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“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.” Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, also known as the ‘Bishop of Corum’
Today is Juneteenth.
- “The leader of the party that narrowly won Greece’s election has begun urgent talks to form a coalition, saying he wants to forge a ‘national consensus’. New Democracy’s Antonis Samaras met leaders of the other two largest parties, but no deal on a coalition has yet been announced.”
- “The opening day of the G20 summit was threatening to deteriorate into a fractious row between eurozone countries and other non-European members of the G20, notably the US, as EU commission president José Manuel Barroso insisted the origins of the eurozone crisis lay in the unorthodox policies of American capitalism.”
- “Egypt’s ruling military council has vowed to hand over power to an elected president by the end of June. The promise comes as votes are counted after Sunday’s presidential run-off election, with both candidates claiming they are ahead in early results.”
- TRNN: “Egyptian Military Council Severely Restricts Authority of Newly Elected President. Egypt’s military junta issued a constitutional declaration hours before results started coming in. The decree strips the newly elected president as commander of the armed forces, grants the generals legislative powers, and authorizes the army and police to detain anyone.”
- “Hate to say we told you so, but in the last writing on Egypt from GroundTruth we said the only thing that is certain in these elections is uncertainty.”
- “Native American tribes are celebrating a major victory in their battle for equal treatment after the US supreme court ruled that the government could no longer short-change them over contracts for public services.”
- Truthout: “How Not to Be a Union“
Marx in the Morning.
Okay, yellowsnapdragon, somebody heard ya. Prof Richard Wolff will grace the pages of FDL’s Book Salon on Sunday, 22 July for his book Occupy the Economy – Challenging Capitalism. It’s a short book and you guys have a month to read it.
Prof Wolff’s weekly radio program Economic Update for 17 June.
The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off.
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Mornin’, pups
Hurray, you snagged Prof Wolf! On my reading list now, and looking fwd to the discussion.
Will you be the host? You have fans!!
Good Morning, Folks…
I can’t take credit for it. I don’t know how the book was chosen. The Book Salon people get a lot of books to consider.
As it stands now I’ll be the host.
The rich are different from you and me.
They don’t show up on Federal Reserve surveys of wealth. Really.
Occupy the Economy – Challenging Capitalism.
Have not yet the book but the title confuses me. What country exactly is he using as a model to challenge capitalism? Hope it is not here as we don’t have such a thing, unless he is confusing crony, corrupt elitism, and a central bank rigged and controlled market with capitalism and that is what he is challenging.
Sounds good…You did a good job on your Maiden Voyage (I think it was with Van;)
Morning pupsters and thanks SD,
Still wading through the major reads from the weekend here, lots of great stuff, thanks to everyone for their contributions to my knowledge.
morning, and thanks, SD, Happy Juneteenth (when the slaves in TX found out they had been freed).
Apparently you’re unfamiliar with Prof Wolff and his work. Wolff is a Marxian economist. He has several books out, has a weekly radio show on WBAI New York and for the last 3-4 years has been on a whirlwind of speaking engagements. He looks at our economy through the eyes of a Marxian. His website has a wealth of information. Prof Wolff gives us a picture of our economy you’ll not hear in the corporate media. His main proposal is to democratize the workplace, where the traditional top-down hierarchy is replaced with a worker’s cooperative-like structure, the best example of which is Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain. There are also thousands of businesses in the US that have adopted this business model.
The 17 June Economic Update linked to above is a good example of his line of thought.
What will happen in Greece? The pro-bailout parties have to see that they don’t have much support and their jobs are on the line despite their “win”. The Opposition will likely not join a government, as any plan the government produces will suck until long after the NEXT election which the opposition plans to win.
Not clear to me IF a government can be formed.
Boxturtle (*insert prediction about Greece leaving euro here*)
g’morning all.
so heartbreaking about the military and their intended eternal control.
“youse can have yer stinkin’ elections, thank you very much, but we’ll keep all the power, thank you very much.”
not that i expected different, it’s just hard to watch it playing out.
on edit: that was supposed to be in reference to egypt.
