20 October 2011
20 October 2011
NYPD IS JUST MAKING SHIT UP ON THE FLY…
1626 by Jeff HessWe were taken in a van to the seventh precinct – the scary part about that is that the protesters and lawyers marched to the first precinct, which handles Hudson Street, but in the van the police got the message to avoid them by rerouting me. I understood later that the protesters were lied to about our whereabouts, which seemed to me to be a trickle-down of the Bush-era detention practice of unaccountable detentions.
The officers who had us in custody were very courteous, and several expressed sympathy for the movements’ aims. Nonetheless, my partner and I had our possessions taken from us, our ID copied, and we were placed in separate cells for about half an hour. It was clear that by then the police knew there was scrutiny of this arrest so they handled us with great courtesy, but my phone was taken and for half an hour I was in a faeces- or blood-smeared cell, thinking at that moment the only thing that separates civil societies from barbaric states is the rule of law – that finds the prisoner, and holds the arresting officers and courts accountable.
Another scary outcome I discovered is that, when the protesters marched to the first precinct, the whole of Erickson Street was cordoned off – “frozen” they were told, “by Homeland Security”. Obviously if DHS now has powers to simply take over a New York City street because of an arrest for peaceable conduct by a middle-aged writer in an evening gown, we have entered a stage of the closing of America, which is a serious departure from our days as a free republic in which municipalities are governed by police forces.
20 October 2011
20 October 2011
20 October 2011
A ONE PERCENT TAX ON THE ONE PERCENT…
0408 by Jeff HessRepublican presidtential hopeful Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 sales tax wouldn’t touch the 1 percent because it wouldn’t tax the category of purchases they make most: financial instruments. A 1 percent sales tax on the 1 percent, however, would raise up to $175 billon a year by tapping into a global slush fund that the 1 percent have played with centuries. This 1 percent transactional tax, or Robin Hood Tax, could become a central pillar of the Occupy Wall Street movementd and I like it.
From Slate:
The magazine that sparked the Occupy Wall Street movement is now trying to rally it around a single, clear demand: a “Robin Hood tax.”
Adbusters, a Vancouver-based magazine with an anti-consumerist bent, is calling on its supporters to participate in a global march on Oct. 29. It has proposed a Twitter hashtag, #ROBINHOOD, for the occasion. And it has laid out a policy proposal: a 1 percent tax on all financial transactions and currency trades.
The tax is not new or even revolutionary, but it is a way to deman the 1 percent, in part, carry their weight as memebers of society despite their chosen isolation from the little people. It should not be the only plank on our platform, but it should be a central one.
19 October 2011
JOIN: MEDIA-DEMOCRAT-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX…!
0928 by Jeff HessI nearly fell over laughing when I heard this. What the fuck is the Media-Democrat-Industrial Complex? Has Rush [Limbaugh] been reading Noam Chomsky books on the side? Calling any group that includes me and Glenn Greenwald an “industrial complex” is extremely high-concept comedy. We should have t-shirts made…
(Also, I love the phrase “emails have been found.” Actually, it was more like “a sleazy cyber-provocateur and amateur FBI informant stole the emails.” But who’s quibbling?)
Anyway, if you listen to the whole Rush segment, you can hear frustration and croaking, bullfroggish anxiety in his voice at the fact of so many different politicians capitulating, at least verbally, to OWS. He’s sensing that politicians are seeing danger in the “99%” concept, and he’s expressing dismay that everyone from Mitt Romney to Barack Obama is now trying hard to position himself as not being in the 1%.
I definitely think we need t-shirts, or at least buttons proclaiming: I’m part of the MDIC!
19 October 2011
LEMONY SNICKET ON OCCUPY WALL STREET…
0826 by Jeff HessFrom OccupyWriters:
Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance
1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.
2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.
3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.
19 October 2011
18 October 2011
ROLDO RIGHTS: PLAIN DEALER STILL ON ITS KNEES…
1924 by Jeff HessTwo days in a row now the Plain Dealer editorially slapped away at working people. This time at Cleveland teachers. Target the workers.
Who do they think buys their newspaper?
Having never carefully examined a major drain on the Cleveland schools – tax abatements and exemptions – and having never acquired a mindset that might question the ease with which the school system has been depleted of tens of millions of dollars of tax revenues, what does the PD do? It slaps teachers.
It won’t go where the money is. Why not? We know.
It says “Cleveland teachers must accept less.” That’s their editorial headline.
Blame the teachers. Blame the teachers union. Don’t look anywhere else. They might find the real culprits. Horses have blinders for a purpose. So do editorial writers.
