Front Line Workers Suffer by AWOL Leadership

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Saturday June 27, 2020 · 7:41 AM PDT

2020/06/27 · 07:41

by cartoonist Signe Wilkinson at the Philadelphia Inquirer

What good is a trillion dollar military defense that is stuck on the bench during the Covid-19 attack because of an AWOL Commander in Chief and Congress? Meanwhile, the real coronavirus frontline people are dying daily. A real leader would have transferred resources and personnel nationally to help at the true front lines across the country instead of sending unmarked, armed-to-the-teeth soldiers to battle peaceful protesters in the streets, committing war crimes in the process. This is what people mean when they say to defund the military- they mean get the resources to where the real need is.

As of this week, 713 healthcare workers have died in the line of duty. (I heard about one doctor who was literally helping patients over the phone while on his own deathbed), Over 109 food service people who have gotten sick from covid-19 have also died. This is in addition to 82 grocery workers and 40 corrections officers as of this week. Tens of thousands more frontline workers have gotten sick. There are many more frontline areas as well. These fatalities are all being tracked, but they are not being publicized much.

Get someone-anyone- in charge. We're being overwhelmed by a virus that we are daily finding out does way more damage to people than cold-or-flu-like symptoms. The supreme irony forever will be how the richest country in history succumbed to a bug that the national leadership found to be too trifling to be bothered with. TrumpCo.'s part in all this is that by its inaction, they have brought this horrific judgement upon us.

Beginnings:

Medicare for All

Federally Guaranteed Jobs Program/ Green New Deal/ Infrastructure Work

Debt Relief for the People

Financial Reform

Otherwise, I worry that variations on the Final Solution remedies will be applied instead, just like at LaFayette Park. When our leaders live in fear, we are all screwed badly.

To those of you in leadership positions who stomped all over one another in your career ladder climbs to the top, either shit or get off the pot. Time’s up and you’ll never make bank again unless you can quit telling us what can’t be done and actually do something.

Now

What's so special about the US?

jcrit

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Thursday September 05, 2019 · 6:03 PM PDT

2019/09/05 · 18:03

It sure feels like clobberin' time ahead at the polls.

Hundreds of years ago- in my history it was called the Age of Enlightenment- an idea germinated that eventually became the basis of any legitimate and morally right government: that it exists by the consent of the people governed. Democracy!

It took years of blood, sweat, and tears, but the United States became the first sovereign nation with a public government. Up to this time, sovereign power had been claimed by royalty and feudal entities. But the US was of, by and for the people.

That is the idea that Marianne Williamson speaks of so respectfully. A public government that was destined, after still more blood, sweat and tears, to become the securer and defender of human rights:

YouTube Video

That mandate- by definition, THE cornerstone- is listed in the very preamble to the US Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Well, that is not happening today; in fact, it has not been happening in a non-dysfunctional way, uhhhhhhh, ever. For that to happen, those among the royalty (white supremacists in today’s lexicon) and the feudal entities (corporations today) have to stop working so feverishly to hobble public government. There are too many national-scale crises going unaddressed, because the US is being led by people who could care less for the public government. It’s very sobering to think that it could disappear from America entirely.

The Wisconsin ICE Sweeps of 2018 will not be forgotten.

It is the American Dream dying that has the American Taliban screaming for blood. But for most sentient people the situation is more like the words of Nicole Horseherder:

Our leaders don’t realize that the American dream is no longer the big house with the white fence and new car in the drive. The American dream is clean air and pure water and a sustainable economy based on clean technology and renewable energy.

Clearer words were never said! It is the idea of supporting public government that soothes the gut-wrenching feeling that comes from witnessing it being pirated daily. I’m talking to you, DNC blacklisters and fixers!

In other words, nothing has changed since time immemorial, but today is still today, and I for one would sure love to be able to hand off a better public government to today’s children and beyond.

Thanks, I needed to get that fracking GOP-lite cadre off my chest and get to the heart of the matter.

A Headspinning Experience

jcrit

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Monday May 13, 2019 · 5:00 PM PDT

2019/05/13 · 17:00

Up to date news about the siege of the Venezuelan embassy in Washington DC has been showing up in a nice diversity of places, and from several dedicated journalists reporting from the streets. Check out Real News or Daily Kos itself. Yesterday, I Googled “Venezuelan embassy”, with a time constraint of the “past hour”, hoping to find the latest scoop. Instead, I found this headline….

Maduro's Foes Fill Embassies in Venezuela as Crisis Deepens

….repeated at least 50 times, served from different newspaper domains across the land. It’s an AP story. The linked headline is to a Google search page. The results show what a media monoculture we really are living in. It made my head spin, which is not all that easy to do. Color me green for feeling sick to my stomach over it even now, 24 hours later. I know this consolidation has been going on for quite some time, but it is so effing real to see it in the guts of the internet during a simple google search- commandeered by the lords of monoculture- manufacturing consent once again. It makes me feel like I do when I think of how local schools cooperated with last fall’s ICE sweep. Children are now growing up through all this piggery. They are, and frankly have been, growing up to see the normalization of fascism in the USA every day this administration is left to continue.

