Occupy The Dream
Posted by Michelle Moquin on January 18th, 2012
Good morning!
Alycedale: This one is for you.
Occupy the Dream: Russell Simmons on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy in action
GlobalGrind.com CEO Russell Simmons tells Keith how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy inspired him to help organize Occupy the Dream, a new offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Dr. King started the Poor People’s Campaign in November 1967 with the goal of confronting Congress about what he saw as its “hostility to the poor” while lobbying for an Economic Bill of Rights. Simmons decries a prison-industrial complex and states, “All of what promotes inequality — economic inequality — is the money in Washington.” Simmons argues for a constitutional amendment to stop the flow of money in politics, saying, “We want the politicians to work for us, not [the lobbyists].”
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And the write that supports this video:
Occupy the Dream: The Mathematics of Racism
As we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, it appears we are a far less prejudiced country than we once were. Individual expressions of racism are less tolerated than ever, we have an African-American President, and African-Americans are increasingly being accepted into executive suites. Yet when we look closer, we find that Greedy Bastards have rebranded racism and made it acceptable again, by calling it “the war on drugs.”
These statistics compiled by New York Times columnist Charles Blow and author Michelle Alexander (author of The New Jim Crow) are mind-blowing.
- Since 1971, there have been more than 40 million arrests for drug-related offenses. Even though blacks and whites have similar levels of drug use, blacks are ten times as likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes.
- “There are more blacks under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.”
- “As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.”
- In 2005, 4 out of 5 drug arrests were for possession not trafficking, and 80% of the increase in drug arrests in the 1990s was for marijuana.
- There are 50,000 arrests for low-level pot possession a year in New York City, representing one out of every seven cases that turn up in criminal courts. Most of these arrested are black and hispanic men.
Why is this happening, when personal prejudice is so much less common, medicinal marijuana initiatives routinely pass around the country, and illicit drug use is accepted enough that Steve Jobs could praise psychedelic drugs as key to his creative success at Apple Computer?
The modern drug war in politics can be traced back to political operative named Clifford White, an advisor to Barry Goldwater, who recognized that there were votes to be had in the backlash against the civil rights movement. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the war on drugs became convenient code for politicians who wanted to appeal to certain working class white voters with coded racist appeals. President Reagan used this political support to escalate the war on drugs.
A Federal law passed in 1986 allowed law enforcement agencies to seize drug money, and use it to supplement their budgets. Grabbing cash connected to drugs meant that police departments could buy more tools and training. Like the fee-for-service model in medicine, that pays doctors for performing procedures, not for making people healthier, the “forfeiture laws” effectively pay the police departments for making busts – not for reducing the drug trade.
In fact, if the war on drugs was ever won, it would be a financial disaster for law enforcement. There’s so much dirty money funding law enforcement agencies that now, according to NPR, some police departments have become “addicted to drug money“.
The second significant institutional incentive is of more recent origin, though it too has its beginnings in the Reagan era – the development of for-profit prison companies and their vast lobbying and political apparatus.
- Prisoners now manufacture and assemble products for Microsoft, Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, Boeing, as well as body armor for soldiers and handcuff cases for law enforcement officers.
- In 2007, taxpayers spent 74 billion on prisons, with the largest percentage increase of prisoners going to for-profit prison companies.
The Justice Policy Institute noted that these companies make more money through longer prison sentences, but you don’t need a report from a nonprofit group to know that. Just look at their own investor reports. The Corrections Corporation of America, the largest for-profit prison company in the country, lists as a business risk in its 10K to the SEC “any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.” CCA also told investors it would make less money if there were lower minimum sentences and more eligibility for inmates for early release for good behavior.
Putting people in jail and keeping them there is good for business. So that’s what these companies lobby for. According to the Justice Policy Institute, these companies “have contributed $835,514 to federal candidates and over $6 million to state politicians. They have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on direct lobbying efforts.” They are large donors to state-based think tanks like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), who market harsh immigration, drug laws, and prison privatization laws to state level politicians around the country. While the rationale is no longer outright bigotry, the net effect, in terms of stripping millions of blacks of political and economic rights, is the same.
This is the face of racism today. It isn’t the racist sheriff in Alabama turning hoses and dogs onto protesters, or the all-white development or country club, but the smooth lobbyist and campaign contributor discussing the efficiency of private prison initiatives or the politician too cowardly to act on decriminalizing marijuana for fear of antagonizing a powerful lobby. It’s racism, Greedy-Bastards-style.