For an event that ought to be a national holiday, Junteenth sure gets almost no recognition.
Boxturtle (I mean, the end of slavry should be worth at least a BBQ)
The exclusion of these 400 people, “the 0.0000035%” from the Fed wealth survey shows to me that they are the real rulers of the country.
We are the 99.9999965%!
Don’t blame the military so much. In every country, there’s a well connected, corrupt elite. In Egypt, it’s the military. In America, it’s congress.
Get rid of the corruption, they’ll take their money and go home.
Boxturtle (You think Pelosi would hold her seat if she COULDN’T shake down business?)
Apparently the markets are wondering as well. And so far no soap.
From the second bullet:
It is in this context that Obama’s catastrophic embrace of austerity must be seen. His ignorant or duplicitous (take your pick) insistence that the government is just like a family and must tighten its belt, and that a Grand Bargain must be struck that weakens the social safety net, is deeply undemocratic.
Lots of holiday activity in Austin…A big tradition.
Good morning firepups.
Anyone else getting an ad bragging about how little government has grown under oilybomber? Republican framing and his consultants think its a winner?
Good grief.
Occupy the BBQ! Since slavery didn’t actually end it’s kind of fantasy, not the Disney kind. The end of the war was Appomattox, and that’s also hard to celebrate, so much dying going on.
I got a call from a young lady with Organizing for America yesterday evening. As soon as she uttered those words I laid into her. “Oh, the Democratic National Committee is calling me to support Obama and send money? Not on your life.” It got worse from there. I normally don’t give phone bankers an earful but I’m fed up with these people emailing me and calling me after I’ve repeatedly unsubscribed from all their lists.
Love for anyone in power to announce that everything the media is telling you about economics is a lie, but how do you think that would get reported?
Desperate attempts to maintain the status quo…which is crumbling around them.
So sad…..
Anybody who’s still in eurobank stocks is either a risk taker or a sovereign. Ditto for anybody still in Greek Stocks. I think the smart money is betting on euro implosion and has already moved most of their cash to either Germany or USA.
IMO the last year or so has simply been stalling so the smart money can move without taking too much of a hit.
Prediction: Greek austerity will be approved, as I don’t think external forces will permit a government to be formed that does not support austerity. And it may be approved and implemented by “technocrats” if a government can’t be formed.
Boxturtle (Wonder if France is offering Greece Guillotines?)
“I’m not waring any pants. Film at 11″
Thanks for the Truthout analysis of the Greek elections.
I’m sending it around.
It seems the US didn’t didn’t or couldn’t diddle in them as much as we did Egypt’s elections. But what can we expect after our “interests” have had their boots on Egypt’s neck for the entirety of the Mubarak regime?
SOMETHIN’ better start shakin’, disaster capitalism has pretty much put paid to the environment and THAT is what we’ll be facing when we come to our senses
KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD!
Boxturtle (I have the shirt with the dog in the cowboy hat playing piano)
I wonder if Goldman is still up to their necks in this thing?
North Carolina’s permissive fracking law is in the hands of lame duck Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue. She has ten days to veto it. Around 70 protesters stood opposite the Governor’s Mansion yesterday evening and tried to make our voices heard inside the mansion. If the bill passes, the tactics necessarily will change to landowner education and blocking trucks carrying test drilling equipment. The coalition there included Occupy Raleigh, Earth First, various clean water groups. Democratic Senator Bill Faison (briefly a candidate for governor) updated the group on his efforts to add poison pill amendments to the legislation. All of those amendments deal with the property rights of the adjacent landowners; Republicans and enough Democrats seem amazingly uninterested in property rights all of a sudden.
If Perdue fails to veto like she did last year, I suspect that her post-gubernatorial plans include working for Duke Energy or another stakeholder in fracking. There was talk about a junket that she took to see the fracking operations in Pennsylvania and how she said on return that fracking could be regulated.
You still get real human calls?!? I’ve gotten so many robo calls pointing me at a website or such that I’m already hostile to both parties.