This story is about the manhunt, by Venezuelan authorities, for the traitors who were responsible for the most recent coup attempt there. It is also a distraction from the ongoing embassy siege in Washington, where anti-democratic thugs are being allowed to prevent peaceful supporters of the defenders inside the building from delivering food and medicine, and ordering the friggin’ power company to turn off the electricity, all with the de facto approval of the secret service.

The administration’s crimes are much more than Kids Still in Cages anymore, and it’s getting worse every day they are allowed to continue.

My Dissent to Judge Boasberg's Order Denying the DAPL Injunction

jcrit

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Sunday March 19, 2017 · 4:54 PM PDT

2017/03/19 · 16:54

Despite my belief that judicial actions in the US require a law degree to decipher, I decided to address Judge James Boasberg’s May 7 denial of an injunction against further activity on the Dakota Access Pipeline. It took quite a while to articulate it in a way that a regular person and a legal-minded person can understand and validate. Since I am not a lawyer, it took even longer for me to decide to post it, until I remembered all the water protectors are still going strong. This is for them. I only wish Judge Boasberg would bother to read it as well. Also, we really need to make the legal system more, not less, accessible to all.

Here is his order:

Judge Boasberg Order of March 7, 2017:
"As the Court concludes that the extraordinary relief requested is not appropriate in light of both the equitable doctrine of laches and the Tribeʼs unlikelihood of success on the merits, it will deny the Motion." - Civil Action No. 16-1534 (JEB)

Here is my dissent:

1.) Define the doctrine of laches. This is the earliest reference to laches available through Wikipedia: "Vigilantibus non dormientibus æquitas subvenit ("Equity aids the vigilant, not the sleeping ones [that is, those who sleep on their rights]" -Ibrahim, Ashraf Ray (April 1997). "The Doctrine of Laches in International Law". Virginia Law Review. 83 (3): 647–692. JSTOR 1073651

2.) Summary of Tribes' timeliness: "The Corps did not hold 389 meetings with Tribes. A significant portion of that '389' number were requests from Tribes to the Corps seeking information about the proposed pipeline and the Corpsʼ process for reviewing it, raising concerns and objections, and requesting meetings to discuss those concerns—many of which were ignored by the Corps.
The Tribe participated fully in the NEPA process. The Tribe submitted three lengthy sets of technical and legal comments on the December 2015 draft EA, comprising hundreds of pages, raising objections and seeking better analysis of spill risks and the Tribeʼs treaty rights.
The Tribe sought to protect its rights when no one else would. The Tribe refused to get out of DAPLʼs way and allow them to do something the Tribe thought was illegal and immoral. Neither the Corps nor DAPL ever explained why, if the pipeline was so safe, they didnʼt select the alternative route and cross the Missouri River north of Bismarck where the river is narrower." — http:// earthjustice.org/features/faq-standing-rock-litigation

3.) My reply regarding the spirituality plea: The main watchword of the water protector camps was "prayer". In other words, the very existence of the camps was the expression of spirituality in the cultural practices of the Sioux people. This alone should demonstrate a rebuttal of the doctrine of laches. Even the Oceti Sakowin came together in prayer at camp, to determine if the current events applied to prophecies. The fact that the Court invoked the doctrine of laches is an attempt to refute reality, and with the help of the authorities and their bulldozers to depopulate and then obliterate the camps, demonstrates a disregard for human and civil rights that is astonishingly savage.
     The Standing Rock Sioux people have already succeeded on the merits, namely the presence of the Sacred Stones and other camps, that in a matter of weeks amounted to being the 14th largest community in North Dakota, and which the governments of Morton County, North Dakota, and the United States depopulated and then obliterated using trumped-up rationales. The US District Court has chosen to estoppel the spiritual significance of the camps in determining its order. I believe a sturdier rendition of your conclusion would be to include that fact for all to see, and that these two actions, namely, the attack and destruction of the camps, and the estoppel of what the camps stood for may be seen as willful blindness to the 24/7 engagement by the tribes and camps, for generations, and throughout this time of fighting against the pipeline. Such traumatic acts as these leaves one in total shock.
     As it has so many times before, the court chose to use the cover of legal maneuvering to trivialize the fact that a spiritual effort has been in existence all across treaty lands all this time. The court, being part of the larger community, should have stipulated the reality of the camps before even commencing the case. The only ones sleeping here were the American people; the water protectors have been as vigilant about defending their rights as humanly possible.
     "Vigilantibus non dormientibus æquitas subvenit ", or to better paraphrase the truth in this case, "equity favors the Sioux, whose vigilance is acknowledged, and whose rights are inviolate." Your order would make that abundantly clear to all who would assert otherwise, and the injunction could now be in place.

Merry Christmas!

jcrit

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Wednesday December 24, 2014 · 8:20 PM PST

2014/12/24 · 20:20

Merry Christmas, a heart-felt Thanks, and a prayer for a good New Year.

