The making of a post-partisan presidency
super long read. worth it.
As 2011 ends, its time to take stock. Perhaps more is at stake today than ever before. Our world is changing monumentally. From the Kyoto Accord to the EU split, from the Arab Spring to austerity protests in Europe, the world seems topsy turvy.
Though I do not pay much heed to it, I have to also mention TIME magazine’s declaration today that their Person Of The Year is The Protestor.
I think that this glamorous title needs some perspective. Why is it that this is the year of the protestor. How is it that 2011 came to be that year, and what do we take away from it?
I feel like I may be reverting back to my rhetoric of old when I say that it is clear that our world is coming apart at the seams. We are the cusp, or perhaps we have already jumped of a mountain. Does it not seem that everywhere we look, everywhere we turn, there are people who are expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of affairs? Have we had enough? Have we truly been pushed so far that we leave the comforts of our homes and march down streets in numbers never seen before to declare, Basta! Enough!
From Athens to London, Cairo to Tunis, Aden to Damascus, Ben Ghazi to Tripoli, New York to Moscow - people are rising up. Sure, its not everyone. Sure, its not even even one sixth of the global population, but in doesn’t take much. It didn’t take much. What army can hold back such a show of force? Who can challenge the might of the people?
2011 gave us a clear answer- use that pepper spray, use those bullets (rubber or otherwise), use your tanks, your water pipes, your servicemen or your merceneries - all methods are welcome, because all methods are useless. We are here, we are fighting, in our own ways, on our own terms, and we will bring change.
This is not the year of the protestor. This is the year of the awakening. The system stacked against us is faulty, it is bleeding us dry, it is mincing us raw, and we have been pushed far enough now to push back. I will bring my child to the protest, I will invite my grandmother too.
Viva la revolucion, bitches.
Fault Lines - The Top 1%
Excellent short doc on the increasing inequality in the US.
Whole Foods is the object of a growing controversy about the popular grocery chain’s treatment of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims that started Aug. 1.
On July 27, the retailer introduced a special promotion for the month of Ramadan on their blog, Whole Story, featuring special recipes and product giveaways for the month. This promotion also coincided with the introduction of a new halal-certified product line in Whole Foods stores.
A day later, Fast Company posted an article highlighting Whole Foods’ online Ramadan campaign as a first for a major American food chain. The article presciently stated that although no major in-store promotions were planned, the Web and social media efforts were a bit of a risk in a U.S. marketplace that is often hostile to Islam.
Unsurprisingly, the campaign garnered the notice of right-wing bloggers who promptly branded Whole Foods as “jihadist” and “anti-Israel.” The absurdity of this position may have been easily dismissed if not for the subsequent reaction by leadership at the company.
This is ridiculous.
The U.S. economy appears to be coming apart at the seams…
… And yet a curious thing has happened in the midst of all this misery. The wealthiest Americans, among them presumably the very titans of global finance whose misadventures brought about the financial meltdown, got richer. And not just a little bit richer; a lot richer. In 2009, the average income of the top five percent of earners went up, while on average everyone else’s income went down. This was not an anomaly but rather a continuation of a 40-year trend of ballooning incomes at the very top and stagnant incomes in the middle and at the bottom. The share of total income going to the top one percent has increased from roughly eight percent in the 1960s to more than 20 percent today.
This is what the political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson call the “winner-take-all economy.”
Keith Olbermann and CAIR on the wave of religious intolerance sweeping the US.
