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Why Privatizers Look Forward to 2017

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By Donald Cohen / Capital & Main

“We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.”

That’s what Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s chief strategist and cofounder of the website Breitbart, said a few weeks ago about Trump’s plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure.

That pretty much fits with what we know so far. Trump wants to “invest” $1 trillion in fixing and building roads, bridges, water pipes and other infrastructure. But by “invest” he means using massive tax breaks to convince private investors to spend the money.

As Michelle Chen at The Nation writes, “The goal isn’t fixing bridges so much as fixing the corporate tax codes to promote privatization and unregulated construction with virtually no public input.”

  [Read more…]

US Spy Leaders Won’t Brief Electors Even as Majority Want Vote Delay

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New poll shows majority public support for delaying Electoral College vote on Monday

By Jon Queally / Common Dreams

Amid a nationwide protest effort aimed at convincing members of the Electoral College to reject Donald Trump and serious concerns about alleged interference in the U.S. election by Russia’s government, a new poll out Sunday reveals majority support for delaying Monday’s scheduled vote until electors are given an official intelligence briefing on the matter.

According to a YouGov poll conducted on behalf of the advocacy group Avaaz, 52% percent of respondents either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that Monday’s “vote should be delayed until the Electors can be briefed about the allegations of Russian hacking.”   [Read more…]

The Days after November 8

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By Linda Hutchison / Head Wind Journal

First morning, I wake up so sad. My mind is not moving well, under a dark cloud.

I cannot focus on my writing, do not have the heart for it.

I drive to the library neighborhood a mile away, dropping a memoir I just finished on living with heart disease into the return bin. I read it because I know the author and because I figure heart disease will get me eventually. Dad dead of heart attack, 52, uncle 54, his daughter, my only cousin, at 54. I’m interested in knowing more about the vegan diet the author adopted. The book offers some helpful information, books to read, and also confirms my suspicion I don’t want to write long memoirs about my emotional journeys.

I consider walking around the bay. It shines bright at the end of the street. Too bright, too harsh! So I stick to the still shady side of neighborhood streets, walking past old bungalows, new condos, apartment buildings.

I pass a construction site where workers are talking, some in Spanish, some in English. I wonder how they all voted, if they did. If any are fearful, any emboldened. I pass a young father wheeling a stroller. He smiles at me, a sad smile.   [Read more…]

Twenty Point Guide to Defending Democracy Under a Trump Presidency

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By Timothy Snyder / Facebook

Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today:

1. Do not obey in advance.

Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

2. Defend an institution.

Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don’t protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.   [Read more…]

Open Letter to Electors: Exercise Judgement and Choice

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Esteemed Electors:

We, a bipartisan coalition of Americans including Electors, scholars, officials, and concerned citizens write to you in the spirit of fellowship, out of our sense of patriotism, and with great urgency.

There are times in the life of a nation when extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. Now is a such time, and your courage and leadership are required.

Never in our Republic’s history has there been a President-apparent comparable to Donald Trump. His inauguration would present a grave and continual threat to the Constitution, to domestic tranquility, and to international stability:   [Read more…]

Immigration: Fairness in California with Three Groundbreaking Bills

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CA stands firm in upholding its values of fairness and due process for all with SB6, AB3, & SB54.

By Carmen Iguina / ACLU San Diego & Imperial Counties

In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, President-Elect Donald J. Trump said that he planned to deport some three million immigrants—allegedly all “criminal immigrants.” Many people, myself included, were alarmed to hear this. The details of these new mass-deportation policies remain unclear, although some reports have surfaced that the policies would include anyone who has ever been arrested, even if the person was later found innocent or the charges were eventually dropped.

But California is moving in the opposite direction and instead undertaking efforts to make things fairer for immigrant and Muslim communities. Due process, the idea that everyone deserves fair treatment by our government whenever any of their civil liberties are at stake, is a cornerstone of our democracy and one of the most cherished American values.   [Read more…]

Patti Smith Sings For Dylan At Nobel Ceremony

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By Abby Zimet / Common Dreams

At a Stockholm ceremony this weekend, rocker and longtime colleague Patti Smith accepted Bob Dylan’s Nobel in Literature by offering up to the glittering audience a searing, timely rendition of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Evidently rattled by the grand proceedings, Smith faltered on the second stanza, put her hands to her face and apologized to the audience – murmuring “I’m so nervous” in a lovely human moment – before gathering her strength and delivering a scorching, powerhouse performance.

