Politics

Mirage Democracy: Politicians ‘Rent A Crowd’

June 24, 2015 Ian Cioffi, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Democracy, Media, Politics

By Ian Cioffi in Mint Press News - Crowds on Demand is an American publicity firm. It claims to be the only “rent a crowd” service, providing its clients with the ability to hire actors to pose as fans. I decided to contact them, pretending to be an employee of a GOP candidate running for office. Their Founder/CEO, Adam Swart, responded. Here is our exchange… "We have worked with dozens of candidates in the US primarily but not exclusively Republican. Mostly they are candidates who suffer from lack of enthusiasm/turnout at rallies and in need of a ‘game change’ (sorry, that’s a loaded term now!). The candidates have been primarily congressional/senate candidates. We’ve only worked with one (serious) presidential candidate thus far."

Act Out! [16] – Seattle’s Best: Kshama Sawant, Jill Stein, Chris Hedges

June 20, 2015 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com Educate! Media, Politics, Seattle, Socialist

By Eleanor Goldfield in Occupy - Check out our EXCLUSIVE interviews with Seattle's socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant, U.S. presidential candidate Jill Stein and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Chris Hedges at Kshama Sawant’s re-election kick off rally in Seattle. And if you thought TPP was bad, check out TiSA. Get your updates on Fast Track and know where to look and who to follow in this corporate coup saga. Finally, from S.F. to D.C., Code Pink has some fun summer activism, from hug-ins to yoga by the White House hedges. And of course some amazing poetry recited by Eleanor Goldfield. Stay tuned for an inside perspective on these amazing activists, thinkers, and politicians. Kshama Sawant was "elected by working people in Seattle to be a voice for raising the minimum wage, for affordable housing, and for taxing the rich to fund public transportation and public education."

The President’s Trade Deal Struggles Because It’s Bad Policy

June 19, 2015 Stan Sorscher, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Free Trade, Policy, Politics, TPP

By Stan Sorscher in Huffington Post - The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a 12-country NAFTA-style trade deal with two serious problems. It doesn't work, and it's bad for democracy. First, everyone is in favor of trade. We can have good trade policy that raises living standards or bad trade policy that works fabulously well for a few, but very badly for everyone else. More than any other policy, trade policy creates winners and losers. For instance, pharmaceutical companies are big winners. Their expanded patent monopolies will cost everyone else billions. Nike is a winner because new investor protections will apply to its operations in Vietnam, where Nike already exploits the lowest cost labor they could find on earth.

New York City Council Restricts Use Of Criminal Records In Hiring

June 18, 2015 Christopher Mathias, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Mass Incarceration, New York City (NYC), Politics, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Christopher Mathias in Huffington Post - Carl Stubbs, 63, stood outside New York City Council chambers Wednesday in anticipation of the council’s vote on the Fair Chance Act -- a bill that would delay when many of the city’s private sector employers can ask job applicants about their criminal history. “I feel [that] being black, having a felony, you don’t get hired,” he told The Huffington Post. “I have had a felony for over 30 years.” Stubbs, who’s also an activist with the group Voices of Community Activists Leaders (VOCAL-NY), wanted the bill to pass because it could improve his chances getting a job. “I would love to go back to work,” he said. Earlier, Piper Kerman, author of the memoir-turned-hit-Netflix-series Orange Is The New Black, offered her support of the bill.

The Triumph Of Occupy Wall Street

June 11, 2015 Michael Levitin, www.uk.news.yahoo.com Educate! Occupy Wall St., Politics

By Michael Levitin in The Atlantic - Nearly four years after the precipitous rise of Occupy Wall Street, the movement so many thought had disappeared has instead splintered and regrown into a variety of focused causes. Income inequality is the crisis du jour—a problem that all 2016 presidential candidates must grapple with because they can no longer afford not to. And, in fact, it’s just one of a long list of legislative and political successes for which the Occupy movement can take credit. Until recently, Occupy’s chief accomplishment was changing the national conversation by giving Americans a new language—the 99 percent and the 1 percent—to frame the dual crises of income inequality and the corrupting influence of money in politics.

