Recent Items

Links 12/5/11

Posted on by

Tepco Reports More Radioactive Water Leaks Bloomberg

Geoengineering could save Earth _ or destroy it Associated Press (hat tip reader Aquifer)

Brussels homes in on Google Financial Times (hat tip reader furzy mouse)

Quarantine overboard MacroBusiness

Monti cabinet agrees Italy austerity plans Financial Times

Italian Yields Are Collapsing Clusterstock. The markets believe the latest sorta plan…

France and Germany look set to fudge it yet again Wolfgang Munchau, Financial Times

Welcome to the living dead economy Guardian

Iran shoots down US drone Guardian (hat tip reader barrisj). Or maybe just landed it (hat tip reader scraping_by)

Now on Broadway! Waiting for Euro Edward Luce, Financial Times

Undermining the Executive Branch New York Times

White House Says It Will Veto Domestic Military Detention Bill Alternet (hat tip reader furzy mouse)

Man Bites Dog Robert, Angry Bear (hat tip reader Aquifer)

Send in the Clueless Paul Krugman, New York Times

Detroit in a hostile takeover bid? Associated Press (hat tip reader furzy mouse)

Has the finance industry become less efficient? Or Where is Wal-Mart when we need it? Thomas Philippon, VoxEU (hat tip Richard Alford)

Occupy Oregon Re-Occupies, Police Violently Evict Then Occupiers Re-Take Park Firedoglake

Mobile Occupation Headquarters walkupy (hat tip reader aletheia33)

Forex traders fear early dip in volumes Financial Times

Analysis: Earnings outlook may be deteriorating rapidly Reuters (hat tip reader furzy mouse)

Future of foreclosures in N.J. hinges on state Supreme Court decision NJ Star-Ledger (hat tip Lisa Epstein)

Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable? Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate (hat tip reader Swedish Lex). Mirabile dictu, as we like to say around here.

Antidote du jour:

Bonus antidote (hat tip reader furzy mouse). I’m sorry, this does not look like flying to me, but a somewhat controlled and buffered fall. But I am sure it’s a huge adrenaline rush:

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Subscribe to Post Comments
84 comments

    1. aet

      Ms. Barnhardt mentions only Democrats by name as being “evil” (her word) – and she blames the MF Global co[pllaps on “Marxist Socialism” (her words, again).

      The Chicago Mercantile Exchange – the floor of which served as the venue for Mr. Santelli’s original “tea-party” speech/rant – a nest of Democrats seeking to bring about their evil plans?

      Very amusing. Perhaps Ms. Barnhardt doesn’t wish to offend her Republican clients by naming any Republicans associated with the CME….in point of fact, it seems that the CME is actively considering moving to a state which is Republican – like Texas….Democratically-controlled States are not to the CME’s taste, it appears…

      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204826704577074642388534580.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

      …but never mind all that: the MF Global collapse is ALL due to those “evil Democrats” and the US Government ….. right, Ms. Barnhardt?

      1. wunsacon

        Couldn’t help but notice that, too. Nevertheless, I do wonder whether my money’s safe at a commodity broker. So, I reduced the amount I parked there.

    2. Stephen Nightingale

      “Ann Barnhardt: The Entire Futures/Options Market Has Been Destroyed by the MF Global Collapse”

      But this is what you would expect: there is no future. The prognosticators-formerly-thought-of-as-nutjobs who predicted the end of the world were right this time round. At the end of the world, clearly the futures market ceases to operate. For those of us who are not feeling enraptured, we were consigned to hell. Banker avatars are still with us out of a sense of solidarity for the 100%.

    1. skippy

      Especially whilst running multiple tabs.

      Skippy…did like his peek a boo back look over the lake, been there done that, woot!

  4. Parvaneh Ferhadi

    Re: Geoengineering could save Earth _ or destroy it
    It reads:
    «Within a few years, global temperatures would return to levels of 250 years ago, before the industrial revolution began dumping carbon dioxide into the air, trapping heat and causing temperatures to rise.»

