---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2014 22:12:25 -0700
Subject: Housing Rights Group Says HUD Program Helps Wall Street,
Hurts Homeowners. Duh
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Just one more example in a growing mountain of examples, telling us
very clearly that we are not, "We, the People".
Unless one or two of you are members in the Ruling Class...if you're
uncertain, just check with your financial managers...and if you, like
me, are in "partnership with your bank in the ownership of your home,
you are at risk every minute of the day. Any contract you have with
any bank will protect the bank's interest, at your expense.
Even owning your home is not going to keep you safe. Some 20 years
ago the neighborhood I lived in was desecrated by the State of
Washington, when it modified the 405 "S" curves. 21 homes were
crushed by the Jaws of Death. My once quiet, happy neighborhood
looked like a war zone. The heavy hammering by the heavy equipment
caused cracks to appear in my retaining walls, and I had to engage a
lawyer in order to have them attended to. My lawyer happened to live
across the street in a beautiful older brick home. Tiles on his roof
cracked, plaster fell off walls and cracks appeared in his basement.
Since Renton Hill was riddled with abandoned coal mine shafts, the
pounding caused several back yards to drop several feet. One home
lost its garage. In every case the State of Washington balked at
making good for the home owners. Several did not retain lawyers, and
they wound up eating their losses.
Beyond that, the county, city or state can condemn your property for a
wide range of reasons.
While I have seen countless examples of homes being razed for "the
good of the community", it's always been the homes and property of the
Working/Middle/Lower Class. Find me an example of the property of
some member of the Ruling Class being condemned in order to build a
sports arena or a new shopping mall. It doesn't happen.
The worst case I recall was an elderly lady in the lower end of
Ballard, in Seattle. A large supermarket decided to expand into a
mini mall. Quietly they went about the neighborhood buying what
property they could barter for bottom dollars. These were older
Working Class homes and most folks bailed when they had the best deal
they could wrangle. But a few folks held out, including the elderly
lady. The homes on her end of the block sat high on a bank, with a
steep flight of stairs leading up to the front porch. The corporation
put pressure on the few holdouts, threatening some, digging up dirt on
others, until there was finally only one house remaining. So the
demolition crews moved in and the huge land movers took down the hill,
leveling the entire double block. Except for one house. There it
sat, high above the new asphalt. Its dirt walls crumbling.
I don't know what ever happened to that lady or her house. Of course
no one was ever going to pay her for it. I used to shop at that super
market, from time to time. But I never set foot on its ill-gotten
property after that.
I haven't thought about that lady in over 50 years, but it still
brings a lump to my throat.
I have to say, I do not understand how some working class folk believe
that the Ruling Class cares one whit about them. Sure, they look sort
of like the rest of us. And they even talk sort of the same. They
even joke with us, and promise us all sorts of crumbs from their
tables. And at night they bed down together just like we do, except
they bed down beneath silken sheets in homes that will never be seized
by the state. And as they settle in for the night, they even chuckle
about the poor little suckers who slave to make their life so
wonderful.
Well, enough of this drivel. This sucker is going to bed. Beneath
cotton sheets. In a home that could be condemned tomorrow. But I
never look down on my fellow working class members. We are the real
back bone of whatever is left of this nation.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/5/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Housing Rights Group Says HUD Program Helps Wall Street, Hurts Homeowners
> Sunday, 05 October 2014 09:30 By Rebecca Burns, Truthout | News Analysis
> A house under foreclosure and auction in Detroit, Dec. 30, 2008. (Photo:
> Fabrizio Costantini / The New York Times)
> After learning that his home was in foreclosure in July 2013, James
> Cheeseman received an even more unpleasant surprise when he showed up in
> court the following January. He was told that his mortgage loan had been
> sold by JP Morgan Chase and purchased by a company he had never heard of
> before - LVS Financial.
> Cheeseman had already applied for a loan modification from Chase and says
> he
> was still awaiting a response when the loan sale occurred - a move that he
> and his attorney argue violates New York State foreclosure laws. Cheeseman
> says that the new servicer, BSI Financial, then required him to fill out a
> whole new loan modification application. In mid-September, he learned that
> he had been denied.
> Though he is asking the court for another shot at a modification, this
> curveball has caused considerable distress for Cheeseman, 47, and his
> mother
> Constance, 75, who have resided in the New York home that they co-own for
> five years.
> "I was shocked; I thought that [the resale of bundles of bad loans] was
> over," he says. "That's what got the country into trouble in the 2008
> [mortgage crisis]. But lo and behold, it's still going on."
> LEGAL ADVOCATES, HOWEVER, SAY THAT SIGNIFICANT ABUSES BY SERVICERS MAY
> ALREADY HAVE TAKEN PLACE.
> In fact, the Cheesemans and their attorney believe that the sale of their
> loan was part of a recently expanded federal program ostensibly intended to
> provide relief to homeowners on the brink of foreclosure. Though
> foreclosure
> rates have been falling nationwide, 2 million homeowners are still behind
> on
> their mortgages and headed for foreclosure and another 10 million are
> underwater on their mortgages and at risk of the same in the future. About
> half a million of those seriously delinquent loans are insured by the
> Federal Housing Administration (FHA), representing a drain on the agency's
> taxpayer-backed insurance fund.
> In 2012, the FHA expanded a program to auction off pools of "nonperforming
> loans" - those on which homeowners are at least six months delinquent on
> their mortgage payments - to both for-profit and nonprofit bidders. To
> date,
> nearly 100,000 loans have been sold through the Distressed Asset
> Stabilization Program (DASP), bringing $8.8 billion into the FHA's coffers.
> The agency asserts that the program can also help reduce foreclosures, as
> private loan-buyers not hemmed in by the same restrictions as the
> government
> agency should be able to pursue a wider range of avenues to keep residents
> in their homes.
> PERHAPS THE MOST TROUBLING ASPECT OF DASP IS WHERE LOANS SOLD THROUGH IT
> ARE
> ENDING UP. HUD'S OWN DATA REVEALS THAT 98 PERCENT OF THESE LOANS WERE
> PURCHASED BY PRIVATE INVESTORS.
> But citing stories like Cheeseman's, some housing-rights organizations are
> telling a different story about DASP. They contest that the program has
> deepened the pain of homeowners and tenants by handing their fates over to
> hedge funds and investment groups that often have no interest in pursuing
> loan modifications or other options that would allow residents to remain in
> their homes. On September 9, community groups in more than 10 cities
> nationwide protested at local offices of the US Department of Housing and
> Urban Development (HUD), which oversees the FHA and DASP. Noting that, by
> HUD's own numbers, private investors - including private equity firms,
> hedge
> funds, specialty servicers and single-family rental companies - have won
> bids on close to 98 percent of all loans auctioned through DASP, many
> housing advocates are calling for a halt to the program until it can be
> overhauled.
> Asked about criticisms of DASP, HUD told Truthout that it is exploring
> several changes to the program. But on September 30, the FHA proceeded with
> the sale of another pools of loans totaling $2.3 billion in unpaid
> principal
> balances.
> The Devil's in the Details
> HUD did not release data on DASP to the public until August, though housing
> advocates have for some time been requesting information on the program's
> outcomes. In its first report on DASP, HUD concluded that the loan-sales
> program has "met its intention" of mitigating losses to the FHA, thereby
> minimizing risks to taxpayers. The agency touts sales made through DASP as
> a
> way to stabilize its taxpayer-backed insurance fund, which, following
> losses
> of more than $50 billion on mortgages it insures, required a federal
> subsidy
> of $1.7 billion for the first time in its 80-year history. HUD projects
> that
> in the coming years, DASP and other loss-mitigation strategies will add $5
> billion to the FHA's insurance fund.
> "BY SELLING HOMES TO PRIVATE EQUITY GIANTS AND VULTURE CAPITALISTS, DASP IS
> FUELING THE RISE OF THE WALL STREET LANDLORD."
> The report concludes that DASP may be beneficial for homeowners as well,
> citing the fact that, while about half of the loans sold had not yet been
> resolved, of those that had, 34 percent of homeowners were able to avoid
> foreclosure. In a statement provided to Truthout by HUD, FHA Commissioner
> Carol Galante said:
> We consider the Distressed Assets Sales Program to be very successful in
> accomplishing what we intended it to do. This program not only achieves
> significant cost savings for FHA's insurance fund, but offers borrowers a
> final opportunity to avoid foreclosure, which they wouldn't otherwise have.
> The results speak for themselves. Based on our initial data, an encouraging
> share of families are now re-performing and others have achieved a graceful
> exit from an unsustainable mortgage. It's important to note that all these
> families would be foreclosed upon if not for this program, which, in one
> way
> or another, has offered many of these borrowers another path.
> But community groups say that this characterization lumps together
> dramatically different outcomes for homeowners. A September report released
> by the community groups Right to the City Alliance and Center for Popular
> Democracy (CPD) notes that of loans that were counted as having avoided
> foreclosure, many had been sold to a third party or resulted in a
> short-sale. Though homeowners were able to avoid foreclosure in 34 percent
> of loans resolved to date, they were able to gain modifications or
> otherwise
> begin making payments again in just 10.9 percent of the resolved cases.
> "What we want to see is people being able to stay in their homes. And this
> category of 'foreclosure avoidance' includes a lot of outcomes in which
> [they] were absolutely not able to stay in their homes," Connie Razza,
> CPD's
> director of strategic research and author of the report, titled "Vulture
> Capital Hits Home: How HUD is Helping Wall Street and Hurting Our
> Communities," told Truthout.
> Homeowners Claim Abuses
> That's not the only bone housing activists have to pick with the program.
> Only loans that are not eligible for standard FHA loss mitigation - those,
> that, for example, have failed to qualify for loan modifications or other
> measures - are supposed to be included in the program. But some legal and
> housing advocates believe that mortgage servicers, for whom a quick
> insurance payout may be more attractive than a lengthy foreclosure process,
> could be flouting this requirement.
> "WHEN SPECULATORS HEAT UP THE MARKET FOR 'DISTRESSED MORTGAGES' THEY MAKE
> IT
> HARDER FOR ANYONE WHO ACQUIRES THEM - WHETHER FOR PROFIT OR NONPROFIT - TO
> MAKE WIN-WIN DEALS THAT PRESERVE HOMEOWNERSHIP AND STABILIZE COMMUNITIES."
> For example, James Cheeseman says he was beginning a settlement conference
> with Chase Bank, a step required under New York law to determine whether a
> modification, short sale or other alternative agreement can be reached
> before a lender proceeds with foreclosure, when his attorney learned that
> his loan had been sold in January. Cheeseman says that he was never
> notified
> of the sale - instead, he says, his attorney noticed the change during the
> discovery phase of the settlement conference.
> "Our suspicion is that once [Chase] found out that [the foreclosure] was
> going to be an extended process, they sold their note," says Cheeseman.
> "The've been hit with fines for shady practices in the past, but they're
> still doing it. But HUD is a government agency - it's like we're paying for
> those shady practices."
> James and Constance Cheeseman's house went into foreclosure in 2013 after
> James was laid off from his job as an auto claims examiner. He says that he
> and his mother fell victim to a loan-modification scam at the hands of the
> Templeton Group, against whom the New York District attorney recently filed
> a suit over such abuses. But the Cheesemans applied for another
> modification
> last year, hopeful that the result would be different, given that James had
> found work again, and they also had additional income through a renter.
> They
> believe that the loan's sale has restricted their options: After purchase
> by
> an investor, the Cheesemans' loan was no longer insured by the Federal
> Housing Administration (FHA), disqualifying them from the federal Home
> Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). BSI Financial, the loan's new
> servicer, is attempting to continue with the foreclosure.
> NONPROFITS HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL IN BUYING LOANS THROUGH DASP AFTER BEING
> OUTBID BY FOR-PROFIT COMPETITORS.
> Banks selling loans to the FHA for auction through DASP receive an
> insurance
> payout equal to the unpaid principal balance of the loan. Housing-policy
> advocates fear that this could create an incentive for mortgage servicers
> to
> cut through judicial red tape by simply selling loans to the FHA for
> auction
> through DASP. Another report, released in September by the progressive
> think-tank the Center for American Progress (CAP), notes that roughly 76
> percent of the loans auctioned through DASP between 2013 and 2014 were sold
> off by Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, or Wells Fargo - three banks that
> have become notorious for loan-servicing abuses.
> "Servicers stand to make out very well from this program," says Sarah
> Edelman, a researcher at CAP and one of the authors of the report.
> HUD tells Truthout that, in response to concerns from CAP and other housing
> advocates, it has recently changed the process through which it verifies
> that servicers have fully exhausted loss-mitigations options. Previously,
> servicers were permitted to self-report that they had completed all the
> mandatory steps, and HUD program officers conducted checks on a sample of
> the loans submitted for auction. In advance of the auction on September 30,
> according to HUD, program officers checked all loans and removed a small
> number for which loss mitigation records were unclear.
> Legal advocates, however, say that significant abuses by servicers may
> already have taken place. In May, the National Fair Housing Alliance,
> together with several other consumer and legal-aid organizations, wrote a
> letter to Commissioner Galante to express concern with "significant
> servicer
> noncompliance with HUD loss mitigation protocol" and call for stronger
> protections for homeowners affected by DASP. The letter detailed several
> cases in which homeowners had already been accepted for FHA-HAMP
> modifications and were making trial payments when new servicers stepped in
> and said they were no longer honoring the modifications. In several cases,
> like the Cheesemans, homeowners say they received no notice that their
> loans
> had been sold.
> UNDER CURRENT POLICY, COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS THAT HAVE A REAL INTEREST IN
> PRESERVING AFFORDABLE HOUSING OFTEN GET THE LEAST HELP IN ACQUIRING
> DISTRESSED PROPERTIES.
> Vicente and Guadalupe Salgado, residents of Chicago's Albany Park
> neighborhood, believe they may be one more such case. After the couple fell
> behind on their mortgage in 2011, they fell victim to a mortgage
> modification scam and entered foreclosure. Since then, they say that they
> have applied for FHA loan modifications several times and were awaiting a
> response in July 2014 when they were contacted by a new servicer, who told
> them that they had been denied. The Salgados say they were told that they
> could not apply again unless they could pay one-third of the remaining
> principle balance up front, which amounted to $22,000.
> "If I had that much money, I'd just find a new place to live," says
> Guadalupe Salgado.
> The Salgados were among the homeowners who protested at HUD offices
> nationwide to call for an end to the resale of FHA loans, and they are
> seeking a meeting with HUD to try and determine whether the loan was, in
> fact, sold through DASP.
> HUD says that in cases where a loan has been sold through DASP erroneously,
> the agency is able to return the mortgage note to the original lender and
> reverse the insurance claim. However, the agency says that this has been
> discovered in post-sale reviews of records, rather than through complaints
> by borrowers, and has happened in a very small number of cases.
> Rise of the Wall Street Landlord
> Perhaps the most troubling aspect of DASP is where loans sold through it
> are
> ending up. HUD's own data reveals that 98 percent of these loans were
> purchased by private investors; just three investment and private-equity
> firms - Lone Star Funds, Bayview Asset Management, and Serene Investment
> Partners - won nearly half of all loans.
> The market for distressed loans isn't the only asset class to emerge from
> the ashes of the foreclosure crisis. During the past two years, investors
> have bought up more than 200,000 mostly foreclosed homes. After scooping up
> properties at bargain-basement prices, groups such as Invitation Homes, a
> subsidiary of private-equity giant the Blackstone Group, have built a new
> industry specializing in the rental of single-family homes, and even begun
> securitizing tenants' rental payments to sell billions of dollars in
> "rent-backed securities,"a financial product similar to mortgage-backed
> securities that taps tenants' rent checks as an income stream for
> investors.
> Critics of DASP worry that the program may, for some investors, amount to
> little more than another means of acquiring cheap rental properties. At
> least two DASP buyers also operate single-family-home rental firms. The
> Blackstone Group - which through its subsidiary Invitation Homes is now the
> largest owner of single-family homes nationwide - owns a controlling stake
> in Bayview Asset Management, which has won nearly 20,000 loans through
> DASP.
> "By selling homes to private equity giants and vulture capitalists, DASP is
> fueling the rise of the Wall Street landlord," says Kevin Whelan, national
> campaign director of the National Home Defenders League, which helped
> coordinate the September protests against DASP.
> There's another troubling trend associated with DASP: The accelerating sale
> of bad loans has helped give rise to a "distressed-mortgage securities
> market." At least 11 buyers who have won loans through DASP have
> securitized
> some or all of the loans purchased through the program, and analysts
> estimate that investors will trade roughly $60 billion in distressed
> mortgage assets by the end of 2014, compared with just $25 billion in 2013,
> according to the report by the Right to the City Alliance and the Center
> for
> Popular Democracy. CPD's Razza also notes that firms that securitize
> distressed loans may be most likely to continue winning them in the future
> -
> according to her report, securities have enabled for-profits to bid 15 - 20
> percent higher on loans than their competitors.
> This trend is undermining DASP's ostensible goal of helping homeowners and
> "contributing to a new speculative housing bubble," says Whelan, noting
> that
> the price of distressed mortgages has been driven upward by investor
> demand.
> "When speculators heat up the market for "distressed mortgages" they make
> it
> harder for anyone who acquires them - whether for profit or non-profit - to
> make win-win deals that preserve homeownership and stabilize communities."
> Community Groups Left Out
> Indeed, though DASP was initially billed as a means of involving more
> community organizations with a solid track record in foreclosure
> prevention,
> nonprofit organizations have won just 2 percent of loans sold through the
> program, according to the Center for American Progress' report.
> HUD stresses that because all of the loans sold through the program were
> headed for foreclosure, DASP is a last shot for homeowners to achieve an
> alternative outcome. But Whelman says this amounts to a
> "beggars-can't-be-choosers" rationale that does not necessarily bear out.
> "HUD's own figures show that the vast majority of families whose loans are
> sold off to investors lose their homes, whether via foreclosures, short
> sales, or other mechanisms," he says. "But there are nonprofits that can
> buy
> these loans that have a track record of keeping more than half the families
> in deeply distressed loans in their homes."
> Several such nonprofits have been unsuccessful in buying loans through DASP
> after being outbid by for-profit competitors. New Jersey Community Capital
> (NJCC), a community-development group, has successfully purchased loans in
> New Jersey and Florida through DASP's "Neighborhood Stabilization Outcome"
> (NSO) pools, which are area-specific and require that buyers achieve a set
> of goals that enhance community stability - including reperformance of a
> loan wherein a borrower is able to begin making payments again, or a
> property's rental to a borrower - in at least half of loans purchased.
> In an email to Truthout, NJCC said that it had been able to modify 45
> percent of the loans in owner-occupied homes, a rate much higher than the
> industry standard. Nevertheless, the organization has been unable to scale
> up its purchases through DASP - in June, it was outbid on an NSO pool of
> loans in New Jersey by a for-profit investor. Even in NSO pools, nonprofits
> have won just 12 percent of loans, but outcomes are slightly better, with
> nearly 25 percent of residents able to remain in their homes.
