August 2012 – kimi blog

2012082220131213

Rich 333% richer & poor 5% poorer than in 1980

Reagan-era tax breaks for the wealthy, which were instituted in 1980 and have become the norm for Republican presidents to continue since then, have resulted in the following financial effect on American households, as detailed in an article on An Economic Sense blog

IN YEAR 2010
• Income for the bottom 90% of households is -5% lower than 1980 levels
• Income for the bottom 9% of households is 35% higher than 1980 levels (those with incomes between the 90th and 99th percentiles)
• Income for the top 1% of households is 333% higher than 1980 levels
• The rate of growth for the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has remained steady at 1.9% since 1880 read more

2012082220131213

Teaching happiness course first transforms – the teacher

The same information expounded in The Happy Movie that the Wei Family loves so much, is available in a course given by the Institute of Child Education & Psychology (ICEP), which teamed up with Action for Happiness to add to its offerings an online class which imparts the skill of how to teach happiness to others. Isn’t this a marvellous idea?

I was blessed to receive one of a handful of scholarships to take the course Teaching Happiness: Positive Psychology for behaviour and learning, and I’m just wrapping it up this week. I loved The Happy Movie and the concepts it propounds, so I knew I would enjoy this course. But I didn’t expect that so many of the fundamental principles the course teaches would work a direct transformation in me. Moreover, I’m astonished at how rapidly the transformation has taken place. The changes this course has awakened in my own thoughts and attitude is dramatic and gratifying. One basic premises of the Teaching Happiness course is, that the teacher must first work on increasing his/her own happiness, before attempting to teach these skills to others. The premise is that students of a happy teacher will be provided with two resources for increasing their own happiness: they will be impacted by awareness of their teacher’s authentic happiness, and they will also have a behavioural reference and role model close at hand. read more

2012082020221207

Can 4 year olds be temperate in the presence of a marshmallow?

Martin Seligman describes temperance as including,

…the ability to protect against excess and delay gratification. It includes humility and modesty. And being careful about choices and not taking undue risks. It also includes forgiveness and giving people a second chance. There is an aspect of self-regulation here – controlling your appetite and emotions, being disciplined, regulating what you feel and do. The temperate person does not suppress motives or desires but waits for until it is wise and appropriate to satisfy them, so no harm is done to self or others. read more

2012081920131213

Bill Moyers shows why we need Medicare for all

Bill Moyers tells the story of how both Harry Truman and John Kennedy tried to bring Medicare into being, but it wasn’t until Lyndon B. Johnson inherited the presidency after Kennedy’s death, that it acquired an advocate who worked tirelessly to make sure that the elderly and indigent had access to healthcare services. LBJ told Bill,

My inclination would be […] that it ought to be retroactive as far back as you can get it […] because none of them ever get enough. That they are entitled to it. That that’s an obligation of ours. It’s just like your mother writing you and saying she wants $20, and I’d always sent mine a $100 when she did. I never did it because I thought it was going to be good for the economy of Austin. I always did it because I thought she was entitled to it. And I think that’s a much better reason and a much better cause and I think it can be defended on a hell of a lot better basis […] We do know that it affects the economy […] But that’s not the basis to go to the Hill, or the justification. We’ve just got to say that by God you can’t treat grandma this way. She’s entitled to it and we promised it to her. read more

2012081920131213

GOP & Big Money block journalists from public spaces

Here are three examples of camera journalists in London, Canada and the United States encountering attempts to block them from exercising their legal right to stand in public spaces and use cameras to shoot street views or film public proceedings they have the right to share with their followers, and under the circumstances may have a moral obligation to do so as well.

Secrecy surrounds the reporting of certain public events and anything having to do with the financial district. Freedom of speech and reporters’ public access rights are being curtailed, which bodes ill for all citizens of organized societies. Film equipment is being seized and arrests are being made, although no security threats are perceived. These seem to be simply moves to prevent disclosure of every day proceedings in public spaces associated with Big Money interests and at certain government meetings. read more

2012081720131213

Racist Romney & GOP move to block the Latino & Black vote

If you think the Romney/GOP election tactics seem like a racist ploy to intentionally block Latino and Black people from voting, you’re not crazy. Spend 4 minute watching this video from Van Jones’ Rebuild the American Dream team to see the dots neatly connected. It proves that this sad fact is true. God help America.

