by Mike Wall on March 7th, 2010
More US military have committed suicide last month then where killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thank you Republican’s for carrying so much for our military personnel with needless wars, over deployments and underfunding of Vet services.
by Mike Wall on January 15th, 2010
Then I ask you spend 5 minutes and watch Naomi Klein (Author of the Shock Doctrine – disaster capitalism) about Haiti and what needs to be done. And some time learn about what really happen to Haiti and the US involvement.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385×423384
by Mike Wall on December 26th, 2009
Today I heard a interview on NPR with Sheryl Crow. She mentioned that she seems to be happy now, less angry and sees “things” (life, politics perhaps?) different: more gray then just “Black & White”. She short of credited part of this change on her 2 and a half year boy she had.
I’ve been in many many conversations of late regarding this topic of anger, mostly relating to politics. It is true enough that there is a lot of anger in the youth (I would argue for righteous reasons).
With the baby boomers squandering almost every advantage given them -from natural resources to a lot of hard work by their previous generations, the generations fallowing the baby boomers for the first time in this countries history have less prospects looking at them and will face a much less stable future: From putting off child rearing to later in life, to less likely having a real job with real benefits, to continuing wars, a planet warming and resources going at remarkable rates that can’t be replenished, the future looks a lot grayer for them.
I recall a business owner telling me that once that as I get older I too will become less “liberal” and more “conservative”… the common refrain being the older you get – the wiser. Perhaps the later part of that statement is true… but I’m happy his prediction was incorrect.
Of course anger can be is a hot flame and consuming. And as our bodies grow more feeble; our joints tire and we start having the pressures of offspring, many start to move away from the heat and settle in. And with our more and more capitalistic-atomized society more and more attention is given to offspring – in the final attempt to keep some kind of community around us. Remember the “Baby of Board” signs… it was a start of a weird worship and protection of children… a sheltering if you will, but also a holding onto a community you have some control over.
The other part of the anger discussions I’ve been involved with comes down to the affluent “liberal” friends of mine, and their complete lack of understanding about why the anger. Many marginalized people’s in this country and around the world are angry, and they can’t seem to understand why that might be…
…And it seems to me as they get pick apart around the margins with less prospects, many liberals cling to what they got in hopes of fallowing their baby boomer philosophy they saw work for their folks – a real “head-in-the-sand” philosophy. They often fight the rear guard actions in hopes of keeping what they got, at the expense of vast majority in this world who have so much less.
Too deny our affluence, to a great extent, is based on consumption of other people resources is a real-head-in-the-sand ignorance nobody likes to look to closely at. Kinda like how sausage is made.
In stead of building “Victory Gardens” like they did in WWII and paying for over half the war as it was fought with War Bonds, most liberals are happy with status qou shopping and damning their own children with all the war debt. In stead of using their affluence and putting solar panels on their houses, they are happy to replace a couple of light bulbs with energy efficient (Green Capitalism) ones.
The only good news that I can see is that there are many “youth” out their who are living more modestly, trying not to buy into the run-a-way capitalism of their parents. Mostly, I suspect, because they pay attention to the news reports of job lost, a real lack of corporate concern for them and environmental woes. They seen that both Clinton and Obama are the best hope, if hope means center-right corporate polices and continues wars. They see the pressures and hopefully will continue to try something else then the failed modeling of their parents.
So anger is a tricky thing. No one can sustain it continuously forever. But calling things “gray” when their truly are black and white issues is the real ultimate cop-out of the previous generation and those who have affluence now.
by Mike Wall on August 26th, 2009
Now almost 40 years to the day- Ted Kennedy will hopefully have to confront the bloated face of Mary Jo Kopechine.
by Mike Wall on August 22nd, 2009
Chris Conley is sensitive… he’s obviously very sensitive to all issues conservative.
His latest conservative missive on his one-way blog at http://www.wsau.com/StationFiles/Blog/News/ is about his road-trip to NY and his encounters with people who did not understand him due to a English language barrier.
He complains that while traveling on his trip they gave him the wrong gas, he could not get directions from McDonalds employee and he could not order the right donuts – all because the people he was speaking with did not understand English well enough.