> NJCC and other nonprofits are calling on HUD to enable the participation of
> more mission-driven nonprofits, including by expanding the NSO pools, which
> currently constitute just 20 percent of DASP sales, or creating nonprofit
> specific pools. "This could be a very effective program, if FHA can get
> loans in the hands of buyers who are committed to neighborhood
> stabilization
> - that's if," says CAP's Edelman.
> In a statement provided by HUD, Galante said: "HUD is also exploring every
> option to increase nonprofit participation in our program, including
> allowing more time for these organizations to perform the necessary due
> diligence and to assemble sufficient capital." The agency also told
> Truthout
> that in an upcoming November DASP auction, it will offer more NSO pools,
> including several that are smaller and more geographically concentrated.
> But other housing-rights organizations believe that even farther-reaching
> measures are needed. The Chicago-based Autonomous Center of Albany Park,
> which is working with Guadalupe and Vicente Salgado to help fight their
> foreclosure, also operates Casas del Pueblo, a 501(c)3 community land trust
> that holds titles to properties and believes that federal policy should
> require more banks and investors that profited from the mortgage crisis to
> donate properties to community organizations outright.
> Donation to a land bank is one option that buyers of loans in NSO pools may
> take to fulfill their obligations to the program's requirements, and some
> banks have chosen to donate properties to nonprofits in small number to
> receive a tax write-off. But Antonio Gutierrez, housing coordinator at
> Casas
> del Pueblo, says that under current policy, community organizations that
> have a real interest in preserving affordable housing often get the least
> help in acquiring distressed properties. The land trust, for example, is
> currently in negotiations with Fannie Mae to purchase the home of a
> domestic
> violence survivor who went into foreclosure after her abusive husband left
> the home and has been fighting to remain in it for four years. Though DASP
> buyers can obtain properties at an average of between 40 and 60 percent of
> the remaining principal balance on a mortgage, Fannie Mae has asked Casas
> del Pueblo to pay the full market value of $250,000 to obtain their
> member's
> home, even though she had already made a decade of mortgage payments on her
> mortgage.
> "The DASP program isn't really providing neighborhood stabilization, it's
> actually contributing to the displacement of existing communities" when
> investors buy loans with the intent of foreclosing on properties and
> finding
> higher-income renters, says Gutierrez. Even the loan modifications provided
> by commercial banks and investment groups may merely be "prolonging the
> process of foreclosure," he says. "If we want a permanent solution and
> true
> neighborhood stabilization," he says, "we need federal policies that say
> that principal reductions, buybacks and donations to community land trusts
> are not optional. They need to be priorities."
> In the meantime, the Autonomous Center is part of a national coalition
> calling on HUD to halt DASP outright until it can be overhauled. The Center
> for Popular Democracy, the Home Defenders League and other housing
> organizations say they gathered 11,000 signatures on a petition calling for
> an end to sales through DASP, and are planning further protests if they
> don't receive a response. Among those watching HUD's next move are the
> Salgados, who believe their house could be auctioned later this year.
> "I'm waiting and trying to investigate who owns the loan," says Guadalupe
> Salgado. "But this is my house, because I've fought for it."
> Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
> REBECCA BURNS
> Rebecca Burns, In These Times Assistant Editor, holds an M.A. from the
> University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies,
> where her research focused on global land and housing rights. A former
> editorial intern at the magazine, Burns also works as a research assistant
> for a project examining violence against humanitarian aid workers.
> RELATED STORIES
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> ________________________________________
> Show Comments
> Hide Comments
> <a href="http://truthout.disqus.com/?url=ref">View the discussion
> thread.</a>
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Housing Rights Group Says HUD Program Helps Wall Street, Hurts Homeowners
> Sunday, 05 October 2014 09:30 By Rebecca Burns, Truthout | News Analysis
> . font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
> reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
> reference not valid.
> . A house under foreclosure and auction in Detroit, Dec. 30, 2008.
> (Photo: Fabrizio Costantini / The New York Times)
> . After learning that his home was in foreclosure in July 2013, James
> Cheeseman received an even more unpleasant surprise when he showed up in
> court the following January. He was told that his mortgage loan had been
> sold by JP Morgan Chase and purchased by a company he had never heard of
> before - LVS Financial.
> Cheeseman had already applied for a loan modification from Chase and says
> he
> was still awaiting a response when the loan sale occurred - a move that he
> and his attorney argue violates New York State foreclosure laws. Cheeseman
> says that the new servicer, BSI Financial, then required him to fill out a
> whole new loan modification application. In mid-September, he learned that
> he had been denied.
> Though he is asking the court for another shot at a modification, this
> curveball has caused considerable distress for Cheeseman, 47, and his
> mother
> Constance, 75, who have resided in the New York home that they co-own for
> five years.
> "I was shocked; I thought that [the resale of bundles of bad loans] was
> over," he says. "That's what got the country into trouble in the 2008
> [mortgage crisis]. But lo and behold, it's still going on."
> Legal advocates, however, say that significant abuses by servicers may
> already have taken place.
> In fact, the Cheesemans and their attorney believe that the sale of their
> loan was part of a recently expanded federal program ostensibly intended to
> provide relief to homeowners on the brink of foreclosure. Though
> foreclosure
> rates have been falling nationwide, 2 million homeowners are still behind
> on
> their mortgages and headed for foreclosure and another 10 million are
> underwater on their mortgages and at risk of the same in the future. About
> half a million of those seriously delinquent loans are insured by the
> Federal Housing Administration (FHA), representing a drain on the agency's
> taxpayer-backed insurance fund.
> In 2012, the FHA expanded a program to auction off pools of "nonperforming
> loans" - those on which homeowners are at least six months delinquent on
> their mortgage payments - to both for-profit and nonprofit bidders. To
> date,
> nearly 100,000 loans have been sold through the Distressed Asset
> Stabilization Program (DASP), bringing $8.8 billion into the FHA's coffers.
> The agency asserts that the program can also help reduce foreclosures, as
> private loan-buyers not hemmed in by the same restrictions as the
> government
> agency should be able to pursue a wider range of avenues to keep residents
> in their homes.
> Perhaps the most troubling aspect of DASP is where loans sold through it
> are
> ending up. HUD's own data reveals that 98 percent of these loans were
> purchased by private investors.
> But citing stories like Cheeseman's, some housing-rights organizations are
> telling a different story about DASP. They contest that the program has
> deepened the pain of homeowners and tenants by handing their fates over to
> hedge funds and investment groups that often have no interest in pursuing
> loan modifications or other options that would allow residents to remain in
> their homes. On September 9, community groups in more than 10 cities
> nationwide protested at local offices of the US Department of Housing and
> Urban Development (HUD), which oversees the FHA and DASP. Noting that, by
> HUD's own numbers, private investors - including private equity firms,
> hedge
> funds, specialty servicers and single-family rental companies - have won
> bids on close to 98 percent of all loans auctioned through DASP, many
> housing advocates are calling for a halt to the program until it can be
> overhauled.
> Asked about criticisms of DASP, HUD told Truthout that it is exploring
> several changes to the program. But on September 30, the FHA proceeded with
> the sale of another pools of loans totaling $2.3 billion in unpaid
> principal
> balances.
> The Devil's in the Details
> HUD did not release data on DASP to the public until August, though housing
> advocates have for some time been requesting information on the program's
> outcomes. In its first report on DASP, HUD concluded that the loan-sales
> program has "met its intention" of mitigating losses to the FHA, thereby
> minimizing risks to taxpayers. The agency touts sales made through DASP as
> a
> way to stabilize its taxpayer-backed insurance fund, which, following
> losses
> of more than $50 billion on mortgages it insures, required a federal
> subsidy
> of $1.7 billion for the first time in its 80-year history. HUD projects
> that
> in the coming years, DASP and other loss-mitigation strategies will add $5
> billion to the FHA's insurance fund.
> "By selling homes to private equity giants and vulture capitalists, DASP is
> fueling the rise of the Wall Street landlord."
> The report concludes that DASP may be beneficial for homeowners as well,
> citing the fact that, while about half of the loans sold had not yet been
> resolved, of those that had, 34 percent of homeowners were able to avoid
> foreclosure. In a statement provided to Truthout by HUD, FHA Commissioner
> Carol Galante said:
> We consider the Distressed Assets Sales Program to be very successful in
> accomplishing what we intended it to do. This program not only achieves
> significant cost savings for FHA's insurance fund, but offers borrowers a
> final opportunity to avoid foreclosure, which they wouldn't otherwise have.
> The results speak for themselves. Based on our initial data, an encouraging
> share of families are now re-performing and others have achieved a graceful
> exit from an unsustainable mortgage. It's important to note that all these
> families would be foreclosed upon if not for this program, which, in one
> way
> or another, has offered many of these borrowers another path.
> But community groups say that this characterization lumps together
> dramatically different outcomes for homeowners. A September report released
> by the community groups Right to the City Alliance and Center for Popular
> Democracy (CPD) notes that of loans that were counted as having avoided
> foreclosure, many had been sold to a third party or resulted in a
> short-sale. Though homeowners were able to avoid foreclosure in 34 percent
> of loans resolved to date, they were able to gain modifications or
> otherwise
> begin making payments again in just 10.9 percent of the resolved cases.
> "What we want to see is people being able to stay in their homes. And this
> category of 'foreclosure avoidance' includes a lot of outcomes in which
> [they] were absolutely not able to stay in their homes," Connie Razza,
> CPD's
> director of strategic research and author of the report, titled "Vulture
> Capital Hits Home: How HUD is Helping Wall Street and Hurting Our
> Communities," told Truthout.
> Homeowners Claim Abuses
> That's not the only bone housing activists have to pick with the program.
> Only loans that are not eligible for standard FHA loss mitigation - those,
> that, for example, have failed to qualify for loan modifications or other
> measures - are supposed to be included in the program. But some legal and
> housing advocates believe that mortgage servicers, for whom a quick
> insurance payout may be more attractive than a lengthy foreclosure process,
> could be flouting this requirement.
> "When speculators heat up the market for 'distressed mortgages' they make
> it
> harder for anyone who acquires them - whether for profit or nonprofit - to
> make win-win deals that preserve homeownership and stabilize communities."
> For example, James Cheeseman says he was beginning a settlement conference
> with Chase Bank, a step required under New York law to determine whether a
> modification, short sale or other alternative agreement can be reached
> before a lender proceeds with foreclosure, when his attorney learned that
> his loan had been sold in January. Cheeseman says that he was never
> notified
> of the sale - instead, he says, his attorney noticed the change during the
> discovery phase of the settlement conference.
> "Our suspicion is that once [Chase] found out that [the foreclosure] was
> going to be an extended process, they sold their note," says Cheeseman.
> "The've been hit with fines for shady practices in the past, but they're
> still doing it. But HUD is a government agency - it's like we're paying for
> those shady practices."
> James and Constance Cheeseman's house went into foreclosure in 2013 after
> James was laid off from his job as an auto claims examiner. He says that he
> and his mother fell victim to a loan-modification scam at the hands of the
> Templeton Group, against whom the New York District attorney recently filed
> a suit over such abuses. But the Cheesemans applied for another
> modification
> last year, hopeful that the result would be different, given that James had
> found work again, and they also had additional income through a renter.
> They
> believe that the loan's sale has restricted their options: After purchase
> by
> an investor, the Cheesemans' loan was no longer insured by the Federal
> Housing Administration (FHA), disqualifying them from the federal Home
> Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). BSI Financial, the loan's new
> servicer, is attempting to continue with the foreclosure.
> Nonprofits have been unsuccessful in buying loans through DASP after being
> outbid by for-profit competitors.
> Banks selling loans to the FHA for auction through DASP receive an
> insurance
> payout equal to the unpaid principal balance of the loan. Housing-policy
> advocates fear that this could create an incentive for mortgage servicers
> to
> cut through judicial red tape by simply selling loans to the FHA for
> auction
> through DASP. Another report, released in September by the progressive
> think-tank the Center for American Progress (CAP), notes that roughly 76
> percent of the loans auctioned through DASP between 2013 and 2014 were sold
> off by Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, or Wells Fargo - three banks that
> have become notorious for loan-servicing abuses.
> "Servicers stand to make out very well from this program," says Sarah
> Edelman, a researcher at CAP and one of the authors of the report.
> HUD tells Truthout that, in response to concerns from CAP and other housing
> advocates, it has recently changed the process through which it verifies
> that servicers have fully exhausted loss-mitigations options. Previously,
> servicers were permitted to self-report that they had completed all the
> mandatory steps, and HUD program officers conducted checks on a sample of
> the loans submitted for auction. In advance of the auction on September 30,
> according to HUD, program officers checked all loans and removed a small
> number for which loss mitigation records were unclear.
> Legal advocates, however, say that significant abuses by servicers may
> already have taken place. In May, the National Fair Housing Alliance,
> together with several other consumer and legal-aid organizations, wrote a
> letter to Commissioner Galante to express concern with "significant
> servicer
> noncompliance with HUD loss mitigation protocol" and call for stronger
> protections for homeowners affected by DASP. The letter detailed several
> cases in which homeowners had already been accepted for FHA-HAMP
> modifications and were making trial payments when new servicers stepped in
> and said they were no longer honoring the modifications. In several cases,
> like the Cheesemans, homeowners say they received no notice that their
> loans
> had been sold.
> Under current policy, community organizations that have a real interest in
> preserving affordable housing often get the least help in acquiring
> distressed properties.
> Vicente and Guadalupe Salgado, residents of Chicago's Albany Park
> neighborhood, believe they may be one more such case. After the couple fell
> behind on their mortgage in 2011, they fell victim to a mortgage
> modification scam and entered foreclosure. Since then, they say that they
> have applied for FHA loan modifications several times and were awaiting a
> response in July 2014 when they were contacted by a new servicer, who told
> them that they had been denied. The Salgados say they were told that they
> could not apply again unless they could pay one-third of the remaining
> principle balance up front, which amounted to $22,000.
> "If I had that much money, I'd just find a new place to live," says
> Guadalupe Salgado.
> The Salgados were among the homeowners who protested at HUD offices
> nationwide to call for an end to the resale of FHA loans, and they are
> seeking a meeting with HUD to try and determine whether the loan was, in
> fact, sold through DASP.
> HUD says that in cases where a loan has been sold through DASP erroneously,
> the agency is able to return the mortgage note to the original lender and
> reverse the insurance claim. However, the agency says that this has been
> discovered in post-sale reviews of records, rather than through complaints
> by borrowers, and has happened in a very small number of cases.
> Rise of the Wall Street Landlord
> Perhaps the most troubling aspect of DASP is where loans sold through it
> are
> ending up. HUD's own data reveals that 98 percent of these loans were
> purchased by private investors; just three investment and private-equity
> firms - Lone Star Funds, Bayview Asset Management, and Serene Investment
> Partners - won nearly half of all loans.
> The market for distressed loans isn't the only asset class to emerge from
> the ashes of the foreclosure crisis. During the past two years, investors
> have bought up more than 200,000 mostly foreclosed homes. After scooping up
> properties at bargain-basement prices, groups such as Invitation Homes, a
> subsidiary of private-equity giant the Blackstone Group, have built a new
> industry specializing in the rental of single-family homes, and even begun
> securitizing tenants' rental payments to sell billions of dollars in
> "rent-backed securities,"a financial product similar to mortgage-backed
> securities that taps tenants' rent checks as an income stream for
> investors.
> Critics of DASP worry that the program may, for some investors, amount to
> little more than another means of acquiring cheap rental properties. At
> least two DASP buyers also operate single-family-home rental firms. The
> Blackstone Group - which through its subsidiary Invitation Homes is now the
> largest owner of single-family homes nationwide - owns a controlling stake
> in Bayview Asset Management, which has won nearly 20,000 loans through
> DASP.
> "By selling homes to private equity giants and vulture capitalists, DASP is
> fueling the rise of the Wall Street landlord," says Kevin Whelan, national
> campaign director of the National Home Defenders League, which helped
> coordinate the September protests against DASP.
> There's another troubling trend associated with DASP: The accelerating sale
> of bad loans has helped give rise to a "distressed-mortgage securities
> market." At least 11 buyers who have won loans through DASP have
> securitized
> some or all of the loans purchased through the program, and analysts
> estimate that investors will trade roughly $60 billion in distressed
> mortgage assets by the end of 2014, compared with just $25 billion in 2013,
> according to the report by the Right to the City Alliance and the Center
> for
> Popular Democracy. CPD's Razza also notes that firms that securitize
> distressed loans may be most likely to continue winning them in the future
> -
> according to her report, securities have enabled for-profits to bid 15 - 20
> percent higher on loans than their competitors.
> This trend is undermining DASP's ostensible goal of helping homeowners and
> "contributing to a new speculative housing bubble," says Whelan, noting
> that
> the price of distressed mortgages has been driven upward by investor
> demand.
> "When speculators heat up the market for "distressed mortgages" they make
> it
> harder for anyone who acquires them - whether for profit or non-profit - to
> make win-win deals that preserve homeownership and stabilize communities."
> Community Groups Left Out
> Indeed, though DASP was initially billed as a means of involving more
> community organizations with a solid track record in foreclosure
> prevention,
> nonprofit organizations have won just 2 percent of loans sold through the
> program, according to the Center for American Progress' report.
> HUD stresses that because all of the loans sold through the program were
> headed for foreclosure, DASP is a last shot for homeowners to achieve an
> alternative outcome. But Whelman says this amounts to a
> "beggars-can't-be-choosers" rationale that does not necessarily bear out.
> "HUD's own figures show that the vast majority of families whose loans are
> sold off to investors lose their homes, whether via foreclosures, short
> sales, or other mechanisms," he says. "But there are nonprofits that can
> buy
> these loans that have a track record of keeping more than half the families
> in deeply distressed loans in their homes."
> Several such nonprofits have been unsuccessful in buying loans through DASP
> after being outbid by for-profit competitors. New Jersey Community Capital
> (NJCC), a community-development group, has successfully purchased loans in
> New Jersey and Florida through DASP's "Neighborhood Stabilization Outcome"
> (NSO) pools, which are area-specific and require that buyers achieve a set
> of goals that enhance community stability - including reperformance of a
> loan wherein a borrower is able to begin making payments again, or a
> property's rental to a borrower - in at least half of loans purchased.
> In an email to Truthout, NJCC said that it had been able to modify 45
> percent of the loans in owner-occupied homes, a rate much higher than the
> industry standard. Nevertheless, the organization has been unable to scale
> up its purchases through DASP - in June, it was outbid on an NSO pool of
> loans in New Jersey by a for-profit investor. Even in NSO pools, nonprofits
> have won just 12 percent of loans, but outcomes are slightly better, with
> nearly 25 percent of residents able to remain in their homes.
> NJCC and other nonprofits are calling on HUD to enable the participation of
> more mission-driven nonprofits, including by expanding the NSO pools, which
> currently constitute just 20 percent of DASP sales, or creating nonprofit
> specific pools. "This could be a very effective program, if FHA can get
> loans in the hands of buyers who are committed to neighborhood
> stabilization
> - that's if," says CAP's Edelman.
