July 7, 2015

Bernie Sanders and minorities

I've been thinking about this meme that is going out there about how Bernie Sanders really doesn't have a lot of 'name recognition' minorities. According to this meme, this means that he's somehow 'not going to get' the minority vote.

There are two points here I'd like to make:
1. I know and work with quite a few people who happen to be racial or ethnic minorities. What I'm noticing, just in my own little neck of the woods (Denver metro area in Colorado) is that many of these folks like and are talking about Bernie. Seems like they haven't heard this meme about Bernie not 'reaching' minorities...

Which brings us to my second point:
2. It seems to me to do a disservice to people who happen to be racial and/or ethnic minorities to imply that somehow they aren't going to 'hear' Bernie Sanders' message. I very much don't think this is true because we cannot treat the voting populace as consisting of somehow monolithic segments. People like Bernie's message and when they look at his record they see he's been about social and economic justice for half a century...consistently!

Just my opinion, but the bottom line here is that we'll have a hotly contested Democratic primary and Americans are going to listen to the candidates and then make their decision. I'm thinking Bernie will surprise a lot of pundits and will (happily for us) HORRIFY Wall Street and the big capitalists. AND, in the general I think he will capture a lot of independent votes.

People are fed up with the status quo, and Bernie's got a really compelling message. Call me Don Quixote and accuse me of 'tilting at windmills' but I think the guy can win! In fact, I'm so sure of it I'm donating to him regularly and when the time comes will help his campaign here in Colorado.

July 4, 2015

TIRED of being nickel and dimed.

My wife and I have Comcast. We pay for the full subscription to all the premium and network channels as well as internet and land line. When I think about how much we pay, it makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, because it is over $2,500/yr. We also have Netflix streaming so my wife can have immediate access to anything she wants to watch, ever.

Now, imagine my dismay when she called up an NBC show, Hannibal, and NBC was trying to charge us $2.99 per episode ON TOP of the usurious amount I already pay Comcast.

I called up Comcast to complain, and was told that yes, NBC, CBS and Fox all have decided to charge fees for shows after the week or so they put it out for 'free' on Comcast. Comcast, in spite of the fact that I have a SUBSCRIPTION to their premium package chooses to pass on any extra cost from these networks, who already insert roughly 25 minutes of commercials in one hour of programming.

So, I went on the NBC site and complained, but I have only just begun. I will be writing the corporate offices of each of these firms and voicing my discontent with the idea that I will just quit Comcast if the issue isn't resolved. In addition, I will pay for ONE episode of Hannibal and then write the corporate offices of every company that has advertised during the show and tell THEM of my discontent. Because I think it's time I quit being an obedient consumer and began pushing back.

Yes, I am aware that in this neoliberal capitalist utopia, the shareholder has primacy over both the customers and the workers, but I'm TIRED of it. So I'm pushing back using the strategy of hitting them in the pocketbook. Yeah, I'm one guy, but if 500 or 5,000 people start doing this maybe we can fight this price creep.

Aren't you SICK of always having to pay MORE for LESS?

June 18, 2015

Headline from the New Jersey Star Ledger: Like it or not, Sanders' socialism is mainstream

Apparently socialism isn't such a bad word anymore. Here's a couple of paragraphs from this June 15 editorial:

On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said that "in virtually every instance, what I'm saying is supported by a significant majority of the American people," which is a bold claim for someone who has been broadly labeled a "socialist" candidate in Democratic camouflage.

But it makes this a good time to consider whether that term is being applied accurately in the early innings of this 2016 campaign, rather than as a pejorative to dismiss Sanders' ideas.

Because so far, the Senator is showing the electorate that a rejection of this "socialism" – the concept, not the brainless epithet – is something that most voters would probably find unthinkable.

<snip>

There! Isn't that fun? You can read more at http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/like_it_or_not_sanders_socialism_is_mainstream_edi.html

I've always been amused at how we are supposed to gasp and shudder when someone gets accused of being a socialist. Now we're watching the mainstream media struggle unsuccessfully to ignore Bernie because, well (gasp) he is a socialist (shudder!) but people are flocking to his events because his views are MAIN STREAM.

May 29, 2015

Dan Tex just put out a post about something called a GD-P. What is that?

April 20, 2015

Homeless man, pinned down by LAPD officers, shot and killed

Source: Daily Kos

From the LA Times:

...a dramatic confrontation caught on video, Los Angeles police shot and killed a homeless man in the heart of downtown's bustling skid row Sunday...
Witnesses at the scene identified the victim by his street name, “Africa”, and gave conflicting accounts of what they saw...

An area resident, who identified himself as Booker T. Washington, said police had come by repeatedly to ask Africa to take down his tent. People are allowed to sleep on the streets from 9 p.m to 6 a.m., but they are supposed to remove their tents in the daytime, under a court agreement.

“This man got shot over a tent,” Washington said.


Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/02/1367900/-Homeless-Man-Pinned-Down-by-LAPD-Officers-Shot-and-Killed#comments

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When I had some financial problems a few years ago, I discovered first hand that America is a 'kick 'em while they're down' kind of place. Now, it seems to have become a 'shoot 'em while they're down' place. This video blew me away because they had the homeless guy pinned down and immobile, and all of a sudden, one of the cops, who still was pointing his gun at the prone guy, let off at least two shots point blank.

Geez.

April 9, 2015

Does this sound familiar?

"To be weak is miserable, doing or suffering, but of this be sure, to do aught good never will be our task; but ever to do ill our sole delight: and being the contrary to his high will whom we resist. If then his providence out of evil seek to bring forth good, our labor must be to pervert that end, and out of good still to find means of evil, which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb his inmost councils from their destined aim."

This is a quote from John Milton's Paradise Lost, one of my all time favorite books, but it could as well have come from Karl Rove or Dick Cheney.

Basically, Milton's point is that Satan traded the essence of being, the reality, for the illusion of idols of his own creation. So he traded heaven for hell but felt it was better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Seems like the Republicans, conservatives in general, have made this mistake, and that this mistake has been hastened by the profit-myopia of capitalism.

So now we have Gov. Pence signing that hateful discrimination law, and the guy in Kansas who wants to forbid people getting food stamps (SNAP) to purchase steak or seafood. I mean, think about it. These people seem to create their own reality based on hate, mistrust, anger and envy. The great Jimmy Carter said it all though, when he said, ""If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying that you want a country based on Christian values. Because you don't!"

Why the constant, unrelenting hatred? Why do these people have to oppose ANYTHING that can help everyday people? Because they've been doing it for centuries. Think about how adamantly opposed to the New Deal conservatives are. Why? The best times this nation ever had were when the New Deal and labor unions were strong. Now what do we have to show for 35 years of Neocon and Neolib policies? Not much, eh?

March 20, 2015

The phenomenon that cannot be spoken; salt water intrusion moves inland in south Florida

The Daily Kos has a really good read, accompanied by a video that tells of the current effects of sea level rise in south Florida caused by climate change.

Except that they can't SAY that. So they call it salt water intrusion. Check out the link here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/19/1372031/-The-phenomenon-that-can-not-be-spoken-in-Florida-continues-as-salt-water-intrusion-moves-inland?detail

They even talk about how someone SLIPPED UP and said the words 'climate change.'

Pretty sick.