tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90774822024-03-07T00:37:13.064-08:00Contested TerrainContested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.comBlogger2500125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-67122960024672823432015-02-01T18:57:00.001-08:002015-02-01T18:57:38.624-08:00Super bowl humorVery rarely do TV programmers, in my opinion, show any cleverness or real humor, but tonight LOGO is showing "The Brady Bunch Movie"Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-40982539283560368922015-01-31T20:54:00.001-08:002015-01-31T20:54:57.142-08:00JFK - KhrushevKissinger asked Chua en lie what difference it would have made if Khruschev had been assassinated instead of JFK, Chua thought for a minute & said: "I don't think Onassis would have proposed to Mrs. Khruschev."<div>(Nicholas Wapshott on Book TV)</div>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-21292788865709831092015-01-15T11:19:00.001-08:002015-01-15T11:19:35.743-08:00Oscar OversightIn the history of the Oscars only 3 African-Americans have been nominated for Best Director - all men: John Singleton (1991, "Boys N the Hood"), Lee Daniels (2009, "Precious") & Steve McQueen (2013, "12 Years a Slave"). This year, although "Selma" was nominated for Best Picture, it's director Ava DuVernay was passed over. This is rightly eliciting much criticism on the Internet. Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-9504451703116068442014-04-30T12:51:00.001-07:002014-04-30T12:51:35.190-07:00Warriors Had the Blueprint For a Dramatic Boycott Ready to GoIt's great to c the players - Black & white - standing up against their racist owner. I'm sure word of this plan got 2 the Commissioner & influenced his decision. I also believe the sponsors who w/drew from Clippers' games were a strong motivating force. Now let's c if the owners have the will 2 carry through.<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<a href="http://blogs.mercurynews.com/thompson/2014/04/29/warriors-had-the-blueprint-for-a-dramatic-boycott-ready-to-go/#.U2FRyxEfkDk.blogger"> Had the Blueprint For a Dramatic Boycott Ready to Go</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-46082253304122124422013-10-31T19:00:00.001-07:002013-10-31T19:06:16.949-07:00Naomi KleinHttp://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/science-says-revolt Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-11234901358250187512013-09-22T11:52:00.001-07:002013-09-22T11:54:45.722-07:00Some thoughts on "Obamacare" (The Affordable Care Act)Some thoughts on "Obamacare":<div>It has been said that a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over again & expecting a different result: sisters & brothers let me introduce u to the Republican Tea Party. </div><div>Despite all their claims that it's a "train wreck" about to happen, if the Grand Old Tea Party really believed that, they would almost surely cheer it on & watch it self-destruct. But they are really afraid it will work (as much as it can) & since all they are committed to is defeating Obama (something they couldn't do @ the polls - twice), they are trying to do it in Congress - where they don't have to deal w/the people. So they have to stop The Affordable care Act before it can work.</div><div>Don't misunderstand me. I don't believe "Obamacare" is the panacea its supporters claim it to be. Only a single-payer national healthcare system would really provide the care that Americans deserve. In fact, "Obamacare" is to a great extent a giveaway to the insurance companies. Why else would they be "...poised to spend $1 billion or more to attract ... Young people, many of whom are uninsured but healthy - and great for the insurance companies' bottom line". (NYT, 8/22/13, A18) But it's better than the absurd system we have now, which forces our most vulnerable neighbors to use the emergency room as their primary care physician. </div><div>One more thought: the very same Republican Tea Party Congressmembers - who want so desperately to destroy "Obamacare" - get free government -provided healthcare. </div><div>We can always hope that the GOTP will destroy itself instead of "Obamacare"</div><div><br></div>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0Chelsea Manhattan40.746672 -73.999589tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-39602015598625349002013-08-06T08:48:00.001-07:002013-08-06T15:12:13.176-07:00Hiroshima & Nagasaki: Remembering the Vicrims"The Chairman [sic] of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William D. Healy agreed [with the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey] 'the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender." (David Swanson's blog/War is a Crime.org, "Harry Truman and Memory if Mass Murder") It was rather the first blow in the "cold war" against the Soviet Union. On August 6, 1945 (& again on August 9th) we became the first & still the only nation savage enough to drop a nuclear bomb on two cities full of people. <div>One other thought on this 68th anniversary of one of the world's most horrific acts, the victims were people of color. Would we have dropped these bombs on German or Italian cities? I do not believe we would have,</div><div>War is horrendous under any circumstance. We must find another way to interact with each other, if the human race is to survive.