(Joe Bageant, DECEMBER 08, 2009)
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[NOTE by Lorenzo: I strongly urge you to click the above link and read this entire essay. The following is a quote from the end of the article.]

George W. Bush left office wearing the same smirk he came in with. Perhaps it’s congenital. But if Bush was smirking when he left office, he must now be convulsed in crazed hysterical laughter. His gang not only got away clean, but Obama carries on the dark Bush-Cheney legacy. And, almost as if to top the whole black escapade with a cherry of irony, the most inarticulate president in American history is now on the motivational speaking circuit at $200,000 a pop. Never let it be said that the Devil does not care for his own. . . . Will Americans ever rise up in defense of their own common well being through such things as education, health and a productive peace caring society? Nope. Because it has been seen to that socialism — the administration of the nation solely for the common good and benefit of all the people without preference or privilege — doesn’t stand a chance in America. . . .

» Continue reading “Barack promised change — and sure enough, things changed for the worse”

Don’t confuse “gifting” with “barter”. They are vastly different.

And here is a good overview video from last year’s burn:
» Continue reading “Gifting, why Burning Man is different”

Slides from this video may be found at:
apache67.blogspot.com

(: David Sherfinski, Washington, March 10, 2010)
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Loudoun ranks as the richest county in the United States, immediately followed by Fairfax and Howard counties, while Montgomery, traditionally one of the wealthiest, is now 10th. . . . Forbes magazine ranked eight other Washington-area counties in its list of the nation’s 25 wealthiest counties, far more than any other area in the country. The rankings are based on 2008 median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau. . . . “We’re so much better off here than other places,” he said. “It’s not like we’re talking about draconian cuts or anything.” . . . Northern Virginia and Fairfax also house government agencies and employers that have been less affected by the economic downturn than biotech-heavy Montgomery, Robertson said. . . . While other traditionally wealthy regions such as New York and San Francisco have suffered heavily in the recession, the Washington area benefits from the presence of the federal government and its contractors.

(David Sirota, AlterNet, July 21, 2010)
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Over the last few days, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have made the case that Harvard professor and Congressional Oversight Panel chairwoman Elizabeth Warren is too controversial a figure to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This, then, raises the revealing question of how Washington defines “controversial”? . . . » Continue reading “The new meaning of ‘controversial””

(Mira Luna, YES! Magazine, July 15, 2010)
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[COMMENT by Lorenzo: Here is the best idea I have seen in many years. It is perhaps the only way us Working Class People can break the chains of debt and feudalism imposed by the U.S. Central Bank, whose Federal Reserve Notes are merely a reminder that anyone who uses dollars is funding a massive war machine and enslaving their descendants.  ]

Unemployed poor folks got together to create time dollar stores and cooperative mills, farms, health care systems, foundries, repair and recycling facilities, distribution warehouses, and a myriad of other service exchanges. . . . Many of these were based on the hour as a unit of account, and often everyone’s hour was equal and could either be exchanged for another hour of service or its equivalent in goods.  . . . Modern forms of time exchange, called Timebanks and LETS (Local Employment Trading Systems), have been around since the 1980s. Now, with one in ten Americans unemployed (likely twice that, given recording problems), time exchanges are making a comeback. . . . Timebanks USA, a system of over 120 timebanks in the U.S. and a few other countries, was developed by activist lawyer Edgar Cahn as a way to help the underprivileged and underserved help each other through an organized system of reciprocity. In the following interview, Cahn explains the basic principles behind timebanks:
» Continue reading “Forget Money TimeBanking is the New Economy”

(John Hooper, The Guardian, 15 July 2010)
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[T]he Vatican stoked the anger of liberal Catholics and women’s groups by including a provision in its revised decree that made the “attempted ordination” of women one of the gravest crimes in ecclesiastical law. . . . The change put the “offence” on a par with the sex abuse of minors. . . . » Continue reading “Catholics Equate Women Priests with Sex Abuse of Children”

(Steve Elliott, News Junkie Post, July 12, 2010)
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[COMMENT by Lorenzo: I guess by now we should be used to the fact that young Mr. Obama has difficulty telling the truth. In fact, I can't think of a single campaign promise that he hasn't gone back on. From where I sit, Sarah Palin would be a better president simply because the Left wouldn't be sitting on their thumbs and letting her get away with the crap Obama is pulling on us. Hopefully he will only be a one-term White House resident.]

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has flouted Mendocino County, California’s newly enacted medical marijuana ordinance by raiding the first collective that had applied to the sheriff’s cultivation permit program. . . . A multi-agency federal task force descended on the property of Joy Greenfield, the first Mendo patient to pay the $1,050 application fee under the ordinance, which allows collectives to grow up to 99 plants provided they comply with certain regulations. . » Continue reading “Obama Goes Back On His Word — Raids Medical Marijuana Farm”