Boxturtle (Thoguh I still wonder if the Rmoney robocall was really Mitt. Tough to tell)
Morning SD & Pupses:
Radio interview with Richard Wolffe
‘stalling so the smart money can move without taking too much of a hit.’
From the ‘business reporters’ I’ve been able to stand listening to, they still are sure the consumer has a stash and/or will go into debt enough to stabilize the system.
As you know, the MSM is the puppet; the PTB is the ventriloquist.
Wonder if you recall….I think I remember (growing up) that Juneteenth was the day for being OK to eat watermelon; the season started then. An informal rule….I don’t think I would have made that up;)
I don’t get many but they’re all human. This sounded like a young lady in her 20s and asked for me by my first name.
Unclear. I know they got a NASTY shock when so few of the CDS were triggered in the Greek haircut. But they were in so deep, even if they wanted to unwind they couldn’t do it this fast without ugly losses that I’m not seeing in their reports.
Boxturtle (Goldman is one of the stocks I wouldn’t be buying, either)
Disabling RealPlayer add-ons had no effect at all on FF on Windoze 7. No Flash content will show. Weird.
Mitt Zombie Touches Things…
We try…it’s getting awfully “polished”.
Yes, I do not know his work and will take a look, but my question remains where exists this capitalism he mentions. If he is using our current corrupt centrally planned model and calling that capitalism and comparing it to his model then his premise is completely wrong. We don’t have capitalism in this country
I almost listened to that last night.
Did you check out the “Preferences” thing inside RP? I didn’t need to disable, just uncheck under “Downloads…” I’m running Win 7, also.
The oil co’s are insisting that fracking is about putting in nice solid pipes that go down beneath the ground water to insert deadly chemicals, when in fact those pipes can inject the poison anywhere on the total drill, from the top down. (Incidentally, a Fed member in Dallas pointed out that the figures for potential actual oil resources are not substantiated by any qualified geologists.)
Ah the joys of caller ID. If we don’t know them, we don’t answer. They can leave a voicemail.
Yeah, you need to watch a couple of his talks. You’re nowhere close.
Stupid question: Is your FF Shockwave Flash plug-in enabled?
Ian Masters consistently gets a very high-quality level of guests on his show. He seems to be very dialed in…
I’ll try that when I get to work.
Yep.
Gotsta bail. Later on, Pupses…
We have a corrupted version of Capitalism here. That’s the one he’s talking about.
Don’t forget the WD-40 and ball-peen hammer. Ya know…for backup…
If I’m thinking of the right guy he’s been around quite a while.
I prefer a 4lb sledge.
He’s Australian, trained by the BBC. Been around for decades, alright.
Good strategy…
There are very few politicians that will stand up to fracking because they know that the energy companies will promptly blame them for the high gas prices. And the voters will believe the energy companies.
Boxturtle (Besides Duke energy, Obama will be looking for a new Secty of Interior)
Richard Wolff, Capitalism Hits the Fan video
I’m waiting for Rmoney to outsource his political calls to India. Then point out how much he could save the taxpayers by doing the same to SSA.
Boxturtle (Obama will promptly outsource to South Korea and say he saved more)
someone called me the other day from his campaign wanting to know if the could count on my vote. when i said i hadn’t decided, they thanked me and had nothing more to say.
it’s a far cry for me from working to get him elected on the first go round.
It’s not just about fracking. It’s about affecting the severability of all mineral rights from property rights. Fracking is its immediate focus. And the legislation seems to be ALEC “model” legislation that is being shoved through in all the states without loose mineral rights laws. Texas apparently pioneered this legal means of taking the value of other people’s property during the oil boom.
Yes, indeed. Geologists say that there is a small probability of there actually being commercially significant amounts of natural gas in the Wadesboro, Sanford, and Durham Triassic basins, but what ALEC wants, the Republicans and a few Democrats deliver. The 2010 election in North Carolina was a disaster, and you can’t pin it on progressives staying home; a lot of 2008 first-time voters stayed home. Presidential elections get so much focus. But it is the off-year elections where changes are often made.
