Global
This letter is in response to the articles covering the JP Morgan Chase
investment debacle.
Well Mr. Dimon, it looks like you and your company have landed in the rough. This is because of the same type of stupidity and hubris that helped to cause the Great Recession is now déjà vu all over again. Now what? Layoffs? Did someone say layoffs? Sir, I've worked in the finance industry for the better part of 16 years and have never witnessed such a reckless disregard for the investor's money as this.
Well Mr. Dimon, it looks like you and your company have landed in the rough. This is because of the same type of stupidity and hubris that helped to cause the Great Recession is now déjà vu all over again. Now what? Layoffs? Did someone say layoffs? Sir, I've worked in the finance industry for the better part of 16 years and have never witnessed such a reckless disregard for the investor's money as this.
Anti-choice Representatives will soon vote on the "Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act" (H.R. 3541). This dangerous bill would deny women of color access to reproductive care and force providers to racially profile patients, or else possibly face five years in prison for providing abortion services to women of certain races. That's right, five years in prison!
Tell your Members of Congress to oppose H.R. 3541, the "Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act," and protect access to abortion care for all women.
Tell your Members of Congress to oppose H.R. 3541, the "Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act," and protect access to abortion care for all women.
The following is a photographic essay from the recent "NoNATO" demonstrations in Chicago.
Freedom of the press: a concept lost on the club-wielding Chicago Police Dept.
And the award for bravery this past weekend goes to these kids. Undeterred by an arbitrary police order to disperse- and thus relinquish their rights to free speech and to freely assemble- this group of young protestors decided that, even in the face of threats of violence, they would hold their ground and defend their right to be there and have their voices heard. This was taken just moments before a flurry of CPD batons would connect with their bodies.
Freedom of the press: a concept lost on the club-wielding Chicago Police Dept.
And the award for bravery this past weekend goes to these kids. Undeterred by an arbitrary police order to disperse- and thus relinquish their rights to free speech and to freely assemble- this group of young protestors decided that, even in the face of threats of violence, they would hold their ground and defend their right to be there and have their voices heard. This was taken just moments before a flurry of CPD batons would connect with their bodies.
The strict rule of law is an ideal and a fantasy. Conflicting and archaic words must be interpreted, and doing so is an art, not a science.
But there is an enormous chasm between honest attempts to approach the ideal of compliance with written law, and open disregard for it.
It is becoming standard practice for our government to enforce laws selectively or not at all, to openly defy laws, to enact laws in violation of the higher law called the Constitution or in violation of the treaties which that Constitution defines as the Supreme Law of the Land.
At the same time, charades of legality degrade it as an ideal: the International Criminal Court is not international, military justice makes a mockery of justice, etc. And anti-legal measures, like secret sections of the PATRIOT act that can be enforced against us but which we cannot be permitted to read in order to comply with, muddle for many people the very idea of lawfulness.
But there is an enormous chasm between honest attempts to approach the ideal of compliance with written law, and open disregard for it.
It is becoming standard practice for our government to enforce laws selectively or not at all, to openly defy laws, to enact laws in violation of the higher law called the Constitution or in violation of the treaties which that Constitution defines as the Supreme Law of the Land.
At the same time, charades of legality degrade it as an ideal: the International Criminal Court is not international, military justice makes a mockery of justice, etc. And anti-legal measures, like secret sections of the PATRIOT act that can be enforced against us but which we cannot be permitted to read in order to comply with, muddle for many people the very idea of lawfulness.
One of the biggest questions in the space technology world today is will "missile defense" (MD) really work? Recently we've seen articles making a case that it does not work and never will. I would suggest that depending on where you are standing, a strong case could be made that MD is working quite well. It's all a matter of perception and definition.
When looked at from the point of view of the Russians or Chinese one might consider that they view it very differently than some of the critics. Critics see scripted Missile Defense Agency tests while Russia and China see a hyperactive deployment program, which is directly connected to a larger U.S./NATO military expansion ultimately leading to their encirclement.
Critics might see the MD system today largely as a corporate boondoggle while the Russians and Chinese are looking toward 2020 and beyond when new generations of a well funded research and development program (now committed to by NATO's 28 members) has delivered faster, more accurate and longer range interceptor missiles.