His concluding paragraph emphasizes that he does not want to make assumption about their legal status, or their laziness and he is sure they are not welfare cases; but then goes on to assume that the people he could not understand “should want to learn” English with an Italic “want”. Sensitive and a mind reader.
We all must keep in check being too overly sensitive to issue we feel passionate about. It tends to clouds one’s perception of even the events themselves. This includes me.
So one could argue that my response to Chris Conley blog is also an overly sensitive misunderstands of his thoughts. This could be considered true if not for his long list of racist’s comments both in his past writings and the over the top right-wind racist’s programming the station he manages promote.
But what made me take note (my WTF moment) about his recent rant was the fact that I myself having driven from Wausau to NYC-Queens area over 30 times in the last 7 years and 3 times so far this year and have not encountered these problems Chris reported.
But then again, I’m not as “sensitive” as he is…
by Mike Wall on August 19th, 2009
First they came for the Baathist, and I did not speak out— Because I was not an Iraqi.
Then they came to foreclose on my neighbor’s home, and I did not speak out — Because I was affluent enough to afford mine.
Then do to medical bills – they repo-ed my restaurant delivery guys car, and I did speak to the owners because it took them a week to find another driver to delivery my food.
Then they asked me to validate this system by voting, and I did — because I’m a white liberal.
“First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.”
—Martin Niemöller
by Mike Wall on July 28th, 2009
Imagine if the Health Care industry took the 1.4 million dollars a day they are spending lobbying to stop the public option and lowered medical cost. Imagine if big pharma who is planning to spend $120 million to fight public option would use it on drugs for the uninsured.
by Mike Wall on July 27th, 2009
Race in Death Row convictions in America from 1976 to July 21 2009:
Black 34% Hispanic 7% White 54%
Race of Victims same dates:
Black 14% Hispanic 5% White 79%
“In 82% of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e., those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.”
Of those sentenced to death for crimes committed as juveniles, two-thirds arepeople of color.
by Mike Wall on July 24th, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXz90e2hSwU
If you have to wait in Canada for say an MRI, since there is a single payer system they can keep track of how long it will take. When they got too long the public complain and they changed the system.
In America there is no way of keeping track of things like “wait-time” – you can’t compare Canada to America (apples to oranges) system; for with the American’s system if you need an MRI and don’t have the money to pay for it, well your wait time is infinity. Infinity tends to skew statistical results.
by Mike Wall on July 23rd, 2009
Mr. Conley loves to spin conservative politics. Moreover, like most conservative’s profit motivated media people, the only format they can make money in is on one-way media… Places like his one sided programming choices with his station mute button in case anything slips pasted his pre-screened guests and his one-way blog where no other voice other then his can be heard. He’s a coward of the worse kind… one that has a platform – kinda the Joesph Goebbels of Wausau if you will.
Way back in Feb Chris Conley promised his viewers and listeners that he’d come into the 21 century and offer a real blog… a place where yes we’ll spin is often racist comments but others can also post comments to it. The technology has been there for a very long time – Even places he hates like WDH offers a comment section to their editorials. However, like all good Nazi propaganda chiefs – Conely see no need for things like true dialog or even a place to correct his “facts”. Matter of fact, that would make less profit.
Conley has admitted it time and time again. It is all about “advertisers” and station “web hits” and he’ll do anything to keep both high. You are doing a good job Chris, your station owners and Joesph would be proud – Never let the facts get in the way.
…
By the way this editorial was motivated by Conley’s one way blog post yesterday where he talked about Obama’s answering a question in regards to Henry Louis Gates charges of racism in police tactics. You can see Conley’s own words here at his “Blog” post. http://www.wsau.com/StationFiles/Blog/News/
Conley and conservative punditry need to make sure that everyone one of their listeners believe that Black people get treated fairly in this country. After all we have a Black President now don’t we? What more proof do we need?
I find it really interesting that Conley fears Obama simply stating a fact is somehow troubling: “That the President could be so careless with his public words is surprising.” These are the words Conley is so offended by:“What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”
Sorry Mr. Conley that is just a fact. Rush might not like them, Goebbels might not like it, your conservative friends and you might not like it… but it is still a fact.
Dino Corvino 12:16 am, December 31 on Sheryl Crow sees gray