Having trouble viewing this email? Click here to view it online.Wednesday 8 February 2012
Henry A. Giroux | Book Burning in Arizona
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "[At] the present moment in American society, human solidarity and democratic values are scorned just as a moral response to the plight of the other is viewed with disdain and seen as a sign of weakness. Witness the culture of cruelty touted by the current run of Republican presidential candidates, who barely blink when asked about how capital punishment embodies the legacy of slavery, who unapologetically suggest that child-labor laws be suspended so poor youth of color can work as janitors in their schools, or who endlessly complain that the poor lack a work ethic and are undeserving of social protections."
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Ohio Lawmakers Introduced 33 Bills Based on ALEC Model Legislation
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) influence weighs heavy in the Ohio's GOP-controlled legislature ... Over the past year, Ohio lawmakers introduced 33 bills that are identical to or 'appear to contain' elements of the ALEC's infamous model legislation that promotes a pro-corporate agenda, according to a report released this week by watchdog groups. At least nine of the 33 bills have passed the State Legislature, including the now-defunct Senate Bill 5."
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Activists and Anarchists Speak for Themselves at Occupy Oakland
Susie Cagle, Truthout: "'When Oakland is under attack, what do we do?' 'Stand up, fight back!' ... This principle appears to be at the heart of recent critiques of 'anarchists,' 'Black Bloc' and the tactics some choose to employ in political protest, especially in Oakland. Chris Hedges' 'Black Bloc' takedown is only the most recent in a series of critiques bashing anarchists and 'diversity of tactics' within the national Occupy movement since January 28th's fog of tear gas has dissipated."
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Santorum Wins Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Shakes Up GOP Race
David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "Rick Santorum ... made a clean sweep of three Republican presidential nomination contests in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. The strong Santorum vote provided fresh evidence that 'Romney's is a troubled candidacy,' said Lawrence Jacobs, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. 'The outcome of the race is far from certain.'"
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US Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by Half
Tim Arango, The New York Times News Service: "Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country.... The Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag."
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Picking Up the Pieces From Military Sexual Assault
H. Patricia Hynes, Truthout: "Nearly 90 percent of soldiers wounded in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - some 35,000 - survived battle injuries, thanks to breakthroughs in US state-of-the art military medicine ... Neither the Department of Defense (DoD) nor the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), though, was prepared with the same cutting-edge treatment for the one in three women soldiers in those same wars - an estimated 70,000 - who were sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers."
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US Outrage Over Syria Veto at UN Rife With Hypocrisy
Stephen Zunes, Truthout: "Washington has been rife with condemnation at the decision by the governments of Russia and China to veto an otherwise unanimous UN Security Council resolution condemning the ongoing repression in Syria ... What is striking, however, is the response from US officials and pundits so roundly condemning the use of the veto by these two permanent members of the Security Council to protect the Syrian regime from accountability for its savage repression against its own citizens."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Negotiations to Extend the Payroll Tax Cut Have Once Again Stalled Out, and More
In today's On the News segment: Negotiations to extend the payroll tax cut have once again stalled out, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed legislation that will force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, Arizona rules (again) in favor of discrimination, and more.
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Too Dumb to Live? Executing People With Intellectual Disabilities
Robert Wilbur, Truthout: "The law generally does not protect intellectually disabled people. Prosecutors try to convince the jury that an intellectually disabled person CHOSE to commit a capital offense. An alternative strategy that prosecutors may use, instead of trying to demonstrate that an impaired defendant is normal, is to play on prejudices, misconceptions and fears ... with the goal of trying to convince the jury that the defendant is too dangerous to live."
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Syngenta PR's Weed-Killer Spin Machine: Investigating the Press and Shaping the "News" About Atrazine
Beau Hodai and Lisa Graves, PR Watch: "Documents recently unsealed as part of a major lawsuit against Syngenta, reveal how the global chemical company's PR team investigated the press and spent millions to spin news coverage and public perceptions in the face of growing concerns about potential health risks from the widely used weed-killer 'atrazine.' This story is about this PR campaign to influence the media ... and the Environmental Protection Agency in the midst of reviews of the weed-killer's potential to act as an endocrine disruptor."
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Membership in Unions Supporting Obama on Keystone Rejection Outnumbers Those Against
Elizabeth McGowan, InsideClimate News: "A barrage of industry-led advertising and lobbying urging President Obama to 'put jobs ahead of politics' has fueled the impression that labor unions universally champion the Keystone XL oil pipeline. But that myth was blown apart just minutes after the president rejected the $7 billion project on Jan. 18. That's when five labor unions that had kept low profiles on the pipeline ... issued a joint statement backing Obama's decision."