    Annoyingly for them, researchers now start to point out, that the role of the Sun in climate change is not really well understood.For example they say the Sun has been radiating more energy away and has a stronger magnetic field in the last 100 years than in the whole 400 years they have data on. They call this the grand maximum and think it might be coming to an end.
    Some attribute the rise in temperature to the Sun, except since the 1970, where they believe that it is man-made.

    What a grand minimum could look like can be seen in the late 1600s when the Sun was in one (the so called Maunder Minimum). That was the time of the little ice age in most of Europe and North America, with temperatures dropping dramatically, rivers freezing and glaciers growing.

    So it looks like the science of the causes of global warming (or climate change) – the change is a fact, no one disputes that – is not as well settled as some might want to make it appear.
    I guess it would be prudent not to rush into any geo-engineering before they understand the role of the Sun better.

    Some information can be found here.

    http://www.mps.mpg.de/projects/sun-climate/

    and more can be found in the documents they link to.

      1. aet

        From the article cited:

        “….neither direct nor indirect solar influences can explain a significant amount of the global warming over the past century, and certainly not over the past 30 years. As Ray Pierrehumbert said about solar warming,

        “That’s a coffin with so many nails in it already that the hard part is finding a place to hammer in a new one.””

        Perhaps you should help propagate the “global warming is a commie myth” line of ‘reasoning’ instead, Mr. Ferhadi.

        1. Parvaneh Ferhadi

          You should really read the article I linked to, all of it…

          Besides I didn’t deny global warming/climate change, which I explicetly stated.

          Only ideologues react like you do to evidence that they might be wrong…

        2. Parvaneh Ferhadi

          Just to wet you appetite at the end of page 1, which you obviously didn’t care to read:
          «On the other hand, since the Sun is by far the largest supplier of energy to the Earth’s surface, any change in the radiative output of the Sun also affects the energy balance of the Erth’s surface and atmosphere, so that at some level it influences our climate, too. But how strongly does the Sun vary and to what extent does it influence the Earth’s climate? It is important to find a firm answer to these questions in order to estimate the solar contribution into the global warming and in particular to determine its weight relative to that of the man-made greenhouse gases.»

          1. toxymoron

            But the firm answer has been found many years ago: negligible.
            The solar variability is less than one percent – over the 11-year cycle, and even less over a few centuries. Even the so-called Maunder Minimum had more to do with local atmospherics and volcanism than with the Sun.

          2. Valissa

            @toxymoron, it’s always easy to tell those who have little background in science. People with low knowledge of science operates think science is about facts and answers, while scientists understand that it’s all about theories being proposed, evaluted over time and then argued about intensively until there is a new, often temporary, consensus. Most all big scientific changes started out in the fringes of science, being laughed at by the scientific establishment of the day.

            Solar science was for a long time not so popular as other more glamorous research in astronomy and cosmology. New things are being learned about the sun all the time.

            The progress of science is based on skepticism, not surety.

          3. toxymoron

            @Valissa,
            The point is that there has been a consensus about the negligible effects of the sun for I don’t know how many years, and scientists have had to spend billions of taxdollars to disprove all those weird theories popping up in the litterature (and even more so in the Internet age).
            As the subject is definitely off topic for NC, I’ll stop here.
            If the Sun had any effect, how come that Earth has been warming measurably over the last 50 years, while the Sun’s radiation level has been mostly unchanged (or is lowering)?

      2. skippy

        Greenland had a part to play it it too, volcanism, over a year of spewing. Human denial is a funny thing aet, some still wonder why nomads roamed.

        Skippy…some even say it laid the ecological foundations for the French revolution.

          1. Skippy

            Sorry Parvaneh Ferhadi when you come out with… “What a grand minimum could look like can be seen in the late 1600s when the Sun was in one (the so called Maunder Minimum). That was the time of the little ice age in most of Europe and North America, with temperatures dropping dramatically, rivers freezing and glaciers growing.”

