January 06, 2022
Dean Baker


Okay, I’m a bit slow for a New Year’s piece, but what the hell, we can always use a bit of optimism. Anyhow, I thought I would spout a few things about what the world might look like if we didn’t rig the market to give all the money to rich people. Not much new here for regular readers, I just thought I would spell it on paper, since it is a nice backdrop for many of our battles.

Before I go through my favorite unriggings, let me start by making a general point, which some people may miss. I focus much of my writing on ways that we rig the market to give money to the Bill Gates and Moderna billionaires of the world.

The idea of restructuring the market, so that these people do not get so rich, is not just a question of punishing the wealthy. When we give these people more money, in excess of what they contribute to the economy (we have to pay people something to develop mRNA vaccines, just not as much as we did), then we are generating more demand in the economy. This has the same effect on the economy as an increase in government spending.

Excerpt:

Free Market Drugs and Vaccines (There is probably no sector where the impact of government-granted patent and copyrights is more pernicious than in healthcare.)

https://cepr.net/a-better-world/

National Security Advisor John Bolton and White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham listen as President Donald Trump participates in a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House on July 9, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images


By, Chris Walker,
Truthout

Published: January 6, 2022

Stephanie Grisham, a former aide to Donald Trump, said in an interview on Thursday morning that the former president had watched the January 6 Capitol attack with glee.

Grisham, who served as Trump’s press secretary and as chief of staff for former First Lady Melania Trump, abruptly resigned from the White House on the day of the Capitol attack. Since then, she has frequently criticized the former president and his allies.

This week, Grisham met with the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack. After a closed-door session with the commission, she said that she had “cooperated fully” with the inquiry, and that she plans to “continue to do so” if they have more questions.
https://truthout.org/articles/grisham-says-trump-gleefully-watched-as-loyalists-attacked-capitol-a-year-ago/


( Who is surprised? No one. )

Your climate solutions journey begins now. Filled with the latest need-to-know science and fascinating insights from global leaders in climate policy, research, investment, and beyond, this video series is a brain-shift toward a brighter climate reality.

Climate Solutions 101 is the world’s first major educational effort focused solely on solutions. Rather than rehashing well-known climate challenges, Project Drawdown centers game-changing climate action based on its own rigorous scientific research and analysis. This course, presented in video units and in-depth conversations, combines Project Drawdown’s trusted resources with the expertise of several inspiring voices from around the world. Climate solutions become attainable with increased access to free, science-based educational resources, elevated public discourse, and tangible examples of real-world action. Continue your climate solutions journey, today.

Watch Trailer at link.

Meet the experts:

Jonathan Foley, PhD
Ibrahim AlHusseini
Ryan Allard, PhD
Marcos Heil Costa, PhD
Lisa Graumlich, PhD
Jessica Hellmann, PhD
Tracey Holloway, PhD

more at link: https://drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101

Airs tonight, 10pm EST......if you have missed any episodes, you can watch online.

Over the last three years, FRONTLINE has collaborated with ProPublica to investigate the rise of extremism in America. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program team up to examine how far-right extremist groups have evolved in the wake of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally — and the threat they pose today.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/american-insurrection/

The 45 days of fierce protest, shrewd organizing, and ferocious solidarity that ended the debt nightmare that had engulfed the taxi industry.


By Molly Crabapple


December 13, 2021


On September 19, a group of cab drivers organized by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance rolled up to the corner of Broadway and Murray Street in downtown Manhattan, parked next to City Hall, and declared they would not leave until the city fixed the crushing debt that had driven many of their fellow drivers to suicide. They held a press conference, hung an SOS banner from the nearby Beaux-Arts subway entrance, set up some folding chairs, and sat down to wait.