Are you educated about the Path to Peace?

jcrit

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Saturday August 31, 2013 · 8:10 PM PDT

2013/08/31 · 20:10

Eleven years ago I made this in honor of all the people who endured, and all the peacemakers of the world. It's for all to see, it's the truth, undead, articulated just as surely as Prism, just as hopefully as can be.

Many will call this cynical, but I know it is just the truth. (hint): If it were cynicism, it would have different music accompanying it.

But if people are offended anyway, then tough shit.

War is too late, but not necessary

jcrit

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Saturday December 12, 2009 · 5:41 AM PST

2009/12/12 · 05:41

Lazy talk is not for a soldier in the battle of words. But if it is really peace you desire, then strain to understand each other's true meaning.

Poll

1 votes Show Results

I will send this diary to my senator

1 votes Vote Now!

I will send this diary to my senator

For sure

1 vote

Indubitably

0 votes

Hell yes

0 votes

Yip-per

0 votes

Affirmative

0 votes

That's a go

0 votes

Yes

0 votes

With gusto

0 votes

Yesterday

0 votes

Eventually

0 votes

Ride for Obama

jcrit

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Wednesday November 05, 2008 · 4:51 AM PST

2008/11/05 · 04:51

It was friggin' windy yesterday. The flags all look like moon-flags. The riders went all the way to the polling place at the chapter house, about 10 miles. Voting in Navajoland is a time of socializing and eating good food. National voting is a serious matter here (as important as Chapter president), because it is federal policy that impacts tribal sovereignty- the perennial number one issue. Watch it and weep like Jesse Jackson weeped.

jcrit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday August 12, 2008 · 4:42 PM PDT

2008/08/12 · 16:42

For the past 7.6 years, the Federal judiciary has been proactively packed with conservative jurists. This past week has been a preview of what we can expect to see from them.

1.) This one. (Paraphrase: Intentionally using a jackhammer outside the church every Sunday may hurt worshippers, but it is not illegal)

2.) This one. (Paraphrase: Public sector trustee responsibility is less than ordinary trustee responsibility)

3.) This one.(Paraphrase: Treason is now legal if a government official commits it)

4.) This one. (Paraphrase: Screw those AK fishermen and natives even more)

jcrit

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Sunday May 11, 2008 · 12:40 PM PDT

2008/05/11 · 12:40

Synopsis: I consider myself an intelligent working-class Democrat. The Bush tax cut has resulted in a suppressed Multiplier Effect, causing economic upheaval and loss of concern for moral hazard, so that today we stand on the brink of post-industrial collapse.

Last week I received my $600 tax rebate. I spent it, since I have no debts or savings account at the bank. The people that received that $600 also did something with that same amount of money. By the third degree of transacting that money, it has been pretty much dissolved into the economy, yet very much active.

The repeated use of a given amount of money is called The Multiplier Effect- or just The Multiplier. The speed at which the Multiplier is working is a measure of the effectiveness of the government’s Stimulus Plan, its productivity as an economic tool. Although it is the basest measure of the society when simple money is used as the measure, the original idea was a simple one: a more productive Multiplier means more economic activity, more jobs, etc.

jcrit

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Sunday January 14, 2007 · 2:13 PM PST

2007/01/14 · 14:13

title=
Bush and Co. continue to destroy basic democratic traditions in the US. One of the latest is the erosion of the public comment process. In the development of coal resources on publice and native lands in the desert Southwest, the tried-and-true town hall meeting is now quietly being replaced with the Orwellian-named "Open House" meeting. This travesty of democracy has just happened in Northern AZ communities, concerning the Black Mesa Coal Mining Environmental Impact Statement. Below the fold, take a look at how it works.

jcrit

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Sunday December 31, 2006 · 6:19 AM PST

2006/12/31 · 06:19

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.”
Doris Lessing

There are still many factories in the US that have not dissolved away only to reappear in foreign lands. These factories, however, go by another, less mechanistic name: Public Schools. It could change, however, in the blink of an eye if we can agree to abandon the factory model of education.

Poll

42 votes Show Results

Is public education is worth supporting?

42 votes Vote Now!

Is public education is worth supporting?

Yes- a thousand times YES!

26 votes

Yes- but only when the conflicts of interest are resolved

2 votes

Yes- but get rid of the friggin', Pavlovian bells!

10 votes

No- too many unresolvable conflicts of interest

0 votes

No- it's a dinosaur in the 21st century

2 votes

No- a thousand times NO!

2 votes

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Front Line Workers Suffer by AWOL Leadership

What's so special about the US?

A Headspinning Experience

My Dissent to Judge Boasberg's Order Denying the DAPL Injunction

Merry Christmas!

Are you educated about the Path to Peace?

War is too late, but not necessary

Ride for Obama

This Week's Preview: The Coming Judicial Injustice

People Shackled: The Multiplier Effect Suppressed

Public Comments Meetings- BushCo Style

America’s Public School System: Creating Aliens Through Alienation