> In a statement provided by HUD, Galante said: "HUD is also exploring every
> option to increase nonprofit participation in our program, including
> allowing more time for these organizations to perform the necessary due
> diligence and to assemble sufficient capital." The agency also told
> Truthout
> that in an upcoming November DASP auction, it will offer more NSO pools,
> including several that are smaller and more geographically concentrated.
> But other housing-rights organizations believe that even farther-reaching
> measures are needed. The Chicago-based Autonomous Center of Albany Park,
> which is working with Guadalupe and Vicente Salgado to help fight their
> foreclosure, also operates Casas del Pueblo, a 501(c)3 community land trust
> that holds titles to properties and believes that federal policy should
> require more banks and investors that profited from the mortgage crisis to
> donate properties to community organizations outright.
> Donation to a land bank is one option that buyers of loans in NSO pools may
> take to fulfill their obligations to the program's requirements, and some
> banks have chosen to donate properties to nonprofits in small number to
> receive a tax write-off. But Antonio Gutierrez, housing coordinator at
> Casas
> del Pueblo, says that under current policy, community organizations that
> have a real interest in preserving affordable housing often get the least
> help in acquiring distressed properties. The land trust, for example, is
> currently in negotiations with Fannie Mae to purchase the home of a
> domestic
> violence survivor who went into foreclosure after her abusive husband left
> the home and has been fighting to remain in it for four years. Though DASP
> buyers can obtain properties at an average of between 40 and 60 percent of
> the remaining principal balance on a mortgage, Fannie Mae has asked Casas
> del Pueblo to pay the full market value of $250,000 to obtain their
> member's
> home, even though she had already made a decade of mortgage payments on her
> mortgage.
> "The DASP program isn't really providing neighborhood stabilization, it's
> actually contributing to the displacement of existing communities" when
> investors buy loans with the intent of foreclosing on properties and
> finding
> higher-income renters, says Gutierrez. Even the loan modifications provided
> by commercial banks and investment groups may merely be "prolonging the
> process of foreclosure," he says. "If we want a permanent solution and true
> neighborhood stabilization," he says, "we need federal policies that say
> that principal reductions, buybacks and donations to community land trusts
> are not optional. They need to be priorities."
> In the meantime, the Autonomous Center is part of a national coalition
> calling on HUD to halt DASP outright until it can be overhauled. The Center
> for Popular Democracy, the Home Defenders League and other housing
> organizations say they gathered 11,000 signatures on a petition calling for
> an end to sales through DASP, and are planning further protests if they
> don't receive a response. Among those watching HUD's next move are the
> Salgados, who believe their house could be auctioned later this year.
> "I'm waiting and trying to investigate who owns the loan," says Guadalupe
> Salgado. "But this is my house, because I've fought for it."
> Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
> Rebecca Burns
> Rebecca Burns, In These Times Assistant Editor, holds an M.A. from the
> University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies,
> where her research focused on global land and housing rights. A former
> editorial intern at the magazine, Burns also works as a research assistant
> for a project examining violence against humanitarian aid workers.
> Related Stories
> Foreclosure Review Report Shows That the OCC Continues to Bury Wall
> Street's
> Bodies
> By Alexis Goldstein, Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.| Report
> Foreclosure Victims Protesting Wall Street Impunity Outside DOJ Arrested,
> Tasered
> By Craig O'Connor, Rania Khalek, Truthout | ReportHousing Is Fundamental
> for
> a People's Economic Recovery
> By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Truthout | News Analysis
>
> Show Comments
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Fwd: Fast food strikers say: $15 and a union! It's better than Obama's $10 plus
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2014 21:55:50 -0700
Subject: Fast food strikers say: $15 and a union! It's better than
Obama's $10 plus
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
You've got it right, Miriam. So why do I go with the $15 per hour?
Well, it seems to be what a large number of Working Class
organizations feel they can pull off, as opposed to something like $22
or $23. And of course Ted is right, too. No amount of increase will
solve the problem, because the problem is not a dollar amount. The
problem is the Capitalist System. And the problem is compounded by
the fact that this nation has two distinct Classes. There are the
First Class Citizens, and there are the Consumer Citizens. The
constitution and all of the laws of the land are set in place to
protect the First Class Citizen, and to control the Consumers.
Perhaps it would be better to say, Consumer/Producer Class.
Anyway, the only way the Working/Lower Classes can level the playing
field will be when we take the game away from the Capitalists and
build our own field. The frustration, as you've pointed out so many
times, is that we've been led down the yellow brick road by the
Empire's Pied Pipers, to the point of believing the lies that have
been shoved down our throats for so many generations.
Once I believed that a violent revolution would be our only way out.
But I've come to see that this is another trap, a wrong road. It will
only set us up for the next revolution, or a take over by a new
Master. The Capitalist System is Evil. Pure and simple. The $15 or
$22 per hour will not solve anything other than to offer momentary
relief. The solution is for us, enough of us, to refuse to
participate any longer. While there are signs of this withdrawal
around us, the Empire controls all the mass media, the military and
the banks. The Empire actually owns everything we believe belongs to
us. Our jobs, our homes, our land, our children, our elderly and even
every single one of us. The Empire can take what it wants, and if we
attempt to fight, the Empire will make up new laws to back its wants.
But what frustrates me most is that even worse than millions of Empire
owned Consumers rising up to defend their Masters, even if they came
to understand that they are truly servants without real rights or
property, even then they will have no clue as to what sort of system
to replace the corrupt Capitalist system.
As long as the Human Race is broken into warring fragments, each group
believing that it is somehow better than all the others, and each
willing to kill those who do not submit to them, there can be no hope
for us. A One People World is our only hope. But that will probably
only happen when some "Master Race" finally subdues all the other
nations.
In short, I guess I'm saying that I see no way out. But I'm sitting
here listening to Moody Blues at Red Rock, and I'm feeling contented
and mellow. I will continue to talk to folks about the need to find a
peaceful way to educate and establish a Love that is stronger than the
Hate that now prevails. Impossible? Not so long as there is breath
in my lungs.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/4/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Carl,
>
> But all the experts say that $15 an hour is not the current equivalent of
> what the minimum wage should be, given how costs have risen. I've read
> figures like $22.50 an hour or $25 an hour for a fair minimum wage. Somehow,
> the government experts always shortchange the people when figuring current
> costs in relation to the minimum wage or raises in social security benefits
> to keep up with costs.They say there's no inflation. But when I shop, i note
> that the packaging contains less while I'm paying the same amount as I did
> before. This is true for the orange juice I buy as well as a roll up,
> (sandwich), at Whole Foods. The maintenance costs on my condominium are
> rising. The annual premiums on my medicare supplementary insurance and Part
> D are rising. The co pays on medication are rising. I don't know what kinds
> of magical thinking the government uses to come up with the formulas they
> do. However, I do know that the purpose is to provide as little as possible
> for the masses. Yet somehow, incredible amounts of money appear magically to
> pay for every new military adventure this country embarks on. The military
> contractors, as Jeremy Scahill said yesterday, are the only people who
> benefit from our wars, aside from the insane militants who attract more and
> more adherents to their cause each time we wage another attack.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2014 12:12 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Re: Fast food strikers say: $15 and a union!
>
> On 10/4/14, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Of course you're right Ted. Just a quick look at the increase of the
>> minimum wage from 75 cents an hour to the current level will prove
>> your point. Simply raising the wage minimum is only a stop gap. But
>> it is something that must be done if any relief is to be found by the
>> Working and Lower Classes. The Capitalist System is rotten to the
>> core. But we are not going to see that changed overnight. $15 per
>> hour can be accomplished overnight. At least folks can have a square
>> meal and a bit of dignity while we go to work to build a new form of
>> self-rule.
>>
>> Carl Jarvis
>>
>> On 10/4/14, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
>>> Carl:
>>> Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. What will eventually
>>> happen is that $15 will buy only what the current minimum wage buys
>>> now. The whole truth (and nobody, least of all our economists, wants
>>> to admit it) is that perpetual economic and financial growth into
>>> perpetuity is an impossibility, mainly because of the unavailability
>>> of unlimited resources.
>>> --
>>> Ted Chittenden
>>>
>>> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
>>> ---- Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Every man, woman and child who is not a member of the Empire's Ruling
>>> Class, needs to demand both a $15 minimum hourly wage, and a
>>> Union...and benefits. While this is merely a stop gap measure, it
>>> will bring renewed energy to our sagging life style. Just because
>>> the Empire has been robbing Americans for generations, is no reason
>>> for us to support its continuation, nor to believe that it is the
>>> "American Way". We, The People, can make our own corrections to laws
>>> that have been twisted to favor the Few. We have a right to the
>>> major share of the profits from our labor. The system is upside down
>>> because we have been duped into believing that it is the way it must be.
>>> Once enough of us realize what power we Working Class Folks have, and
>>> we stop producing for a period of time, we will then be in a position
>>> to take control of our own future.
>>>
>>> Carl Jarvis
>>>
>>> On 10/3/14, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@aol.com> wrote:
>>>> http://socialistaction.org/fast-food-strikers-say-15-now-a-union/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Fast food strikers say: $15 and a union!
>>>>
>>>> Published October 3, 2014. | By Socialist Action.
>>>> Oct. 2014 $15 Now 2
>>>>
>>>> The web newsletter, "Anticapitalisme et Revolution," which
>>>> represents a current in the French New Anticapitalist Party (NPA),
>>>> recently interviewed Socialist Action member Ann Montague in regard
>>>> to the growing movement in the United States for a minimum wage of
>>>> $15.. The interview appears below.
>>>>
>>>> The French-language version can be found at:
>>>> http://anticapitalisme-et-revolution.blogspot.fr/2014/09/nous-sommes
>>>> -un-mouvement-maintenant.html
>>>>
>>>> Anticapitalisme et Revolution: How did your union come to organize
>>>> fast-food workers?
>>>>
>>>> Ann Montague: I am a member of Socialist Action, and I have been a
>>>> rank-and-file member of the Service Employees International Union
>>>> (SEIU) for 30 years. This is the union that provided staff and
>>>> financial support to the fast food workers who have been organizing
>>>> demonstrations, actions, and strikes, demanding a living wage of $15
>>>> an hour.
>>>>
>>>> SEIU has around 2.2 million members. Most of them are in the United
>>>> States, with some workers in Canada and Puerto Rico. There are over
>>>> a million workers in health care, including nurses, laboratory
>>>> technicians, nursing-home workers, and home-care workers. There are
>>>> another million workers who work in public services in state and
>>>> local governments and school employees like bus drivers and child
>>>> care providers. They also include 225,000 workers in property
>>>> services who work as security and janitors in commercial and
>>>> residential office buildings. Fifty-six percent of our workers are
>>>> women, and 40 percent Black and Latino/a. SEIU represents more
>>>> immigrant workers than any other union in the United States.
>>>>
>>>> When SEIU announced to the membership that they had decided to
>>>> assist in organizing Fast Food Strikes in New York City in 2012, I
>>>> was as surprised as anyone. In the 1980s, there were sporadic
>>>> strikes by state government workers, and in the 1990s, SEIU
>>>> organized janitors working for small cleaning companies in the
>>>> Justice For Janitors Campaign. The tactics of the janitors were
>>>> unorthodox and included mass civil disobedience with the closing of
>>>> freeways in Los Angeles and blocking bridges into Washington, D.C.
>>>>
>>>> But from 1998-2010, under the presidency of Andy Stern, we went
>>>> through a horrible period of vicious fights with other unions. In
>>>> addition, the top union leaders were purging on fake charges some
>>>> elected leaders that they saw as disloyal. Some of those who were
>>>> put in charge were later convicted of corruption. There also were
>>>> contracts negotiated behind closed doors and deals made with the bosses.
>>>>
>>>> By 2010 the union bureaucracy was divided. Some complained about
>>>> Stern's authoritarian leadership style, and in the middle of his
>>>> term he was forced to resign. Saying they were looking for a
>>>> consensus builder, they voted for Mary Kay Henry. She promised to
>>>> rebuild relationships with other unions and clean up the corruption.
>>>> The bureaucracy chose her to lead SEIU.
>>>>
>>>> In 2012, Henry brought forward to her Executive Board the
>>>> controversial proposal to put staff and resources into organizing
>>>> fast-food workers.
>>>> Not to bring them in as members but to raise wages of the entire sector.
>>>> One wing of the bureaucracy was against it, and while Henry
>>>> prevailed, it was believed that if the campaign were not successful,
>>>> and all that money were spent on workers who are not even members of
>>>> SEIU, she would not be re-elected. Her argument was that if they
>>>> could raise wages in an entire labor sector that it would impact all
>>>> wages.
>>>>
>>>> AR: How did this movement start?
>>>>
>>>> AM: In 2012, a group called New York Communities For Change was
>>>> working on affordable housing in New York City. They soon realized
>>>> that the fast-food workers they talked to could not even afford
>>>> low-cost apartments. They were sleeping in homeless shelters and on
>>>> the floors of friends' apartments. As a result, SEIU started
>>>> organizing meetings over the low pay for fast-food workers. The
>>>> workers soon decided that they wanted $15 an hour and a union and that
>>>> they were willing to strike.
>>>>
>>>> The first strike was in New York in November 2012, when 200 workers
>>>> walked off the job, and their numbers have continued to grow. In May
>>>> of this year, there were strikes in 150 cities and 33 countries. On
>>>> Sept. 4 was the seventh strike, and it was larger, including more
>>>> cities in the South and Southwest. There was civil disobedience, and
>>>> in eight cities home-care workers marched with fast-food workers
>>>> demanding $15 an hour.
>>>>
>>>> AR: What are the main demands?
>>>>
>>>> AM: For now, there are only two demands. They are: $15 an hour and
>>>> the right to a union without intimidation. In the United States
>>>> there is a Federal Minimum Wage that applies to all 50 states. Some
>>>> states have one that is higher. Currently, the Federal Minimum Wage
>>>> is $7.25. In his speech at the March On Washington in 1963, Martin
>>>> Luther King called for a $2 minimum wage. Adjusted for inflation
>>>> today, that $2 would now be $15.27. In general $15 is considered to
>>>> be a "living wage" while anything below that is a "poverty wage".
>>>>
>>>> AR: What is the government's response?
>>>>
>>>> AM: The main government response has been silence. We are entering
>>>> elections in November. Politicians know that the people support
>>>> raising the minimum wage, so they cannot openly oppose an increase.
>>>>
>>>> President Obama finally came out with a proposal to raise the
>>>> Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10. This was to undercut the strikes and
>>>> demonstrations. However, they were unable to stop the momentum of
>>>> this movement.
>>>>
>>>> The labor organizations that are the most obedient servants of the
>>>> Democratic Party are trying to get workers to support a state
>>>> minimum wage of $11, but they are not having much success. The
>>>> argument they cannot overcome is that anything less than $15 is a
>>>> "poverty wage."
>>>> While the Democrats are experts at derailing social movements so
>>>> far, they have not stopped the "Fight For $15 and a Union" struggle.
>>>>
>>>> AR: How about retaliation?
>>>>
>>>> AM: There has not been a lot of retaliation. Federal law permits
>>>> "concerted activity" by workers. This means that workers are allowed
>>>> to join together to complain to employers about working conditions.
>>>>
>>>> The Fast Food Strikes are not traditional strikes where workers
>>>> leave their job and picket their workplace to try to prevent other
>>>> workers or customers from entering the place of business. These
>>>> workers leave work for one day and are joined by community members
>>>> and others who support them in demonstrations and rallies throughout
>>>> the cities. Generally it is not all the workers in one restaurant
>>>> but workers from many different fast food restaurants joining together.
>>>>
>>>> Also there is what is called a "walk back." The following day, when
>>>> they go back to work, they are never alone. The staff of a union or
>>>> other supporters go back into the restaurant with them. Generally,
>>>> the response by other workers is applause, thanks, and congratulations.
>>>> I have heard that in a few places these workers have their work
>>>> hours cut or are "written up" for some small infraction. But often a
>>>> higher up manager has intervened. It seems the bosses understand
>>>> that reprisals run the chance of sparking more protests, and
>>>> possibly next time more workers will join the strike activity.
>>>>
>>>> As these actions spread from big cities to smaller cities there may
>>>> be some problems. This month Tucson, Ariz., had its first fast-food
>>>> strike, and there are reports that there was some retaliation when
>>>> the strikers returned to work. Arizona is a very anti-union state,
>>>> and Tucson is a small city. However, supporters of the strikers are
>>>> planning ways to pressure bosses to end harassment of these workers,
>>>> and SEIU will take legal action based on the right to "concerted
>>>> activity."
>>>>
>>>> AR: In some cities we saw union members join the Ferguson protests.
>>>> What are the links between the two movements?
>>>>
>>>> AM: Historically, there was a strong link between the Black civil
>>>> rights movement and unions. Martin Luther King worked closely with
>>>> many unions whose members were predominately Black. In fact, he was
>>>> in Memphis to show his solidarity with striking sanitation workers
>>>> who were members of AFCSME, a large public sector union, when he was
>>>> assassinated. A. Philip Randolph was a leader in both the civil rights
>>>> and the labor movements.
>>>> He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the
>>>> first predominantly Black labor union.
>>>>
>>>> While there is a strong history of racism in many unions, some
>>>> public sector unions have a legacy of human rights and social
>>>> justice. The American union tradition of solidarity, and the motto
>>>> of "an injury to one is an injury to all," is still strong in some
>>>> unions. But more important is the fact that the victims of police
>>>> brutality and their families are also union members. Members of SEIU
>>>> 1199 in New York City were active in demonstrations against the
>>>> police policy of "Stop And Frisk." In the Black community, most
>>>> young men have been harassed, stopped, and searched by the police
>>>> without cause.
>>>>
>>>> Ferguson is in Missouri, which is a relatively strong union state.
>>>> There were big fast-food strikes in Kansas City and St. Louis—cities
>>>> with large Black communities. In Kansas City, workers walked out of
>>>> 60 restaurants. Most of the strikers were Black or Latina.
>>>>
>>>> In Ferguson, contingents of a group called "Show Me $15" were active
>>>> in the demonstrations. Shermale Humphries was one member who said
>>>> that she used to work at the McDonald's across the street from where
>>>> Mike Brown was killed. "This [protesting] is something I had to do,"
>>>> she said. "I'm African American, and this could be anyone I know. I
>>>> just can't let it go on any longer." She credited her experience
>>>> organizing fast-food strikes as helping her organize in Ferguson.
>>>> Also, Michael Brown's mother was a member of the United Food And
>>>> Commercial Workers (UFCW).
>>>> The head of her union issued an immediate statement condemning the
>>>> behavior of the police and standing in solidarity with Michael's
>>>> mother in calling for an investigation and justice.
>>>>
>>>> The issue of intersecting movements for economic justice was
>>>> addressed by SEIU's president on a news program, "Democracy Now":
>>>> "There is an incredible intersection of the immigrant rights
>>>> movement and the fast-food workers' movement. We understand it is
>>>> necessary to grow a powerful movement so 11 million people can join
>>>> in the fullness of our economy. And we are not going to stop our
>>>> movement building on immigrant justice or economic justice until we
>>>> win."
>>>>
>>>> AR: What is the meaning of this movement for the rebirth of the
>>>> labor movement?