I stopped by the encampment at midnight to find eight drivers trading jokes on the lonely concrete of the Financial District. Augustine Tang invited me to join them. Thirty-seven years old, with the characteristic swagger of a native New Yorker, Tang had inherited his father’s taxi medallion—the badge that gives cabbies the right to operate—along with $530,000 of debt. He was one of the group’s most eloquent spokespeople and also one of the youngest. His companions were all older, men who had spent decades behind the wheel—like Mohammed Islam, from Bangladesh, who owed $536,000, and “Big John” Asmah, from Ghana, who owed $700,000. At an age when many people are contemplating retirement, these drivers instead faced a future of 14-hour workdays that would bring them no closer to freedom as well as harrowing financial burdens they would pass on to their kids.

But these drivers also knew a way out, which is why they had decided to camp outside the gates of City Hall.

In late September of 2020, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance had drawn up a plan to cap drivers’ loans and limit their monthly payments. The city ignored it, just as, for years, it had brushed off NYTWA’s protests against medallion debt. This sit-in was an escalation—an attempt to force New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s hand.


https://www.thenation.com/article/society/taxi-driver-strike/



Amazing resilence!

Part of the ACLU’s broader Systemic Equality Campaign, the Pauli Murray Fellowship is one avenue through which the ACLU is committing to addressing the legacy of systemic racism and inequality in America by investing in and cultivating leadership pathways for recent college graduates.


Launching in fall 2022, the program will sponsor a cohort of three fellows from Black and other historically underrepresented communities as full-time employees of the ACLU for 18-months.

The Pauli Murray Fellowship, founded in honor of activist, legal theorist, author, Episcopal priest, and former ACLU board member the Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray, is a program to identify Black and other historically underrepresented recent college graduates embarking on their first post-graduate endeavors and provide them with meaningful exposure, access, and training to equip them in expanding and deepening their leadership skills.

https://www.aclu.org/news/topic/the-pauli-murray-fellowship-investing-in-the-next-generation-of-leaders?initms_aff=nat&initms_chan=soc&utm_medium=soc&initms=220102_fellowship-application-form_tw&utm_source=tw&utm_campaign=&utm_content=220102_civilliberties_fellowship-application-form&ms_aff=nat&ms_chan=soc&ms=220102_fellowship-ap

https://twitter.com/RepBarbaraLee/status/1477019024890413059













( Save the date. )

https://www.advocate.com/music/2021/12/23/brandi-carlile-honors-joni-mitchell-soaring-river-cover




Carlile, a longtime protégé of the 78-year-old Mitchell,was spellbinding as she played piano – backed by the Kennedy Center Orchestra – during “River” (“I love you, Joni, you magical thing!” she yelled toward Mitchell’s honoree box at song’s end). And power-lunged Americana-rocker Brittany Howard showcased a restrained, husky vocal for the devastating “Both Sides Now,” with former Kennedy Center honoree Herbie Hancock accompanying her on piano.

On the red carpet before the ceremony, Judy Collins, who recorded the first version of Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” in 1967, said the two have remained “friends along the way.” “She’s brought so much beauty into the world,” Collins said.

https://www.advocate.com/music/2021/12/23/brandi-carlile-honors-joni-mitchell-soaring-river-cover





Scroll down at the link and watch her tribute to Joni. Beautiful!

Office of Public Affairs
202-273-1991
publicinfo@nlrb.gov


www.nlrb.gov
December 27, 2021

In a notice issued today in The Atlanta Opera, Inc. 371 NLRB No. 45 (2021), the National Labor Relations Board invited parties and amici to submit briefs addressing whether the Board should reconsider its standard for determining the independent contractor status of workers.

In 2019, in SuperShuttle DFW, Inc., the Board overruled the prior standard for determining independent contractor status which was set forth in FedEx Home Delivery in 2014. In today’s notice, the Board invites the filing of briefs to afford the parties and interested amici the opportunity to address the following questions:
https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-invites-briefs-regarding-independent-contractor-standard




(Indicators are very good that Biden's National Labor Board will NOT define Lyft, Uber, and DoorDash drivers
as independent contractors, meaning they will have the legal right to unionize. Potentially huge win..huge. )

Fingers crossed and all that.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1473693773196632072















( Smart, as usual! )