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10 great progressive moments of 2010
Mary Shaw
2010 was a wild ride.
The year had its share of low points for progressives, like the reelection defeats of Senator Russ Feingold and Representative Alan Grayson, the scrapping of a single-payer health care option, Arizona's xenophobic new laws, and the extension of tax breaks for zillionaires.
But the year also had some high points.
Here are my 10 favorites political moments of 2010, in chronological order:
1. February 24 - General Motors announced that it would discontinue production of the gas-guzzling Hummer. The planet is grateful.
2. March 23 - President Obama signed the health care reform bill into law. It's far from perfect, but far better than nothing.
3. May 17 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes may not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Every child deserves a chance at redemption.
Unity in 2011
by Timothy V. Gatto
As 2010 comes to a close, I’m reflecting on everything that has happened. In my personal life, it really hasn’t been a bad year. I’ve had two books published, a novel and a political book. I guess that seeing my novel in print (Kimchee Days or Stoned-Cold Warriors) after 15 years of rejections, it was the best thing that has happened this year. People that are closest to me are healthy so I’m happy about that also.
I can’t really say that the entire year has been a joyride. This has probably been the most frustrating year I’ve ever experienced. I knew that the Democrats were going to let us down, but knowing they would didn’t make the experience any better. I was amazed at the way Obama continued Bush’s foreign policy.
Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
By Gary Kohls, MD
Duty to Warn:
Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
Excerpts from Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic
From Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol. 7, Number 1, Spring 2005
Full article, with extensive documentation, accessible at:
http://psychrights.org/index.htm
Excerpted, with minimal editing, by Gary G. Kohls, MD
The percentage of Americans disabled by “mental illness” has increased dramatically since 1955, when Thorazine – remembered today as psychiatry’s first “wonder” drug – was introduced into the market.
There are now nearly 6 million Americans disabled by “mental illness”, and this number increases by more than 400 people each day. A review of the scientific literature reveals that it is our drug-based paradigm of care that is fueling this epidemic. The drugs increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill, and induce new and more severe psychiatric symptoms, often psychiatric drug-induced, in a significant percentage of patients.
E. Fuller Torrey, in his 2001 book The Invisible Plague, concluded that insanity had risen to the level of an epidemic. This epidemic has unfolded in lockstep with the ever-increasing use of prescription psychiatric drugs.
The number of disabled “mentally ill” has increased nearly six-fold since Thorazine was introduced.
The number of disabled “mentally ill” has also increased dramatically since 1987, the year Prozac was introduced.
America's Gulf: New Report Says It's Dying
by Stephen Lendman
Concerned Citizens of Florida.com (CCF) believe efforts must be made now "to address what may very well be the greatest environmental catastrophe of North America in modern history....government (and media) cannot be relied on" for truthful information. As a result, its site is a platform for truth and accuracy on a disaster of such magnitude.
On December 1, CCF published a special Dr. Tom Termotto Gulf disaster report, titled "The Gulf of Mexico is Dying." He's National Coordinator for the Tallahassee, FL-based Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (International Citizens' Initiative). Its disturbing findings are discussed below. He published them so "the world community will come together to further contemplate this dire and demanding predicament." Future generations depend on it.
Palestine Today: A Reality of Justice Denied
by Stephen Lendman
Salama Abu Harhish
On December 24, Mondoweiss co-editor Adam Horowitz wrote:
"Israeli military kills 20-year old Gazan for herding animals too close to buffer zone."
On December 23, Israeli forces shot and killed Salama Abu Harhish without warning while herding sheep and goats in Beit Lahya. Civilized nations don't murder nonviolent civilians in cold blood, this time leaving a widow and day-old unnamed baby.
What "democracy" thrives on violence, spurns peace, and wages preemptive wars like Cast Lead. Besides America, only Israel, a global menace like its Washington paymaster/partner, together with Britain the real axis of evil.
It's all good! Party on like there's no tomorrow
By Numerian posted by Michael Collins
"The US financial system is close to collapse - The deliberate public relations campaign by government, politicians, and business leaders to assure us that “all is well” when it comes to the banking system is unraveling. The dry rot that is destroying banks keeps eating away at the foundations of finance, the latest example being the revelations regarding the foreclosure process. The ugly, life-threatening reality that no one in banking wants to talk about is that the biggest asset class of the industry – home mortgages – may be severely compromised because the mortgages themselves may be uncollateralized. ... The simple fact that the banks have failed for twenty years to keep the borrower’s note connected to the mortgage document, and have both registered with local recorders of deeds, means that banks cannot really prove they are the legal lender with rights to foreclose."
Israel Hardens Repression as Palestinian Recognition Increases
by Stephen Lendman
On December 24, Ecuador became the fifth Latin American country to recognize "the Palestine state as free and independent within its borders since 1967." An accompanying statement said:
"Sadly, the Middle East continues to face wars and violent events that have led to the death of many innocent people, a situation contrary to the humane and pacifist position established by the Ecuadorian Constitution. This recognition is meant to reinforce the valid and legitimate wish of the Palestin(ian) people to have their own free and independent state." Having it is "fundamental to achieve the peaceful co-existence of the nations in the region through dialogue and mediation."