>>>>
>>>> AM: I am not sure I can answer that yet. I can say that this is the
>>>> most important working-class struggle in the United States at
>>>> present, and its national scope is like nothing I have witnessed.
>>>>
>>>> For there to be a rebirth of the labor movement, there needs to be a
>>>> break with the Democratic Party. As you probably know, we have no
>>>> working-class party in this country. We have two capitalist parties,
>>>> and as long as the union bureaucrats are at the beck and call of the
>>>> Democratic Party, the word "rebirth" just seems too strong.
>>>>
>>>> This month a striker was quoted saying, "We are a movement now!"
>>>> This was significant. There will be a point when the ruling class
>>>> will say, "Enough is enough". They will try to co-opt this movement,
>>>> divide it, or buy it off. But if the movement is big and strong
>>>> enough, the workers will fight back, and the struggle will expand.
>>>>
>>>> What occurred recently in Seattle was significant. An open socialist
>>>> candidate named Kshama Sawant, who is a member of Socialist
>>>> Alternative, ran for Seattle City Council. She is a member of the
>>>> American Federation Of Teachers (AFT), and she won by centering her
>>>> campaign on winning a
>>>> $15 minimum wage for all city workers. She used her campaign to
>>>> organize the Fight For $15 movement in Seattle, and she took on the
>>>> Democratic Party. As a result, 100,000 workers will be lifted out of
>>>> poverty.
>>>>
>>>> One of the important things that happened after Sawant's victory was
>>>> the formation of "15 Now," which became a national movement with
>>>> chapters across the country. While SEIU is currently supporting $15
>>>> an hour, there have been times that the leaders went in and
>>>> negotiated less than $15. But with another organization of community
>>>> residents, union members, and low-wage workers, the pressure for $15
>>>> can increase, and the movement will become larger and stronger.
>>>>
>>>> AR: What do you think can be done?
>>>>
>>>> AM: The advances in the Fight For $15 actions on Sept. 4 were important.
>>>> Not only did the strikes expand to new cities but they also expanded
>>>> to new workers who are under attack. In Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
>>>> Cleveland, Detroit and Seattle, home-care workers joined with
>>>> fast-food workers in support of the demand for $15 minimum wage. The
>>>> home-care workers' union rights had been attacked just two months
>>>> earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court. They are 90% women and 40% Black and
>>>> Latina.
>>>>
>>>> In addition to expanding to a new layer of oppressed workers, the
>>>> demonstrations themselves were more militant. They included civil
>>>> disobedience and more strikes in the South. In Charleston, S.C., a
>>>> bystander was watching as fast-food workers were engaged in a sit-in
>>>> in the middle of the street. He commented to reporters, "This is
>>>> just not something you see in Charleston."
>>>>
>>>> We need to be in the streets supporting our brothers and sisters. We
>>>> want the numbers to increase, the issues and demands to increase,
>>>> and all workers who are victims of austerity to join together. One
>>>> of our comrades who is most experienced in the labor movement said
>>>> it best, "Our goal is to advance the interests of our class." I can
>>>> say it no better.
>>>>
>>>> Photo: Tony Savino / Socialist Action
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>> Posted in Immigration, Labor, Latino Civil Liberties. | Tagged 15
>>>> Now, fast food, labor, minimum wage, SEIU, trade unions, unions.
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From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2014 21:55:50 -0700
Subject: Fast food strikers say: $15 and a union! It's better than
Obama's $10 plus
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
You've got it right, Miriam. So why do I go with the $15 per hour?
Well, it seems to be what a large number of Working Class
organizations feel they can pull off, as opposed to something like $22
or $23. And of course Ted is right, too. No amount of increase will
solve the problem, because the problem is not a dollar amount. The
problem is the Capitalist System. And the problem is compounded by
the fact that this nation has two distinct Classes. There are the
First Class Citizens, and there are the Consumer Citizens. The
constitution and all of the laws of the land are set in place to
protect the First Class Citizen, and to control the Consumers.
Perhaps it would be better to say, Consumer/Producer Class.
Anyway, the only way the Working/Lower Classes can level the playing
field will be when we take the game away from the Capitalists and
build our own field. The frustration, as you've pointed out so many
times, is that we've been led down the yellow brick road by the
Empire's Pied Pipers, to the point of believing the lies that have
been shoved down our throats for so many generations.
Once I believed that a violent revolution would be our only way out.
But I've come to see that this is another trap, a wrong road. It will
only set us up for the next revolution, or a take over by a new
Master. The Capitalist System is Evil. Pure and simple. The $15 or
$22 per hour will not solve anything other than to offer momentary
relief. The solution is for us, enough of us, to refuse to
participate any longer. While there are signs of this withdrawal
around us, the Empire controls all the mass media, the military and
the banks. The Empire actually owns everything we believe belongs to
us. Our jobs, our homes, our land, our children, our elderly and even
every single one of us. The Empire can take what it wants, and if we
attempt to fight, the Empire will make up new laws to back its wants.
But what frustrates me most is that even worse than millions of Empire
owned Consumers rising up to defend their Masters, even if they came
to understand that they are truly servants without real rights or
property, even then they will have no clue as to what sort of system
to replace the corrupt Capitalist system.
As long as the Human Race is broken into warring fragments, each group
believing that it is somehow better than all the others, and each
willing to kill those who do not submit to them, there can be no hope
for us. A One People World is our only hope. But that will probably
only happen when some "Master Race" finally subdues all the other
nations.
In short, I guess I'm saying that I see no way out. But I'm sitting
here listening to Moody Blues at Red Rock, and I'm feeling contented
and mellow. I will continue to talk to folks about the need to find a
peaceful way to educate and establish a Love that is stronger than the
Hate that now prevails. Impossible? Not so long as there is breath
in my lungs.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/4/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Carl,
>
> But all the experts say that $15 an hour is not the current equivalent of
> what the minimum wage should be, given how costs have risen. I've read
> figures like $22.50 an hour or $25 an hour for a fair minimum wage. Somehow,
> the government experts always shortchange the people when figuring current
> costs in relation to the minimum wage or raises in social security benefits
> to keep up with costs.They say there's no inflation. But when I shop, i note
> that the packaging contains less while I'm paying the same amount as I did
> before. This is true for the orange juice I buy as well as a roll up,
> (sandwich), at Whole Foods. The maintenance costs on my condominium are
> rising. The annual premiums on my medicare supplementary insurance and Part
> D are rising. The co pays on medication are rising. I don't know what kinds
> of magical thinking the government uses to come up with the formulas they
> do. However, I do know that the purpose is to provide as little as possible
> for the masses. Yet somehow, incredible amounts of money appear magically to
> pay for every new military adventure this country embarks on. The military
> contractors, as Jeremy Scahill said yesterday, are the only people who
> benefit from our wars, aside from the insane militants who attract more and
> more adherents to their cause each time we wage another attack.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2014 12:12 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Re: Fast food strikers say: $15 and a union!
>
> On 10/4/14, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Of course you're right Ted. Just a quick look at the increase of the
>> minimum wage from 75 cents an hour to the current level will prove
>> your point. Simply raising the wage minimum is only a stop gap. But
>> it is something that must be done if any relief is to be found by the
>> Working and Lower Classes. The Capitalist System is rotten to the
>> core. But we are not going to see that changed overnight. $15 per
>> hour can be accomplished overnight. At least folks can have a square
>> meal and a bit of dignity while we go to work to build a new form of
>> self-rule.
>>
>> Carl Jarvis
>>
>> On 10/4/14, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
>>> Carl:
>>> Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. What will eventually
>>> happen is that $15 will buy only what the current minimum wage buys
>>> now. The whole truth (and nobody, least of all our economists, wants
>>> to admit it) is that perpetual economic and financial growth into
>>> perpetuity is an impossibility, mainly because of the unavailability
>>> of unlimited resources.
>>> --
>>> Ted Chittenden
>>>
>>> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
>>> ---- Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Every man, woman and child who is not a member of the Empire's Ruling
>>> Class, needs to demand both a $15 minimum hourly wage, and a
>>> Union...and benefits. While this is merely a stop gap measure, it
>>> will bring renewed energy to our sagging life style. Just because
>>> the Empire has been robbing Americans for generations, is no reason
>>> for us to support its continuation, nor to believe that it is the
>>> "American Way". We, The People, can make our own corrections to laws
>>> that have been twisted to favor the Few. We have a right to the
>>> major share of the profits from our labor. The system is upside down
>>> because we have been duped into believing that it is the way it must be.
>>> Once enough of us realize what power we Working Class Folks have, and
>>> we stop producing for a period of time, we will then be in a position
>>> to take control of our own future.
>>>
>>> Carl Jarvis
>>>
>>> On 10/3/14, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@aol.com> wrote:
>>>> http://socialistaction.org/fast-food-strikers-say-15-now-a-union/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Fast food strikers say: $15 and a union!
>>>>
>>>> Published October 3, 2014. | By Socialist Action.
>>>> Oct. 2014 $15 Now 2
>>>>
>>>> The web newsletter, "Anticapitalisme et Revolution," which
>>>> represents a current in the French New Anticapitalist Party (NPA),
>>>> recently interviewed Socialist Action member Ann Montague in regard
>>>> to the growing movement in the United States for a minimum wage of
>>>> $15.. The interview appears below.
>>>>
>>>> The French-language version can be found at:
>>>> http://anticapitalisme-et-revolution.blogspot.fr/2014/09/nous-sommes
>>>> -un-mouvement-maintenant.html
>>>>
>>>> Anticapitalisme et Revolution: How did your union come to organize
>>>> fast-food workers?
>>>>
>>>> Ann Montague: I am a member of Socialist Action, and I have been a
>>>> rank-and-file member of the Service Employees International Union
>>>> (SEIU) for 30 years. This is the union that provided staff and
>>>> financial support to the fast food workers who have been organizing
>>>> demonstrations, actions, and strikes, demanding a living wage of $15
>>>> an hour.
>>>>
>>>> SEIU has around 2.2 million members. Most of them are in the United
>>>> States, with some workers in Canada and Puerto Rico. There are over
>>>> a million workers in health care, including nurses, laboratory
>>>> technicians, nursing-home workers, and home-care workers. There are
>>>> another million workers who work in public services in state and
>>>> local governments and school employees like bus drivers and child
>>>> care providers. They also include 225,000 workers in property
>>>> services who work as security and janitors in commercial and
>>>> residential office buildings. Fifty-six percent of our workers are
>>>> women, and 40 percent Black and Latino/a. SEIU represents more
>>>> immigrant workers than any other union in the United States.
>>>>
>>>> When SEIU announced to the membership that they had decided to
>>>> assist in organizing Fast Food Strikes in New York City in 2012, I
>>>> was as surprised as anyone. In the 1980s, there were sporadic
>>>> strikes by state government workers, and in the 1990s, SEIU
>>>> organized janitors working for small cleaning companies in the
>>>> Justice For Janitors Campaign. The tactics of the janitors were
>>>> unorthodox and included mass civil disobedience with the closing of
>>>> freeways in Los Angeles and blocking bridges into Washington, D.C.
>>>>
>>>> But from 1998-2010, under the presidency of Andy Stern, we went
>>>> through a horrible period of vicious fights with other unions. In
>>>> addition, the top union leaders were purging on fake charges some
>>>> elected leaders that they saw as disloyal. Some of those who were
>>>> put in charge were later convicted of corruption. There also were
>>>> contracts negotiated behind closed doors and deals made with the bosses.
>>>>
>>>> By 2010 the union bureaucracy was divided. Some complained about
>>>> Stern's authoritarian leadership style, and in the middle of his
>>>> term he was forced to resign. Saying they were looking for a
>>>> consensus builder, they voted for Mary Kay Henry. She promised to
>>>> rebuild relationships with other unions and clean up the corruption.
>>>> The bureaucracy chose her to lead SEIU.
>>>>
>>>> In 2012, Henry brought forward to her Executive Board the
>>>> controversial proposal to put staff and resources into organizing
>>>> fast-food workers.
>>>> Not to bring them in as members but to raise wages of the entire sector.
>>>> One wing of the bureaucracy was against it, and while Henry
>>>> prevailed, it was believed that if the campaign were not successful,
>>>> and all that money were spent on workers who are not even members of
>>>> SEIU, she would not be re-elected. Her argument was that if they
>>>> could raise wages in an entire labor sector that it would impact all
>>>> wages.
>>>>
>>>> AR: How did this movement start?
>>>>
>>>> AM: In 2012, a group called New York Communities For Change was
>>>> working on affordable housing in New York City. They soon realized
>>>> that the fast-food workers they talked to could not even afford
>>>> low-cost apartments. They were sleeping in homeless shelters and on
>>>> the floors of friends' apartments. As a result, SEIU started
>>>> organizing meetings over the low pay for fast-food workers. The
>>>> workers soon decided that they wanted $15 an hour and a union and that
>>>> they were willing to strike.
>>>>
>>>> The first strike was in New York in November 2012, when 200 workers
>>>> walked off the job, and their numbers have continued to grow. In May
>>>> of this year, there were strikes in 150 cities and 33 countries. On
>>>> Sept. 4 was the seventh strike, and it was larger, including more
>>>> cities in the South and Southwest. There was civil disobedience, and
>>>> in eight cities home-care workers marched with fast-food workers
>>>> demanding $15 an hour.
>>>>
>>>> AR: What are the main demands?
>>>>
>>>> AM: For now, there are only two demands. They are: $15 an hour and
>>>> the right to a union without intimidation. In the United States
>>>> there is a Federal Minimum Wage that applies to all 50 states. Some
>>>> states have one that is higher. Currently, the Federal Minimum Wage
>>>> is $7.25. In his speech at the March On Washington in 1963, Martin
>>>> Luther King called for a $2 minimum wage. Adjusted for inflation
>>>> today, that $2 would now be $15.27. In general $15 is considered to
>>>> be a "living wage" while anything below that is a "poverty wage".
>>>>
>>>> AR: What is the government's response?
>>>>
>>>> AM: The main government response has been silence. We are entering
>>>> elections in November. Politicians know that the people support
>>>> raising the minimum wage, so they cannot openly oppose an increase.
>>>>
>>>> President Obama finally came out with a proposal to raise the
>>>> Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10. This was to undercut the strikes and
>>>> demonstrations. However, they were unable to stop the momentum of
>>>> this movement.
>>>>
>>>> The labor organizations that are the most obedient servants of the
>>>> Democratic Party are trying to get workers to support a state
>>>> minimum wage of $11, but they are not having much success. The
>>>> argument they cannot overcome is that anything less than $15 is a
>>>> "poverty wage."
>>>> While the Democrats are experts at derailing social movements so
>>>> far, they have not stopped the "Fight For $15 and a Union" struggle.
>>>>
>>>> AR: How about retaliation?
>>>>
>>>> AM: There has not been a lot of retaliation. Federal law permits
>>>> "concerted activity" by workers. This means that workers are allowed
>>>> to join together to complain to employers about working conditions.
>>>>
>>>> The Fast Food Strikes are not traditional strikes where workers
>>>> leave their job and picket their workplace to try to prevent other
>>>> workers or customers from entering the place of business. These
>>>> workers leave work for one day and are joined by community members
>>>> and others who support them in demonstrations and rallies throughout
>>>> the cities. Generally it is not all the workers in one restaurant
>>>> but workers from many different fast food restaurants joining together.
>>>>
>>>> Also there is what is called a "walk back." The following day, when
>>>> they go back to work, they are never alone. The staff of a union or
>>>> other supporters go back into the restaurant with them. Generally,
>>>> the response by other workers is applause, thanks, and congratulations.
>>>> I have heard that in a few places these workers have their work
>>>> hours cut or are "written up" for some small infraction. But often a
>>>> higher up manager has intervened. It seems the bosses understand
>>>> that reprisals run the chance of sparking more protests, and
>>>> possibly next time more workers will join the strike activity.
>>>>
>>>> As these actions spread from big cities to smaller cities there may
>>>> be some problems. This month Tucson, Ariz., had its first fast-food
>>>> strike, and there are reports that there was some retaliation when
>>>> the strikers returned to work. Arizona is a very anti-union state,
>>>> and Tucson is a small city. However, supporters of the strikers are
>>>> planning ways to pressure bosses to end harassment of these workers,
>>>> and SEIU will take legal action based on the right to "concerted
>>>> activity."
>>>>
>>>> AR: In some cities we saw union members join the Ferguson protests.
>>>> What are the links between the two movements?
>>>>
>>>> AM: Historically, there was a strong link between the Black civil
>>>> rights movement and unions. Martin Luther King worked closely with
>>>> many unions whose members were predominately Black. In fact, he was
>>>> in Memphis to show his solidarity with striking sanitation workers
>>>> who were members of AFCSME, a large public sector union, when he was
>>>> assassinated. A. Philip Randolph was a leader in both the civil rights
>>>> and the labor movements.
>>>> He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the
>>>> first predominantly Black labor union.
>>>>
>>>> While there is a strong history of racism in many unions, some
>>>> public sector unions have a legacy of human rights and social
>>>> justice. The American union tradition of solidarity, and the motto
>>>> of "an injury to one is an injury to all," is still strong in some
>>>> unions. But more important is the fact that the victims of police
>>>> brutality and their families are also union members. Members of SEIU
>>>> 1199 in New York City were active in demonstrations against the
>>>> police policy of "Stop And Frisk." In the Black community, most
>>>> young men have been harassed, stopped, and searched by the police
>>>> without cause.
>>>>
>>>> Ferguson is in Missouri, which is a relatively strong union state.
>>>> There were big fast-food strikes in Kansas City and St. Louis—cities
>>>> with large Black communities. In Kansas City, workers walked out of
>>>> 60 restaurants. Most of the strikers were Black or Latina.
>>>>
>>>> In Ferguson, contingents of a group called "Show Me $15" were active
>>>> in the demonstrations. Shermale Humphries was one member who said
>>>> that she used to work at the McDonald's across the street from where
>>>> Mike Brown was killed. "This [protesting] is something I had to do,"
>>>> she said. "I'm African American, and this could be anyone I know. I
>>>> just can't let it go on any longer." She credited her experience
>>>> organizing fast-food strikes as helping her organize in Ferguson.
>>>> Also, Michael Brown's mother was a member of the United Food And
>>>> Commercial Workers (UFCW).
>>>> The head of her union issued an immediate statement condemning the
>>>> behavior of the police and standing in solidarity with Michael's
>>>> mother in calling for an investigation and justice.
>>>>
>>>> The issue of intersecting movements for economic justice was
>>>> addressed by SEIU's president on a news program, "Democracy Now":
>>>> "There is an incredible intersection of the immigrant rights
>>>> movement and the fast-food workers' movement. We understand it is
>>>> necessary to grow a powerful movement so 11 million people can join
>>>> in the fullness of our economy. And we are not going to stop our
>>>> movement building on immigrant justice or economic justice until we
>>>> win."
>>>>
>>>> AR: What is the meaning of this movement for the rebirth of the
>>>> labor movement?
>>>>
>>>> AM: I am not sure I can answer that yet. I can say that this is the
>>>> most important working-class struggle in the United States at
>>>> present, and its national scope is like nothing I have witnessed.