Smith’s appearance in lieu of Dylan capped months of sometimes clamorous debate about whether the blue-eyed son’s decades of ineffable poetry are or are not literature – and, later, if his delay in responding and his failure to appear was or was not arrogance. The uproar was best laid to rest by one Committee member who serenely noted, “He is who he is.”   [Read more…]

Russia + Trump: Oil and Money Mix Nicely

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By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

Oil and natural gas aren’t just a part of Russia’s economy, they are the economy. Up until 2014, oil accounted for 50 percent of revenue going into the budget. As long as oil and gas prices were high, Putin was able to float along, using oil profits to prop up the Russian economy and his own popularity. But as oil and gas fell, so did Putin’s ability to pretend that his policies were bringing improvement. Since 2014, the value of the ruble has plunged to a third of its former value against the dollar.

The reason is the same as the reason the coal industry is going under: fracking. Fracking for oil and natural gas has filled the US market to overflowing. It’s the reason that gas is $2 at the pump, the reason that the largest coal companies in the world are bankrupt, and the reason that over 160 oil companies have also gone bankrupt this year. Prices are so low, companies and countries that depend on fossil fuels for revenue are feeling a huge squeeze.   [Read more…]

The PangeaSeed Murals of Local Ocean Beach Artist, Celeste Byers

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By South OB Girl / OB Rag

Local artist Celeste Byers has done ten murals for PangeaSeed Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans.

Some of the murals have been in San Diego and some have been abroad. PangeaSeed mural projects aim to raise awareness about different issues effecting our oceans. As an artist for PangeaSeed she has traveled to Sri Lanka, Vietnam, New Zealand, and several cities in Mexico.   [Read more…]

Numbers Tell the Story of Standing Rock

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The federal government on Sunday denied the easement needed to complete the Dakota Access pipeline’s route under the Missouri River.

The announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers came as veterans streamed into the camps over the weekend in cars and buses to offer their support to the tribe in its months-long battle. The veterans event had raised more than $1 million dollars in response to violent assaults on the demonstrators by law enforcement. The veterans said they would shield the demonstrators.   [Read more…]

How to Be a Democratic Party Insider: California ADEM Elections

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By RL Miller / Daily Kos

Want to get more involved with the party, and know that the deadline for California Assembly District Delegates is December 8? Or, want to get involved but didn’t even know that this Thursday is the deadline?

First, why be a party insider? Officially, you’ll be a delegate to the California Democratic Party convention, meaning that you get to go to Sacramento May 17-19 and mingle, drink, schmooze, network, and — importantly — vote on resolutions. If you want to change the party from the inside, you need to become a party insider — by getting elected. The cost is $20. Elections are January 7 and 8, one in each of the state’s 80 Assembly districts. Seven men and seven women will be elected from each district — that’s 1120 people — and they are commonly known as ADEMs.   [Read more…]

Media Complicity Is Key to Blacklisting Websites

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By Norman Soloman / Common Dreams

We still don’t have any sort of apology or retraction from the Washington Post for promoting “The List” — the highly dangerous blacklist that got a huge boost from the newspaper’s fawning coverage on November 24. The project of smearing 200 websites with one broad brush wouldn’t have gotten far without the avid complicity of high-profile media outlets, starting with the Post.

On Thursday — a week after the Post published its front-page news article hyping the blacklist that was put out by a group of unidentified people called PropOrNot — I sent a petition statement to the newspaper’s executive editor Martin Baron.

“Smearing is not reporting,” the RootsAction petition says. “The Washington Post’s recent descent into McCarthyism — promoting anonymous and shoddy claims that a vast range of some 200 websites are all accomplices or tools of the Russian government — violates basic journalistic standards and does real harm to democratic discourse in our country. We urge the Washington Post to prominently retract the article and apologize for publishing it.”   [Read more…]

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