According to a study by Illinois Economic Policy Institute and University of Illinois, if the six counties surrounding Chicago passed right to work laws, “The economy would shrink by 1.3 billion, state and local tax revenues would be reduced by $80 million… racial and gender inequality would both increase, and the number of workplace injuries and fatalities would rise.”
New Report: Death by Drone
In 2013, President Obama promised that before any U.S. drone strike, “there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured.” Death by Drone, a new report by the Open Society Justice Initiative, questions whether he has kept that promise.
Learn More: Death by Drone | Open Society Foundations (OSF).
Download the Executive Summary.
Download the full report.
Stratfor on the US Empire
Here’s an interesting article on American imperialism written by George Friedman for Stratfor’s Geopolitical Weekly. It was republished on the Committees of Correspondence site.
The United States found itself with an extraordinary empire, which it also intended to abandon. This was a genuine wish and not mere propaganda. First, the United States was the first anti-imperial project in modernity. It opposed empire in principle. More important, this empire was a drain on American resources and not a source of wealth. World War II had shattered both Japan and Western Europe. The United States gained little or no economic advantage in holding on to these countries. Finally, the United States ended World War II largely untouched by war and as perhaps one of the few countries that profited from it. The money was to be made in the United States, not in the empire. The troops and the generals wanted to go home.
But unlike after World War I, the Americans couldn’t let go.
Read the full article: The Bashful Imperialists: An Elite Intelligence Group on US Empire : Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
Fun With Hillvetica Bold
Congratulations, America
Along with Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, you rank lowest for the material well-being of children in all of the developed world.
As Paul Buchheit reports, the callousness of America’s political and business leaders is shocking once you start looking at the numbers.
Read more: The Numbers Are Staggering: U.S. Is ‘World Leader’ in Child Poverty | Alternet.
Read the UNICEF Report on child well-being in rich countries.
The Only Confederate Flag That Truly Mattered
The Military Indoctrination of Our Children
Middle school military programs are younger cousins of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), a Pentagon program taught by retired military officers and present in more than 3,500 high schools nationwide. There are strong similarities with JROTC— military-style uniforms, close-order drills, a curriculum that emphasizes patriotism and military history.
A review of programs in more than a dozen states found that there are at least 97 public middle schools currently offering military-style education.
Read more: America’s Tween Soldiers – In These Times.
Let Us Turn Our Thoughts Today to Martin Luther King
We Shall See What Will Become Of His Dreams
“There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater strength. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both.”
– The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Walkable Towns Don’t Happen By Accident
It’s got great transit, plenty of sidewalks, and values people more than cars.
Read about it: What Your Town Can Learn From America’s Most Walkable Suburb by Jay Walljasper — YES! Magazine.