What’s the alternative? David Kennedy, the director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has highlighted a very simple common sense approach known as hotspotting. He advocates for sitting down the gang members that perpetrate most of the violence, police, prosecutors, and community leaders to talk about their shared problems and the consequences of crime. Such an approach has dramatically reduced homicide rates in Boston and Chicago, and across the country. Yet these programs and programs like them with proven success in reducing crime are the first to go on the chopping block, because they don’t provide the budgetary incentive that forfeiture laws do.
Today, the march for civil rights isn’t about convincing Americans that racism is wrong. It is about getting money out of politics, so that the profit from institutional racism is eliminated. The Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson saying “separate but equal” has been trumped by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, eliminating all restrictions on corporate cash in politics. If we are to honor Dr. King, let us make this our generation’s cause. It won’t be an easy fight, but as he said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Follow Russell Simmons on Twitter: www.twitter.com/unclerush
And while were on the topic of racism, I just want to add this segment from the Rachel Maddow’s Show last night. It seems racism is a growing issue for a few republican presidential candidates. Gee do ya think? Can you guess who they are? No need, are there any republican presidential candidates not racist?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
*R*A*C*I*S*T*
Zen Lill: Hey no worries – no need to apologize. You can’t always be up and zen every day. It is the downs that inspire growth and change. All good.
Howie: That was quite the chronicle. Sounds to me like the vacation ended a bit too early for the 4 deserters.
Doug: Thank you. You know how I feel about animals and buying only “cruelty free” products. I was bawling watching this.
Social Butterfly: Good to see you here. I am sorry that you had been experiencing personal tragedies in the new year. I HOPE that you and yours are doing fine, and the new year only gets better.
Joe Solmones: Noted – Thanks. I say, let’s get to work.
Health Info: Loved your post this time. Thanks. Although I agree with Connie - not all can afford to hire all of these specialists. That needs to change. But I too like the “magic”. Inspiring and even applies to so many other challenges in life.
Viv: Nice to see you here. Happy to hear the kidnapping of the Princess is resolved. I HOPE all is well with you and the rest of the TAO.
I see more comments have come in, but I’m done for the day. Your turn. Blog me.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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January 18th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Viv:
I could not understand how any of the visiting aliens had the balls to speak negatively about the Emperor when he has such a long memory and grasp.
I hope all the insurgents have been thinned out of the alien visitors.
You summed it up in six words that say it all: “DO NOT FUCK WITH THE EMPEROR.”
HOWIE
January 18th, 2012 at 11:07 am
Thanks, Misch : )
Connie, the ‘magic’ could be had for your mother at a much more cost effective rate, try finding her a good hypnotherapist who specializes in ‘guided imagery’ it is making huge leaps in the recovery of cancer patients, google it and someone in your area, it may even be covered by insurance as an alternative therapy.
Luv, Zen Lill
January 18th, 2012 at 11:37 am
Some important Tax Planning questions for those on Social Security-
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boosting-mom%E2%80%99s-social-security-payments.html
January 18th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Most humans reach an age where they stop asking questions of themselves.
That age may begin at any time within a particular human’s life span, but it does occur and when it does the individual develops a fixed system of beliefs and thereafter he/she refuses to submit to any kind of introspection.
The result is the human will never have a new thought in his/her intellectual life. Every experience will be synthesized through that fixed system of beliefs.
The only question for humans to ask is have I reached that age where I have stopped asking questions of myself?
If so you have stopped asking why you believe or should believe something before you accept what you are believing, then the benefits of logical introspection and the possibility of discovering a new point of view or truth is forever lost to you.
Tsarmi
January 18th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Newt’s daughter did janitorial work at age 13 because he abandoned his family while his wife was gravely ill and could not support herself and her kids
January 18th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
EAR TOOL MAY CURE SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER
There is a new, offbeat, research-based treatment for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a.k.a. the wintertime blues, that involves light — and if you’re thinking, well, I’ve heard that one before… I assure you, you have not.
This first-of-its-kind tool consists of lights that you shine into your ears, which send a “get going” signal to the photosensitive part of your brain that produces the feel-good chemical serotonin.
Two small earbuds are connected by a wire to a lightweight device that looks like an iPod, and just eight to 12 minutes of daily use has been shown to banish SAD symptoms quite effectively.
DARK DAYS, DARK MOODS
Common SAD symptoms include depression, anxiety and loss of energy.
While the exact mechanism that causes SAD hasn’t been pinned down, it’s known that reduced exposure to natural outdoor sunlight (like during winter months) disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm (the internal body clock) while also decreasing production of serotonin.
Scientists believe that both genetic and environmental factors, including living in the Northern hemisphere, put certain people at higher risk than others.
Most people with SAD respond well to a traditional treatment that involves putting your face in front of a special type of light for about an hour a day,
but now new research from Finland, presented in Budapest in November at the International Forum for Mood and Anxiety Disorders, reports better results in far less time when light is delivered to the ears.