            And yet completely_gloss over_the the *major event*, most significant of this period, volcanism, a year and then some of it and if memory serves the second largest rerecorded eruption in human history. That will always raise red flags. Your indignation on being pulled up for such a massive omission is a bit disingenuous in my book.

            Skippy…7 billion people (and growing) transforming the planet daily, yet some need to deflect any man made responsibility in global changes.

          2. skippy

            Your are correct in that water vapor is the greatest warming component in our atmosphere (statement below), but, everyone is aware of your tactic to dismiss the human contribution. And that is where all the debate focuses.

            Skippy…the numbers 400 and 300 are the base averages, everything else effects those, every thing.

      3. Parvaneh Ferhadi

        It’s not what I am saying, btw. It’s scientists and quite a few that do.
        There are quite a few scientific works available elaborating on the subject.

        And you haven’t really understood my comment either. Try reading it again.

        1. Sock Puppet

          Here’s the thing: yes it’s clear that the sun is the major source of heat. But how much effect that has on the surface temperature has more to do with how much of that heat is trapped and how much is radiated into space, and is subject to feedback loops: more ice cover leads to more radiation, leads to further cooling, etc. We have put in place a huge positive feedback loop in the form of greenhouse gases which cause warming, which cause ice caps to melt an methane to be released from permafrost, which cause more warming… It’s a runaway train at this point. I’m not sure we could stop it if we wanted to. TPTB don’t care: they think they can afford to avoid it.

          1. Parvaneh Ferhadi

            The connection is a bit more intricate than that.

            For one, the Sun does have a – rather immediate short- and midterm – influence on the ozone layer. The so called solar proton events can thin it rather radically in the lower mesosphere and upper stratosphere. Thus affecting how much ultraviolett radiation reaches the surface.
            There is research ongoing on this subject, but knowledge is still incomplete. There is an article at NASA on that, I have information on it on my blog (in Spanish, German and French, no Enlish, sorry).

            The other things is the effect of the Sun on cloud formation – the theory goes that at least some clouds are formed by cosmic rays, which a more active sun blocks more than a less active sun. If the sun blocks the rays, there will be less clouds, and since clouds block some of sunlight by reflecting it partially back to space, this means that more solar activity means less cloud cover, meaning a hotter (or warmer) climate.

            CERN is working on that problem, saying:
            The CLOUD project aims to study the influence of galactic cosmic rays on the Earth’s climate through the media of aerosols and clouds.

            http://cloud.web.cern.ch/cloud/

            Then there is the CO2 concentration, which indeed increases and has increased for a while – but only since the 1970s it is due to human activity. But how much of it is due to human activity and how much could be due to a knock-on effect from the long term solar activity, they can’t really say.
            If you look at CO2 concentration in the past, it has been much higher on Earth despite the fact, that no humans were living on the planet at that time.

            The thing is: Before we start implementing – or even start thinking about – doing geo-engineering, like increasing cloud cover etc, we should take the time, to study and understand that connection between the Sun and Earth climate a lot better than we currently do. Otherwise we could well end up with a even bigger mess than we already have.

            I did not deny climate change at any point – nor do these researchers. They just take the liberty to do actual scientific research into the causes instead of blindly repeating and following the current dogma.

    2. toxymoron

      One may ask why they refer to IPCC 2001, or why none of their figures goes past 2000.
      The short answer is that none of the relations keep up well after the year 2000.
      And Hansen had already predicted back in ’78 that we had to wait until 2000 to see the ‘signal’ of AGW raise above the ‘noise’ of natural variability.

  5. bob

    Good morning laugh

    FDL-

    Occupiers left City Hall around 10 pm PST and was in Old Town. The police kept a distance and followed the occupiers wherever they were going to go. Then, suddenly, the occupiers ran at full speed to the park where they had been previously. “A Michael Jackson dance party” with 600-800 people broke out. Only a handful of police officers were around. And more people were there than before the police raid.