Fight by helping everyone you know that plans to vote for a fair America and President Obama to get their identification documents ready so they can’t be turned away at the polls. Inform yourself about your rights as a voter. Write to your elected officials and urge them to fight for American justice, fairness and the upholding of the one person, one vote system. Ask them to work hard to get big money out of general elections once and for all. And vote! Remember, New Jersey and some other states allow early voting and vote by mail. read more

2012081720131213

Nave de esperanza ~ Ship of hope

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Si quieres construir un barco, no empieces por buscar madera, ni por cortar tablas o distribuir el trabajo… primero has de evocar en los hombres el anhelo de mar libre y ancho”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

2012081620131213

Why block Walmart from north Jersey expansion?

Why is another Walmart in north Jersey a bad thing? Start off by considering these thoughts Rita Louie, Pomona’s Deputy Mayor, shared on Facebook at Dont LET WâL-MâRT RUIN Our TOWN.

Too big, too offensive, too risky, not needed, will put small businesses under, will change the character of the Rt202 corridor forever (in a bad way), will bring crime, cost taxpayers alot of money, destroy our infrastructure, destroy already suffering property values, 18 wheelers going down 202 at pre-dawn hours to make deliveries, traffic backed up onto the PIP in both directions, the remainder of Pomona will become blighted when all the stores close and we will be left holding the bag…shall I go on? Is this worth the risk so you could get a cheap shirt made in China? read more

2012081520171023

Start-ups need a long runway to succeed

According to Florence Lowe, Founder & CEO of SQBlueSky, the commonality all start-ups need to succeed is a long enough runway – the resources needed to ramp up to full flight when they’re getting started. The resources won’t be the same for every company. Some teams will need a lot of money to burn through while in the start-up phase, others (like Florence) count heavily on personal experience and a fabulous team, others benefit simply from applying themselves 100% to the task of getting their business fully operational. And, Florence says, read more

2012080520131213

Voting Rights Timeline in the US

Voting rights in the US are closely tied to other important social issues: the right to own property, First Amendment free speech rights, rights to assemble and to be the master of one’s own destiny. These resources show when the right to vote was obtained by various populations of American society.

Timeline by Center for Democracy

Timeline by the ACLU in graphic format and as a pdf file

The voting rights timelines does not address two other serious voting rights issues being played out in the US: using felony disenfranchisement as a mechanism to prevent Black men (plus some women) and Latinos from exercising their voting rights, which has become a type of apartheid in these communities. Michelle Alexander writes about this in her book, The New Jim Crow and the concerted Republican effort put in place since the first GWB election in 2000 which seeks to purge legitimate voters from voting rolls in targeted communities and otherwise restrict voting rights across the country. read more

2012080520131213

To students of real history, corruption doesn’t look worse today

People who believe widespread social problems are new to the United States come from ethnic backgrounds of privilege, or didn’t learn true history at home or in school. A Facebook friend and Green Party member thinks he is trying to explain to me that ethnicity does not affect a person’s belief about whether there is more corruption today than in the past. But, what Mark is really doing is demonstrating that he hails from a background where White male privilege is so much part of his personal culture that he is unaware that any other reality exists. read more

2012080420131213

Black and Latino borrowers victims of mortgage red-lining

The announcement on July 12 that Wells Fargo had agreed to a $175 million dollar settlement to avoid prosecution by the U.S. Justice Department for race bias in its lending policies follows a settlement with Bank of America Corp. last December to pay $335 million to avoid similar charges. Unfortunately, this amount is just a wee drop in the bucket when compared with the destruction these financial institutions’ policies have wreaked in the lives of Latino and Black families. Thanks to the exploitative lending policies they’ve been much harder hit by our harsh economic climate specifically because housing has cost them hundreds more each month than White families paid, even when the Black and Latino borrowers had equally good jobs and purchased properties valued at the same price. read more

2012080320131213

NJ shares in historic $25 billion fed-state mortgage fraud settlement

President Obama has responded to the injustices and fraud enacted by banks upon mortgage borrowers with the negotiation of a massive, wide-spread assistance program for one of America’s greatest ills – the home foreclosure crisis. Visit the website National Mortgage Settlement which is maintained by Attorney Generals from every state in the country (except Oklahoma) to learn more about the $25 billion dollar settlement that America’s five largest banks will pay over the next three years. read more

2012080320131213

New study released: Who austerity hurts

Friend and civil rights attorney Bennet D. Zurofsky posts a link to an extensive new 84 page study of the detrimental effects of austerity entitled Prosperity Economics: Building An Economy For All. “Worth reading,” he says.

Social Justice

Inspiration

Shaping Society

Personal Development

Keen Social Insights

Health

Environment