Tidbits - August 12, 2012

* Re: How to Launch a Mass Movement for Economic Justice
  and Tidbits, Reader Response & Announcements - August
  11, 2012 (Katrina vanden Heuvel)

* Paul Ryan? Seriously? (Claire Carsman)

* Re: Pussy Riot closing statement denounces Putin's
  'totalitarian system' (Jean Damu)

* Re: The Hunger Wars in Our Future (Darrell Rankin)

* Re: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: The Comic Book
  (Laurel MacDowell)

* Arrest at Casserole Protest in NYC (Greg Vargo)

==========

* Re: How to Launch a Mass Movement for Economic Justice
and Tidbits, Reader Response & Announcements - August
11, 2012

Re: Marvin Mandell comment re Greider's piece-- The
Nation has been critical of President Obama's national
security policies and in our last issue, "A People's
Platform" we call for a new internationalism, one that
is rooted in FDR's Four Freedoms-- freedom from want,
from fear, not speech & expression and religion; Not one
reliant on drone warfare, secret counterterrorism
policies that are creating new generations of insurgents
and which fail to deal with the root causes of  despair,
joblessness ; also, escalating state secrecy is
endangering our democracy. At The Nation, we write about
these issues in a consistent, systematic way. Greider's
piece focused on how to build an economic justice
movement---he had limited space, but I suspect he would
be the first to acknowledge the need to realign our
bloated defense budget, use those resources to invest at
home; and craft and fight for  a foreign policy that is
aligned with human security and real national security,

Katrina vanden Heuvel

==========

* Paul Ryan? Seriously?

Yes ,yes  Nichols.  We the choir totally, almost, agree
with you.  Altho I'm sure there are those of us who
would find, and love to, some things to disagree with.
Not, for example, sure that the hypocrisy is as evident
as you think. There are a lot of folks out there who
just totally hate Obama. The underlying current of
racism exists, and it is strong. And it's pervasive. Of
course, no one is really going to have the guts to call
this for what it is. But, we gotta. It is a very
difficult time.  We liberalefs love the Working Class
and yet those very male white WC's are believing
themselves to be on the other side. It's a true dilemma,
and very complex.

But, yes, Romney's choice is no surprise.  The poor soul
had to do something.  Especially since the $70,000 a
year tax deduction horse came in 30th in the Olympics.

Claire Carsman

==========

* Re: Pussy Riot closing statement denounces Putin's
'totalitarian system'

Having sex inside a Moscow chapel's most sacred space is
supposed to be a protest against Vladimir Putin? I think
I'll hold off awhile before taking  political direction
from the Smashing Pumpkins.

Jean Damu

==========

* Re: The Hunger Wars in Our Future

How Malthusian. How dismal. What trash. Not one use of
the term "profit", "corporat", yet the corporations have
led us to this. Yours for saying who is to blame,

Darrell Rankin

==========

* Re: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: The Comic Book

This theft means the loss of democracy in America. I
note the Republican states that have also passed rules
to prevent many voters from voting, especially poor
people who cannot afford to get special cards. No longer
the "land of the free" I fear, but the home of the
super-rich manipulating for power.

Laurel MacDowell

==========

* Arrest at Casserole Protest in NYC

On June 13, I became one of the more than 7,000 people
who have been arrested as part of the Occupy movement. I
was surprised to find myself part of this group:
although I had been at a political march, I hadn't
intended to commit civil disobedience or otherwise risk
arrest.

The march was a casserole, a style of protest recently
seen in Chile and Canada, in which people make noise by
banging on pots, pans, and other kitchen utensils.
Casseroles had been occurring for about a month in New
York in solidarity with the ongoing student strike in
Montreal. The New York marches highlighted issues of
educational access: student debt, tuition hikes, cuts to
public funding of universities. As a teacher, those
issues are important to me, and I was also drawn to the
casseroles because I appreciate the gesture of
converting the tools of domestic labor into the
cacophonous instruments of protest. As someone who has
cooked a lot for Occupy Wall Street, it felt
appropriate. This was my third casserole, and the first
time I took a friend.

Benin and I showed up at Washington Square Park a little
after 8 PM. There were between 200 and 300 people
milling around and listening to speeches. In addition to
the usual culinary noisemakers, we had a couple of drums
and a cowbell, and some young women were handing out
snacks. Around 8:30, Benin and I moved with the crowd to
leave the park at the northwest corner. Maybe a dozen
protesters entered the street against traffic, which was
stopped at the light. Benin and I crossed Sixth Avenue
and turned south at the gutter. After about three steps,
my legs were swept from under me. I was on the ground,
my glasses knocked off, two buttons torn from my shirt,
my knee hurting. I didn't see who had done this, but I
heard, "He's on the ground" and "We've got one. We only
need one." Someone bent over me and shouted, "It's
over." Another voice said, "Just take it easy." Someone
else said, "Put your hands behind your back." I
recovered my glasses from the ground with some
trepidation, announcing that I was doing so. Although I
was rattled, "It's over" struck me as laughable. "You've
got me in the wrong movie," I wanted to say...

Complete link:
http://nplusonemag.com/crossing-sixth-avenue

Greg Vargo

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