</div>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-20847564403396246472013-07-29T09:00:00.001-07:002013-07-29T09:00:08.197-07:00Banknado: A Real-Life Disaster Movie/Watch banks destroy our society<a href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17843-banknado#.UfaRAtC9ddI.blogger">Banknado: A Real-Life Disaster Movie</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-69669417356521840052013-07-29T08:01:00.001-07:002013-07-29T08:01:15.499-07:00Richard Wolff: Detroit a "Spectacular Failure" of System that Redistributes Pay from Bottom to Top<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/25/richard_wolff_detroit_a_spectacular_failure#.UfaDGedV_Ns.blogger">Richard Wolff: Detroit a "Spectacular Failure" of System that Redistributes Pay from Bottom to Top</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-11964787962294001342013-07-23T09:51:00.001-07:002013-07-23T09:51:02.213-07:00The Liberal Elite has Betrayed the People They Claim to Defend. Chris Hedges on the "Real News" <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ff-G0DPkBv8" width="480"></iframe>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-44786027795946199872013-07-13T21:26:00.001-07:002013-07-13T21:26:26.573-07:00T.S. EliotT.S. Eliot: "only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-88036129621028397742013-07-03T12:30:00.001-07:002013-07-03T12:30:10.529-07:00The Common Ills: The 7th Annual Strawberry Fields Constitutional ReadingWe have done this several times it was really good. We'll almost surely be there tomm.<br />
<a href="http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-7th-annual-strawberry-fields.html?m=1">The Common Ills: The 7th Annual Strawberry Fields Constitutional Reading</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-25286375515229902652013-05-26T14:46:00.001-07:002013-05-26T14:46:02.142-07:00Too Much Newsletter: Thanks for signing up! - Inequality.org<a href="http://inequality.org/newsletter-signup-thanks/">Too Much Newsletter: Thanks for signing up! - Inequality.org</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-16511316104498703842013-05-25T19:39:00.001-07:002013-05-25T19:43:14.063-07:00Right Wing Crazies Aren’t Crazy Anymore<a href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/14975-right-wing-crazies-arent-crazy-anymore#.UaF1y5bGj9g.blogger">Right Wing Crazies Aren’t Crazy Anymore</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-90790442417898980522013-05-22T07:43:00.001-07:002013-05-22T07:43:35.604-07:00Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Against Democracy by Robert W Mcchesney - Powell's Books<a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/9781595588678">Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Against Democracy by Robert W Mcchesney - Powell's Books</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-72900563343456703752013-02-04T08:49:00.001-08:002013-02-04T08:49:40.363-08:00"Rosa Parks, Now and Forever" by Amy Goodman by Democracy Now!<a href="http://soundcloud.com/democracynow/rosa-parks-now-and-forever?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=mshare&utm_medium=blogger&utm_content=http://soundcloud.com/democracynow/rosa-parks-now-and-forever">"Rosa Parks, Now and Forever" by Amy Goodman by Democracy Now!</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-91115421702106415892013-01-23T11:50:00.001-08:002013-01-23T11:50:46.999-08:00Zero Dark Thirty - A Misleading Portrayal of Torture | Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show<a href="http://m.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/zero-dark-thirty-misleading-portrayal-torture">Zero Dark Thirty - A Misleading Portrayal of Torture | Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-25519614505460484262013-01-22T07:30:00.001-08:002013-01-22T07:30:52.291-08:00Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley’s New Film Exposes Hidden Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/22/dirty_wars_jeremy_scahill_and_rick">Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley’s New Film Exposes Hidden Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-42327956397088372582013-01-10T11:51:00.001-08:002013-01-10T11:51:23.472-08:00Sanders Opposes Lew for Treasury Secretary - Newsroom: Bernie Sanders - U.S. Senator for Vermont<a href="http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=45c55149-ee51-4444-8119-87cf9bc90dd3">Sanders Opposes Lew for Treasury Secretary - Newsroom: Bernie Sanders - U.S. Senator for Vermont</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-66877163319894666742012-11-23T09:45:00.001-08:002012-11-23T09:46:31.606-08:00Woody Guthrie at 100: Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, Will Kaufman Honor
the "Dust Bowl Troubadour"<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/23/woody_guthrie_at_100_pete_seeger">Woody Guthrie at 100: Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, Will Kaufman Honor the "Dust Bowl Troubadour"</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-60416654764221817342012-11-08T12:06:00.001-08:002012-11-08T12:06:47.964-08:00Obama & Martin Luther KingPresident Obama will be inaugurated on the day we celebrate the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-27303760114223235762012-11-08T12:01:00.001-08:002012-11-08T12:03:37.261-08:00Colorado & Washington StateI'm waiting to see how many of my friends will move to Colorado & Washington StateContested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-9176330864333023742012-11-07T07:33:00.001-08:002012-11-07T07:33:43.399-08:00What Propelled Obama to Victory and Sent the Plutocrats and Racists to a Brutal Defeat | Alternet<a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/what-propelled-obama-victory-and-sent-plutocrats-and-racists-brutal-defeat">What Propelled Obama to Victory and Sent the Plutocrats and Racists to a Brutal Defeat | Alternet</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-11615953953341427012012-11-05T20:25:00.001-08:002012-11-05T20:25:10.416-08:00Election 2012<br />
