Saturday, April 30, 2022
Will Inflation Break the News?
Will Inflation Break the News?: The greatest threat to democracy from media isn’t disinformation, it’s the paywall.
Thursday, April 28, 2022
WATCH NOW: WATCH: The #PoorPeoplesCampaign June 18 Mobilization Tour com...
Click Link to watch on YouTube.
Poor People's Campaign
<iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/700903369?h=96f1630f2f" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Monday, April 25, 2022
14 Steps You and I can take to turn this situation around
14. Steps to Protect Our Democracy
Things you can do this month to turn this state around.
1. Vote against the candidates preaching austerity.
2. Vote against the right wing menace. Authoritarian, neo fascist.
( See comments in California Ballot.
4. Think carefully and understand when a candidate supports neoliberal capitalism.
5. Vote for the funding of public education. Oppose charter school privatization). See. www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com
6. Search for candidates honestly discussing the economy. Not antagonistic mobilization.
7.
8. Adequately fund public higher education.
9. Talk to your neighbors about the issues.
10, Move your money to a credit union or a local bank.
11.. Join a union. Or, a union support group. www.aflcio.org, http://www.workingamerica.org/join/ California Alliance for Retired Americans. https://californiaalliance.org
12. Sit quietly for 10 minutes per day. Shut off all radio, TV, telephone. Think about additional ways to promote economic democracy.
13. Sit down and read. Prepare yourself. Then take action.
14. Join an organization working for economic and social justice. ( like Move On, DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) , a church group, Poor Peoples. Campaign, Third Wave, , Indivisible or others, ) Belonging to a group, working with a group, keeps you involved and motivated for the long haul.
The Poor at the Crossroads- The Poor People's Campaign
The Poor at the Crossroads
Liz Theoharis.
The 54th anniversary of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., just passed. Dr. King was shot down while organizing low-wage sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. At that time, he was building the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort to organize America’s poor into a force to be reckoned with. In his opposition to the Vietnam War and his promotion of a campaign to lift the load of poverty, he suggested that racism, poverty, and militarism could only be dealt with by uniting millions of poor people to change the very structure of our national life.
More than half a century later, his message remains tragically relevant in our seemingly never-ending pandemic-ridden moment, still rife with racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. Indeed, today, 60% more Americans are living below the official poverty line; racialized laws to suppress their votes have been passed in dozens of states; and the longest war in our history, the 20-year disaster in Afghanistan, only ended late last year, while globally conflict and bloodshed still swirl around us.
More.
https://tomdispatch.com/the-poor-at-the-crossroads/
Saturday, April 23, 2022
Thursday, April 21, 2022
November Does Not Have to be a Disaster for Democrats - Elizabeth Warren
Ms. Warren is a U.S. senator from Massachusetts
Democrats are the party of working people. Ahead of the 2020 election, we advanced ideas and plans that we believed would, in ways big and small, make our democracy and our economy work better for all Americans. Across this country, voters agreed with us — and gave us a majority in Washington so that we could deliver on those promises.Republican senators and broken institutions have blocked much of that promised progress. Now Republicans are betting that a stalled Biden agenda won’t give Democrats enough to run on in the midterm elections — and they might be right. Despite pandemic relief, infrastructure investments and the historic Supreme Court confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, we promised more — and voters remember those promises.
Republicans want to frame the upcoming elections to be about “wokeness,” cancel culture and the “militant left wing.” Standing up for the inherent dignity of everyone is a core American value, and Democrats are proud to do that every day. While Republican politicians peddle lies, fear and division, we should use every single one of the next 200 days or so before the election to deliver meaningful improvements for working people.
Democrats win elections when we show we understand the painful economic realities facing American families and convince voters we will deliver meaningful change. To put it bluntly: if we fail to use the months remaining before the elections to deliver on more of our agenda, Democrats are headed toward big losses in the midterms.
Time is running short. We need to finalize a budget reconciliation deal, making giant corporations pay their share to fund vital investments in combating climate change and lowering costs for families, which can advance with only 50 Senate votes. Other priorities can be done with the president’s executive authority. It’s no secret that I believe we should abolish the filibuster. But if Republicans want to use it to block policies that Americans broadly support, we should also force them to take those votes in plain view.