    1. KnotRP

      > Occupy Oregon Re-Occupies, Police Violently Evict
      > Then Occupiers Re-Take Park Firedoglake

      There is about as much point to direct confrontation with riot cops as there would’ve been for the revolutionary Americans to take on the red coats head on. Obviously,
      the lesson is being learned and tactics are changing
      to neutralize the advantage of “having a plan” with a
      riot line and herding people into pens. Things are going
      to take a turn for the chaotic….but maybe that’s part
      of the plan?

      1. ohmyheck

        I had a discussion with a friend who was there, and he said it wasn’t planned, but the results are such that it might just become a new strategy. Unintended consequences? What I like most about OWS is the willingness to try something new, and if it doesn’t work, try something new again.

  6. Sock Puppet

    Rogoff: fascinating seeing the seed of doubt start to undermine his entire worldview even as he tries to prop it up. He has a long way to go.

    Krugman: cynical or clueless – he forgets the third option, psychopathic. These candidates are out to enrich themselves and their buddies. The truth is whatever serves their purpose. Oh, and dems are no better, just have a different base so tell different lies.

    1. LeonovaBalletRusse

      “WHATEVER” suits their purpose, “Let all but me die, let the world burn, just give me the money.”

  8. Pat

    I stumbled upon this aptly-titled article, “When the Euro Falls Apart”, by Hal S. Scott, in International Finance, vol. 12, pp.207-28, available as pfd download on the net.

    The year? 1998!
    So hats off to this fellow for writing about the problem before almost anyone else (although many, especially bankers, questioned at the outset whether the EMU would succeed).
    He says the most likely scenario for breakup would occur if there were “speculative” attacks on one more weaker member countries (which is partially what happened). The author says that it would be very difficult for a country to leave the EMU and there is no clear mechanism or treaty language for leaving the EMU (partially because even raising the subject would make breakup more likely); it could be done, however, with careful coordination among the members. In order to re-establish its own currency, a country would have to engage in monetary controls and close its borders (!). Or else all the other countries would have to issue a New Euro (in place of standard Euro) (!).

    So this article lends support to the notion (suggested by Yannis V., among others) that a country can’t simply unilaterally exit the Euro, even if it wants to, and go native while the Euro still exists, because everyone would seek to hoard Euros.

    The only practical solution is for all countries to exit the Euro and adopt new currencies at the same time, which means going back to native currencies or a native currencies plus a new Super-DM in place of the Euro for N. Europe.

    (Actually, I think Germany or maybe Finland and Holland could exit EMU unilaterally, since there would be no capital flight and all Germans would prefer the New DM. All they would have to do is stop non-citizens from exchanging Euros. Germany did this before with East German Marks and it worked, more or less.
    Of all the proposed solutions, a German departure might be the most practicable: Germany gets what it wants, and the Eurozone becomes a money-printing debt-pit, which is what everybody but the Germans wants now.)

  9. blackwhite 1

    The goodthinking public reacts with righteous anger to the crimethinking images of OWS:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4zYlOU7Fpk&feature=related

    And yet, even among these goodthinkers, there is one malcontent, guilty of facecrime. Can you spot the deviant crimethinker?

    Remember, if you see something, say something. Stay alert, be aware, report suspicious facecrime to the Ministry of Truth.

    “Oceania, ’tis for thee!

    Strong and peaceful, wise and brave,
    Fighting the fight for the whole world to save….”

    1. tom allen

      Those guilty of facecrime may be punished to make an example to others. Pelting by rich, creamy foodstuffs will surely teach the hungry rabble a lesson. :-)

  11. wunsacon

    >> Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?

    Yes. But, not sure whether the “human species” is sustainable.

  14. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

    Geoengineering to save the planet –

    MOVE THE ORBIT A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE SUN.

    Basically, we will be moving a little slow with a larger orbit, but we need to slow down anyway (that’s what we all say).