To understand this better, I contacted the study’s lead author, Timo Takala, MD, PhD, chief physician at Finland’s Oulu Deaconess Institute.
NOW “EAR” THIS!
Since the brain is sensitive to light — not just the eyes — Dr. Takala and his team wondered if light therapy might work if it was directed at the brain through the ears.
He said that we receive sunlight through the ear canals (and actually through the skull bone, too), not just through the visual system.
This had led a Finnish manufacturer, Valkee, to develop a device that delivers light therapy directly into the ears via earbuds equipped with light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
The light used in the Valkee headset is similar to the kind used in traditional therapy, except that it’s brighter. Dr. Takala’s team was engaged by Valkee to test the device’s efficacy.
Study: In one of the clinical trials, researchers studied 13 men and women who were suffering from SAD.
Each participant received light in both ears from a Valkee headset in the morning for eight to 12 minutes at a time, five times a week for four weeks.
At the beginning of the study and at the end of each week, participants’ SAD symptoms were self-reported using standard surveys for depression and anxiety.
One major finding: At the end of the study, which took place during the dim months of January and February in Finland, 77% of people achieved “full remission” of depression symptoms and 92% saw at least a 50% reduction.
The same statistics were true in terms of anxiety. It’s important to note that this was a small study, there was no control group (so the placebo effect can’t be ruled out), and the ear light therapy was not compared with traditional light therapy.
But Dr. Takala said that prior research has shown that traditional light treatment for one hour daily eliminates depression in about 60% of patients.
LIGHTER, BRIGHTER, HAPPIER
Dr. Takala thinks that based on this preliminary data, ear light therapy may be more effective and certainly less time-consuming than traditional light therapy because the light used is more intense.
He said it’s also more convenient, since you can do other things more easily while wearing earbuds.
In any case, Dr. Takala suggests that people with SAD who want to try the earbuds start with 12 minutes of ear light use 30 to 60 minutes after awakening in the morning five times a week.
If symptoms don’t improve after five days, try them for an hour or two before bedtime instead.
While it should be mentioned that some users reported headache, nausea and dizziness while using the Valkee headset, Dr. Takala noted that those side effects also can occur in some people just from being exposed to natural sunlight.
He added that using the device for shorter periods usually eliminates these side effects while still relieving symptoms.
And in case you were wondering, like traditional light therapy devices, the ear light device blocks potentially harmful UV rays.
Right now, the Valkee headset is available only in Europe, the only place where it is approved for use as a medical device.
Valkee is looking into getting regulatory approval in the US, and Dr. Takala thinks that within the next year the device may be sold here, too.
If you’re interested in buying the product, talk to your doctor first — and bring this article with you, because the device is new and he/she may not know about it yet.
You could buy a Valkee headset online through third parties — such as on eBay, where they were recently offered for around $200 to $300.
Or if you know a friend going to Europe, you could save on shipping by asking him/her to bring one back for you.
This device does sound like a bright idea — I’m interested to hear the FDA’s take on the product and see if future research confirms these findings.
Source(s):
Timo Takala, MD, PhD, chief physician, Oulu Deaconess Institute, Finland.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Newt you are a closet racist. Some of the hidden phrases used by you are insensitive and humiliating to many.
As a president, you would not be a good one because of who you are…not someone for all the people. You love the sound of your own voice and think you are smarter than everyone else.
If you are the best one to challenge Pres. Obama….why are you not leading in the polls? It is because your arrogance outshines your so called humility. I am a white, senior independent.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Just to keep it in context, folks, lest we get discouraged about the mindset of some of our fellow Americans.
This is the same audience that cheered Perry’s execution record and supported leaving the uninsured dying man to face death without benefit of medical care…
Newt can get a standing ovation from this crowd – but that doesn’t mean that most of America won’t regurgitate his callous self-rightousness and send him home to his fellow bigots.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
I must disagree Tal. Newt is not ashamed of his racism. What he is doing is appealing to the rank and file of the republican party and ignorant whites who get their news from Fox by blaming the economy troubles on blacks.
The problem is that quite a few folks are buying it. Thank goodness for fine folks like you. I bid you peace.
Let
January 18th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
This is an opportunity for us all to have a discussion about race and poverty in America.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
I guess Speaker Gingrich was correct when he called BHO jr. the food stamp president.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Ditto Howie.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Just in case some are wondering what the Newt Gingrich comments are about.
======================
Juan Williams has been receiving quite a bit of attention in the aftermath of Monday night’s GOP debate.
Williams, who moderated the event, had a confrontational exchange with Newt Gingrich that earned him boos from the audience.
