Two years ago October2011.org got started with a call for anti-corporate activism. The next spring they allied themselves with the Occupy movement.  Now they are changing their website to popularresistance.org and are calling for new subscribers.  If you click on the link, you will find your way to their very interesting newsletter and calendar of events.  It's worth a look.

http://www.popularresistance.org/popular-resistance-newsletter-announcing-our-new-website-popularresistance-org/

We don't often see our favorite economist, Paul Krugman, lose his temper, but he is mightily annoyed this morning.  The subject is food stamps, and the target of his ire is that cabal of "conservatives" who resent giving food aid to poor people.  They have a million anecdotal arguments against them (remember Reagan's "welfare queen"?), but their opposition to feeding the poor while allowing their 1% friends to fly high is morally bankrupt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/opinion/from-the-mouths-of-babes.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Wanna Buy A House?

This Greenwich, Connecticut beauty just went on the market for $190 million.  Who pays that kind of money for a house?  Members of the 1% or the .01%.  For more on economic inequality, go to http://toomuchonline.org, a service of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Krugman On Obamacare Shock

Paul Krugman says the Obamacare shock may be how many people will be very happy with it after the beginning of 2014.  Another shock will be how meanspirited the Obamacare opponents will look.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/opinion/krugman-the-obamacare-shock.html?ref=opinion

Leadership Is On Its Way!

9-year-old Asean Johnson speaking to a school-closing rally in Chicago.

Matt Taibbi On Quantitative Easing

Matt Taibbi explains what's going on with the Federal Reserve and the National Debt.  In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt went on the radio and explained the bank holiday.  Will Rogers said he explained it so well even the bankers could understand.  Try to get your local banker or Republican to read Taibbi.  If you read him, you'll even understand Quantitative Easing, sometimes called QE 1 or QE2 and so forth. 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-mad-science-of-the-national-debt-20130522

The Banksters Are Writing The Laws

The banksters are brazenly writing federal legislation with virtually no changes from congressmen or staff.  Many lobbyists are former congressmen or staffers now enjoying huge salaries.  And they are sharing the wealth. " ' I won't dispute for one second the problems of a system that demands immense amount of fundraisers by its legislators,'  said Representative Jim Himes, a third-term Democrat of Connecticut....A member of the Financial Servies Committee and a former banker at Goldman Sachs, he is one of the top recipients of Wall Street donations. 'It's appalling, it's disgusting, it's wasteful and it opens the possibility of conflicts of interest and corruption.  It's unfortunately the world we live in.' "  If this sort of corruption makes your blood boil, you should sign on to the American Anti-corruption Act at www.represent.us/cosponsor/ .   And tell your friends.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/banks-lobbyists-help-in-drafting-financial-bills/?hp

Go Solar!

Technology is bringing solar power closer every day.

http://grist.org/list/this-solar-panel-printer-can-make-33-feet-of-solar-cells-per-minute/

Infrastructure? What infrastructure?

The state agency responsible for bridge safety admitted it had no record of inspecting the bridge.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/23/1211354/-I-5-bridge-over-Skagit-River-collapses-cars-with-people-in-water

Stop The Drones!

First monthly Protest calling for stopping the new Drone Command Center near Warrington, PA

TAND UP. SPEAK OUT. DED BETTER. | For the most up-to-date information, please

Saturday, May 25, 2013 | 12:00-2:00 pm

STOP IT BEFORE IT STARTS:

Demonstrate at Horsham Air Guard Station

Click here for a good web site on the major emerging issue of drones

We will be setting up at the grass field at the northern tip of the base (at the intersection of County Line & Easton Road). Parking at Warrington Crossing Regal movieplex (click here for directions: http://goo.gl/AtTqM).