Is Republican Support For Fast Track Collapsing?

June 10, 2015 Matthew Boyle, www.breitbart.com Educate! Congress, fast track, House, Politics, TPP

By Matthew Boyle in BreitBart - Below are two articles from Breitbart reporting a very different situation in Congress that is being report in the corporate media that covers Capitol Hill. While Politico and The Hill quote Paul Ryan saying -- "we're close" -- (something he has said repeatedly for weeks) and John Boehner -- "we're confident, but not certain" -- and then Breitbart, reporting from the perspective of grassroots Republicans in two articles they describe Republican support as collapsing under intensive grassroots pressure. One article describes a wall of phone calls into congressional offices opposing "ObamaTrade". On Monday night Republican grassroots activists held a twitter storm against TPA that trended nationally as a hot topic. The second Breitbart article says that leadership is not even getting its phone calls returned from Republicans and that Boehner has been unable to point to any new Republican saying that they will support fast track.

Mexico: Election Violence, Boycott & Military Mobilizing ‘For Democracy’

June 8, 2015 Erin Gallagher, www.revolution-news.com Resist! boycott, Elections, Mexico, Politics, Violence, Wars and Militarism

By Erin Gallagher in Revolution News - Midterm elections are scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday June 7, in Mexico. Mexican citizens will be voting for 500 federal congressmen, 9 governors, and several hundred mayors and local legislators. Protests to boycott the vote have been taking place across Mexico. Police forces and military descended upon the state of Oaxaca last night to reinforce voting stations and “ensure democratic elections” take place tomorrow. As of June 4, 19 people had died who were connected with the electoral process in Mexico. Reports yesterday initially indicated that state police had beat to death magisterial leader, member of the Popular Guerrero (MPG) and activist, Juan Tenorio, in Tlapa, Guerrero. CETEG members (Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de la Educación de Guerrero) and MPG were demonstrating to demand justice for the Ayotzinapa case and to promote the electoral boycott in the state.

Greek Leader: Cannot Consent To ‘Irrational’ Proposals

June 6, 2015 Nicholas Paphitis and Elena Becatoros, www.news.yahoo.com Resist! Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Greece, Politics

Greece cannot accept the "irrational" proposal made this week by its bailout creditors, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told an emergency Parliament session Friday, adding that any deal must also include some lightening of the country's crushing debt load. "There is no question of our accepting an agreement that does not contain the prospect of debt restructuring" that would help Greece regain the market access lost five years ago, Tsipras said. Despite a significant writedown in 2012, Greece's debt remains huge, at nearly 180 percent of annual output. Bailout creditors had initially promised further respite, but details on their latest proposal leaked by Athens made no mention of debt lightening. Tsipras' speech came the morning after a surprise announcement that Greece would defer an IMF payment due Friday, and would instead bundle all four installments due in June — a total of 1.6 billion euros — into one payment at the end of the month.

Trade Deals Undermine Everything Obama Says He Stands For

June 5, 2015 Matthew Pulver, www.salon.com Educate! Democratic Party, fast track, Obama, Politics, Populism

By Matthew Pulver in Salon - After more than six years of Obama-era party discipline and general accord, Democrats are finally suffering a measure of intra-party strife as the president appeals to congress for “fast-track” authority to more or less unilaterally negotiate the still-secret terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the largest trade pacts in history. A bloc of Congressional Democrats have so far stymied the president and balked at his request, and leaders of the liberal wing of the party have engaged in fairly unprecedented public dispute with President Obama. The party’s quarrel has presented Hillary Clinton with her campaign’s first big dilemma, as the former secretary of state does an ugly political dance, trying to reconcile her previously full-throated advocacy of the now-nettlesome trade agreement with the progressive revolt of the party base to whom she’s appealing in the primaries.

