I've watched the GOP debates, including the latest, South Carolina. The practical and intellectual content is about as hot as a wet pickle. The content is smoke and mirrors: nothing about banking systems, foreclosures, justice, the dismantling of free speech via the National Defense Reauthorization Act, or the poverty that creates the need for the [...]
Yesterday my trainer made a comment that we the attendees are trying to better ourselves, as opposed to those "sitting home on welfare." It is interesting that so many people who consider themselves very egalitarian, who would never dream of insulting someone because of their skin color, will regularly bash the poor. I spoke to [...]
I've seen so much in the past year as a caseworker in rural New York to confirm my belief: the government and the banks seek to cement the poor into perpetual poverty. The sacrifice of 20% or so of the population is necessary so as to preserve the fear that motivates most of the rest [...]
Americans like believing that the solution to every social and economic problem is job training. Outsourcing? Job training. Economically depressed neighborhoods? Job training. Impoverished single mothers? You guessed it. We’re job training ourselves silly. We even have a bill in Congress called the Seniors Offering Quality Child Care Act, HR 335. Why should all those [...]
In March of 2011, a Brazilian Senator named Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy handed a letter to the President of the United States at a dinner in Brazil. The letter was from members of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (US BIG), and the intention was to introduce Obama to a smart, efficient and just economic idea [...]
Boy, was I relieved to hear the good news when Obama spoke to us about the debt crisis. There are no poor people in the United States anymore! There were a lot when he was campaigning in 2008, and he talked about poverty often. The 2010 census results said that 14.3% of Americans live at [...]
Congress has once again disappointed the American public with its spineless refusal to put weight behind its words. Today it voted to "oppose" the war in Libya while continuing to fund it. Um, guess what? That is the same as supporting it. I am thoroughly disgusted by the state of foreign (and domestic) affairs in this country. [...]
In New York City there is a Fatherhood Initiative. In 2010, the mayor of the city created a service program meant to help fathers be more involved with their children, particularly fathers who no longer live with their children because they are no longer in relationships with the women they fathered children with. One thing [...]
Yesterday I learned that back in March, a U.S. soldier, Jeremy Morlock, was sentenced to 24 years in prision for his role in murdering Afgani civilians. The three victims were killed for entertainment. The soldiers, including Jeremy Morlock of Washington state, planned skirmishes that could later presumably justify using deadly force. Photos they took as souvenirs [...]
Dear Friends: The coffee house Professor Java in Albany promises to help patrons to escape reality. Today I really need to escape it! I just found out a few things. For one, when I got into the car in Delaware County at 11:25 to drive up here, Queens Congressman Anthony Weiner was still claiming that someone [...]