Third Act in Action
Third Act newsletter, for information. I suggest you put yourself on its mailing list.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Oligarchy and Corporate Welfare in the U.S. – Sanders
Today in America, the unfortunate reality is that the rich continue to get much richer while the working class is struggling to get by.
Oligarchy and massive income and wealth inequality are on the rise. The billionaire class has seen its wealth explode during the pandemic. Meanwhile, half of our people continue to live paycheck to paycheck and the high inflation rate is making life for the working class even more difficult.
Yet in the midst of all of the crises we currently face, Congress will likely be voting next week on a bill that provides tens of billions in corporate welfare to some of the most profitable corporations and wealthiest people on the planet. This bill provides $53 billion to the profitable microchip industry with no taxpayer protections and, if you can believe it, another $10 billion to Blue Origin, a space company owned by Jeff Bezos.
Amazon, which is owned by Bezos, is a company which, in a given year, pays nothing in federal income taxes after making billions in profits. And, by the way, in a given year Bezos has himself paid nothing in federal income taxes despite being worth nearly $200 billion.
Jeff Bezos has enough money to buy a $500 million yacht.
Jeff Bezos has enough money to buy a $23 million mansion with 25 bathrooms in Washington, D.C.
No. I do not think that the taxpayers of this country need to be providing a $10 billion bailout to Jeff Bezos to fuel his space hobby.
This upcoming legislation is related to an extremely important issue that is rarely discussed in the corporate media or on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and that is how we proceed with industrial policy in this country.
Now, let me be clear. I believe in industrial policy. And I believe that it makes sense, in certain circumstances, for the government and the private sector to work together to address a pressing need in America.
But industrial policy means cooperation between the government and the private sector. It does not mean the government providing massive amounts of corporate welfare to profitable corporations without getting anything in return.
In other words, will the United States government develop an industrial policy that benefits all of our society, or will we continue to have an industrial policy that benefits the wealthy and the powerful?
How the Internet is Teaching White Supremacy
White Supremacy being taught on line.
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Recognizing that “an increasing number of U.S. teens are getting ‘radicalized’ online by White supremacists or other extremist groups,” an article published by the National Education Association concluded: “The best place to prevent that radicalization is U.S. classrooms.”
In the classroom, kids can read a diverse assortment of books. Kids can discover and appreciate the beautiful human rainbow in all its colors and cultures. Kids can amass empathy and critical-thinking skills. Kids can learn how persistent group inequity is produced by bad rules, not bad people. Kids can see themselves in humans who don’t look like them, speak like them, love like them, worship like them, live like them. Kids can explore the complex history of racism and the interracial body of anti-racist resisters.
Read: The GOP’s ‘critical race theory’ obsession in the Atlantic magazine
Ibram X. Kendi is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He is the author of several books, including the National Book Award–winning Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and How to Be an Antiracist.
Also: an article by Jonathan Hait,, following the video we saw of him on Tues. about how the internet is increasing polarization in the U.S.
WHY THE PAST 10 YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE HAVE BEEN UNIQUELY STUPID
It’s not just a phase.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
Past 10 years of American Life have been uniquely stupid.
WHY THE PAST 10 YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE HAVE BEEN UNIQUELY STUPID
It’s not just a phase.
Recent academic studies suggest that social media is indeed corrosive to trust in governments, news media, and people and institutions in general. A working paper that offers the most comprehensive review of the research, led by the social scientists Philipp Lorenz-Spreen and Lisa Oswald, concludes that “the large majority of reported associations between digital media use and trust appear to be detrimental for democracy.” The literature is complex—some studies show benefits, particularly in less developed democracies—but the review found that, on balance, social media amplifies political polarization; foments populism, especially right-wing populism; and is associated with the spread of misinformation.
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Life in the Real Economy
Life in the Real Economy: Two new studies—one on poverty wages, one on the declining share of revenues going to workers—are at once authoritative and mind-boggling.
Monday, April 18, 2022
7 Steps to Protect Our Democracy
Things you can do this month to turn this state around.
1. Vote against the candidates preaching austerity.
2. Vote against the right wing menace. Authoritarian, neo fascist.
3. Work in a campaign for a candidate that opposes austerity.
4. Think carefully and understand when a candidate supports neoliberal capitalism.
5. Vote for the funding of public education. Oppose charter school privatization). See. www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com
6. Search for candidates honestly discussing the economy. Not antagonistic mobilization.
7.