Protesters Arrested At Denton Drilling Site As Fracking Resumes

June 4, 2015 Max B. Baker, www.star-telegram.com Resist! Law, Oil & Gas, Politics

By Max B. Baker in Star Telegram - Three protesters opposed to the resumption of hydraulic fracturing in Denton were arrested early Monday after blocking the entrance to a natural gas well site. Adam Briggle, Tara Linn Hunter and Nikki Chochrek were arrested without incident shortly before 8 a.m. after staging a sit-in that blocked the entrance of the well site operated by Vantage Energy in northwest Denton. About 20 other protesters had gathered at the site. Vantage became the first company to resume drilling in Denton after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill last month that outlaws prohibitions against hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” such as the ban passed by Denton voters in November. “It just became obvious that we had exhausted all legal means to block fracking and that this unjust law is being forced on a community that voted it out,” said Hunter, who along with Chochrek is a member of the musical group The Frackettes.

Lack Of Political Org. & Violent History Key Factors In Police Violence

June 4, 2015 Carl Finamore, www.counterpunch.org Educate! History, Labor Movement, police brutality, Politics, Racism

By Carl Finamore in Counterpunch - Essentially, I argue there is more extreme repression in the U.S. primarily because of our extremely racist and genocidal historical record, because of the high residual level of racial division and because of the low level of political organization of the working class. The very formation of this country was rooted in genocide against indigenous people and the enslavement of millions of African peoples. Our heralded pioneer expansion westward and into the southwest in the 19th century also involved the very violent forced land expropriation of Mexican residents, some of whom were settled on the lands for centuries. After the Civil War, extreme cruelty continued to suppress the former slaves and this, as we know, lasted until appalling Jim Crow segregationist laws were torn down through the work of the massive civil rights movement only some 50 years ago.

Protest At Mass-Arrest-O’Malley Presidential Announcement

June 1, 2015 Kira Lerner, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Baltimore, Maryland, police brutality, Politics

By Kira Lerner in ThinkProgress - A few minutes into O’Malley’s speech, Megan Kenny, a Baltimore activist holding a sign reading “Stop Killer Cops,” began marching and chanting “black lives matter” as police attempted to stop the interruption. “The unrest and the unlawful police practices stem from O’Malley’s zero tolerance policies,” Kenny said. “His zero tolerance policies were ineffective, period.” As mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, O’Malley instated a “broken windows”-style of policing in an attempt to reduce crime which was rampant in the city at the time. Police officers were encouraged to make arrests for minor-level offenses, with the idea being that minor disorders create an environment in which violent crime occurs.

1000s Expected At Anti-Tory Protests As Queen Opens Parliament

May 28, 2015 Damien Gayle, www.theguardian.com Resist! Austerity, England, Politics

Thousands of people are expected to join anti-government demonstrations during the state opening of parliament on Wednesday, just over a fortnight after an anti-Tory protest in Whitehall led to clashes with police. Organisers expect a crowd of around 5,000, including a large student bloc, to gather at Trafalgar Square in opposition to Conservative plans for five more years of spending cuts. About 2,000 are expected for a separate march from Downing Street through Westminster. Militant anarchists have organised a protest on Parliament Square earlier the same day, around the time the Queen is expected to arrive at Westminster. They intend to use the slogan: “Five more years of this shit? No fucking way!” The rallies are part of a wave of protests that have followed the Conservatives’ election victory on 7 May. Fifteen people were arrested a day after the resultswhen scuffles broke out between police and protesters outside Downing Street.

Opponents Say TPP Deal Will Impose Defacto Corporate Governance

May 28, 2015 Interview with Kevin Zeese Scott Harris, www.btlonline.org Educate! Capitalism, Free Trade, Government, Politics, TPP

The battle in Congress over Trade Promotion Authority, also known as “fast track,” and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the European Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade agreements, is in high gear. President Obama is pressuring lawmakers to pass fast track, which is a mechanism that forces Congress to vote on a trade agreement within 60 to 90 days of receiving it, with only limited debate and no amendments allowed. While fast track had been stalled in the U.S. Senate, it’s expected to eventually pass there, with the real fight moving to the House of Representatives. There, an unlikely coalition of mostly Democrats and some Republicans are opposed to a free trade deal citing a variety of reasons.

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