    We get a few more days in a year. As long as they are holidays and not work days, we should be able to handle that.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        What is big – moving the planet to another solar system, one with a more responsive star (or two)?

  16. barrij

    Re: NYT “Undermining the Executive”…fascinating how Republicans view the Executive Branch as it concerns anything to do with “regulation” (eliminate it), but to cheer on a president’s power to: approve assassinations of American citizens; designate ANYONE that a president deems to be a “terrorist” for indefinite detention; conduct warfare-by-drone at his/her pleasure; order massive spying of US citizens’ electronic communications, etc., etc. Regulation = BAD, police-state = GOOD.

    1. EH

      Just think of American Politics as regulators of different public spheres: Public space and parks? Regulation. Middle East political community? Some regulation. Welfare/food stamp community? Tons of regulation. The finance community? Less regulation.

  17. LeonovaBalletRusse

    THRILLS! of physical sensation, this is what men want.

    Might this take the place of war?

    Off the cliff, boys!

  19. LeonovaBalletRusse

    YVES, Please! since the auto-open video is a rude intrustion and apparently *can’t stop* opening, please REMOVE it from the site. Thank you.

  20. LeonovaBalletRusse

    ALERT YVES! the “bonus antidote” may be a tool for sabotage of your popular LINKS section. Beware of *gifts*.

  21. LeonovaBalletRusse

    YVES! this auto-open link has annoyed your subscribing regulars (I am not the only one). What does this antidote have to do with YOU?

    1. JTFaraday

      Okay, but let’s suppose she’s out or busy. Does the sound on your computer have an off switch? Mine does.

      1. Rex

        Or you can pause the video. The bigger problem is that the file continues to download, wasting bandwidth, even if you have it paused.

        I turned off javascript in the browser and reloaded the page. This also kills any cursor-over popups. But many sites like Youtube are broken without javascript. I have Firefox and have loaded the Web Developer add-on which makes the javascript enable/disable easier to get to.

  22. Valissa

    When the elites lose their money, regulations find renewed popularity…

    CFTC Completes Client-Funds Rule After MF Global Collapse http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-05/cftc-may-vote-on-client-protection-rule-after-mf-global-collapse.html

    U.S. derivatives regulators voted today to restrict how brokers can invest customer funds, acting on a delayed rule after as much as $1.2 billion went missing before MF Global Holdings Ltd. sought bankruptcy protection.

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 5-0 at a Washington meeting to limit how brokers invest clients’ margin in money market funds, and ban investments in foreign sovereign debt and in-house transactions such as repurchase agreements.

    CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton, one of three Democrats on the five-member panel, has pushed for completion of the measure, which he dubbed the “MF rule.” CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, said the rule “is critical for the safeguarding of customer money” by preventing in-house repurchase transactions.

  23. alexis

    What is it with finance guys and base jumping? Now, I’m as guilty as the next finance person for being an adrenaline junkie (I ran three marathons and a triathalon), but I do find the fascination with base jumping strange. I had a kite surfing guy in my old office just OBSESSED with base jumping.

    I do wonder about the psychology of such a fascination. I can’t say anyone I know outside finance is as well versed with base jumping… It’s odd.

  24. patricia

    I live in Detroit–I moved here purposely. I think it is the fundamental reason why Michigan’s Snyder established his “emergency managers”.

    Detroit has been left alone for decades, leaving a vast swath of poor alone and without recourse. The metro area contains very wealthy suburbs, yet all they have ever offered is continual scorn. Mayor Bing is doing his best with the little we can produce, especially considering the decades of graft and fraud that has troubled the administration and departments.

    Now Snyder’s BS front-man can come in and privatize multiple parts of a system that can’t make money. Guess how that is going to work.

  26. Valissa

    Charles Hugh Smith today… It’s Your Choice, Europe: Rebel Against the Banks or Accept Debt-Serfdom http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec11/euro-debt-serfdom12-11.html

    What will the Europeans do when the new fiscally authoritative treaty comes round? Will the elites let the little people vote freely?