Trump Supporters Explain Why They Believe the Big Lie
Trump Supporters Explain Why They Believe the Big Lie
For many of Trump’s voters, the belief that the election was stolen is not a fully formed thought. It’s more of an attitude, or a tribal pose.
Some 35 percent of Americans—including 68 percent of Republicans—believethe Big Lie, pushed relentlessly by former President Donald Trump and amplified by conservative media, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. They think that Trump was the true victor and that he should still be in the White House today.
I regularly host focus groups to better understand how voters are thinking about key political topics. Recently, I decided to find out why Trump 2020 voters hold so strongly to the Big Lie.
For many of Trump’s voters, the belief that the election was stolen is not a fully formed thought. It’s more of an attitude, or a tribal pose. They know something nefarious occurred but can’t easily explain how or why. What’s more, they’re mystified and sometimes angry that other people don’t feel the same.
As a woman from Wisconsin told me, “I can’t really put my finger on it, but something just doesn’t feel right.” A man from Pennsylvania said, “Something about it just didn’t seem right.” A man from Arizona said, “It didn’t smell right.”
The exact details of the story vary—was it Hugo Chávez who stole the election? Or the CIA? Or Italian defense contractors? Outlandish claims like these seem to have made this conspiracy theory more durable, not less. Regardless of plausibility, the more questions that are raised, the more mistrustful Trump voters are of the official results.
Perhaps that’s because the Big Lie has been part of their background noise for years.
Remember that Trump began spreading the notion that America’s elections were “rigged” in 2016—when he thought he would lose. Many Republicans firmly believed that the Democrats would steal an election if given the chance. When the 2020 election came and Trump did lose, his voters were ready to doubt the outcome.
Some Trump voters looked at the numbers and couldn’t make sense of them. How could so many more people have voted in 2020 than in 2016? A man from North Carolina, when asked why he thought the election was stolen, said, “There was 10 million more votes for Trump in this last election than he got in 2016. You’re telling me that [Joe] Biden got that many?”
When Election Officials Believe the Big Lie
What Can Happen When Election Officials Believe the Big Lie?
Nine months after the 2020 election, the call came in. The Colorado secretary of state’s office was on the phone and wanted to know why the passwords for Mesa County’s election equipment were on the internet for anyone to see. But the powers that be in Mesa County didn’t even know the passwords had leaked.
“We’re saying, ‘What are you talking about?’” recalled Mesa County Commissioner Scott McInnis.
Images of screens displaying the passwords had been shared a few days earlier on the chat app Telegram by a QAnon leader. The Colorado secretary of state launched an investigation and issued an order for Tina Peters, the county clerk, to let them inspect the equipment and try to get to the bottom of what happened.
But there was a problem. Peters wasn’t in Mesa County. She was on her way to South Dakota for a “Cyber Symposium” hosted by Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and one of the most prominent peddlers of the Big Lie. Data from Mesa County election equipment hard drives were later displayed at the symposium. The man talking about them was that same QAnon leader — Ron Watkins — the former administrator of the message board where Q, the shadowy figure behind the QAnon conspiracy movement, posted the bulk of their posts. Watkins is so deeply entangled with QAnon that many experts believe he may have been Q himself.
These days, Peters is back in Mesa County. She has to be. She can’t leave the state after being recently indicted by a grand jury on 10 counts, including seven felony charges, for allegedly using a false identity and lying to state employees while allowing an unauthorized individual to make copies of the election equipment hard drive. When I visited last month, I found her at the Hilton DoubleTree in Grand Junction — the county seat — where she was attending the county GOP Assembly to campaign for her spot on the primary ballot. She’s now running for secretary of state. There, sitting on a patio with her bright white bob sparkling in the sun, she told me that her decision to copy the election equipment hard drives was not only allowed but required. And she believes those copies have revealed serious vulnerabilities in the county’s election equipment.
“If I want somebody to come in and preserve my election records, that is my role, and that is my duty,” Peters said. “That’s what I did.”