There will be a battery operated sound system for speakers, music, readings and information regarding the drone program, along with an 8 foot drone replica, and much more. https://www.facebook.com/events/281904038609069/

 

Join us in protest of the proposed Horsham reaper command center. Rise up against the unsanctioned killing of innocent civilians via Reaper Drones. Help raise awareness while this is still fresh - this is so much bigger than a handful of "good american jobs". This program is wrong. This is our town - It's our obligation to stand up and say something about it.

Drones are killing innocent people & creating a new generation of terrorists facebook
For more information contact BuxMont CFPA at cfpabuxmont1@aol.com or 215-917-2891 or 215-380-6804; or or Coaliton for Peace Action regional headquarters at (609) 924-5022 or cfpa@peacecoalition.org

Tar Sands Hardball

This is an excellent article in this week's New Yorker about the Alberta tar sands - where we've been, where we are now, and where we may be headed.  It is definitely worth a read

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2013/05/27/130527taco_talk_kolbert

Drilling Damages Wells

Pennsylvania's fancifully named Department of Environmental Protection has finally responded to a Freedom of Information suit brought by a Scranton newspaper.  After more than year of obstruction and bumbling, the DEP has conceded existence of 161 water wells contaminated by oil and gas extraction.  The queston is: who is the DEP protecting?  The people of the Commonwealth or the fossil fuel industry?  And why doesn't Pennsylvania have private well safety standards?

http://beavercountyblue.org/2013/05/21/pa-dep-forced-to-reveal-drilling-damage-in-161-pa-water-supplies/

Take The Story To The 1%

This is an interesting article about a growing willingness among progressive actvists to "speak truth to power" and to confront the 1% in their meetings and their places of business.  The story about George Lakey and his colleagues breaking up a PNC bank shareholders meeting is a high point.  That sort of action takes awareness, planning, and courage, but it can have a real impact on the corporation  and the real people who are on the board.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/16453-fearlessness-grows-from-the-grass-roots#.UZn1aB6VhtQ.email

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Watch Bill Moyers

Moyers & Co. discussed why lead and other pollutants are still in our air and the continuing story of money in our politics.  If you missed it 5/19, watch it here at the link.  Two great parts on how the big corporations defend pollution and how corruption works in Washington.  Don't miss it.

http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-the-toxic-politics-of-science/

Obama - The View From London

The UK has a parliamentary system that would likely make short work of the Obama government.  In this country we have something called "lame duck."  Here's how the Guardian views the convulsed Washington scene.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/17/barack-obama-beleagured-lame-duck

Stop Monsanto!

Join the worldwide demonstration against Monsanto - In Philadelphia at Independence Hall, Saturday, May 25, at 2pm.

The earth passed a dangerous milestone this week as the CO2 composition of the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million.  That small concentration, like a tiny bit of arsenic or snake venom, is enough to drastically change life on earth.  Climate change deniers who point to evidence that ambient temperature was very high millions of years ago, overlook the fact that there were no people on earth then and sea levels were sixty to eighty feet higher because polar ice caps had not taken up large amounts of ocean water.     A day-long interfaith workshop called "Turn Down The Heat" will happen at Friends Center (15th and Cherry Streets, Philadelphia) this Saturday, May 18 from 9:30am to 3:30pm.  All are invited to that and to a large demonstration at the White House on Monday, July 29.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Is Fascism Here?

Fascism is corporatism - control of the society and government by large corporations (Krupp, Siemens, Bayer etc. in Germany,  Fiat et al in Italy).  If the items in the checklist sound  familiar, buckle up.

A Letter To The President

President Obama has received a letter signed by 150 prominent Democratic supporters and contributors asking him to block construction of the Keystone KL pipeline [a decision is expected this summer or fall].  If we are ever to get off our addiction to fossil fuels, we must start by ending their extraction - "If it's in the ground, leave it in the ground."  The world already has extracted and put aside five times the fossil fuels necessary to put climate change beyond repair.  The only sane course is to turn all our efforts to building a new power grid and developing sustainable energy sources that can power our civilization without fouling the air and warming the atmosphere and the oceans.  It is said that permitting the pipeline will signify "Game Over" for our climate (now already past 400 ppm for carbon dioxide).  We must tell our congresspersons (202-224-3121) and the President (202-456-1111) to block the pipeline and change our energy priorities. This would seem to be the single most important issue facing us today.  Please read the letter.