>>>>
>>>> For there to be a rebirth of the labor movement, there needs to be a
>>>> break with the Democratic Party. As you probably know, we have no
>>>> working-class party in this country. We have two capitalist parties,
>>>> and as long as the union bureaucrats are at the beck and call of the
>>>> Democratic Party, the word "rebirth" just seems too strong.
>>>>
>>>> This month a striker was quoted saying, "We are a movement now!"
>>>> This was significant. There will be a point when the ruling class
>>>> will say, "Enough is enough". They will try to co-opt this movement,
>>>> divide it, or buy it off. But if the movement is big and strong
>>>> enough, the workers will fight back, and the struggle will expand.
>>>>
>>>> What occurred recently in Seattle was significant. An open socialist
>>>> candidate named Kshama Sawant, who is a member of Socialist
>>>> Alternative, ran for Seattle City Council. She is a member of the
>>>> American Federation Of Teachers (AFT), and she won by centering her
>>>> campaign on winning a
>>>> $15 minimum wage for all city workers. She used her campaign to
>>>> organize the Fight For $15 movement in Seattle, and she took on the
>>>> Democratic Party. As a result, 100,000 workers will be lifted out of
>>>> poverty.
>>>>
>>>> One of the important things that happened after Sawant's victory was
>>>> the formation of "15 Now," which became a national movement with
>>>> chapters across the country. While SEIU is currently supporting $15
>>>> an hour, there have been times that the leaders went in and
>>>> negotiated less than $15. But with another organization of community
>>>> residents, union members, and low-wage workers, the pressure for $15
>>>> can increase, and the movement will become larger and stronger.
>>>>
>>>> AR: What do you think can be done?
>>>>
>>>> AM: The advances in the Fight For $15 actions on Sept. 4 were important.
>>>> Not only did the strikes expand to new cities but they also expanded
>>>> to new workers who are under attack. In Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
>>>> Cleveland, Detroit and Seattle, home-care workers joined with
>>>> fast-food workers in support of the demand for $15 minimum wage. The
>>>> home-care workers' union rights had been attacked just two months
>>>> earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court. They are 90% women and 40% Black and
>>>> Latina.
>>>>
>>>> In addition to expanding to a new layer of oppressed workers, the
>>>> demonstrations themselves were more militant. They included civil
>>>> disobedience and more strikes in the South. In Charleston, S.C., a
>>>> bystander was watching as fast-food workers were engaged in a sit-in
>>>> in the middle of the street. He commented to reporters, "This is
>>>> just not something you see in Charleston."
>>>>
>>>> We need to be in the streets supporting our brothers and sisters. We
>>>> want the numbers to increase, the issues and demands to increase,
>>>> and all workers who are victims of austerity to join together. One
>>>> of our comrades who is most experienced in the labor movement said
>>>> it best, "Our goal is to advance the interests of our class." I can
>>>> say it no better.
>>>>
>>>> Photo: Tony Savino / Socialist Action
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Share this:
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>>>>
>>>> Posted in Immigration, Labor, Latino Civil Liberties. | Tagged 15
>>>> Now, fast food, labor, minimum wage, SEIU, trade unions, unions.
>>>>
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> Blind-Democracy mailing list
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Saturday, September 27, 2014
Fwd: Ray McGovern Triumphs Over State Department
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 07:22:53 -0700
Subject: Ray McGovern Triumphs Over State Department
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Have we passed into the Land of the Living Dead?
Sure, I can believe that some dull witted Macho guards would believe
that a man standing and turning his back on Hilary Clinton was an act
of aggression. After all, we now have videos of cops who are shooting
aggressors attacking them by running at them backward.
But the real tragedy in the attack on Hilary was that Hilary did not
shout out to the guards to let the man have his say. And to compound
the matter, why did not more members in the audience stand and turn
their backs, or shout out for Hilary to demand that the man be allowed
his Free Speech?
Isn't there a song somewhere that goes..."the Land of the Free and the
Home of the Brave"?
Whatever became of those people?
I know that the words don't fit the tune, but shouldn't we be singing
about the Land of the debt ridden consumers and the Home of the Brain
Dead?
Carl Jarvis
On 9/27/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> I remember seeing that incident on Democracy Now. I don't remember what
> Hillary was talking about and I'm not sure that his action was related to
> her specific speech. It might have been related to something that the U.S.
> was doing at the time. Anyway, he just stood up and turned his back and
> was
> silent. The guards came and treated him as if he'd committed a violent act.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Bob Hachey
> Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 1:20 AM
> To: 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'
> Subject: RE: Ray McGovern Triumphs Over State Department
>
> Wowza! Wondering if any of us here on this list are on the BOLO list? Since
> we didn't work as spies, I'm thinking probably not, or maybe not yet! LOL.
> I think it'd be pretty cool to attend a speech by Hilllary or some other
> powerful figure who believes in this ongoing war and if the war gets
> mentioned and supported I'll stand ut and turn my back to the stage. Seems
> to me we could benefit from more members of such audiences turning their
> backs for this and other issues as well.
> Bob Hachey
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 07:22:53 -0700
Subject: Ray McGovern Triumphs Over State Department
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Have we passed into the Land of the Living Dead?
Sure, I can believe that some dull witted Macho guards would believe
that a man standing and turning his back on Hilary Clinton was an act
of aggression. After all, we now have videos of cops who are shooting
aggressors attacking them by running at them backward.
But the real tragedy in the attack on Hilary was that Hilary did not
shout out to the guards to let the man have his say. And to compound
the matter, why did not more members in the audience stand and turn
their backs, or shout out for Hilary to demand that the man be allowed
his Free Speech?
Isn't there a song somewhere that goes..."the Land of the Free and the
Home of the Brave"?
Whatever became of those people?
I know that the words don't fit the tune, but shouldn't we be singing
about the Land of the debt ridden consumers and the Home of the Brain
Dead?
Carl Jarvis
On 9/27/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> I remember seeing that incident on Democracy Now. I don't remember what
> Hillary was talking about and I'm not sure that his action was related to
> her specific speech. It might have been related to something that the U.S.
> was doing at the time. Anyway, he just stood up and turned his back and
> was
> silent. The guards came and treated him as if he'd committed a violent act.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Bob Hachey
> Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 1:20 AM
> To: 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'
> Subject: RE: Ray McGovern Triumphs Over State Department
>
> Wowza! Wondering if any of us here on this list are on the BOLO list? Since
> we didn't work as spies, I'm thinking probably not, or maybe not yet! LOL.
> I think it'd be pretty cool to attend a speech by Hilllary or some other
> powerful figure who believes in this ongoing war and if the war gets
> mentioned and supported I'll stand ut and turn my back to the stage. Seems
> to me we could benefit from more members of such audiences turning their
> backs for this and other issues as well.
> Bob Hachey
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Friday, September 26, 2014
Fwd: Stupid Stuff on Steroids - Syria and Comic Book Thinking
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 17:52:50 -0700
Subject: Stupid Stuff on Steroids - Syria and Comic Book Thinking
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
There is so much insight and truth in the words of that great
philosopher Pogo, spoken to his long time friend and faithful side
kick Albert, as they strolled through the swampy comic strip, "We have
met the enemy, and they are us".
Everything I ever learned as a small child, concerning the evil Nazi's
and wicked Japs, and everything I was taught as a teenager, about the
immoral Commies, and all of the cruel inhumane practices of the
Arabs, turn out to have been no different than the behavior of my own
American Culture
I marvel at the lies that were laid on me as I grew up. This Land of
the Free. and Home of the Brave. A wondrous land provided to us by a
loving God. Each Thanksgiving our grade school would put on a Pageant
where the Pilgrims and Indians came together and thanked God Almighty
for the bountiful feast. I usually was selected to be one of the
Indians.
Then we were taught that the Pioneers trudged across the prairies with
their few belongings, searching for a place to build their homes and
farm the land. And they were beset upon by Savages who massacred
them. forcing our Great White Father to send out the cavalry to whip
the Savages into submission and drive them onto reservations. And we
had to run the mean Mexicans out of California, Arizona, New Mexico
and Colorado in order to allow civilized folks a safe place to live.
And we cried, "Remember the Maine", and sent the cruel Spaniards
packing out of Cuba and the Philippines so those folks could live free
lives.
And in all of this I was taught that we were God Fearing, gentle
people who loved their freedom and wanted to share our way of life
with everyone else.
Then I completed school, grew up and entered a different world,
called, The Real World.
In the Real World I soon learned that I, along with the majority of
Americans, had been born on the wrong side of the tracks. This, I
later learned, was what we said instead of admitting that we were a
Class Society.
And I learned that the Savages we slew, were actually human beings,
just like us. And so were the Spaniards and the Mexicans. And those
brave Pilgrims were actually seeking a safe place to practice their
brand of "Make Believe", and had no intention of sharing anything with
any strange people who did not believe the same as they did. And
those Pioneers were nothing more than the advance guard of a never
ending horde of invaders, taking the Land away from the
Natives...because they could.
So forgive me if I fail to rise and pledge allegiance to the flag, or
sing, "God Bless America". For this land is not my land, and it never
was. My people farmed the land and built roads, and fell trees, but
it was never their land...even though they thought it was. It has
always belonged to the Ruling Class. And when we place our hand over
our heart and pledge to that flag, it is a pledge to protect and hold
safe our Ruling Class.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/26/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Stupid Stuff
> Thursday, 25 September 2014 00:00 By L. Michael Hager, Truthout | Op-Ed
> (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Do you want media that's accountable to
> YOU, not to advertisers or billionaire sponsors? Help sustain Truthout's
> work by clicking here to make a tax-deductible donation!
> The president's reported quote, "Don't do stupid stuff," is good advice.
> However, our policy makers too often ignore it. The Middle East wars,
> Guantánamo and the unconditional support of Israel are ongoing examples of
> stupid stuff.
> His critics jeered when reporters quoted President Obama last spring:
> "Don't
> do stupid stuff." They would have done better to reflect on all the
> "stupid," illegal and immoral "stuff" that the president and his
> predecessor
> have already inflicted on the United States and the world.
> Our Middle East wars, the indefinite detention of Guantánamo prisoners, and
> unconditional military aid to Israel are ongoing examples of
> counterproductive policies that keep making things worse.
> Middle East Wars
> In response to 9/11 and in violation of the UN Charter, Article 51 (which
> limits self-defense to an "armed attack"), the United States launched two
> wars: on October 7, 2001, against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan,
> and on March 19, 2003, against the forces of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
> Extending the wars to northwestern Pakistan and Yemen, the targeted killing
> of militants began in 2004 and increased over the years, killing or maiming
> hundreds of civilians, terrorizing local communities and aiding militant
> recruitment.
> The Afghanistan war, now in its 13th year, is winding down. President Obama
> marked the end of the US combat mission in Iraq on December 21, 2011.
> However, in a televised address to the nation on September 10, 2014, the
> president announced a planned US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria - this
> time against ISIS.
> What do we have to show for 13 years of warfare? No clear victory, a loss
> of
> 5,000 US soldiers, between 100,000 and 500,000 civilian casualties and a
> war
> bill of more than $1 trillion. Though less visible, a downgrading of
> international law and US standing in the world is due to the Middle East
> wars. The UN Human Rights Committee recently condemned the United States'
> performance under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
> citing among other breaches: targeted killings, drone strikes, Guantánamo
> and extraordinary rendition. The degrading photos from the Abu Ghraib
> prison
> shamed the United States before the world.
> Guantánamo
> President Obama seemed to recognize Guantánamo's liabilities when he
> pledged
> to abolish it during his first week in office. However, the pledge lapsed
> from legal complications and Congressional opposition. Now six years later,
> the prison still festers. It has become an even larger symbol for the
> recruitment of ISIS militants. In clear reference to Guantánamo, the two
> kidnapped and murdered American journalists had been waterboarded and were
> shown wearing orange jumpsuits.
> Guantánamo is also a showcase for the United States' new disrespect for
> law.
> Only a lawless society could tolerate indefinite detention and
> force-feeding.
> According to a 2013 Miami Herald estimate, US taxpayers now pay almost $500
> million a year to maintain the facility and pay troop salaries. That's
> almost $3 million a year for each current inmate. Notwithstanding
> administration promises, the 77 prisoners who have been cleared for release
> still languish in the prison, with no relief in sight. Recent reports from
> detainee attorneys describe brutal beatings of hunger strikers forcibly
> extracted from their cells.
> The Gaza War
> Israel's 50-day war on Gaza, which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and
> was grossly disproportionate to the damage inflicted by Hamas' rocket
> strikes, will be a proper subject for war crimes inquiries.
> The failure of the US president and Congress to restrain Israel by
> withholding unconditional military aid enabled not only the IDF's massacres
> of civilians, but also Israel's continued occupation of Gaza. Unless the
> Israeli occupation ends and borders are opened, hostilities will likely
> resume. In their August 23, 2014, advertisement in The New York Times, more
> than 350 Holocaust survivors and their descendants condemned the United
> States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out its attacks on
> Gaza.
> In her 1984 book, The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman wrote, "There is
> always freedom of choice to change or desist from a counter-productive
> course if the policy maker has the moral courage to exercise it." In his
> May
> 23, 2013, speech to the National Defense University, President Obama
> addressed force-feeding in Guantánamo: "Is this who we are?" he asked. "Is
> that the America we want to leave our children?"
> Now we need the moral courage to end the stupid stuff.
> Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
> L. MICHAEL HAGER
> L. Michael Hager is cofounder and former director-general of the
> International Development Law Organization, Rome.
> RELATED STORIES
> Gaza and American "Security"
> By Ray McGovern, Consortium News | Op-Ed
> Guantánamo Detainees Launch Hunger Strike to Protest Prison's 10th
> Anniversary
> By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Video
> Guantanamo and Permanent War: The View From Camp X-Ray
> By Adam Hudson, Truthout | News Analysis
> ISIS Born From Occupation of Iraq, Not Syrian Civil War
> By Anton Woronczuk, The Real News Network | Video Interview
> Gaza, Iraq and Our Tragic Drone War Fantasy
> By Nick Mottern, SpeakOut | Op-Ed
> ________________________________________
> Show Comments
> Hide Comments
> <a href="http://truthout.disqus.com/?url=ref">View the discussion
> thread.</a>
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Stupid Stuff
> Thursday, 25 September 2014 00:00 By L. Michael Hager, Truthout | Op-Ed
> * font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
> reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
> reference not valid.
> * (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Do you want media that's
> accountable to YOU, not to advertisers or billionaire sponsors? Help
> sustain
> Truthout's work by clicking here to make a tax-deductible donation!
> * The president's reported quote, "Don't do stupid stuff," is good
> advice. However, our policy makers too often ignore it. The Middle East
> wars, Guantánamo and the unconditional support of Israel are ongoing
> examples of stupid stuff.
> His critics jeered when reporters quoted President Obama last spring:
> "Don't
> do stupid stuff." They would have done better to reflect on all the
> "stupid," illegal and immoral "stuff" that the president and his
> predecessor
> have already inflicted on the United States and the world.
> Our Middle East wars, the indefinite detention of Guantánamo prisoners, and
> unconditional military aid to Israel are ongoing examples of
> counterproductive policies that keep making things worse.
> Middle East Wars
> In response to 9/11 and in violation of the UN Charter, Article 51 (which
> limits self-defense to an "armed attack"), the United States launched two
> wars: on October 7, 2001, against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan,
> and on March 19, 2003, against the forces of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
> Extending the wars to northwestern Pakistan and Yemen, the targeted killing
> of militants began in 2004 and increased over the years, killing or maiming
> hundreds of civilians, terrorizing local communities and aiding militant
> recruitment.
> The Afghanistan war, now in its 13th year, is winding down. President Obama
> marked the end of the US combat mission in Iraq on December 21, 2011.
> However, in a televised address to the nation on September 10, 2014, the
> president announced a planned US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria - this
> time against ISIS.
> What do we have to show for 13 years of warfare? No clear victory, a loss
> of
> 5,000 US soldiers, between 100,000 and 500,000 civilian casualties and a
> war
> bill of more than $1 trillion. Though less visible, a downgrading of
> international law and US standing in the world is due to the Middle East
> wars. The UN Human Rights Committee recently condemned the United States'
> performance under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
> citing among other breaches: targeted killings, drone strikes, Guantánamo
> and extraordinary rendition. The degrading photos from the Abu Ghraib
> prison
> shamed the United States before the world.
> Guantánamo
> President Obama seemed to recognize Guantánamo's liabilities when he
> pledged
> to abolish it during his first week in office. However, the pledge lapsed
> from legal complications and Congressional opposition. Now six years later,
> the prison still festers. It has become an even larger symbol for the
> recruitment of ISIS militants. In clear reference to Guantánamo, the two
> kidnapped and murdered American journalists had been waterboarded and were
> shown wearing orange jumpsuits.
> Guantánamo is also a showcase for the United States' new disrespect for
> law.
> Only a lawless society could tolerate indefinite detention and
> force-feeding.
> According to a 2013 Miami Herald estimate, US taxpayers now pay almost $500
> million a year to maintain the facility and pay troop salaries. That's
> almost $3 million a year for each current inmate. Notwithstanding
> administration promises, the 77 prisoners who have been cleared for release
> still languish in the prison, with no relief in sight. Recent reports from
> detainee attorneys describe brutal beatings of hunger strikers forcibly
> extracted from their cells.
> The Gaza War
> Israel's 50-day war on Gaza, which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and
> was grossly disproportionate to the damage inflicted by Hamas' rocket
> strikes, will be a proper subject for war crimes inquiries.
> The failure of the US president and Congress to restrain Israel by
> withholding unconditional military aid enabled not only the IDF's massacres
> of civilians, but also Israel's continued occupation of Gaza. Unless the
> Israeli occupation ends and borders are opened, hostilities will likely
> resume. In their August 23, 2014, advertisement in The New York Times, more
> than 350 Holocaust survivors and their descendants condemned the United
> States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out its attacks on
> Gaza.
> In her 1984 book, The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman wrote, "There is
> always freedom of choice to change or desist from a counter-productive
> course if the policy maker has the moral courage to exercise it." In his
> May
> 23, 2013, speech to the National Defense University, President Obama
> addressed force-feeding in Guantánamo: "Is this who we are?" he asked. "Is
> that the America we want to leave our children?"
> Now we need the moral courage to end the stupid stuff.
> Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
> L. Michael Hager
> L. Michael Hager is cofounder and former director-general of the
> International Development Law Organization, Rome.
> Related Stories
> Gaza and American "Security"
> By Ray McGovern, Consortium News | Op-EdGuantánamo Detainees Launch Hunger
> Strike to Protest Prison's 10th Anniversary
> By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | VideoGuantanamo and Permanent War: The
> View
> From Camp X-Ray
> By Adam Hudson, Truthout | News AnalysisISIS Born From Occupation of Iraq,
> Not Syrian Civil War
> By Anton Woronczuk, The Real News Network | Video InterviewGaza, Iraq and
> Our Tragic Drone War Fantasy
> By Nick Mottern, SpeakOut | Op-Ed
>
> Show Comments
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 17:52:50 -0700
Subject: Stupid Stuff on Steroids - Syria and Comic Book Thinking
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
There is so much insight and truth in the words of that great
philosopher Pogo, spoken to his long time friend and faithful side
kick Albert, as they strolled through the swampy comic strip, "We have
met the enemy, and they are us".
