Seven months ago, after the encampments of Occupy Portland were shut down, a 24/7 vigil outside of City Hall was set up to bring light to the ban on camping and Portland’s serious homelessness issues. The Vigil has been occupied all day, all week since that time. For 33 days now Cameron Whitten, a former mayoral candidate and Occupy Portland activist extraordinaire, has been living at the Vigil and partaking in a hunger strike. Read an interview of Whitten from the Portland Mercury here.

In our last episode, the Vatican had told US nuns that they’re just spending too much time on the poor. Actually, that is not correct, what the Vatican told them is that because they don’t spend enough time speaking out against abortion, they are not toeing the line of the home office. And Bennie and the Jets have assigned a rather nasty Bishop from Seattle to take over the largest organization of nuns in the US to make sure that they clean up their act.

President Obama has been hammering the so called “Buffett Rule” as a key part of his 2012 campaign and an important way to distinguish himself from Republicans on issues of economic justice and deficit reduction. Obama was in Florida today pushing the Buffett Rule, while his administration released a new report on it. But it wasn’t a priority when the Democrats controlled Congress, and the chances they’ll control it next year are slim.

The Smithsonian magazine highlights — and supports — evolution in the cover story of their January issue. Online, they go even further, with additional information and links.

Cue the TheoCon heads exploding in five, four, three . . .

Gosh — preachers who have no problem railing about marriage equality and racial issues suddenly fall mute when they ponder preaching about the current economic mess. Can you say “Veal Pen Preacher”? Sure you can . . .

Add in a duplicitous visiting scholar from the Heritage Foundation who thinks Jesus preached predatory capitalism as the way of salvation, and you’ve got a nasty combination.

Whatever your thoughts on religion, that combination is truly toxic.

We’re Americans. We can dismiss the possibility we live in a banana republic as nonsense, right?

As the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs was holding a hearing on veterans’ healthcare, we sat down with Iraq vet Kris Goldsmith of Long Island who chose to take his own life rather than be “stop-lossed.” Kris puts a face on the latest, horrific, government statistic, namely, that deaths from suicide may exceed combat deaths among soldiers who’ve served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Watch this interview sitting down, then get up and DO SOMETHING.

Americans are working more, real wages are going down. American wealth inequality is greater today than in the pre-World War One age we called the Gilded Age. How did it get so lop-sided? We ask our roundtable participants, Ed Ott, Saru Jayaraman, and Tamara Draut.