    “Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty and a hatred for servitude. – Caesar (Gallic Wars)

    “Only a few prefer liberty – the majority seek nothing more than fair masters.” – Sallust (Histories)

    There is a long term historical trend for centralization of power with a theme of “unification”. While this trend has it’s ups and downs the overall trend is for more unification over time, always at the cost of rights and liberties (depending on the scenario, the trade-off may be worth it).

    My take is the people will choose “security” over “freedom” as they generally do.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Who was it that said ‘How many loaves of bread does the Pope (who needs more than bread alone) have?’

  27. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

    Has the finance industry become less efficient?

    Good question…maybe.

    I think it is more efficient than ever…in serving the 1%. For the 99%, it’s less efficient.

    It’s like the talk about inflation. There is inflation for the 99%, and the threat of defation for the 1% unless we prop up the stock market and save the banks. I don’t think they make this distinction at, what I affectionately call, the Mish-Mash blog.

  29. Hugh

    “Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?”

    Modern capitalism has already failed. It failed on September 15, 2008 in spectacular fashion. Capitalism leads to kleptocracy. Its whole basis is doubtful: that financial resources should be efficiently allocated and that this best done by free markets. First, on its own terms and as recent events have shown, markets do not allocate financial resources efficiently. They simply transfer them to the rich. Second, efficiency is the wrong metric. The real measure of an economic system’s usefulness is to what degree it delivers the basics for good and meaningful lives to those in the society in which it operates. Look at it from this perspective and you can see capitalism’s massive failure. Society’s good, the good of the 99%, has been forgotten. Jobs, education, infrastructure, healthcare, housing, pensions, for all these fundamentals for a fair and just society, quality is poor, overpriced, or available only to some.

    In this regard, Rogoff comes up with the standard Establishment response: a few admissions of shortfalls but basic validation of the current system. It is, as all elite defenses are, an incredibly superficial and self-serving view.

    1. Walter Wit Man

      Well put.

      And this:

      “Society’s good, the good of the 99%, has been forgotten. Jobs, education, infrastructure, healthcare, housing, pensions, for all these fundamentals for a fair and just society, quality is poor, overpriced, or available only to some.”

      And conditions are worsening for the 99%.

      Just today, the death of the U.S. Postal Service was announced.

      Public schools are under attack by private interests as well.

      Of course the housing scam has been ongoing for over a decade and counting now (The Great Bubble and then Operation Extend and Pretend), the private pension scam for a few decades now as well, same with the jobs scam (NAFTA, free trade, erosion of worker rights, etc.), and the health care scam (Obamacare) was recently pulled off, so there is less and less of the public good for them to steal.

      I guess they still have Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to steal (although I think they reserve the full heist for a later date–except they are starting to take Medicare and Medicaid in pieces). They can sell off the public parks and other property too I suppose (which may coincide nicely with the selling off of our public schools).

  31. craazyman

    hey maybe something for links.

    Chris Hedges he done be chan a lynn da Gnostic Wayve

    http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/where_were_you_when_they_crucified_my_movement_20111205/

    This may not appeal to those of you who hate Jesus, but forget about Jesus and just think of your mama being nailed to a tree.

    Admittedly, this may be too much even for NC. I believe Mr. Hedges was a student at Harvard Divinity School where this sort of thing can probably be tolerated but possibly not embraced in its entirety. ha ahhahah ahahahahahah ahahahahah

    sorry. sometimes I just lose it.

    1. Valissa

      Not surprised by this Hedges post. I have his book
      “I Don’t Believe in Atheists”, which is quite good and I find myself basically in agreement. Personally I’m not a fan of Christianity or any of the montheistic religions, but that’s more of an institutional issue for me (i’m a spiritual anarchist leaning taoist-buddhist neopagan).

      Jesus has played many different types of political, social and religious roles over the years. The social justice movement has their version of Jesus to support their values.