Teachers have become the punching bag of Republicans and editorial writers,
“A dangerous game of chicken is being played Continue Reading »
18 October 2011
17 October 2011
ROLDO RIGHTS…
1341 by Jeff HessWhen the Plain Dealer endorsed John Kasich for Governor it said it did so “with trepidation.” We soon found out why. Yet on Sunday, the Cleveland newspaper endorsed Governor John Kasich’s anti-government, anti-worker and “flawed” SB 5 by urging voters to vote “Yes” on Issue 2. What a crock.
One mistaken endorsement earns another from our daily newspaper.
“Does he understand that being a Fox News provocateur is not the same as being the leader of a diverse, complex state,” the PD editorial asked a year ago when they endorsed this train wreck. All evidence says that he doesn’t understand that. However, the PD rewards him with this gift.
What Gov. Kasich did with his legislation to dump all over public workers was exactly that – provocateur nonsense. But that’s his style. He seems to have become Continue Reading »
17 October 2011
PROTESTING CITIZENS UNITED…
1132 by Jeff HessFrom The Washington Post:
A Supreme Court spokeswoman says 19 people were arrested Sunday afternoon after they refused to leave the grounds of the court.
Ann Wilcox, an attorney and legal adviser to the protesters, says [Cornel] West was among those arrested. West attended the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall before joining the October 2011 Stop the Machine protest in Washington’s Freedom Plaza.
In my opinion, the Supreme Court of the United States decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will be the linchpin that the #Occupy Movemewnt finally pulls.
17 October 2011
ELIZABETH WARREN KNOWS TOO MUCH…?
0730 by Jeff HessSuzanna Andrews does an excellent job in the November issue of Vanity Fair of bringing together what may be the core message of the #Occupy movement by examining how Elizabeth Warren came to stand next to President Barack Hussein Obama in the Rose Garden on 18 July and what happened after the president concluded.
At the end of his remarks, Obama turned to Warren and kissed her on the cheek. She smiled gamely, though if there are kisses a woman can do without, this was one of them. A Judas kiss, some would say.
While you must read the piece in its entirety to fully appreciate Warren, I particularly found two passages telling.
It was in 1979 that Warren had her Damascene conversion—the experience that would lead her to become the nation’s top authority on the economic pressures facing the American middle class, and trigger her passionate advocacy. In 1978, Congress had passed a law that made it easier for companies and individuals to declare bankruptcy. Warren decided to investigate the reasons why Americans were ending up in bankruptcy court. “I set out to prove they were all a bunch of cheaters,” she said in a 2007 interview. “I was going to expose these people who were taking advantage of the rest of us.” What she found, after conducting with two colleagues one of the most rigorous bankruptcy studies ever, shook her deeply. The vast majority of those in bankruptcy courts, she discovered, were from hardworking middle-class families, people who lost jobs or had “family breakups” or illnesses that wiped out their savings. “It changed my vision,” she said.
And:
Speaking from a car on her way from one campaign event to another, Warren told me that the stakes are too high for her not to run, too high not to try to continue the fight “for the middle class.” Too high not to try to bring it into the belly of the beast, to the floor of the U.S. Congress. Middle-class families “are getting hammered and you know Washington doesn’t get it,” she said. “G.E. doesn’t pay any taxes and we are asking college kids to take on even more debt to get an education, and asking seniors to get by on less. These aren’t just economic questions. These are moral questions.”
Although heavily lobbied by leading Democrats to run, Warren was warned by many that the fight would be brutal. Even her brother David told her, “Don’t do this, it’s too nasty.” Looking back on her time in Washington, though, and the months she spent setting up and fighting for the C.F.P.B., she says, “I’ve done brutal.”
Somehow I think Meg Ryan (as Army Captain Karen Emma Walden in Courage Under Fire) kind of says it all here…
17 October 2011
17 October 2011
17 October 2011
THE THREE-MINUTE THESIS…
0450 by Jeff HessNow, if we could accurately apply this rule to legislation…
17 October 2011
YET ANOTHER AMAZING SISTER-IN-LAW…
0449 by Jeff HessSherri Hess runs for City Auditor of Marietta, Ohio…
From my hometown Marietta Times:
Sherri Hess has worked in the City of Marietta Auditor’s Office for 30 years. This is the sort of priceless experience that any private company would fight to retain and the citizens of Marietta should also fight to retain it by voting for Sherri Hess for auditor.
The importance of knowing who is in charge of safeguarding the city’s financial resources cannot be overstated. The city auditor keeps the city’s checkbooks and insures that every expenditure that is made complies with state law and city of Marietta ordinances. The key question facing voters is whether they want Sherri’s experienced leadership overseeing those important duties or whether they want an on-the-job trainee performing them.
Beyond her professional knowledge and expertise in accounting and auditing, Sherri Hess has a great attitude of customer service. In her tenure in the auditor’s office she has handled every issue that I’ve brought to that office promptly and with courtesy.
I urge every Marietta voter to vote for Sherri Hess for city auditor.
Bob Kirkbride
Marietta
