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The United States Democracy Is Illegitimate. Time for the American Awakening.

Two weeks ago in reaction to the McCutcheon decision we touched on an issue that will become central to our movement: Has the democratic legitimacy of the US government been lost? We raised this issue by quoting a Supreme Court Justice, former US president and a sitting US Senator: “The legitimacy of the US government is now in question. By illegitimate we mean it is ruled by the 1%, not a democracy ‘of, by and for the people.’ The US has become a carefully designed plutocracy that creates laws to favor the few. As Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissenting opinion, American law is now ‘incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy.’ Or, as former president, Jimmy Carter said on July 16, 2013 “America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy.” “Even members of Congress admit there is a problem.

Sterling and Bundy are embarrassing, but real threat to equal rights is from Supreme Court, Congress

"Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on," goes the refrain of a famous song from the civil rights movement. We marched for freedom -- for new laws that would end segregation, guarantee equal rights, enforce voting rights, and provide affirmative actions to help correct decades of being locked out or left out. We couldn't let lunatic sheriffs or Klan rallies or jail distract us. We had to keep our eyes on the prize and hold on. That advice applies today where public expression of racial animus can distract from the far more serious legal reverses equal rights has suffered. First we had the rancher and conservative folk hero Cliven Bundy embarrassing himself and his right-wing allies with his foolishness about "the Negro," suggesting that African Americans might have been "better off as slaves." Bundy dismissed blacks as "on government subsidy." This from a man who had fed his cows off federal land without paying grazing fees for decades, a "government subsidy" he has no intention of repaying. Then we had the tape of the loathsome and unprintable rant of L.A.

THE REAL CURE FOR SCUMBAG TEAM OWNERS IS FOR THE PUBLIC TO OWN THE TEAMS

Enough is enough, sports fans. It's been known for decades that the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers is a racist jerk. Ditto the owner of that professional football team in our nation's capital, whose current horrific anti-indigenous team name is a global embarrassment. But these guys are the tip of the iceberg. The real question is: why are these teams owned by individuals at all? Why do we allow our precious sports clubs to be the playthings of a bunch of billionaires? Why aren't the football, baseball, basketball, hockey and other major sports franchises so many of us so passionately love and support not owned by the communities that give them their life? Why is our nation powerless to remove the racist logo from a public stadium just down the street from the White House and Congress? There's a model out there that does work. It's called the Green Bay Packers (of which I'm proud owner of 2 shares).

Social Media Fail or Big Media Fail?

The mainstream media was quick to observe how the New York Police Department (NYPD) fell flat in its latest social media campaign. Many media outlets, pretending that they are internet savvy, or at least remove the ball-gags from their intern’s mouths, called it “Epic Fail.” Was the #myNYPD twitter gaff a failure of a large institution to understand the dynamics of social media, or a failure of the institutions of the press to live up to the responsibility of media as society's watchdogs? After careful quantitative and qualitative analysis, the Free Press concludes the latter is likely true. The NYPD, in the hopes of getting good photos for publication and building its community relations, encouraged Twitter users to tweet pictures of their interactions with the police with the #myNYPD hashtag. This predictably led to the posting of many pictures and videos of police brutality. The mainstream press noted the backfire and reported on the story. Not to be outdone, the west coast responded with #myLAPD for LA, this in turn spawned #myCPD for Chicago, #myDPD for Denver (and Durham N.C.), #myHPD for Houston and so on.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Good, But Not Great

 

 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the inevitable, simply titled sequel to 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, is less snore-inducingly tedious than the first installment, but that’s a pretty low bar. ASM was terrible. ASM2 is good, but not great.

The problem with ASM2 is that the action scenes are excellent. Andrew Garfield is a better Spider-Man than he is a Peter Parker, and his delivery of the superhero’s trademark banter is pitch-perfect. Those scenes are exciting, they’re clear, and they’re well-directed. How is that a problem? They’re far too little of the movie, and it makes the rest of it even worse by comparison.

Peter’s relationship with Gwen Stacy (played by Emma Stone) is every bit as boring to watch in this movie as it was in the first. It takes up less of it, but it manages to suck the life out of every scene where Peter’s not in a mask. They spend the entire movie being on-again-off-again while Peter stalks Gwen creepily from the rooftops. It’s hard to tell if the problem is mediocre writing or mediocre chemistry between the actors, but there’s definitely a problem.

Central Ohio Workers Celebrate May Day to Tell Columbus: #OhioNeedsARaise, Announce Formation of Central Ohio Worker Center

 

 

Central Ohio Workers Celebrate May Day to Tell Columbus:

#OhioNeedsARaise, Announce Formation of

Central Ohio Worker Center

 

 

 

What: #OhioNeedsARaise – May Day Celebration

When: Thursday May 1,2014

4:30pm -  Rally and March through downtown Columbus, Ohio

Where: Corner of State and High Streets - SW side of the Capitol Building

Who: Workers will be speaking on their struggle to survive and support themselves and their families on low wages.   

 

 

Has DC Given Up?

I’ve written before about the mess that is today’s DC Comics. Since relaunching all their comics three years ago this September under the “New 52” heading, they’ve been the subject of constant news stories about over-the-top exploitative art, blatantly gimmicky events even for the comics industry, and creators chafing and leaving under unreasonable editorial demands. Marvel is even taking potshots in the theaters by announcing that Captain America 3 will open the same weekend as the upcoming Superman/Batman movie. So what’s the latest bad news? And is it a sign that DC editorial just isn’t even trying anymore? This time it’s the news that September solicits for DC’s comics – the list publishers put out to give comic shops information about what’s available to order – are all about an event called “Future’s End.” What’s been revealed about “Future’s End?” Well, apparently the most important thing about it is there will be lenticular covers and new #1 issues.

You Need To Watch Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Look: If you have Netflix—and you probably have Netflix—you need to watch Green Lantern: The Animated Series. All 26 episodes are there, in beautiful HD glory, waiting to be appreciated. And trust me here, you will appreciate them. I know Hal Jordan is easily the least interesting of the several characters to wear the Green Lantern title. I know you grew up with John Stewart, the much more interesting and much less generically white Green Lantern, in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. I know that terrible Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds doesn’t help Jordan’s case. But in GL:TAS he’s not only likable, he also has the good grace to get out of the way of his much more interesting supporting cast. Because GL:TAS isn’t really about Hal Jordan. It’s not even about Earth, because the writers here know that a good Green Lantern story really shouldn’t be about Earth (unless Denny O'Neil is writing about him hanging out with Green Arrow).

The death of Walter Rodney

 

 

On 13 June 1980, Pan Africanists, African scholars, political activists and scholars of various disciplines were stunned by the news – Walter Rodney was dead at the age of 38. He died in Guyana, his home, as a result of a car bomb that also injured his brother, Donald. Recently returned from Zimbabwe in southern Africa where he had celebrated the independence of that nation from settler colonialism, Rodney had once again thrown himself into developing a Guyanese coalition of all who were historically disenfranchised in the South American nation – the poor, various ethnic groups and women.

 

Best known as the author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, a classic exposition of the deliberate impoverishment of African nations, Rodney was also a dedicated activist who worked tirelessly in the Caribbean, Tanzania and Guyana to ensure an equitable distribution of resources for all. He founded the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana and its growth as a credible opposition is believed to have led to his death.

 

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