      “American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon”, by Stephen Prothero is quite fascinating and a fun and easy read. It’s primarly a book on Jesus in pop culture, and as a grassroots sociological phenomenon.

      From the back of the paperback version:

      Jesus the Black Moses; Jesus the Hindu Sage; Jesus the Haight-Ashbury hippie: these Jesuses join the traditional figure of Jesus Christ in ‘Amercian Jesus’… the liveliest book about Jesus to appear in English for years.

      Our nation’s changing images of Jesus, Stephen Prothero contends, are a kind of looking glass into the national character. Even as most Christian believers cleave to a traditional faith, other people give Jesus a leading role as folkd hero, pitchman or countercultural icon. And so it has been since the nation’s founding – from Thomas Jefferson who took scissors to the New Testament to sort out true Jesus material from false; to the Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims who fit Jesus into their own traditions; to the people who adapt Jesus for the stage and screen and the Holy Land experience theme park.

      1. craazyman

        Jefferson did that? Huh. He was a wild man. Although that sort of thing was in the air then and if you cut enough you eliminate the historical Jesus entirely, and leave only the myth and narrative structure, which has some not unconsiderable merit as a conclusion and opens up fascinating questions of ontology. But it is a well-worn path with no clear destination.

    2. aletheia33

      yea the gnostic wave.
      and anarchist leaning taoist-buddhist neopaganism.

      here’s a nice short bio:
      http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Chris_Hedges.php

      chris hedges has been arrested in front of goldman sachs headquarters.

      chris hedges has chosen to sleep in a tent in harvard yard and avail himself of the hospitality of the occupiers there rather than the hotel room harvard provided for him on a recent night when he gave an invited talk there.

      he is one who goes further than commenting, advising, even celebrating: he joins.

      he quotes “Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who when he was criticized for walking with Martin Luther King on the Sabbath in Selma answered: ‘I pray with my feet.’”

      the rest of his quotations, on page 2 of this piece, are a great line-up, and religious or christian or not in their references, a great evocation of past battles strikingly like the one we have to fight now, a great affirmation of activism as love, a great antidote to the argument of futility, and a great expression of his unequivocal embrace of, and commitment of himself to, the people of the occupation movement, the army of the heart.

      i take the fact that someone who speaks in such terms has joined this movement without reservation, and in this manner, as a very good sign.

      he writes at the end, as he said at the occupiers’ GA: “i am here / with you.”

      and somehow, by his saying simply this, one feels he is formally giving the movement something both ineffable and of great weight, both unexpected and necessary.
      himself.

      and it’s an invitation, too.
      any one person can join and act in as powerful a way.

      many have and many more will.

      “i am here / with you.”

  32. Cal

    Like to suggest an old standby of a website that has been fighting for citizens’ rights and justice for quite a while:

    http://www.prorev.com/

    Some examples:

    “Bill Gates’s cover blown; his foundation gives big grant to right wing foe of public education

    Occupy the Democratic Convention?

    Chelsea Clinton is not only pretending to be a journalist, she has a chief of staff

    The biggest threat to America: ourselves

    The military is a lousy way to create jobs”

  33. Doc Holiday

    BGA Sues Chicago Police Dept. for Data on Plainclothes Officers
    http://www.bettergov.org/bga_s­ues_chicago_police_dept_for_da­ta_on_plainclothes_officers/
    “Here’s the issue: the Chicago Police Department is one of the largest single expenses for city taxpayers — with around 14,000 employees and a budget of more than $1 billion,” Shaw added. “The public has a right to know how their money is being spent — and whether officers are being deployed in a fair and intelligent way to keep neighborhoods safe.”

    Shaw also said that he doesn’t buy the city’s argument that releasing past deployment documents would compromise the safety of officers or foul up security plans.

    “We’re asking about historical data, not future plans,” he said. “This was the same faulty logic the police department used when, some months ago, we tried to find out how much taxpayers were spending on Ald. Ed Burke’s police security detail. We sued in that case, too, and the city eventually released the financial figures.”

Comments are closed.