When looked at from the point of view of the Russians or Chinese one might consider that they view it very differently than some of the critics. Critics see scripted Missile Defense Agency tests while Russia and China see a hyperactive deployment program, which is directly connected to a larger U.S./NATO military expansion ultimately leading to their encirclement.
Critics might see the MD system today largely as a corporate boondoggle while the Russians and Chinese are looking toward 2020 and beyond when new generations of a well funded research and development program (now committed to by NATO's 28 members) has delivered faster, more accurate and longer range interceptor missiles.
Here in Kabul, Voices co-coordinator Buddy Bell and I are guests at the home of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, (APV), where we’ve gotten to know four young boys who are being tutored by the Volunteers in the afternoons, having “retired” from their former work as street vendors in exchange for a chance to enter a public school. Five afternoons a week, Murtaza, Rahim, Hamid and Sajad wheel their antiquated bicycles into the APV “yard.” They quickly shake the hand of each person present and then wash their feet outside the back door before settling into a classroom to study language, math and art, tutored in each subject by a different Volunteer. They've cycled here from school through heavy traffic, which worries their mothers, but the families cannot afford for the boys to take a public bus.
This Memorial Day, our nation should honor our war dead by either withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or, better yet, completely dismantling the obsolete Cold War defense pact. NATO exists today not to defend against aggressive authoritarian Communism, but to steal resources from weaker non-European countries by military force. Its two most recent military actions made the May 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago a gathering of war criminals.
NATO was established in April 1949 at the height of the Cold War and the creation of the so-called "Iron Curtain" dividing Eastern and Western Europe. In 1955, the Soviet bloc countered with its own military organization, the Warsaw Pact. The current 28 NATO member nations account for an estimated 70% of the world's defense spending.
East and West Germany reunified in October 1990. The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991 along with the Warsaw Pact. NATO achieved its goal as a defensive pact of defending Western Europe from the Soviet bloc.
NATO was established in April 1949 at the height of the Cold War and the creation of the so-called "Iron Curtain" dividing Eastern and Western Europe. In 1955, the Soviet bloc countered with its own military organization, the Warsaw Pact. The current 28 NATO member nations account for an estimated 70% of the world's defense spending.
East and West Germany reunified in October 1990. The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991 along with the Warsaw Pact. NATO achieved its goal as a defensive pact of defending Western Europe from the Soviet bloc.
"Meanwhile in Afghanistan"
Meanwhile in Afghanistan
The essay:
"My Spring Vacation in Europe"
Spring in Europe
Meanwhile in Afghanistan
The essay:
"My Spring Vacation in Europe"
Spring in Europe
Last night Ohio’s State Assembly passed Senate Bill 315, what will one of the worst fracking laws in the nation.
The bill heading to Gov. Kasich’s desk fails to reinvest in Ohio communities, fails to adequately protect them from the toxic impacts of the fracking industry, and fails to help Ohio address the growing climate crisis.
It means that Ohio will allow bigger health and safety loopholes and ask the gas industry to pay less than almost any other state in the country, exposing our communities to the worst excesses of the fracking industry. Doctors will be prevented from talking openly about the sickness they see seeping into our water, and the gas industry will keep all of the profits flowing out of our communities.
The rumblings you hear when this bill is signed is not the sound of another injection well caused earthquake (though another is now likely inevitable) – it is the rumblings of a backlash against the politicians who have been bought out with millions of dollars of the gas industry’s money, and have chosen to sacrifice Ohio in return.
The bill heading to Gov. Kasich’s desk fails to reinvest in Ohio communities, fails to adequately protect them from the toxic impacts of the fracking industry, and fails to help Ohio address the growing climate crisis.
It means that Ohio will allow bigger health and safety loopholes and ask the gas industry to pay less than almost any other state in the country, exposing our communities to the worst excesses of the fracking industry. Doctors will be prevented from talking openly about the sickness they see seeping into our water, and the gas industry will keep all of the profits flowing out of our communities.
The rumblings you hear when this bill is signed is not the sound of another injection well caused earthquake (though another is now likely inevitable) – it is the rumblings of a backlash against the politicians who have been bought out with millions of dollars of the gas industry’s money, and have chosen to sacrifice Ohio in return.