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
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"Trickle down" is not an economic theory; it's a self-enriching religion for the wealthiest amongst us.
The economists and pundits are legion who have challenged the notion that the amassing of wealth by a privileged few results in more jobs being created in the US. After all, if this were the case - at a time the richer are becoming even richer - why did we nearly just reach a depression?
This is a very complicated issue to adequately explore, but a book that touches upon a flashpoint area of this debate is "Illegal People" by Truthout contributor and labor specialist, David Bacon. It is the Truthout Progressive Pick of the Week and available with a minimum contribution, shipped directly by Truthout.
One of Bacon's central arguments is that globalized corporate trade is conducted to increase the profits of large corporate entities. The result is the exact opposite, in many cases, of trickle down. Due to trade agreements that allow corporations to place factories in the lowest cost country, creating near slave-labor conditions - as BuzzFlash at Truthout has shown - for workers who, for example, make almost all American high-tech products overseas.
This does not trickle down jobs to Americans; it exports American jobs and devalues the compensation and benefits of US jobs that remain. Furthermore, in terms of NAFTA and Mexico, it dumps subsidized American products - particularly agricultural - south of the border and renders many small farmers in Mexico and Central America unable to compete. This is just one of the factors that results in increased migration to the US: the need to survive.
The hue and cry about "immigration" (code word at this time for poor Mexicans and Central Americans) is not coming from corporations or the agricultural industry. They want more lower-cost workers that they can pretty much control with a minimal amount of regulation. In fact, there is currently a limited visa program for agricultural workers, and the Bush administration wanted to expand it to include a very large "guest worker" program. The translation of a guest worker is a migrant from south of the border who will work for just about any wage - and endure just about any working conditions - to survive, but they must leave the US after their "work" is done.
So, if we look at the corner of the business world concerning southern sphere migration to the US, we are not looking at trickle-down economics; we are looking at increasing corporate and big agricultural profits through the exploitation of labor.
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce members stir up resentment among Americans without jobs and those with very low-paying jobs by blaming US unemployment problems on Mexicans.
This is the political scapegoating of why dollars don't trickle down to American workers, who have actually increased productivity since the '90s, while wages have remained relatively stagnant. So, if the religion of trickle down doesn't deliver, it's the fault of "illegal immigrants" with brown skin, right?
Not really; it's the policy of US globalized companies to maximize profits by minimizing labor costs. The global economy, unleashed by labor-unfriendly free trade agreements, offers them that opportunity, damn the American worker.
As BuzzFlash noted in a recent commentary that included coverage of how Apple exploits overseas workers and builds almost all its branded image products offshore, one Apple executive told The New York Times, "We [Apple] don't have an obligation to solve America's problems." That was in response to Apple shipping so many potential US jobs overseas to slave-wage sweatshops; e.g., "90 percent of the parts of an iPhone are made outside the U.S."
The bait and switch here for the global multinationals is to cut jobs in the US, cut pay, make a bigger profit manufacturing overseas and sit on that profit or disburse it to shareholders. Americans consume the products, maybe assembled in a plant in Mexico that was formerly in the US.
Trickle down? The only thing that trickles down is wages in the US, and the decline of the manufacturing sector (despite some recent indications of a small revival - most notably by US automobile manufacturers). The salaries received by people who used to earn decent incomes have declined in far too many cases.
That's what comes of the Trickle Down religion.
Mark Karlin
Editor BuzzFlash at Truthout
Proposition 8 Is Unconstitutional. What's Next for the Anti-Gay Law?
Read the Article at The Nation
Democratic State Senator Fights Oklahoma "Personhood" Bill by Adding "Every Sperm Is Sacred" Clause
Read the Article at Jezebel
Komen Foundation's Brinker and Board, Not Just Karen Handel, Did In Planned Parenthood
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Backlash Against Birth Control Mandate Might Aid President
Read the Article at Roll Call
South Dakota Considering a Wisconsin-Style Ban on Public Sector Collective Bargaining
Read the Article at Stateline
World's Most Environmentally Outspoken President Forced to Resign at Gunpoint
Read the Article at Grist
Agent Orange Maker Monsanto Is Back in Vietnam
Read the Article at GlobalPost
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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