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Alright it's time to talk about the 2012 elections. I have been strugglin to make sense of this election. At first glance, the question immediately arises: How is it possible for anyone who isn't in the 1% to imagine Mitt Romney as president of the U.S. But then the the answer becomes obvious. As Charles M Blow writes in the NYT, "We have a very racially divided electorate." He refers to a report in the WaPo, which says: "Obama has a deficit of 23 percentage points, trailing Republican Mit Romney 60 percent to 37 percent among whites. According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll." He also says: "The report also says that nearly 80 percent of non-whites support Obama, while 91 percent of Romney's supporters are white". ("The Company Romney Keeps", NYT, 10/27/12) This argument is echoed by University of British Columbia political scientist Bruce Baum in a letter criticizing a NYT book review (10/14/12): "But [Mark] Lilla [the reviewer] is looking for answers in the wrong places as he misses the obvious: conservative responses to Obama are mediated - sometimes unconsciously - by the legacy of racism and white racial myopia in the United States. That is the 'something else.'<br />
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"Public opinion researchers have found that because Obama is identified - and self-identifies - as Black, he has become a lightning rod for white racial resentment and status anxieties despite his moderate policies. Moreover, as a Democrat, Obama is leading a party that has lost a majority of white votes in every presidential election since 1968, largely because many white Americans associate Democrats with support for minority interests and welfare dependency."<br />
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It's incredible that nearly 50 years after the march from Selma to Montgomery. (March 7, 1965) the U.S. is still as racially divided. And this election will ultimately turn on this. We can't let that happen.<br />
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There is another aspect to the election which needs to be taken into account. This election is, according to some analysts a choice of what kind of capitalism we want to define our country. The version represented by Romney and, particularly Ryan, which has been characterized as "a more cutthroat form of capitalism than most other industrial nations" have adopted. And "our cutthroat approach to capitalism has extracted high social costs". "Yet though we seem to suffer more than our fair share of social ills, by the O.E.C.D. Calculation our public spending to address them is smaller as a share of the economy than in any other country in the developed world." The alternative version of capitalism, offered by Obama sees "the government as an agent to assist" those who have been left out of the so-called American success story (ie. the 99%). Although it may be clear to many of us (perhaps a growing number) that neither form of capitalism can work for the vast majority of the American people and it's very unlikely that the version of capitalism favored by Obama would in any way mirror even European Social Democracy. But as with his relatively weak & lackluster response to the latest capitalist crisis, something is sometimes better than nothing.<br />
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To top it all off Romney/Ryan are reduced to arguments like this. "The country's economic problems are large and deeply rooted in overreaching Washington policies." (Jonathan M. Trugman, NY Post, 11/4/12) or perhaps the killer of all:<br />
The Republicans in order to defeat Obama have stood in the way of all attempts by the President & the Democrats to compromise & pass needed legislation. Now they have the unmitigated gall to argue that if Obama wins it will be impossible to arrive at any compromises, but if Romney wins compromise will be possible. That used to be called a protection racket. "If you vote for Obama, we'll break your legs."<br />
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So all this leads me to reluctantly support Obama. But next time no "lesser of two evils".<br />
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But ultimately what is most important is to remember is, as Robert Reich has said, "In my experience, nothing good happens in Washington unless good people outside Washington become mobilized, organized and energized to make it happen. Nothing worth changing in America will actually change unless you [we] and others like you [us] are committed to achieving that change." ("Beyond Outrage: What has Gone wrong with our Economy and our Democracy, and how to fix it").<br />
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Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077482.post-87785924236114184742012-11-01T07:43:00.001-07:002012-11-01T07:46:40.147-07:00As Missouri Senate Race Tightens, New Details Emerge on Todd Akin’s
Anti-Abortion Past<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/1/as_missouri_senate_race_tightens_new">As Missouri Senate Race Tightens, New Details Emerge on Todd Akin’s Anti-Abortion Past</a>Contested Terrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05098054213778816035noreply@blogger.com0