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/10-2

How To Fight Poverty

Here are things you can do to fight poverty now.

http://billmoyers.com/2013/05/12/twelve-things-you-can-do-to-fight-poverty-now/

Go Team!

George Orwell in "1984" predicted that this would keep the proles from fixing the system.

Plutocrats: Then And Now

Here's an interesting graphic comparing the Plutocrats (Robber Barons) 100 years ago to the 1% (or .001%) today.  Don't miss Moyers & Co. Sunday, May 12, at Noon on PBS.  Philadelphia channel 12, WHYY-TV.

http://billmoyers.com/content/plutocrats-then-now/

City Employees In Poverty

We don't often post articles from the Wall Street Journal, but this one is too jarring to ignore.  City employees being paid below the poverty line?  This when thousands of buildings in the city have not paid their taxes?

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130509-909501.html

Bombs And Bags Of Money

Here's an excellent article on saving women with bombs and bags of money.  Our friend, John Grant, discusses the imperialist DNA still in our diplomatic and military policies.  Anyone who thinks that imperialism is a 19th or 20th century phenomenon has only to look at the national borders of African nations.  We finally fixed Sudan but at the cost of thousands of innocent lives.  The map of Mali is a joke.  Is this an area where we can help, maybe with bags of money but certainly not with bombs.

http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1738?page=show

A Conversation On Immigration And The GOP

Gail Collins and David Brooks discuss the struggle over immigration reform now in Congress.  But more and more it seems that the struggle is about the soul and the future of the Republican party.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/an-ethnic-map/?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130508

Independence Hall Saturday May 25 at 2pm

Join Some Environmental Events

Here is information about three Quaker events aimed at environmental issues.  We hope you can participate.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5c21ad3d3667e5c390d5e120f&id=25585bdd50&e=5ae2d11ceb

The Loophole Executives Love

During the Clinton administration, Congress passed a law limiting executive pay, but it left an enormous loophole for "performance pay."  As you can imagine, the big executives have been driving their BMW's through that loophole at a great rate ever since.  Click the link to read this article from Truth-out.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16180-hypocrites-with-fat-wallets-ceos-want-it-all

Al Franken Teaching Science To The US Senate

Even a Senator should be able to understand this.

http://www.upworthy.com/al-franken-forced-to-use-kids-analogy-to-help-other-senators-understand-that-science-is-real-2?c=bl3

Nullification In 2013?

The Governor of Kansas has assured the US Attorney-General that Kansas law forbidding the federal government to interfere with Kansas-made weapons is valid.  Calhoun would love it.

http://www.propublica.org/article/kansas-gov.-insists-its-ok-to-ignore-federal-gun-laws

Haverford College Events

Coming events at Haverford College.

http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=918d31e6f9a16745f336c88ca&id=dfc96deb52&e=277d515d3b

Fri., May 10, 4 p.m. — SEPTA subway entrance at 15th & Market Streets. Join us in honoring the original Mother’s Day for Peace Appeal by sending forth the message: Drone War — Not in Our Name!...Drone Command Center — Not In Our Back Yard! Signs, banners, flyers, and reading of the original Mother’s Day for Peace Appeal, as part of the Campaign to Stop the Drone War Command Center, planned to open by 10/1 at the Horsham Air Guard Station.

Fri., May 12, 4:30p.m. - Mother's Day/Brandywine Peace Community Monthly Potluck Supper & Program, University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut Street, Phila (37th & Chestnut Streets). Bring main dish, salad, or dessert to share. Program: Sachio ko-yin speaking on the Transform Now Plowshares, www.transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com/

Sachio is a member of Philadelphia War Resister's League and served a two and a half year prison sentence for a plowshares action in 1998.