, setting off a year of backlash from innovators, artists, journalists, politicians and ordinary Internet users.

And Wheeler's move toward Title II wouldn’t have happened without all of this activism, advocacy and political pressure to protect the open Internet ...

More here: https://www.freepress.net/blog/2015/01/08/you-wont-believe

December 21, 2014

When Will They Shoot?

Lots of people are at risk on the job. But when it comes to cops, they’re mostly a danger to others.
by Peter Frase ~ Dec. 17, 2014

Defenders of the warrior cop in situations like the one in Ferguson, Missouri argue that all of these trappings of military occupation are necessary because of the oh-so-dangerous environment the police supposedly face. Policing is not the country’s safest job, to be sure. But as the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows, it’s far from the most dangerous. The 2012 data reports that for “police and sheriff’s patrol officers,” the Fatal Injury Rate — that is, the “number of fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers” — was 15.0. That includes all causes of death — of the 105 dead officers recorded in the 2012 data, only 51 died due to “violence and other injuries by persons or animals.” Nearly as many, 48, died in “transportation incidents,” i.e., crashing their cars.

Here are some occupations with higher fatality rates than being a cop:

Logging workers: 129.9
Fishers and related fishing workers: 120.8
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers: 54.3
Roofers: 42.2
Structural iron and steel workers: 37.0
Refuse and recyclable material collectors: 32.3
Drivers/sales workers and truck drivers: 24.3
Electrical power-line installers and repairers: 23.9
Farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers: 22.8
Construction laborers: 17.8
Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 16.2
Maintenance and repairs workers, general: 15.7

Much more here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/when-will-they-shoot/

December 20, 2014

JK Rowling and LGBT

Twitter on Dec. 16th:

December 19, 2014

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies

Brilliant:

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies
By Mallory Ortberg
December 18, 2014

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

An industrious young woman neglects to charge for her housekeeping services and is rightly exploited for her naïveté. She dies without ever having sought her own happiness as the highest moral aim. I did not finish watching this movie, finding it impossible to sympathize with the main character. —No stars.

“Bambi”

The biggest and the strongest are the fittest to rule. This is the way things have always been. —Four stars.

“Old Yeller”

A farm animal ceases to be useful and is disposed of humanely. A valuable lesson for children. —Four stars.

Much more here: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/ayn-rand-reviews-childrens-movies?mbid=social_facebook

December 17, 2014

Oil Exploration and Cuba

*Socialist Progressives Group*

This story from August indicates that oil exploration near Cuba has been an issue in the past (just doing some searching to figure out why the US is suddenly willing to normalize relations)

No oil drilling for now off Cuba
Posted on August 19, 2014
by Timothy O’Hara, The Key West Citizen, August 16, 2014

Street in Havana, CubaFlorida Keys residents concerned about oil exploration off Cuba can breathe easier as plans for drilling have been put on hold.

Two experts on Cuban politics and oil exploration confirmed media reports that Cuba has shifted its focus away from offshore oil exploration, and instead is concentrating on renewable sources of energy and improving output from onshore wells.

A lack of interest by foreign companies for further deepwater exploration prompted the change, Reuters reported this week.

Texas-based oil and energy consultant Jorge Pinon and Dan Whittle, Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund, confirmed the reports.

More here - http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/lacp/2014/08/no-oil-drilling-for-now-off-cuba/

December 14, 2014

Inside the CIA's torture chambers

*** SOCIALIST PROGRESSIVES GROUP POST ***

December 11, 2014

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (Eric Draper)George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (Eric Draper)

"THIS GOVERNMENT does not torture people." Turns out that George W. Bush's indignant pronouncement in 2007 was a bald-faced lie ...

... Likewise, despite his promise as a candidate that "If I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in cover-ups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our constitution is nobody above the law," Barack Obama has refused to take action against the torturers ...

...In response to the Senate torture report, calls for the prosecution of those who engaged in torture are growing internationally. Ben Emmerson, the UN's special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, told the Associated Press that the report shows "there was a clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush administration, which allowed [it] to commit systematic crimes and gross violations of international human rights law...The fact that the policies revealed in this report were authorized at a high level within the U.S. government provides no excuse whatsoever. Indeed, it reinforces the need for criminal accountability."

But such accountability is unlikely. The Obama administration is fundamentally committed to the same project as the Bush administration--pursuing a failed "war on terror" and projecting U.S. power around the globe--so there will be no justice for those whose lives were destroyed by U.S. torturers.

Much more here: http://socialistworker.org/2014/12/11/inside-the-cias-torture-chambers