Everything I ever learned as a small child, concerning the evil Nazi's
and wicked Japs, and everything I was taught as a teenager, about the
immoral Commies, and all of the cruel inhumane practices of the
Arabs, turn out to have been no different than the behavior of my own
American Culture
I marvel at the lies that were laid on me as I grew up. This Land of
the Free. and Home of the Brave. A wondrous land provided to us by a
loving God. Each Thanksgiving our grade school would put on a Pageant
where the Pilgrims and Indians came together and thanked God Almighty
for the bountiful feast. I usually was selected to be one of the
Indians.
Then we were taught that the Pioneers trudged across the prairies with
their few belongings, searching for a place to build their homes and
farm the land. And they were beset upon by Savages who massacred
them. forcing our Great White Father to send out the cavalry to whip
the Savages into submission and drive them onto reservations. And we
had to run the mean Mexicans out of California, Arizona, New Mexico
and Colorado in order to allow civilized folks a safe place to live.
And we cried, "Remember the Maine", and sent the cruel Spaniards
packing out of Cuba and the Philippines so those folks could live free
lives.
And in all of this I was taught that we were God Fearing, gentle
people who loved their freedom and wanted to share our way of life
with everyone else.
Then I completed school, grew up and entered a different world,
called, The Real World.
In the Real World I soon learned that I, along with the majority of
Americans, had been born on the wrong side of the tracks. This, I
later learned, was what we said instead of admitting that we were a
Class Society.
And I learned that the Savages we slew, were actually human beings,
just like us. And so were the Spaniards and the Mexicans. And those
brave Pilgrims were actually seeking a safe place to practice their
brand of "Make Believe", and had no intention of sharing anything with
any strange people who did not believe the same as they did. And
those Pioneers were nothing more than the advance guard of a never
ending horde of invaders, taking the Land away from the
Natives...because they could.
So forgive me if I fail to rise and pledge allegiance to the flag, or
sing, "God Bless America". For this land is not my land, and it never
was. My people farmed the land and built roads, and fell trees, but
it was never their land...even though they thought it was. It has
always belonged to the Ruling Class. And when we place our hand over
our heart and pledge to that flag, it is a pledge to protect and hold
safe our Ruling Class.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/26/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Stupid Stuff
> Thursday, 25 September 2014 00:00 By L. Michael Hager, Truthout | Op-Ed
> (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Do you want media that's accountable to
> YOU, not to advertisers or billionaire sponsors? Help sustain Truthout's
> work by clicking here to make a tax-deductible donation!
> The president's reported quote, "Don't do stupid stuff," is good advice.
> However, our policy makers too often ignore it. The Middle East wars,
> Guantánamo and the unconditional support of Israel are ongoing examples of
> stupid stuff.
> His critics jeered when reporters quoted President Obama last spring:
> "Don't
> do stupid stuff." They would have done better to reflect on all the
> "stupid," illegal and immoral "stuff" that the president and his
> predecessor
> have already inflicted on the United States and the world.
> Our Middle East wars, the indefinite detention of Guantánamo prisoners, and
> unconditional military aid to Israel are ongoing examples of
> counterproductive policies that keep making things worse.
> Middle East Wars
> In response to 9/11 and in violation of the UN Charter, Article 51 (which
> limits self-defense to an "armed attack"), the United States launched two
> wars: on October 7, 2001, against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan,
> and on March 19, 2003, against the forces of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
> Extending the wars to northwestern Pakistan and Yemen, the targeted killing
> of militants began in 2004 and increased over the years, killing or maiming
> hundreds of civilians, terrorizing local communities and aiding militant
> recruitment.
> The Afghanistan war, now in its 13th year, is winding down. President Obama
> marked the end of the US combat mission in Iraq on December 21, 2011.
> However, in a televised address to the nation on September 10, 2014, the
> president announced a planned US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria - this
> time against ISIS.
> What do we have to show for 13 years of warfare? No clear victory, a loss
> of
> 5,000 US soldiers, between 100,000 and 500,000 civilian casualties and a
> war
> bill of more than $1 trillion. Though less visible, a downgrading of
> international law and US standing in the world is due to the Middle East
> wars. The UN Human Rights Committee recently condemned the United States'
> performance under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
> citing among other breaches: targeted killings, drone strikes, Guantánamo
> and extraordinary rendition. The degrading photos from the Abu Ghraib
> prison
> shamed the United States before the world.
> Guantánamo
> President Obama seemed to recognize Guantánamo's liabilities when he
> pledged
> to abolish it during his first week in office. However, the pledge lapsed
> from legal complications and Congressional opposition. Now six years later,
> the prison still festers. It has become an even larger symbol for the
> recruitment of ISIS militants. In clear reference to Guantánamo, the two
> kidnapped and murdered American journalists had been waterboarded and were
> shown wearing orange jumpsuits.
> Guantánamo is also a showcase for the United States' new disrespect for
> law.
> Only a lawless society could tolerate indefinite detention and
> force-feeding.
> According to a 2013 Miami Herald estimate, US taxpayers now pay almost $500
> million a year to maintain the facility and pay troop salaries. That's
> almost $3 million a year for each current inmate. Notwithstanding
> administration promises, the 77 prisoners who have been cleared for release
> still languish in the prison, with no relief in sight. Recent reports from
> detainee attorneys describe brutal beatings of hunger strikers forcibly
> extracted from their cells.
> The Gaza War
> Israel's 50-day war on Gaza, which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and
> was grossly disproportionate to the damage inflicted by Hamas' rocket
> strikes, will be a proper subject for war crimes inquiries.
> The failure of the US president and Congress to restrain Israel by
> withholding unconditional military aid enabled not only the IDF's massacres
> of civilians, but also Israel's continued occupation of Gaza. Unless the
> Israeli occupation ends and borders are opened, hostilities will likely
> resume. In their August 23, 2014, advertisement in The New York Times, more
> than 350 Holocaust survivors and their descendants condemned the United
> States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out its attacks on
> Gaza.
> In her 1984 book, The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman wrote, "There is
> always freedom of choice to change or desist from a counter-productive
> course if the policy maker has the moral courage to exercise it." In his
> May
> 23, 2013, speech to the National Defense University, President Obama
> addressed force-feeding in Guantánamo: "Is this who we are?" he asked. "Is
> that the America we want to leave our children?"
> Now we need the moral courage to end the stupid stuff.
> Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
> L. MICHAEL HAGER
> L. Michael Hager is cofounder and former director-general of the
> International Development Law Organization, Rome.
> RELATED STORIES
> Gaza and American "Security"
> By Ray McGovern, Consortium News | Op-Ed
> Guantánamo Detainees Launch Hunger Strike to Protest Prison's 10th
> Anniversary
> By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Video
> Guantanamo and Permanent War: The View From Camp X-Ray
> By Adam Hudson, Truthout | News Analysis
> ISIS Born From Occupation of Iraq, Not Syrian Civil War
> By Anton Woronczuk, The Real News Network | Video Interview
> Gaza, Iraq and Our Tragic Drone War Fantasy
> By Nick Mottern, SpeakOut | Op-Ed
> ________________________________________
> Show Comments
> Hide Comments
> <a href="http://truthout.disqus.com/?url=ref">View the discussion
> thread.</a>
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Stupid Stuff
> Thursday, 25 September 2014 00:00 By L. Michael Hager, Truthout | Op-Ed
> * font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
> reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
> reference not valid.
> * (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Do you want media that's
> accountable to YOU, not to advertisers or billionaire sponsors? Help
> sustain
> Truthout's work by clicking here to make a tax-deductible donation!
> * The president's reported quote, "Don't do stupid stuff," is good
> advice. However, our policy makers too often ignore it. The Middle East
> wars, Guantánamo and the unconditional support of Israel are ongoing
> examples of stupid stuff.
> His critics jeered when reporters quoted President Obama last spring:
> "Don't
> do stupid stuff." They would have done better to reflect on all the
> "stupid," illegal and immoral "stuff" that the president and his
> predecessor
> have already inflicted on the United States and the world.
> Our Middle East wars, the indefinite detention of Guantánamo prisoners, and
> unconditional military aid to Israel are ongoing examples of
> counterproductive policies that keep making things worse.
> Middle East Wars
> In response to 9/11 and in violation of the UN Charter, Article 51 (which
> limits self-defense to an "armed attack"), the United States launched two
> wars: on October 7, 2001, against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan,
> and on March 19, 2003, against the forces of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
> Extending the wars to northwestern Pakistan and Yemen, the targeted killing
> of militants began in 2004 and increased over the years, killing or maiming
> hundreds of civilians, terrorizing local communities and aiding militant
> recruitment.
> The Afghanistan war, now in its 13th year, is winding down. President Obama
> marked the end of the US combat mission in Iraq on December 21, 2011.
> However, in a televised address to the nation on September 10, 2014, the
> president announced a planned US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria - this
> time against ISIS.
> What do we have to show for 13 years of warfare? No clear victory, a loss
> of
> 5,000 US soldiers, between 100,000 and 500,000 civilian casualties and a
> war
> bill of more than $1 trillion. Though less visible, a downgrading of
> international law and US standing in the world is due to the Middle East
> wars. The UN Human Rights Committee recently condemned the United States'
> performance under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
> citing among other breaches: targeted killings, drone strikes, Guantánamo
> and extraordinary rendition. The degrading photos from the Abu Ghraib
> prison
> shamed the United States before the world.
> Guantánamo
> President Obama seemed to recognize Guantánamo's liabilities when he
> pledged
> to abolish it during his first week in office. However, the pledge lapsed
> from legal complications and Congressional opposition. Now six years later,
> the prison still festers. It has become an even larger symbol for the
> recruitment of ISIS militants. In clear reference to Guantánamo, the two
> kidnapped and murdered American journalists had been waterboarded and were
> shown wearing orange jumpsuits.
> Guantánamo is also a showcase for the United States' new disrespect for
> law.
> Only a lawless society could tolerate indefinite detention and
> force-feeding.
> According to a 2013 Miami Herald estimate, US taxpayers now pay almost $500
> million a year to maintain the facility and pay troop salaries. That's
> almost $3 million a year for each current inmate. Notwithstanding
> administration promises, the 77 prisoners who have been cleared for release
> still languish in the prison, with no relief in sight. Recent reports from
> detainee attorneys describe brutal beatings of hunger strikers forcibly
> extracted from their cells.
> The Gaza War
> Israel's 50-day war on Gaza, which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and
> was grossly disproportionate to the damage inflicted by Hamas' rocket
> strikes, will be a proper subject for war crimes inquiries.
> The failure of the US president and Congress to restrain Israel by
> withholding unconditional military aid enabled not only the IDF's massacres
> of civilians, but also Israel's continued occupation of Gaza. Unless the
> Israeli occupation ends and borders are opened, hostilities will likely
> resume. In their August 23, 2014, advertisement in The New York Times, more
> than 350 Holocaust survivors and their descendants condemned the United
> States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out its attacks on
> Gaza.
> In her 1984 book, The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman wrote, "There is
> always freedom of choice to change or desist from a counter-productive
> course if the policy maker has the moral courage to exercise it." In his
> May
> 23, 2013, speech to the National Defense University, President Obama
> addressed force-feeding in Guantánamo: "Is this who we are?" he asked. "Is
> that the America we want to leave our children?"
> Now we need the moral courage to end the stupid stuff.
> Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
> L. Michael Hager
> L. Michael Hager is cofounder and former director-general of the
> International Development Law Organization, Rome.
> Related Stories
> Gaza and American "Security"
> By Ray McGovern, Consortium News | Op-EdGuantánamo Detainees Launch Hunger
> Strike to Protest Prison's 10th Anniversary
> By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | VideoGuantanamo and Permanent War: The
> View
> From Camp X-Ray
> By Adam Hudson, Truthout | News AnalysisISIS Born From Occupation of Iraq,
> Not Syrian Civil War
> By Anton Woronczuk, The Real News Network | Video InterviewGaza, Iraq and
> Our Tragic Drone War Fantasy
> By Nick Mottern, SpeakOut | Op-Ed
>
> Show Comments
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Are Head Injuries the Bridge Between the NFL Playing Field and Domestic Violence?: one factor, for sure.
As bad as constant head trauma can be, it is just one factor in the
violence that erupts within professional football.
Banging your head against a solid wall, day after day, will eventually
lead to brain damage. But add to the head banging an environment of
violence where the goal is to dominate your opponent, and you begin to
compound that brain damage. Add to that our attitude toward women,
and our macho male need to "possess" them, along with the attitude
that you have a right to be the man in charge, and you begin to see
the real problem that comes from teaching violence.
Take a boy from early childhood and train him to be part of a team
that is focused on dominating their opponents. They must become
tougher and more cunning than the other boys competing for whichever
position they wish to play. Over the years, the weak and the faint of
heart are left behind. Only the strongest and meanest and most
skilled will survive. Those few who finally grab off the brass ring
and find themselves in the ranks of the NFL, have been conditioned to
think of themselves as invincible. They are the "Master Race". By
all standards, they are revered and fawned over. They expect to
benefit from the spoils of their long years of sacrifice. And what
are the rewards we offer them? Money and women.
Yet, after only a few years of success, they are "retired". Put out
to pasture. The lucky ones have salted away a few millions, or been
courted by some corporation to help entice business. But most are
left to become lonely has beens, living in past glory. Their wives
and children become the only objects they can dominate. And as the
years pass and the head trauma begins to exhibit itself, violence
erupts. Very often it is coupled with alcohol and drugs. It can be
complicated by doctors prescribing drugs to help with the growing pain
that often develops in bodies that have been punished over many years.
Finally, add to all of this the fact that we are a violent nation,
basking in our Empire's dominance of the world. We sneer at
"Peaceniks" and call them Pussy's, or worse. So tell me, how else
would we expect these aging warriors to behave?
Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis
On 9/23/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Are Head Injuries the Bridge Between the NFL Playing Field and Domestic
> Violence?
> Dave Zirin on September 21, 2014 - 7:13 PM ET
>
> NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
> There is an unspoken question lurking behind the NFL domestic violence
> cover-up saga that has emerged over the last month. It is whether the
> brutality of the game, particularly head injuries, plays a role in the
> prevalence of players committing acts of violence against women. The NFL
> has
> a vested interest in not having this discussion. On head injuries, as the
> title of the award-winning book said so clearly, it remains "a league of
> denial." If, in the name of public relations, the owners won't have a
> discussion about the connection between their sport and horrific
> post-concussive syndromes like ALS and early-onset dementia, are they
> really
> going to talk about links between head injuries and domestic violence? The
> sports media are largely in denial about this topic as well, as there was
> not one question in Roger Goodell's instantly infamous Friday press
> conference about whether the league would investigate whether brain
> injuries
> could be the bridge between the violence at work and the violence at home.
> Yet many domestic violence advocates are also-understandably-not thrilled
> with this line of discussion. Partner abuse occurs in all walks of life,
> all
> professions and among all income groups, and post-concussive syndromes are
> almost always not a part of those stories. Additionally, to blame it on
> concussions seems to be excusing domestic violence and denying the fact
> that
> NFL players have agency and choice before becoming abusers. This resistance
> is very understandable. But attempting to explore and explain the
> shockingly
> high rates of domestic violence in the NFL is not the same as excusing it.
> So is there a connection? As my friend Ruth, who is a DV counselor, says,
> "When it comes to domestic violence, it is extremely difficult to
> generalize
> across the board, in the NFL or otherwise." In other words, every case is
> distinct, reflecting the interpersonal relationships of the parties
> involved. But there are factors that appear to show themselves in the
> football cases with alarming regularity. Some of these factors are high
> rates of stress, a culture of entitlement for sports stars that predates
> their life in the NFL, and an inability to turn off the violence of the
> game
> once the pads are off. This is when we see the most toxic part of the
> sport's hyper-masculinist culture poison the relationships between the men
> who play the game-as well as the men who own teams-and the women in their
> lives. But among many players, this question of the role of head injuries
> still lingers in the background.
> Dan Diamond over at Forbes is one of the few journalists I have seen
> explore
> these links in detail. In one piece, he cites a "disturbing new report"
> that
> shows "3 in 10 NFL players suffer from at least moderate brain disease."
> Diamond then details many examples of former players who were found in
> their
> autopsies to have the repetitive post-concussive syndromes known as CTE,
> and
> were also arrested at some point or another for domestic violence. He
> writes:
> The key issue is whether suffering repeated head trauma lowers a person's
> self-control. And while many pro football players haven't been diagnosed
> with concussions in the NFL, nearly all of them have been playing football
> since they were young and suffered repetitive, frequent blows that can add
> up over time. And researchers know that those concussions can change a
> person. Even a pillar of the community.
> This connects anecdotally with much of my own research. Over the last two
> months, I have spoken with three different women whose husbands are or were
> NFL players. All three are domestic violence survivors. In one case, the
> marriage was mended and endures to this day. In one case, it ended in
> divorce. In one case it ended with the suicide of the player in question.
> Yet that is where the differences ended. The similarities were stunning. In
> all three cases, the violence was precipitated either by migraine headaches
> or self-medicating-drugs or alcohol-to manage migraines. In all three
> cases,
> the survivors spoke about their NFL husbands becoming disoriented or
> light-sensitive, easily frustrated and quick to anger in ways that did not
> exist earlier in the relationship. In all three cases, they spoke about
> bizarre looks on their husbands' faces when they committed the abuse, from
> a
> chillingly peaceful calm to quizzical smiles. Whatever the look, they spoke
> of being in the presence of someone they "did not recognize."
> Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50!
> I also spoke with Matt Chaney, a former college football player and author
> of the book Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football, about
> whether he believed there was a causal link between concussions and
> domestic
> violencw. He e-mailed me back the following. "I can't speak as medical
> authority on any link but as a journalist and academic who's read and filed
> tens of thousand documents on football hazards from violence to drugs, and
> one who's interviewed a thousand people, along with being a former college
> player who has knowledge of countless athletes and their relationships, I
> believe football brain injuries lead many players to violence they wouldn't
> otherwise have committed, ranging from domestic cases to random acts.. I
> think brain injuries, after studying the topic as we all have in recent
> years, now explains much about the perplexing cases of violence and other
> irrational behavior among football players I've known. And while I thought
> I
> abhorred street fighting, before college football, I found myself nearly
> involved with or nearly instigating such trouble on more than one occasion
> while I was in full-contact activity, fall and spring practices, banging my
> head. If I didn't have headache after a college contact session, I didn't
> think I'd done anything."
> This question, of course, has profound implications well beyond the sport.
> It is about the choice families make whether to let their children play
> tackle football. It is about the health and safety of women in
> relationships
> with NFL players, and whether recognizing warning signs of CTE can create
> opportunities for intervention before abuse takes place. It is about the
> degree to which the league's very violence bears some complicity in their
> abuse. This is a difficult question, one Roger Goodell is loathe to
> discuss.
