Historian and author of What’s the Matter with Kansas and Pity the Billionaire, Thomas Frank on what’s happening in Kansas, the most right wing state of the union where the conservative movement is in full swing. His column “Letter from Brownbackistan” comes out in the July edition of Harpers. Also, Ted Alexandro (@tedalexandro) reports from actions taking place today at Occupy the CITI. Click thru for links to The Baffler, Occupy updates and more. Thomas Frank is the Founding Editor of The Baffler (@thebafflermag). Check it out.
Learn more about the Occupy actions today in Long Island City.
“Tragic Prelude” by John Steuart Curry (Kansas State Capitol in Topeka)
12:29 pm
The idea that poor people just have to die sometime, and poor people are just this kind of nuisance that the elite has to wade through, contrasts with the Progressive Era (as in circa 1900 forward) concept that giving these people decent living conditions will allow the people with talent and drive to rise to the top and improve the world and create new inventions and cure disease or whatever – just polar opposites. Notice that the latter attitude is what took us from a horse-and-buggy society to the moon, not to mention the wealthiest, healthiest century in history.
What scares me the most about the impending “Obamacare” decision from the Supremes is that 4-5 justices who share the “let them die” attitude will use that logic to take out the underlying assumption to the law – that the system is broken and has to be fixed because we have to pay for everyone’s health care eventually.
They should all be taken on a field trip to the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street in New York City’s Lower East Side, where they can learn all about how garbage, including dead horses, was piled up 5 feet high in the streets before the progressives got the Tenement Law enacted and decided that cleaning up benefited the community as a whole, not just the slums.
Then they might be less sanguine about letting people, poor or otherwise uninsured, die in the streets, or even wander around untreated infecting everyone. We’ve completely lost touch with the concept of infectious disease as a community effort, or just about anything as a community effort.
12:35 pm
Sam, you’ll just have to sing along with the von Trapp family as they escape over the Alps
12:47 pm
Laugh Out Loud @ “Dan”!!!
Calm down dude!!!
12:47 pm
Dan has already lost.
1:02 pm
The Story of Change (2012) — Teaser
Coming JULY 17th!
In the upcoming movie, The Story of Change, Annie Leonard talks about how deep, lasting social change — the kind of change achieved by the civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the early environmental movement — always starts with a group of people committed to a Big Idea for how things could be better. Not just a little better for a few people, but a whole lot better for everyone…
http://youtu.be/RDiRUiLay30
1:03 pm
I know the caller is calling on a computer which can sound weird, but I can’t shake the notion that he sounds like he’s underwater, possibly in Rapture, the dystopic underwater city in the video game “Bioshock”.
http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Rapture
1:23 pm
Sam, could you please make a Youtube of your take down of frakking in the better half?
1:31 pm
+1
1:44 pm
Pomp @ChrisPomp 6h
The #OWS people are protesting in front of my office today. Is it weird that i’m excited? #occupytheciti
Anthony Zenkus @anthonyzenkus 3h
We are on the grounds of citibank in Queens now! #occupytheciti with us today- all day! http://Www.occupyastorialic.org @OccupyWallStNY #ows
Matt H @StopMotionsolo 2h
Heading to #occupytheciti be ther in half hour
Matt H @StopMotionsolo 28m
I’m broadcasting “On the front lines” live on @Ustream. Come watch and chat! – ustre.am/FIGI (1:10pm)
http://t.co/IxLxRhaA
1:44 pm
Matt H @StopMotionsolo 24m
I’m broadcasting “On the front lines” live on @Ustream. Come watch and chat! – ustre.am/FIGI (1:10pm)
http://t.co/IxLxRhaA
8:50 pm
Protesters say NC sea level bill ignores science
Published on Jun 27, 2012
by climatebrad
6/26/12: Protesters mobilized by Forecast the Facts and 350.org challenge NC H819, a bill written by real-estate developers to ignore the science of global-warming-induced sea level rise. State Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, says by outlawing science she is “protecting the economy of the coast of North Carolina and also the ecology.”
http://youtu.be/uQzDtIzfUMg
9:15 pm
Listening to that caller was a stunning example of what Janeane said once, ‘Libertarianism is an internet subculture for latent homosexuals.’