For us it was July 4. Back then we got local watermelon, now it’s from S and C Merka, and comes earlier.
You’d think that would be a defense. I’ve had to change the settings on my answering machine, those darn robocalls will talk as long as you don’t hang up.
It ought to be illegal for them to spoof my caller id. 000-0000 is NOT an assigned number.
Boxturtle (It’s been years since I was even tempted to use a wardialer to return fire)
Indonesia, BT. Indonesia.
Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.
US KIA Afghanistan: 2,013
Afghan, Iraki, Yemeni and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M
US MBS 2012: 21,080 and counting
No war but class war
In The Summertime
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things
Namaste
Never. Give Up.
Texas, Our Texas…How beautiful, how great….We get blamed
for everything. Even W was not born here.
‘Capture’ rights in TX are a model, that give any landowner the right to all the water in any aquifer he/she is located over. Movement in the state lege is to end that threat to public interests and health but the oil co’s are fighting hard to keep it abusive.
Nor were any of the ‘heroes’ of the Alamo iirc. We got all the folks chased out from everywhere else, didn’t we? Kinda like the New World in general.
I told several that I don’t have a credit card and the calls have all but stopped.
sd @ #22
so far, i’ve had 2 calls. #1 was from local dem supporter: had good time “educating” the very nice lady about TPP and that civil “marriage license” was for household tax/legal purposes unlike the religious ceremony. pleasant time and she forgot purpose of call @ end of 15 min talk. lol
call #2 was guy from ofa: he was more focused; but he had hard time trying to move me from “may not vote” or “may write in none of above.” did mention that i disapproved of remote murder/assassination.
It is clear that Egypt is setting itself up for another insurgency.
As Kennedy said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
It is just a matter of time.
Slipping in late for a jolt of caffeine…Hi, SD.
Today’s Moment in Irony: Luke Russert interviewing Chris Hayes on his new book, Twilight of the Elites.
WOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!
Prof Wolff at the book salon!!! Thank You FDL hamsters! July 22. My birthday, too.
SD, you will be hosting, right?
Mitt Zombie. *snicker*
That did the trick. Thank you very much.
Your birthday!? You gotta be shittin’ me. LOL
I should know sometime today. As usual with me there’s a story involved.
Thank you SouthernDragon for a sobering compilation this morning. And lest we forget, yesterday was horrible for firefighters in the south of NM as well as Colorado. My late news said that the Fort Collins area lost a record number of homes – we were getting horrible hot gusts of wind and they must have had worse – 150 homes, I can’t imagine.
Many of the NM forests are Native American ownership – last year the Santa Clara tribe lost nearly their entire watershed. Heartbreaking. And we’re still getting the messages that it is due to ‘faulty management’. Sorry folk, this is fossil fuel addiction coming home to bite us. If anyone manages and respects their forests in a proper way, it is the tribes.
Indeed. I’ll be 23 this year. *smirk*
Good morning, SD and all you other beautiful freedom-lovers. ;-)
Well I’d prefer that you host since you’ve got to be the most qualified person here on the subject, BUT…it may be more fun for you to participate without “working” at the same time.
Hey rc. How is the gf’s dog today?
Wolff’s asst had reached out to someone she knew. If he insists on hosting I can live with that. We’ll see.
Miss Molly is still standing! We decided to give her at least until the weekend. Thanks for asking, ysd. My gf Mary adopted two dogs 13 years ago, and they are both on their last legs. She is not good at letting go, and neither am I. Spent yesterday weeping for her dog, and all the other dogs I’ve lost. Why don’t the damn beasts outlive US!!??!! How inconsiderate they are.
It would be worse if they outlived us. No one can care for our loved pets better than we can.
When my vet tells me it’s time, it’s time. Hard to do but not fair to the animal to keep them around to delay our grief.
Glad it worked. I guess I was born lucky and stupid right at the same time…
Very wise.