The Huffington Hoax
By Bob Fox
Like many liberals/progressives in this country, I was very happy when The Huffington Post was launched on the web in 2005. The left needed a voice on the internet and Huffpo provided it. Being a writer, I also engaged in posting my opinions on many articles at Huffpo over the years as the site became a force on the internet.
But then I started to see some troubling practices at Huffpo. For one, out of every five posts I would submit, I would only have two posted after the moderators at the site looked at my posts. The subject matter involved usually was about the JFK assassination or the events of 9/11. It got me to the point that where I stopped posting at all on the site and rarely visited the site anymore.
In addition to that, I started to see articles in Huffpo that were very disturbing and very similar to the way the mainstream media has reported events like the JFK assassination. Articles like this one for instance. What a bunch of malarkey. That particular story was torn apart by many experts including this excellent retort by Jim Fetzer and Jim Marrs.
One More Year of Inhumanity Coming to a Close. What Happens Next?
By Pablo Ouziel
This year the list of atrocities committed under the guise of representative democracy is extensive, as anyone concerned in analyzing the actions of governments in the West can ascertain. If it was our wish, we could bombard the airwaves with images of suffering people from around the world, and swiftly link their pain to the corrupt institutions of government we have accepted as legitimate. With similar ease, we could trace the wealth accumulated by a small minority of ruthless economic elites, to their governmental bonds. But I see little need in contributing to this exercise considering the amount of relevant information already available. Instead, I find it more useful to speculate about what happens next. I am fairly confident that is what those bearing the brunt of our inhumanity must wonder. Will we end the bombs? Will we stop the banks? Will we transform our democracies?
What a meaningless term democracy has become when uttered under the context of our 21st century Western reality. Do we really think the democracy we live embodies the dream our ancestors thought they were fighting for? I do not think it does. I think instead, that Western democracy, the democracy of imperial expansion embodies the violence and misery it claims to diffuse. The tragic thing is, that many Western citizens one speaks to, make similar observations, yet, the wheel continues to turn and its movement destroys many innocents. How can the wheel stop, when the citizenry goes along for the ride? When there is little will to change direction?
The Federal Reserve: Stupid Bank Robbers or Robber “Hood” Barons: A Psychohistory Analysis
By Katherine Smith, PhD
“The Federal Reserve isn’t evil because they print our money and make us (the U.S. Taxpayers) pay interest on it. They are evil because, until October 2008, the Fed gave us a no-limit credit card that we used to buy houses, cars, RVs, TVs and DVDs—the “stuff” which, according to the GEO4, a massive United Nations Report, put the planet at the unknown points of no return.”[1]
G. Edward Griffin, author of, The Creature from Jekyll Island, a work considered by Ron Paul to be “a superb analysis of the Federal Reserve,” has this to say about the Fed:
“(The Fed) Is nothing more or less than a cartel. It’s no different than an oil cartel, a banana cartel or a sugar cartel. It happens to be a banking cartel and, like all cartels, it’s made up of the big players in that industry who get together and set rules to reduce or eliminate competition among themselves and regulate their own industry. And they regulate not in the best interests of the people, of course. Because it is a cartel, they regulate to their own advantage, but then they always go to great lengths to convince the people that they are regulating in such a way that it is in the best interest of the people.” Is The Fed Dead? Let’s Ask G. Edward Griffin For His Expert View, http://radio.rumormillnews.com/podcast/2010/09/28/gedwardgriffin/
The Fed is a cartel financed by the biggest player in the world, the House of Rothschild. [2]
In recent years, the power of the cartel has been consolidated into the hands of Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, the Rockefeller family, and the J.P. Morgan interests, the Global Financial Elite (TGFE, an non-conspiracy term). [3]
Griffin along with just about everyone else in the world are sure they know How Wall Street Shafted Main Street and that corporate greed and political corruption are undermining America, Pigs at the Trough, Arianna Huffington. [Appendix A]
We are conditioned to believe everything is about money, power, greed and corruption. Therefore we are not aware of the great lengths to which the six companies that control 96% of the media go to sell a Corporatocracy (another non-conspiracy term) driven agenda. [4]
The really inconvenient truth is that TGFE regulate in the “best” interests of the people. [5]
Altruism at the Federal Reserve
Pretend for a moment it is the beginning of the 20th century and you are one of the founding members of the Fed, Lazard Freres (Eugene Meyer), Warburg, Strong, Vanderlip or J.P. Morgan.
You and your friends, along with the richest man in history, John D. Rockefeller, own or control one-sixth of the entire world’s wealth—the world’s real wealth: raw materials, commodities, iron ore, bauxite, petroleum, copper, lead, silver and gold. [Appendix B]
Would you trade your real wealth for the money you created out of thin air? [Appendix C]
Would you give up your real wealth to provide the middle class with 75 years of unprecedented prosperity in the houses, second houses, RVs, all that “stuff” manufactured from the raw materials you owned or controlled in 1910?
Or would you give up your raw materials to employ the middle class in building airplanes, ships, cars, RVs, SUVs, office buildings, freeways and shopping malls from the raw materials you owned or controlled in 1910?
Let’s say you own a bar of gold and a Monopoly money printing press. Would you trade that bar of gold for the Monopoly money you printed?
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