But still, Heffernan was demoted because city officials perceived him to be engaged in “overt involvement in a political election”. So, the heart of this matter remains free speech rights. NorthJersey.com reports:
Biden helped put millions in prison & tightened noose on student loans
Along with Bill Clinton, Biden helped drastically increase the United States prison population. According to the ACLU 1 in 99 US adults are living in prison and, “One in 31 adults are under some form of correctional control, counting prison, jail, parole and probation populations.”
Just 6 companies control 90% of the US media – and your perceptions
Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. These corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most Americans don’t even stop to think about who is feeding them the endless hours of news and entertainment that they constantly ingest. But they should.
Bernie Sanders to reporters: do some real reporting for a change
Bernie Sanders in top form when he confronts reporters and tells them to stop making it look like presidential candidates are in a mud-wrestling contest with each other and do some real reporting – on the issues people care about. Because, “People are fed up.”
Truly.
#feelthebern
Bush started us on path to Nazi-ism. Trump goes much farther.
So, I’m reading this article shared by Truthout editor William Rivers Pitt about Trump’s extremist stand on deporting immigrants and his incessant hatemongering. And, I recently read a corroboration of Bernie Sander’s statement that Hitler was elected to govern Germany. All of a sudden that light-bulb goes on in my head: Trump could actually be a modern version of Hitler.
Trump’s fascist authoritarianism was thrown into stark relief by the courageous act of journalism “committed” by Mexican immigrant and Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos and Trump’s heavy-handed, dismissive treatment of him at a recent press conference. Ramos is one of the US Latino community’s most influential voices … Glenn Greenwald writes about the Ramos challenge:
Look at these pictures of Gaza – they show a paradise
These are pictures of Gaza, which Hamas and people hostile towards Israel describe as a concentration camp. These are anything but concentration camp conditions – this is a paradise.
Gotta watch video of Sanders dressing Alan Greenspan right down
Bernie Sanders vigorously confronted Alan Greenspan on his flawed economic policies in 2003, 5 years before the Great Recession set in and Greenspan admitted to the Congressional Oversight Committee that he had been wrong for 40 years in his perceptions and the policies he had informed during his tenancy as Federal Reserve Chair.
Sanders told Greenspan that because he spent his social time in country clubs and cocktail parties, Greenspan had become so far removed from the lives of average citizens that he had no idea what their concerns and needs are. Women for Bernie Sanders offers the comment, “Bernie knew all along that it was a flawed ideology.”
Kasim Hafeez was raised to hate Jews and now defends Israel
Kasim Hafeez is a man raised in a fundamentalist Muslim household to hate Jews and Israel, who had a complete reversal of sentiment, and now loves my people. He established StandWithUs 12 years ago, an NGO that educates people around the world about why Jews and Israel are worth supporting rather than bashing.
Disturbing: Google is promoting hatred of Jews by skewing search results
I was searching for a graphic depicting the fundamental unfairness of bashing Israel for defending itself against Arab attacks and increasing, global anti-semitism. But Google wouldn’t let me find any of those images: it just let me find images of Israelis unfairly attacking Arabs.
I don’t believe that the poor Arab, ugly Israel propaganda promoted by Big Media is the real truth underlying today’s Middle East conflict. But it’s quite apparent that this is what Google wants people to believe. By skewing search results to feed anti-Israel sentiment, Google is practicing fundamental unfairness and injustice. Shame on you, Google.
Ramos is a champion of truth and real reporting, not a disrupter
Anyone who thinks of criticizing Univision’s Jorge Ramos for confronting Donald Trump on August 25, should know what Ramos experienced with Trump before the confrontation … should also understand why Ramos felt it was important for him, as one of the US Latino community’s most notable leaders, to get Trump’s immigration policy out in the open and on record … and should definitely understand the sorry state into which United States journalism has fallen in recent decades. Those who do, will appreciate Ramos for taking a stand in defense of real reporting and will applaud his bravery and service to the public.
People from age 7 to 93 give advice to their younger selves
Wiretap, a CBC radio show that’s just ending after an eleven year run, produced this short video as a gift to its listeners. In “Aging Gracefully”, a series of progressively older folk give advice to the people they were … not long ago.
A 93 year old advises his younger self, “Don’t listen to other people’s advice. Nobody knows what the hell they’re doing.”
Although they’re going off the air, WireTapWiretap is keeping its Facebook page open, so check it out.
Broekman’s revelation re our extinction and the GOP
I have come to a conclusion:
Either the people will elect to make the GOP extinct, or the GOP will come through and make the people extinct.
Reflections on etymology, William Safire and the meaning of random
I missed marking the passing of William Safire, who authored my favorite newspaper column On Language until he became late in 2009 at the age of 79. So let me celebrate his work and how it touched me me, a little bit, now.
Safire inspired my love for language to blossom into good and accurate writing and introduced me to etymology – the topic of his twice weekly New York Times Magazine column for over 30 years. Teen me didn’t know that there was such a thing as etymology. It’s the study of words, and it’s fascinating. Safire’s compelling writing style pulled me right in. Google offers this definition:
When police become revenue agents to keep towns fiscally solvent
The community policing model becomes completely distorted when policeman – the civil servants you’re most likely to see and interact with in the course of a normal day – are turned into revenue producing instruments by the cities they work for. When a police officer’s job depends on whether s/he can generate enough revenue to keep his employer out of bankruptcy, a lot of people are going to be unhappy. And some of those unhappy people are going to be people grievously harmed, or excessively fined, for behaviour that shouldn’t be a big deal.
Atlantic’s list of “100 fantastic pieces of journalism” from 2014
The Atlantic’s Roughly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism: Exceptional nonfiction stories from 2014, includes:
SALON / The Day I Left My Son in the Car by Kim Brooks (Kimi note: this is a truly blow-away article)
“I made a split-second decision to run into the store. I had no idea it would consume the next years of my life.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES / Working Anything but 9 to 5 by Jodi Kantor
“She rarely learned her schedule more than three days before the start of a workweek, plunging her into urgent logistical puzzles over who would watch the boy. Months after starting the job she moved out of her aunt’s home, in part because of mounting friction over the erratic schedule, which the aunt felt was also holding her family captive. Ms. Navarro’s degree was on indefinite pause because her shifting hours left her unable to commit to classes. She needed to work all she could, sometimes counting on dimes from the tip jar to make the bus fare home. If she dared ask for more stable hours, she feared, she would get fewer work hours over all.”