Yeah, we’re trying to be real sensitive to her quality of life, and she still seems to be enjoying walks, getting stroked, and fresh-cooked chicken. ;-)
We accept the responsibility, it just sucks to be making the “life-or-death today” question.
Believe me, I know how ya feel and it gets worse with each one. That’s the price we pay for so many years of joy.
Makes it all more interesting; I love stories.
Good luck….my vet told me “you’ll know.” Im not completely sure that’s true, I had SD consultation, also, but it’s mostly true. Maybe you just know when you need more information….My best.
Check out parade and celebration in San Antonio.
Not too surprising it doesn’t get much attention in the north; it didn’t apply there.
In fact, it isn’t really an occasion where an event (like a battle, or a peace treaty or whatever) occurred, in a sense; it’s simply that because they were in the Confederacy, they didn’t get the news (even if the masters knew, which they might well not have, with the war disrupting communication), they weren’t going to tell their slaves the hated Yankee President had declared them emancipated.
Juneteenth is when the word was brought officially, and began to spread. And it was announced in Texas, so no surprise, either, that it’s a bigger deal here than elsewhere.
Oh, man, I’m sorry to hear about this. No question, it sucks, especially while you are waiting to see…
(In fact, I’m doing the same with my mildly tamed feral kitty, Smoodgie. Each morning that she doesn’t come down from the fence to eat, I ask myself if today is going to be the day. But so far, if I bring her the food, she dives in and eats with gusto.
But she looked sad to me this morning…maybe she was just sleepy. I hope so. It probably will be soon, but I’m not ready…)
It’s hard, rc, no question about it. No way to make it easier on the human who has to decide. My sympathies.
St Pete usually has a huge parade with parties afterward, etc. This year the group that runs the show is in turmoil cuz the new director wants people to go out and perform community service today instead of the parade. No parade today, regardless, and the AA community is pissed.
Heh, unconditional love ain’t free-who knew lol?
Thank you, dear. We know it’s just a matter of days.
Man, you got that right.
Thank you, teja, and my sympathies for your situation, as well. All us animal lovers are in the same boat eventually.
Hey, all…further on Juneteenth—I just heard (to my astonishment) on our local npr station that (of all people) our Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is going to file a bill to make Juneteenth a NATIONAL HOLIDAY!
(Boxturtle, Does Sen. KBH follow your posts?)
Well, she is a lame duck now, so perhaps she feels more free to do the right thing, instead of the f’ing batshit-crazy RW Repub thing. I’ve suspected she wasn’t as nuts as her party (now, Cornyn, I suspect is the real thing). I think that’s partly why she’s retiring. And the defeat for gov by Perry probably partly convinced her her party’s gone round the bend. Anyway, who’d'a thunk it?
Good afternoon, everyone. I am back from CA and began the morning fighting with AT&T who had disconnected my Internet access in my absence because of an unpaid bill (it wasn’t). They also had sent a “disconnect notice” which arrived in my absence. After an hour on the phone, all fixed now, but they got an earful about treating me like a deadbeat when I am never a minute late paying my bill. Hope to be back in a Diner booth in the morning. I missed you guys.
Welcome back! Seems like you have been gone forever. Just peeked in and saw your message. You get your pick of booths in the morning :) We missed you, too.
Sheesh. Sometimes it seems like anytime you go away, some stupid thing like that happens. I came home once to find my isp had gone under…everything lost. That’s when I opened the Yahoo email account.
Anyway, glad you’re back. And had a good, safe trip.
Thanks. It was very frustrating to start the day that way — actually, I discovered it when I got home last night at 11:00 p.m. after an exhausting travel day. Wonderful trip, glad to be back! But it is VERY hot here this week.
So sorry, really outrageous. Any free service to sweeten the mess?
From AT&T? It’ll be a wonder if the reconnect doesn’t appear on her next bill.
LOL. It had better not.
Hoping my body clock has been resetting itself today, so I can go to sleep before 2 a.m. Having a couple of glasses of wine to grease the skids into dreamland in a bit.