Tidbits and Announcements- April 26, 2012

* Re: 10 Things We've Learned About the Earth Since Last
  Earth Day (Ted Glick)
* Re: Experts: 'Social Security is Strong and could Be Made
  Stronger' (Theodora Crawford)
* Re: Social Security and Medicare: Behind the Numbers and
  the Spin (Mike Munk)
* Re: Social Security (Tidbits - April 23, 2012) Harvey
  Lyon)
* Re: The Vatican's Latest Target in the War on Women: Nuns
  (John Mulvey)
* Re: The Phases of War: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Israel
  (Dave Ecklein)
* AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and the Writers Guild of 
  America, East, Protest Reality-Show Production Companies - 
  New York picketline - April 27
* Trayvon, Economic Injustice and Transnational Solidarities 
  - Panel - Chicago - April 28
* FACEBOOK AND YOUR PRIVACY - Panel - New York - May 3

==========

* Re: 10 Things We've Learned About the Earth Since Last
Earth Day

There is a mistake in point three about natural gas. In the
short run, over 20 years, methane, the primary component of
natural gas, released into the atmosphere is at least 72 and
as much as 105 times as bad as carbon dioxide as far as its
climate forcing impact.

Ted Glick

==========

* Re: Experts: 'Social Security is Strong and could Be Made
Stronger'

Thank you, thank you for mentioning that to raise the cap is
one very obvious (to me at least) and just solution to part
of the problem with Social Security.

Theodora Crawford

=====

* Re: Social Security and Medicare: Behind the Numbers and
the Spin

No one seems to have commented on what effect the 2%
reduction last year and this year in the SS payroll tax has
had on these numbers? I have questioned Obama's support [of]
this policy .

Mike Munk

=====

Re: Social Security (Tidbits - April 23, 2012)

mr. kaufman's point reflect ideology not reality. the bonds
issued to social security must be redeemed in order to make
payments to recipients. there are two choices-sell them for
cash to a willing buyer, or raise taxes to redeem them.
there's a kind of third choice -do some of both. when the
rollover point is reached, who will be the buyer. not the
supporters of any of the administrations of either party
since nixon? china? that's over. reality at some point
trumps ideology.

Harvey  Lyon

==========

* Re: The Vatican's Latest Target in the War on Women: Nuns

Keep up the good work informing concerned citizens like me
and others about discrimination against women by the Vatican
and others.  I will pass this message on to my friends etc.
Fraternally,

John Mulvey

==========

* Re: The Phases of War: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Israel

Excellent article, but no mention of opium.  Add to our
Afghanistan adventure its effects on increasing opium
cultivation there. I wonder if that can be quantified. OTW
Bennis' article covered most everything else.

Dave Ecklein

==========

* Race to the Top
http://www.wgaeast.org/index.php?id=529

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and the Writers Guild of
America, East, Protest Reality-Show Production Companies and
Urge Them to Join the "Race to the Top" by Providing Health
Benefits for Their Writers and Producers

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joins employees and their
union, the Writers Guild of America, East, on Fri., April 27
at 10:00 a.m. as they call on Atlas Media, a major reality-
television production company, to join the "Race to the Top"
and to provide health care for its employees.

Writers and producers will gather outside of Atlas's offices
and stage an actual race along West 36th Street to demand
that the company not settle for "last place" when it comes
to employee health benefits.

Atlas, which has reality series on several major cable
channels such as Discovery and Travel Channel, is one of the
production companies that is a focus of the "Non-Fiction
Writers & Producers United" campaign by writers and
producers to provide health benefits to a part of the
industry long considered to be the "sweatshop" of the
writing business.

Join Us: You can RSVP by emailing Justin Molito, WGAE
Director of Organizing, at [log in to unmask]

WHAT: "Race to the Top" protest by AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka and the Writers Guild of America, East of reality
production company Atlas Media for refusal to provide
employee health benefits.

WHEN: Friday, April 27, 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: 242 West 36th Street, Atlas Media HQ
WHO: Non-Fiction TV Writers and Producers and Members of the
Writers Guild of America East, and Richard Trumka, President
of AFL-CIO.