> That is exactly why we need to keep asking it.
> Read Next: "No Justice, No Football: Ferguson Demonstrators Bring Struggle
> to NFL Sunday"
> Related Topics: Sports | Society
> Are Head Injuries the Bridge Between the NFL Playing Field and Domestic
> Violence?
> Dave Zirin on September 21, 2014 - 7:13 PM ET
> . Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> .
> /printmail/blog/181695/are-head-injuries-bridge-between-nfl-playing-field-an
> d-domestic-violence
> /printmail/blog/181695/are-head-injuries-bridge-between-nfl-playing-field-an
> d-domestic-violence
> .
> .
> https://subscribe.thenation.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=NAN&cds_p
> age_id=105997&cds_response_key=I11BSPRV1
> https://subscribe.thenation.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=NAN&cds_p
> age_id=105997&cds_response_key=I11BSPRV1
> http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/roger_goodell_ap_img_1.jpg
> http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/roger_goodell_ap_img_1.jpg
> NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
> There is an unspoken question lurking behind the NFL domestic violence
> cover-up saga that has emerged over the last month. It is whether the
> brutality of the game, particularly head injuries, plays a role in the
> prevalence of players committing acts of violence against women. The NFL
> has
> a vested interest in not having this discussion. On head injuries, as the
> title of the award-winning book said so clearly, it remains "a league of
> denial." If, in the name of public relations, the owners won't have a
> discussion about the connection between their sport and horrific
> post-concussive syndromes like ALS and early-onset dementia, are they
> really
> going to talk about links between head injuries and domestic violence? The
> sports media are largely in denial about this topic as well, as there was
> not one question in Roger Goodell's instantly infamous Friday press
> conference about whether the league would investigate whether brain
> injuries
> could be the bridge between the violence at work and the violence at home.
> Yet many domestic violence advocates are also-understandably-not thrilled
> with this line of discussion. Partner abuse occurs in all walks of life,
> all
> professions and among all income groups, and post-concussive syndromes are
> almost always not a part of those stories. Additionally, to blame it on
> concussions seems to be excusing domestic violence and denying the fact
> that
> NFL players have agency and choice before becoming abusers. This resistance
> is very understandable. But attempting to explore and explain the
> shockingly
> high rates of domestic violence in the NFL is not the same as excusing it.
> So is there a connection? As my friend Ruth, who is a DV counselor, says,
> "When it comes to domestic violence, it is extremely difficult to
> generalize
> across the board, in the NFL or otherwise." In other words, every case is
> distinct, reflecting the interpersonal relationships of the parties
> involved. But there are factors that appear to show themselves in the
> football cases with alarming regularity. Some of these factors are high
> rates of stress, a culture of entitlement for sports stars that predates
> their life in the NFL, and an inability to turn off the violence of the
> game
> once the pads are off. This is when we see the most toxic part of the
> sport's hyper-masculinist culture poison the relationships between the men
> who play the game-as well as the men who own teams-and the women in their
> lives. But among many players, this question of the role of head injuries
> still lingers in the background.
> Dan Diamond over at Forbes is one of the few journalists I have seen
> explore
> these links in detail. In one piece, he cites a "disturbing new report"
> that
> shows "3 in 10 NFL players suffer from at least moderate brain disease."
> Diamond then details many examples of former players who were found in
> their
> autopsies to have the repetitive post-concussive syndromes known as CTE,
> and
> were also arrested at some point or another for domestic violence. He
> writes:
> The key issue is whether suffering repeated head trauma lowers a person's
> self-control. And while many pro football players haven't been diagnosed
> with concussions in the NFL, nearly all of them have been playing football
> since they were young and suffered repetitive, frequent blows that can add
> up over time. And researchers know that those concussions can change a
> person. Even a pillar of the community.
> This connects anecdotally with much of my own research. Over the last two
> months, I have spoken with three different women whose husbands are or were
> NFL players. All three are domestic violence survivors. In one case, the
> marriage was mended and endures to this day. In one case, it ended in
> divorce. In one case it ended with the suicide of the player in question.
> Yet that is where the differences ended. The similarities were stunning. In
> all three cases, the violence was precipitated either by migraine headaches
> or self-medicating-drugs or alcohol-to manage migraines. In all three
> cases,
> the survivors spoke about their NFL husbands becoming disoriented or
> light-sensitive, easily frustrated and quick to anger in ways that did not
> exist earlier in the relationship. In all three cases, they spoke about
> bizarre looks on their husbands' faces when they committed the abuse, from
> a
> chillingly peaceful calm to quizzical smiles. Whatever the look, they spoke
> of being in the presence of someone they "did not recognize."
> Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50!
> I also spoke with Matt Chaney, a former college football player and author
> of the book Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football, about
> whether he believed there was a causal link between concussions and
> domestic
> violencw. He e-mailed me back the following. "I can't speak as medical
> authority on any link but as a journalist and academic who's read and filed
> tens of thousand documents on football hazards from violence to drugs, and
> one who's interviewed a thousand people, along with being a former college
> player who has knowledge of countless athletes and their relationships, I
> believe football brain injuries lead many players to violence they wouldn't
> otherwise have committed, ranging from domestic cases to random acts.. I
> think brain injuries, after studying the topic as we all have in recent
> years, now explains much about the perplexing cases of violence and other
> irrational behavior among football players I've known. And while I thought
> I
> abhorred street fighting, before college football, I found myself nearly
> involved with or nearly instigating such trouble on more than one occasion
> while I was in full-contact activity, fall and spring practices, banging my
> head. If I didn't have headache after a college contact session, I didn't
> think I'd done anything."
> This question, of course, has profound implications well beyond the sport.
> It is about the choice families make whether to let their children play
> tackle football. It is about the health and safety of women in
> relationships
> with NFL players, and whether recognizing warning signs of CTE can create
> opportunities for intervention before abuse takes place. It is about the
> degree to which the league's very violence bears some complicity in their
> abuse. This is a difficult question, one Roger Goodell is loathe to
> discuss.
> That is exactly why we need to keep asking it.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
violence that erupts within professional football.
Banging your head against a solid wall, day after day, will eventually
lead to brain damage. But add to the head banging an environment of
violence where the goal is to dominate your opponent, and you begin to
compound that brain damage. Add to that our attitude toward women,
and our macho male need to "possess" them, along with the attitude
that you have a right to be the man in charge, and you begin to see
the real problem that comes from teaching violence.
Take a boy from early childhood and train him to be part of a team
that is focused on dominating their opponents. They must become
tougher and more cunning than the other boys competing for whichever
position they wish to play. Over the years, the weak and the faint of
heart are left behind. Only the strongest and meanest and most
skilled will survive. Those few who finally grab off the brass ring
and find themselves in the ranks of the NFL, have been conditioned to
think of themselves as invincible. They are the "Master Race". By
all standards, they are revered and fawned over. They expect to
benefit from the spoils of their long years of sacrifice. And what
are the rewards we offer them? Money and women.
Yet, after only a few years of success, they are "retired". Put out
to pasture. The lucky ones have salted away a few millions, or been
courted by some corporation to help entice business. But most are
left to become lonely has beens, living in past glory. Their wives
and children become the only objects they can dominate. And as the
years pass and the head trauma begins to exhibit itself, violence
erupts. Very often it is coupled with alcohol and drugs. It can be
complicated by doctors prescribing drugs to help with the growing pain
that often develops in bodies that have been punished over many years.
Finally, add to all of this the fact that we are a violent nation,
basking in our Empire's dominance of the world. We sneer at
"Peaceniks" and call them Pussy's, or worse. So tell me, how else
would we expect these aging warriors to behave?
Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis
On 9/23/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Are Head Injuries the Bridge Between the NFL Playing Field and Domestic
> Violence?
> Dave Zirin on September 21, 2014 - 7:13 PM ET
>
> NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
> There is an unspoken question lurking behind the NFL domestic violence
> cover-up saga that has emerged over the last month. It is whether the
> brutality of the game, particularly head injuries, plays a role in the
> prevalence of players committing acts of violence against women. The NFL
> has
> a vested interest in not having this discussion. On head injuries, as the
> title of the award-winning book said so clearly, it remains "a league of
> denial." If, in the name of public relations, the owners won't have a
> discussion about the connection between their sport and horrific
> post-concussive syndromes like ALS and early-onset dementia, are they
> really
> going to talk about links between head injuries and domestic violence? The
> sports media are largely in denial about this topic as well, as there was
> not one question in Roger Goodell's instantly infamous Friday press
> conference about whether the league would investigate whether brain
> injuries
> could be the bridge between the violence at work and the violence at home.
> Yet many domestic violence advocates are also-understandably-not thrilled
> with this line of discussion. Partner abuse occurs in all walks of life,
> all
> professions and among all income groups, and post-concussive syndromes are
> almost always not a part of those stories. Additionally, to blame it on
> concussions seems to be excusing domestic violence and denying the fact
> that
> NFL players have agency and choice before becoming abusers. This resistance
> is very understandable. But attempting to explore and explain the
> shockingly
> high rates of domestic violence in the NFL is not the same as excusing it.
> So is there a connection? As my friend Ruth, who is a DV counselor, says,
> "When it comes to domestic violence, it is extremely difficult to
> generalize
> across the board, in the NFL or otherwise." In other words, every case is
> distinct, reflecting the interpersonal relationships of the parties
> involved. But there are factors that appear to show themselves in the
> football cases with alarming regularity. Some of these factors are high
> rates of stress, a culture of entitlement for sports stars that predates
> their life in the NFL, and an inability to turn off the violence of the
> game
> once the pads are off. This is when we see the most toxic part of the
> sport's hyper-masculinist culture poison the relationships between the men
> who play the game-as well as the men who own teams-and the women in their
> lives. But among many players, this question of the role of head injuries
> still lingers in the background.
> Dan Diamond over at Forbes is one of the few journalists I have seen
> explore
> these links in detail. In one piece, he cites a "disturbing new report"
> that
> shows "3 in 10 NFL players suffer from at least moderate brain disease."
> Diamond then details many examples of former players who were found in
> their
> autopsies to have the repetitive post-concussive syndromes known as CTE,
> and
> were also arrested at some point or another for domestic violence. He
> writes:
> The key issue is whether suffering repeated head trauma lowers a person's
> self-control. And while many pro football players haven't been diagnosed
> with concussions in the NFL, nearly all of them have been playing football
> since they were young and suffered repetitive, frequent blows that can add
> up over time. And researchers know that those concussions can change a
> person. Even a pillar of the community.
> This connects anecdotally with much of my own research. Over the last two
> months, I have spoken with three different women whose husbands are or were
> NFL players. All three are domestic violence survivors. In one case, the
> marriage was mended and endures to this day. In one case, it ended in
> divorce. In one case it ended with the suicide of the player in question.
> Yet that is where the differences ended. The similarities were stunning. In
> all three cases, the violence was precipitated either by migraine headaches
> or self-medicating-drugs or alcohol-to manage migraines. In all three
> cases,
> the survivors spoke about their NFL husbands becoming disoriented or
> light-sensitive, easily frustrated and quick to anger in ways that did not
> exist earlier in the relationship. In all three cases, they spoke about
> bizarre looks on their husbands' faces when they committed the abuse, from
> a
> chillingly peaceful calm to quizzical smiles. Whatever the look, they spoke
> of being in the presence of someone they "did not recognize."
> Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50!
> I also spoke with Matt Chaney, a former college football player and author
> of the book Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football, about
> whether he believed there was a causal link between concussions and
> domestic
> violencw. He e-mailed me back the following. "I can't speak as medical
> authority on any link but as a journalist and academic who's read and filed
> tens of thousand documents on football hazards from violence to drugs, and
> one who's interviewed a thousand people, along with being a former college
> player who has knowledge of countless athletes and their relationships, I
> believe football brain injuries lead many players to violence they wouldn't
> otherwise have committed, ranging from domestic cases to random acts.. I
> think brain injuries, after studying the topic as we all have in recent
> years, now explains much about the perplexing cases of violence and other
> irrational behavior among football players I've known. And while I thought
> I
> abhorred street fighting, before college football, I found myself nearly
> involved with or nearly instigating such trouble on more than one occasion
> while I was in full-contact activity, fall and spring practices, banging my
> head. If I didn't have headache after a college contact session, I didn't
> think I'd done anything."
> This question, of course, has profound implications well beyond the sport.
> It is about the choice families make whether to let their children play
> tackle football. It is about the health and safety of women in
> relationships
> with NFL players, and whether recognizing warning signs of CTE can create
> opportunities for intervention before abuse takes place. It is about the
> degree to which the league's very violence bears some complicity in their
> abuse. This is a difficult question, one Roger Goodell is loathe to
> discuss.
> That is exactly why we need to keep asking it.
> Read Next: "No Justice, No Football: Ferguson Demonstrators Bring Struggle
> to NFL Sunday"
> Related Topics: Sports | Society
> Are Head Injuries the Bridge Between the NFL Playing Field and Domestic
> Violence?
> Dave Zirin on September 21, 2014 - 7:13 PM ET
> . Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> .
> /printmail/blog/181695/are-head-injuries-bridge-between-nfl-playing-field-an
> d-domestic-violence
> /printmail/blog/181695/are-head-injuries-bridge-between-nfl-playing-field-an
> d-domestic-violence
> .
> .
> https://subscribe.thenation.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=NAN&cds_p
> age_id=105997&cds_response_key=I11BSPRV1
> https://subscribe.thenation.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=NAN&cds_p
> age_id=105997&cds_response_key=I11BSPRV1
> http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/roger_goodell_ap_img_1.jpg
> http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/roger_goodell_ap_img_1.jpg
> NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
> There is an unspoken question lurking behind the NFL domestic violence
> cover-up saga that has emerged over the last month. It is whether the
> brutality of the game, particularly head injuries, plays a role in the
> prevalence of players committing acts of violence against women. The NFL
> has
> a vested interest in not having this discussion. On head injuries, as the
> title of the award-winning book said so clearly, it remains "a league of
> denial." If, in the name of public relations, the owners won't have a
> discussion about the connection between their sport and horrific
> post-concussive syndromes like ALS and early-onset dementia, are they
> really
> going to talk about links between head injuries and domestic violence? The
> sports media are largely in denial about this topic as well, as there was
> not one question in Roger Goodell's instantly infamous Friday press
> conference about whether the league would investigate whether brain
> injuries
> could be the bridge between the violence at work and the violence at home.
> Yet many domestic violence advocates are also-understandably-not thrilled
> with this line of discussion. Partner abuse occurs in all walks of life,
> all
> professions and among all income groups, and post-concussive syndromes are
> almost always not a part of those stories. Additionally, to blame it on
> concussions seems to be excusing domestic violence and denying the fact
> that
> NFL players have agency and choice before becoming abusers. This resistance
> is very understandable. But attempting to explore and explain the
> shockingly
> high rates of domestic violence in the NFL is not the same as excusing it.
> So is there a connection? As my friend Ruth, who is a DV counselor, says,
> "When it comes to domestic violence, it is extremely difficult to
> generalize
> across the board, in the NFL or otherwise." In other words, every case is
> distinct, reflecting the interpersonal relationships of the parties
> involved. But there are factors that appear to show themselves in the
> football cases with alarming regularity. Some of these factors are high
> rates of stress, a culture of entitlement for sports stars that predates
> their life in the NFL, and an inability to turn off the violence of the
> game
> once the pads are off. This is when we see the most toxic part of the
> sport's hyper-masculinist culture poison the relationships between the men
> who play the game-as well as the men who own teams-and the women in their
> lives. But among many players, this question of the role of head injuries
> still lingers in the background.
> Dan Diamond over at Forbes is one of the few journalists I have seen
> explore
> these links in detail. In one piece, he cites a "disturbing new report"
> that
> shows "3 in 10 NFL players suffer from at least moderate brain disease."
> Diamond then details many examples of former players who were found in
> their
> autopsies to have the repetitive post-concussive syndromes known as CTE,
> and
> were also arrested at some point or another for domestic violence. He
> writes:
> The key issue is whether suffering repeated head trauma lowers a person's
> self-control. And while many pro football players haven't been diagnosed
> with concussions in the NFL, nearly all of them have been playing football
> since they were young and suffered repetitive, frequent blows that can add
> up over time. And researchers know that those concussions can change a
> person. Even a pillar of the community.
> This connects anecdotally with much of my own research. Over the last two
> months, I have spoken with three different women whose husbands are or were
> NFL players. All three are domestic violence survivors. In one case, the
> marriage was mended and endures to this day. In one case, it ended in
> divorce. In one case it ended with the suicide of the player in question.
> Yet that is where the differences ended. The similarities were stunning. In
> all three cases, the violence was precipitated either by migraine headaches
> or self-medicating-drugs or alcohol-to manage migraines. In all three
> cases,
> the survivors spoke about their NFL husbands becoming disoriented or
> light-sensitive, easily frustrated and quick to anger in ways that did not
> exist earlier in the relationship. In all three cases, they spoke about
> bizarre looks on their husbands' faces when they committed the abuse, from
> a
> chillingly peaceful calm to quizzical smiles. Whatever the look, they spoke
> of being in the presence of someone they "did not recognize."
> Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50!
> I also spoke with Matt Chaney, a former college football player and author
> of the book Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football, about
> whether he believed there was a causal link between concussions and
> domestic
> violencw. He e-mailed me back the following. "I can't speak as medical
> authority on any link but as a journalist and academic who's read and filed
> tens of thousand documents on football hazards from violence to drugs, and
> one who's interviewed a thousand people, along with being a former college
> player who has knowledge of countless athletes and their relationships, I
> believe football brain injuries lead many players to violence they wouldn't
> otherwise have committed, ranging from domestic cases to random acts.. I
> think brain injuries, after studying the topic as we all have in recent
> years, now explains much about the perplexing cases of violence and other
> irrational behavior among football players I've known. And while I thought
> I
> abhorred street fighting, before college football, I found myself nearly
> involved with or nearly instigating such trouble on more than one occasion
> while I was in full-contact activity, fall and spring practices, banging my
> head. If I didn't have headache after a college contact session, I didn't
> think I'd done anything."
> This question, of course, has profound implications well beyond the sport.
> It is about the choice families make whether to let their children play
> tackle football. It is about the health and safety of women in
> relationships
> with NFL players, and whether recognizing warning signs of CTE can create
> opportunities for intervention before abuse takes place. It is about the
> degree to which the league's very violence bears some complicity in their
> abuse. This is a difficult question, one Roger Goodell is loathe to
> discuss.
> That is exactly why we need to keep asking it.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Friday, September 12, 2014
Fwd: Once upon a Time we imagined we were a democracy...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 20:19:23 -0700
Subject: Once upon a Time we imagined we were a democracy...
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Once upon a time there was an American democracy, but not for the
common Working/Lower/Slave Class.
True, we were set up as a Republic, but democracy lived among the
White, Male, Property Owners. These were the Pillars of America,
invested in the Land and all of its riches. The Working/Lower/Slave
Class was held to be too ignorant to be trusted to make informed
decisions. They were seen to have no stake in this new nation.
