Peter Van Buren unpacks ten myths about NSA surveillance that need debunking.
Read here: You Can’t Opt Out: 10 NSA Myths Debunked | The Dissenter.
Remembering MLK
From Gar Alperovitz:
Martin Luther King Jr. was a great civil rights leader, but to remember him only in this way is to diminish what he was about and what we can learn from him. What stands out—as lessons for our own day and to each of us now—is his growing understanding of the importance of confronting ever-more-fundamental issues, even in the face of challenges from the press, the establishment, and his own religious constituency, to say nothing of those on the Right.
Read more: Beyond the Dreamer – Sojourners.
The Bi-Partisan War Against the Poor
DSA Vice Chairman Joseph Schwartz reviews the recent MSNBC special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, noting that discussion of the thirty year bi-partian assault on working people received little attention.
The biggest change in the face of poverty in the U.S. from the initiation of the War on Poverty to today is that poverty is now a problem of working families; it was not in 1962. Today, one half of families living in official poverty have a full-time worker in the household. In 1962, a fully employed worker guaranteed that the family would live above the poverty line. Why this change? In part, this is due to the conscious corporate assault on union strength.
Read more: The Bi-Partisan Neoliberal War Against the Poor – Democratic Socialists of America.
Trish Kahle on the Elk River Spill
“IMAGINE YOURSELF in the rugged countryside of the Appalachian Mountains, where you and your neighbors have lived with a history of poverty and lack of economic development–and you learn that the water piped into your home has been poisoned and can’t be used, even after it is boiled, until further notice.”
Read the article: They poisoned the river for a “clean coal” lie | I Can’t Believe We Still Have to Protest This Shit.
Pure Savagery
Professor Chomsky speaks on American politics’ descent into madness.
Why the Middle Should Care About the Bottom
The middle has to care about the bottom because it represents how far our society will let someone fall.
Read the article: A Real Movement of the 99%—Don’t Look Down | Talking Union.
The Catholic Labor Network
I was very happy to run across a resource this morning for Catholic unionists and those who are interested in the Church’s teaching on economic justice. It’s called the Catholic Labor Network.
Here’s the description from their Website.
“The Catholic Labor Network hopes to be a place for those Catholics, lay, religious and clergy, who are active in their churches and in unions to learn about their Church’s teachings as regards to labor issues, pray for those who are working for economic justice and share information about events and struggles that may be taking place in their area. For over one hundred years, the Catholic Church has been a voice of support for workers, and a conscience to the body politic when it pondered issues dealing with the distribution of wealth and the condition of workers.”
Here are some links.
Kshama Sawant’s Inauguration Speech
“To all those prepared to resist the agenda of big business – in Seattle and nationwide – I appeal to you: get organized.”
Read the full speech: Kshama’s Inauguration Speech – Vote Sawant.
Also, here’s Sawant’s Monday appearance on Democracy Now.
Another Insightful Piece from Ben Irwin
“I’ve seen the other kind of poverty — the kind that’s at least partly self-inflicted and more than a little self-destructive.”
Read the full essay: The other kind of poverty « Ben Irwin.
The Last Gasp
“We increasingly do not remember what it means to be free. And because we do not remember, we do not react with appropriate ferocity when it is revealed that our freedom has been taken from us. The structures of the corporate state must be torn down. Its security apparatus must be destroyed. And those who defend corporate totalitarianism, including the leaders of the two major political parties, fatuous academics, pundits and a bankrupt press, must be driven from the temples of power. Mass street protests and prolonged civil disobedience are our only hope. A failure to rise up—which is what the corporate state is counting upon—will see us enslaved.”
Read More: Chris Hedges: The Last Gasp of American Democracy – Truthdig.