But the way she chose to go about “preserving” those records has wrought havoc on Mesa County and on Peters herself. Addressing the fallout of her actions, including having to replace election equipment deemed compromised by the state, has cost more than $1 million of tax-payer money, according to McInnis. Her actions also led to the indictment charges, for which she faces up to 28 years in jail and $2.7 million in fines, with the potential for more charges coming. And it has sown further mistrust in the election system among voters, all while failing to unearth any actual evidence of election fraud.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-happens-when-an-election-official-believes-the-big-lie/
Peters maintains that what she did inside the Mesa County clerk’s office was within the bounds of her job responsibilities. Law enforcement has questions about just who copied the election records, alleging that Peters lied about who helped her.
HART VAN DENBURG / COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO VIA AP
There are likely hundreds of would-be Tina Pe
https://fivethirtyeight.com/fe
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
INFLUENCING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS
INFLUENCING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS
TO PROMOTE YOUR CAUSE
The following general principles have been established for ways in which to influence attitudes and behavior. These guidelines emerged from research and experience in laboratory or real life settings involving diverse areas such as education, business, public health, and political change. Because individuals differ and situations vary, these techniques will not always work. However, if applied creatively, in combination, over time, and in ways applicable to the situation, these principles will help you to promote your cause. To best utilize these ideas, time will be needed in order to brainstorm, practice, set objectives, and regularly evaluate progress. At times, it may require doing research about the individuals or groups you want to reach and their particular circumstances. This can be done either informally or using a more structured approach, such as a poll. These principles are applicable whether your “audience” is approached in one-on-one or small group conversation, through speeches, by written materials, or via media. As you strategize, you will need to determine a) the causes of the situation you want to change, b) the proposed solution, and c) who has the power to make the change that is needed. Determine what advocates can apply pressure and what groups actually set the policy you want to change.
Consider which principles outlined here are most applicable to your work and how best to apply them. Such an effort may require that you eliminate certain tactics of yours and, perhaps, expand your efforts later. You will also need to judge whether any tactics are considered unethical. Finally, please note that most of the ideas below derive from work in psychology. There are other social change perspectives and principles that might also be helpful-- and sometimes necessary-- in order for you to reach certain goals, such as knowledge from political science, sociology, communications, marketing, religion, the arts, or from activists who have learned from practical experience.
I) Deep Listening
Employing “realistic empathy” means seeing the other person’s point of view regardless of whether you agree with it. And for practical reasons it is important to listen to the views and understand the feelings of those you are hoping to influence. These reasons include:
- Listening helps affirm the people you are speaking with. In doing so, you acknowledge that they have something legitimate to say, as do you.
- Listening to their view on the topic and rationale gives them more of an opportunity to explore their stance.
- By listening to them, there is a greater chance they will listen to you.
- Listening to people allows you to understand what they feel and why. This information can be useful for framing your own message during the discussion or for a later interaction.
II) Influencing Attitudes (Although the below describes attempts to influence the attitudes of others, we also learn from honest dialogue in which both parties are open to change.)
A) Aspects of the message you present:
· Besides any facts you present, provide vivid and dramatic examples and/or images that support your case (i.e. focus on more specific examples/images rather than statistics).
· Link your cause with American values such as: freedom, equality, individuality, family, fairness, caring, privacy, opportunity, etc.
· Contrast your position with less favorable alternatives.
· Typically, what is viewed as scarce may also be more attractive, such as a commodity in short supply or a proposed policy that can only be adopted for a limited time.
· Give examples of others who are credible and support your position (experts, trustworthy individuals, and those speaking against their own self-interest).
· Create positive or negative moods by associating your cause with words, labels, or ideas that bring about particular emotions. For a political cause, you might do as President Reagan did when he said that his policies were “in the tradition of John Kennedy” or as Central American activists did when they said that we “didn't want to have another Vietnam in El Salvador”. Another example is to frame messages to an audience, such as “Do you support the constitutional right to”. Well-conceived usage of symbols and/or slogans can be powerful.
· If you want to utilize fear in your message, the threat must seem real. People must feel that it is desirable and feasible to adopt the new behavior or attitude you propose, and that if they did so, they feel that their fear wold be alleviated.
· Reiterate important messages over time and with a new twist.
B) Basing messages on the listener’s current opinion
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