The White Males over 21 years of age led the ragged army against the
best forces England could ship across the ocean. The Red Coats were
driven out of the Colonies, and the White Males over 21 claimed the
right to rule the New World. In order to maintain control over the
Masses, the new Ruling Class wrote its own history. A book of
untruths and make believe.
You can hunt down your favorite stories, perhaps George Washington
cutting down the Cherry tree and confessing to his father. Maybe you
like the one where Honest Abe Lincoln walked for miles to return a few
pennies to a woman who had been over charged. Then there was Paul
Bunyan and his faithful side kick Babe Ruth...or was it Babe the Blue
Ox?
My personal favorite is the tale of the brave little band of Pilgrims,
running from the heavy hand of religious persecution, bravely
defending their new land from the Savage Devils who tried to butcher
them.
This tale is told and retold, never growing old. Today it is the
brave little Israelites defending their new homes from the Palestinian
Devils.
But hey! If you don't like any of the histories floating around, make
up your own. After all, most of what we hold near and dear has been
seriously tampered with.
Start in little ways. Just the other day I sent in a cookie recipe to
our WCB Newsline publication. I declared that the "One, One, One
Cookie", was created by John Jarvis(born in West Virginia in 1756).
and passed down from father to son. The name John Jarvis and the time
and place of birth is factual. But this old farmer probably never
cooked a cookie in his life, much less to have invented one.
But there it sits, in a publication that prides itself in being factual.
Do I blush with shame? Why should I. I learned it from the New York
Times. Tell a story over and over and people will begin to believe at
least part of it.
And so, even while we watch our nation sliding down the slippery slope
of melt down, we keep believing the lies whispered to us through our
Media, telling us that we are a Free People. And we believe that we
must always vote, in order to stay Free. Even as we watch our
officials being bought and sold and traded on the stock market. But
we work even harder to vote in the right people. Over and over. But
it never changes...except for the worst. Will we ever wake up from
this drug induced dream?
Carl Jarvis
On 9/12/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Bob,
>
> Once upon a time, the U.S. was a democracy.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Bob Hachey
> Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 5:38 PM
> To: 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'
> Subject: RE: Remember the photos on my father's prison walls
>
> Hi Miriam,
> No doubt about it, Ghassan Elashi is a political prisoner.
> Funny thing here, I thought only "bad countries" like Cuba and the former
> Soviet Union and other similar nations held political prisoners?
> The United States is a Democacy! The first three words of our Constitution
> are WE THE PEOPLE. WE would never stoop so low as to hold political
> prisoners! Nod Nod, Wink Wink.
> Bob Hachey
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 20:19:23 -0700
Subject: Once upon a Time we imagined we were a democracy...
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Once upon a time there was an American democracy, but not for the
common Working/Lower/Slave Class.
True, we were set up as a Republic, but democracy lived among the
White, Male, Property Owners. These were the Pillars of America,
invested in the Land and all of its riches. The Working/Lower/Slave
Class was held to be too ignorant to be trusted to make informed
decisions. They were seen to have no stake in this new nation.
The White Males over 21 years of age led the ragged army against the
best forces England could ship across the ocean. The Red Coats were
driven out of the Colonies, and the White Males over 21 claimed the
right to rule the New World. In order to maintain control over the
Masses, the new Ruling Class wrote its own history. A book of
untruths and make believe.
You can hunt down your favorite stories, perhaps George Washington
cutting down the Cherry tree and confessing to his father. Maybe you
like the one where Honest Abe Lincoln walked for miles to return a few
pennies to a woman who had been over charged. Then there was Paul
Bunyan and his faithful side kick Babe Ruth...or was it Babe the Blue
Ox?
My personal favorite is the tale of the brave little band of Pilgrims,
running from the heavy hand of religious persecution, bravely
defending their new land from the Savage Devils who tried to butcher
them.
This tale is told and retold, never growing old. Today it is the
brave little Israelites defending their new homes from the Palestinian
Devils.
But hey! If you don't like any of the histories floating around, make
up your own. After all, most of what we hold near and dear has been
seriously tampered with.
Start in little ways. Just the other day I sent in a cookie recipe to
our WCB Newsline publication. I declared that the "One, One, One
Cookie", was created by John Jarvis(born in West Virginia in 1756).
and passed down from father to son. The name John Jarvis and the time
and place of birth is factual. But this old farmer probably never
cooked a cookie in his life, much less to have invented one.
But there it sits, in a publication that prides itself in being factual.
Do I blush with shame? Why should I. I learned it from the New York
Times. Tell a story over and over and people will begin to believe at
least part of it.
And so, even while we watch our nation sliding down the slippery slope
of melt down, we keep believing the lies whispered to us through our
Media, telling us that we are a Free People. And we believe that we
must always vote, in order to stay Free. Even as we watch our
officials being bought and sold and traded on the stock market. But
we work even harder to vote in the right people. Over and over. But
it never changes...except for the worst. Will we ever wake up from
this drug induced dream?
Carl Jarvis
On 9/12/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Bob,
>
> Once upon a time, the U.S. was a democracy.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Bob Hachey
> Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 5:38 PM
> To: 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'
> Subject: RE: Remember the photos on my father's prison walls
>
> Hi Miriam,
> No doubt about it, Ghassan Elashi is a political prisoner.
> Funny thing here, I thought only "bad countries" like Cuba and the former
> Soviet Union and other similar nations held political prisoners?
> The United States is a Democacy! The first three words of our Constitution
> are WE THE PEOPLE. WE would never stoop so low as to hold political
> prisoners! Nod Nod, Wink Wink.
> Bob Hachey
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S., While Blind Organizations Sit on Their Hands
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 07:45:29 -0700
Subject: Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S.,
While Blind Organizations Sit on Their Hands
To: "S. Kashdan" <skashdan@scn.org>, Blind Democracy Discussion List
<blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Might as well get the day out here started with a personal grump. It
fries my fritters to think that I belong to an organization that
chooses to remain apart from the struggle by underpaid workers to
raise their standard of living...to a living standard, while this
lofty organization doesn't want to offend any of its members who might
disagree with the concept of people enjoying eating two meals per day
and affording some sort of roof over the heads of their families.
My own WCB List has cautioned me on several occasions to back off
"controversial" subjects, fearing that I might "offend" some members
by challenging them to think. Because I'm on a state-wide committee,
I have not dropped off. But I quit the ACB Chat List after "getting
the message" that I was offending more folks than were being
challenged to discuss issues.
Perhaps I do get a bit over the top, but I hope I've never put anyone
down for their position on any subject. I simply am trying to
encourage folks to examine what we think and why we take the positions
we take.
It is alien to my thinking to belong to any blind organization and
believe that I should not be deeply involved in such critical matters
as demanding the respect of a decent wage.
While I had great respect for Ken Jernigan as a brilliant promoter, I
strongly disagreed with him on his position that we, the "Organized
Blind" must protect our gains, even if it meant opposing other
disability groups the same opportunities. In the long haul this
elitist position has not proven good for the rank and file blind
person. Only the NFB Leaders have gained financial status. But most
of today's blind Americans are little better off than the blind of 50
years ago. Now we blind folk have a golden opportunity to join our
fellow suffers on the Line, speaking out against the desecration of
the Lower and Working Classes.
When I hear the Profiteers whining that a rise in the minimum wage
will put countless thousands of workers out on the streets, I wonder
if they ever check to see where many of these people do live. And I
recall the same tire old lie when the wage minimum was raise from 75
cent an hour to one dollar, and again to one dollar twenty-five cents.
"There will be mass lay-offs and great suffering". At the time I was
working in a drapery factory. Dozens of women slaved over machines
and cutting tables helping to allow Mister Bixer enjoy a very fine
life. No one cared about the employees. The boss could fire them all
and a new crowd of destitute women would line up to sweat for the
dribble of pay that was bestowed upon them. And the boss couldn't
understand why these wretched souls were not grateful.
Today that factory is gone, and the daughters and grand daughters of
those women are probably slaving in another factory, or at a fast food
joint, for even less spendable cash than those long forgotten women.
But I have not forgotten. And neither should any blind man or woman.
Allowing people to be dragged down into poverty can only mean our own
eventual downfall.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/8/14, S. Kashdan <skashdan@scn.org> wrote:
> Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S.
>
>
>
> by Pratap Chatterjee
>
>
>
> CorpWatch Blog, September 5th, 2014
>
>
>
> http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15967&printsafe=1
>
>
>
> Hundreds of low wage fast food workers were arrested at strikes and protests
>
> in some 100 cities around the U.S. on September 4. They were demanding that
>
> companies like Burger King, KFC, McDonald's and Wendy's pay workers a living
>
> wage of $15 an hour.
>
>
>
> The "Low Pay Is Not OK" campaign began in July 2012, when workers in New
> York city went on strike, an unusual event in an industry that has few
> unions and little worker organizing. The average fast food worker makes
> $8.74 an hour, or about $17,500 a year if they are able to get full time
> work (which is quite rare). This is despite the fact that the U.S. Census
> Bureau estimates that a family of four needs to make more than $23,000 to
> stay out of poverty.
>
>
>
> This latest protest was timed for the first business day following the Labor
>
> Day holiday. It was backed by the Service Employees International Union,
> (SEIU) which represents about 2 million workers across the U.S.
>
>
>
> "This fight is for my children and younger sister, and the countless
> families of fast-food workers. It's for my parents and grandparents, who
> marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," wrote Andrew McConnell, in an
> opinion article published on Salon. McConnell quit his job as an elementary
>
> school teacher to go to work at a McDonald's in Kansas City for $7.45 an
> hour in order to support his sister who has mental health issues. He
> supplements this work with online sales, baby sitting and cutting hair.
>
>
>
> McConnell first chose to walk off his fast food job in May to protest
> working conditions and has continued to speak out since then."It's for my
> coworkers, those who have almost fainted after working in kitchen
> temperatures nearing 95 degrees--or 105 near the stove--and those who
> regularly have their hours docked and wages stolen," McConnell wrote in his
>
> Salon commentary. "It's for fast-food managers and franchisee owners like
> mine, who face relentless pressure and frequent visits from corporate to
> keep labor costs down and profits up."
>
>
>
> Organizers estimated that some 436 people were arrested around the country
> at pickets, protests, sit-ins and marches. Police confirmed that at least 34
>
> were arrested in New York city, 30 in Detroit, 27 in Milwaukee and 19 in
> Chicago at incidents outside McDonald's outlets. Another 46 arrests were
> reported in Kansas city, 10 in Little Rock and 10 in Las Vegas.
>
>
>
> McDonald's claims that it does not set salary levels for workers since the
> fast food outlets are small business owned franchises who purchase supplies
>
> and the brand name from the parent company. Activists challenged this by
> filing 181 cases against the company in late 2012 for harassing workers who
>
> were organizing for higher wages. In late July, the U.S. National Labor
> Relations Board ruled that the company was a "joint employer" suggesting
> that it exercised power over working conditions at the franchisee
> restaurants.
>
>
>
> "Their pitch to consumers is that the dining experience in one McDonald's is
>
> virtually identical to another's," wrote Michael Hitlick in the Los Angeles
>
> Times after the ruling came down. "But when the chips are down--when a
> workplace regulation or a union organizing drive surfaces, for
> instance--they claim that they just provide a big umbrella under which
> thousands of small businesses find some shade."
>
>
>
> Trade organizations are fighting back against the protests. "The activities
>
> have proven to be orchestrated union PR events where the vast majority of
> participants are activists and paid demonstrators," said the National
> Restaurant Association, in a press statement. "This is nothing more than
> labor groups' self-interested attempts to boost their dwindling membership
> by targeting restaurant employees."
>
>
>
> But McConnell says the companies are wrong. "They think they can ignore us;
>
> that we'll get discouraged; that our movement will fizzle out; that somehow
>
> the challenges we face will simply go away," he wrote. "They deflect
> responsibility for an outdated business model, and refuse to accept that we
>
> aren't high schoolers looking for extra money but mothers and fathers trying
>
> to put our children through high school."
>
>
>
> Labor Day in the U.S. falls on a different day from most other countries
> which typically celebrate labor rights on May 1. Ironically May Day
> commemorates a U.S. event - the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886, when
>
> workers and police officers were killed at a protest for an eight hour work
>
> day.
>
>
>
> CorpWatch has previously conducted and done contract work for Service
> Employees International Union. This article was neither funded nor written
> in consultation with SEIU.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 07:45:29 -0700
Subject: Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S.,
While Blind Organizations Sit on Their Hands
To: "S. Kashdan" <skashdan@scn.org>, Blind Democracy Discussion List
<blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Might as well get the day out here started with a personal grump. It
fries my fritters to think that I belong to an organization that
chooses to remain apart from the struggle by underpaid workers to
raise their standard of living...to a living standard, while this
lofty organization doesn't want to offend any of its members who might
disagree with the concept of people enjoying eating two meals per day
and affording some sort of roof over the heads of their families.
My own WCB List has cautioned me on several occasions to back off
"controversial" subjects, fearing that I might "offend" some members
by challenging them to think. Because I'm on a state-wide committee,
I have not dropped off. But I quit the ACB Chat List after "getting
the message" that I was offending more folks than were being
challenged to discuss issues.
Perhaps I do get a bit over the top, but I hope I've never put anyone
down for their position on any subject. I simply am trying to
encourage folks to examine what we think and why we take the positions
we take.
It is alien to my thinking to belong to any blind organization and
believe that I should not be deeply involved in such critical matters
as demanding the respect of a decent wage.
While I had great respect for Ken Jernigan as a brilliant promoter, I
strongly disagreed with him on his position that we, the "Organized
Blind" must protect our gains, even if it meant opposing other
disability groups the same opportunities. In the long haul this
elitist position has not proven good for the rank and file blind
person. Only the NFB Leaders have gained financial status. But most
of today's blind Americans are little better off than the blind of 50
years ago. Now we blind folk have a golden opportunity to join our
fellow suffers on the Line, speaking out against the desecration of
the Lower and Working Classes.
When I hear the Profiteers whining that a rise in the minimum wage
will put countless thousands of workers out on the streets, I wonder
if they ever check to see where many of these people do live. And I
recall the same tire old lie when the wage minimum was raise from 75
cent an hour to one dollar, and again to one dollar twenty-five cents.
"There will be mass lay-offs and great suffering". At the time I was
working in a drapery factory. Dozens of women slaved over machines
and cutting tables helping to allow Mister Bixer enjoy a very fine
life. No one cared about the employees. The boss could fire them all
and a new crowd of destitute women would line up to sweat for the
dribble of pay that was bestowed upon them. And the boss couldn't
understand why these wretched souls were not grateful.
Today that factory is gone, and the daughters and grand daughters of
those women are probably slaving in another factory, or at a fast food
joint, for even less spendable cash than those long forgotten women.
But I have not forgotten. And neither should any blind man or woman.
Allowing people to be dragged down into poverty can only mean our own
eventual downfall.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/8/14, S. Kashdan <skashdan@scn.org> wrote:
> Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S.
>
>
>
> by Pratap Chatterjee
>
>
>
> CorpWatch Blog, September 5th, 2014
>
>
>
> http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15967&printsafe=1
>
>
>
> Hundreds of low wage fast food workers were arrested at strikes and protests
>
> in some 100 cities around the U.S. on September 4. They were demanding that
>
> companies like Burger King, KFC, McDonald's and Wendy's pay workers a living
>
> wage of $15 an hour.
>
>
>
> The "Low Pay Is Not OK" campaign began in July 2012, when workers in New
> York city went on strike, an unusual event in an industry that has few
> unions and little worker organizing. The average fast food worker makes
> $8.74 an hour, or about $17,500 a year if they are able to get full time
> work (which is quite rare). This is despite the fact that the U.S. Census
> Bureau estimates that a family of four needs to make more than $23,000 to
> stay out of poverty.
>
>
>
> This latest protest was timed for the first business day following the Labor
>
> Day holiday. It was backed by the Service Employees International Union,
> (SEIU) which represents about 2 million workers across the U.S.
>
>
>
> "This fight is for my children and younger sister, and the countless
> families of fast-food workers. It's for my parents and grandparents, who
> marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," wrote Andrew McConnell, in an
> opinion article published on Salon. McConnell quit his job as an elementary
>
> school teacher to go to work at a McDonald's in Kansas City for $7.45 an
> hour in order to support his sister who has mental health issues. He
> supplements this work with online sales, baby sitting and cutting hair.
>
>
>
> McConnell first chose to walk off his fast food job in May to protest
> working conditions and has continued to speak out since then."It's for my
> coworkers, those who have almost fainted after working in kitchen
> temperatures nearing 95 degrees--or 105 near the stove--and those who
> regularly have their hours docked and wages stolen," McConnell wrote in his
>
> Salon commentary. "It's for fast-food managers and franchisee owners like
> mine, who face relentless pressure and frequent visits from corporate to
> keep labor costs down and profits up."
>
>
>
> Organizers estimated that some 436 people were arrested around the country
> at pickets, protests, sit-ins and marches. Police confirmed that at least 34
>
> were arrested in New York city, 30 in Detroit, 27 in Milwaukee and 19 in
> Chicago at incidents outside McDonald's outlets. Another 46 arrests were
> reported in Kansas city, 10 in Little Rock and 10 in Las Vegas.
>
>
>
> McDonald's claims that it does not set salary levels for workers since the
> fast food outlets are small business owned franchises who purchase supplies
>
> and the brand name from the parent company. Activists challenged this by
> filing 181 cases against the company in late 2012 for harassing workers who
>
> were organizing for higher wages. In late July, the U.S. National Labor
> Relations Board ruled that the company was a "joint employer" suggesting
> that it exercised power over working conditions at the franchisee
> restaurants.
>
>
>
> "Their pitch to consumers is that the dining experience in one McDonald's is
>
> virtually identical to another's," wrote Michael Hitlick in the Los Angeles
>
> Times after the ruling came down. "But when the chips are down--when a
> workplace regulation or a union organizing drive surfaces, for
> instance--they claim that they just provide a big umbrella under which
> thousands of small businesses find some shade."
>
>
>
> Trade organizations are fighting back against the protests. "The activities
>
> have proven to be orchestrated union PR events where the vast majority of
> participants are activists and paid demonstrators," said the National
> Restaurant Association, in a press statement. "This is nothing more than
> labor groups' self-interested attempts to boost their dwindling membership
> by targeting restaurant employees."
>
>
>
> But McConnell says the companies are wrong. "They think they can ignore us;
>
> that we'll get discouraged; that our movement will fizzle out; that somehow
>
> the challenges we face will simply go away," he wrote. "They deflect
> responsibility for an outdated business model, and refuse to accept that we
>
> aren't high schoolers looking for extra money but mothers and fathers trying
>
> to put our children through high school."
>
>
>
> Labor Day in the U.S. falls on a different day from most other countries
> which typically celebrate labor rights on May 1. Ironically May Day
> commemorates a U.S. event - the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886, when
>
> workers and police officers were killed at a protest for an eight hour work
>
> day.
>
>
>
> CorpWatch has previously conducted and done contract work for Service
> Employees International Union. This article was neither funded nor written
> in consultation with SEIU.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
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