==========

* Trayvon, Economic Injustice and Transnational Solidarities

Bold Conversations at Global Activism Expo 2012
Presented by UIC Social Justice Initiative, WBEZ & The
Public Square

Saturday, April 28, 12noon doors open
UIC Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago
Free and open to the public

Join us for an afternoon of bold conversations about
transnational activism, global wealth disparity, and the
politics of race.

12:30-2:00p- Post-Race? Trayvon and Racial Violence in the
21st Century
The shooting of Trayvon Martin has prompted weeks of public
protest. What does this fatal shooting -- and the multi-
faceted responses of Americans -- reflect about the politics
of race  and racial violence in the 21st century? How can we
decriminalize Black youth in America? What is the
conversation on race that we should be having?

Gary Younge, journalist for The Nation and The Guardian and
author of Who We Are: And Should It Matter in the 21st
Century

Kevin Coval, poet, co-founder of Louder Than A Bomb teen
poetry festival, author of L-Vis Lives!

David Stovall, Associate Professor of Educational Policy
Studies and African American History at UIC and volunteer
social studies teacher at the Greater Lawndale/Little
Village School of Social Justice High School

Alice Kim, director of The Public Square

2:30-4:00p-Hunger Games and Real World Economic Injustice
Some critics see the Hunger Games as an allegory for today:
staggering world poverty amidst growing economic inequality.
This panel will explore real world economic injustices and
possibilities for creating a more equitable and fair system
locally and globally. Join us to take a closer look at
globalism, militarism and the impact of the economic crisis.

Mark Weisbrot, Co-director of the Center for Economic and
Policy Research, columnist for The Guardina Unlimited (U.K.)
and Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, and
president of Just Foreign Policy

Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator of Creative Voices for Non-
violence and author of Other Lands Have Dreams: from Baghdad
to Pekin Prison

Toussaint Losier, a doctoral candidate in history at the
University of Chicago and a Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign
organizer

Harishi Patel, a cultural organizer with Jane Addams Hull-
House Museum and Chicago activist

4:30-6:00p -Kony 2012 and Beyond: Transnational Solidarities
The Kony 2012 controversy raised important questions about
activism at home and abroad. How can those in the United
States building meaningful transnational solidarities in
Africa and around the globe? What should informed activism
look like? How can we can act as citizens of the world?

Barbara Ransby, historian, writer and long-time political
activist, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom
Movement;

Nicholas De Genova, Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London and author
of Working the Boundaries: Race, Space, and "Illegality" in
Mexican Chicago

Anna Guevarra, interdisciplinary scholar and author of
Marketing Dreams, Manufacturing Heroes: The Transnational
Labor Brokering of Filipino Workers;

Prexy Nesbitt, activist, educator and founder of Making the
Road Tours to Africa;

Andy Clarno, Assistant Professor in Sociology at UIC

This event is taking place as part of WBEZ's Global Activism
Expo 2012, which gathers literally hundreds of Chicago-area
global activists - all featured guests of Worldview's Global
Activism Series - each providing ways you can immediately
get involved and join their efforts.

==========

* FACEBOOK AND YOUR PRIVACY - Panel at NYU

Please join Consumer Reports and MSNBC Technology writer Bob
Sullivan for a round table discussion about social networks
and online privacy.

FACEBOOK AND YOUR PRIVACY
What Every Consumer Should Know in the Age of Social
Networking

Special Keynote from Craig Newmark, Craigslist

THURSDAY, MAY, 3rd
 6:00pm-8:45pm
Audience Questions and Cocktail Reception to Follow

New York University
238 Thompson Street, Grand Hall - 5th Floor
New York, NY 10012

Panelists include:
Jeff Chester, Center for Digital Democracy
Alfredo Lopez, May First/People Link
Jules Polonetsky, Future of Privacy Forum
Guilherme Roschke, Common Sense Media
Steve Rubel, Edelman
Ashkan Soltani, independent researcher
Linda Woolley, Digital Advertising Alliance

More details and RSVP @ http://bit.ly/PrivacyRoundtable

==========

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