The Fox News contributor had raised criticism that Gingrich’s comments about food stamps and poor children’s work ethic were “intended to belittle the poor and racial minorities.”
Gingrich had said that if invited to speak to the NAACP, he would urge black people to demand paychecks instead of food stamps.
Williams asked, “Can’t you see that this is viewed at a minimum as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?”
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I guess this Uncle Tom found out what happens when the token nigger forgets his place.
If they don’t know their place or can’t stay in it, the niggers, kikes, wet backs, towel heads, slopes and muds need not apply for the token spots we reserve for them.
Lilly, Proud Southern Lady
January 18th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
An amped-up crowd very quickly turned on Williams, and treated Gingrich to the most sustained applause of the night? Yeah!
In fact it was a standing ovation for Newt! Thursday, Newt could do it again!
Now do you liberals still want the “food stamps” president to go up against Newt?
January 18th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
I will a deal with white conservatives like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, don’t bring up the African- Americans unless there is a question about issues in the African- American community and that person is knows about out the issues that concern us.
All this is race- baiting and throwing red meat at their white working- class supporters who think the worse racist thoughts about African- Americans and hate President Obama and his family for being in the “WHITE HOUSE”.
It’s obvious when Newt had the chance and power to say his racial peace when he was “Speaker of the House” he was unavailable to speak with the NAACP.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
I don’t get it with these republicans. Are their hearts so twisted that they feel free to make blanket statements like this about anybody and particularly the African American group.
What is so stuck in their craw that perversion comes out of their mouths. Newt Gingrich has lived off the public trough most of his adult life.
He shold be the first to get off public welfare and get himself a real job and stop bilking the American populace with his false label of historian and get off welfare.
Look in the mirror Newt and give yourself the message you so want to deliver to African Americans.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Hafa adai
This is a much needed letter to that shit for brains Senator John McCain.
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Sen. John McCain: The purpose of this letter is to provide some facts regarding your negative reaction to the Department of Defense Budget for buildup on Guam and why Guam deserves more than you ever dreamed.
Your conduct on the Senate floor leads me to believe that your staff had not adequately prepared you on this subject.
I find it difficult to believe that an distinguished former warrior such as yourself could possibly find sufficient shortcomings in Guam’s contribution to the defense of our nation to justify such a display.
In order for you to find substance and clarity in the following figures, I will use Arizona as a point of reference for you and your staff.
Our war, yours and mine, was Vietnam. You are a proud veteran of that period and so am I.
I am sure that you are also proud of Arizona’s contribution to that war and the number of sacrifices many Arizonans made.
You can find their names on The Wall there in Washington, D.C. Guam made its contribution in that war also.
The following numbers, or statistics, if you prefer, are on record:
•Arizona’s population in 1970 was about 1.7 million people.
•Guam’s population in 1970 was about 65,000 people.
•Arizona’s contribution to The Wall is about 620 men and women.
•Guam’s contribution to The Wall is about 68 men and women.
•Arizona lost one KIA for every 72,800 residents.
•Guam lost one KIA for every 855 residents.
Ask your staff how many KIA’s Arizona would have had if one out of every 855 Arizonans had been KIA.
Think about how many mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in Arizona did not have to deal with those losses, when more extended families on Guam were devastated.
We on Guam are a very close-knit community and our current losses are also hard to bare, but bare them we do!
•The current population of Arizona, according to the 2010 Census, is about 6.4 million people.
•The current population of Guam, according to the 2010 Census, is about 160,000 people.
•Both Arizona and Guam are in the top 20 of recent recruits into the Military: Guam is No. 2 in the rankings; Arizona is No. 19 in the rankings.
•Arizona has 14 Chapters of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. One for every 475,000 residents.
•Guam has three Chapters of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. One for every 53,000 residents.
Sen. McCain, do you still find humor with Guam when you consider these facts?
Before you once again express an opinion on the Senate floor, have the facts at your disposal and don’t embarrass yourself over Guam.
Guam is, in fact, good to go!
Sgt. Robert H Wilson Jr., U.S. Army retired, was a resident of Arizona for 13 years and a proud resident of Guam for more than 21 years. He lives in Dededo.
=================
It is just another veiled bigot response. Being a prisoner of war does not give one any hidden insights into war tactics or foreign acumen.
His pretense towards wisdom which he doesn’t have is his first bit of dishonesty. The second is the pretense that he puts his country before his own ambitions and greed.
Peter
January 18th, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Help give animals their right to life!! Strike down CA Gov. Brown budget cutting strategy!
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-los-angeles/commentary-governor-s-proposal-is-a-giant-leap-backwards