Protect Insurance Companies PSA: Will Ferrell, Jon Hamm Speak Out Against The Public Option

Hilarious, “Obama WHY?”

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Denizen Kane ~ “Holdin’ Up The Wall”

While reflecting on a recently released report detailing even more shit that was fucked up about the situation surrounding the killing of Oscar Grant, I wanted to give Denizen Kane some shine. Very simple, dope video directed by Jason Mateo. This is the first new Kane track I’ve heard in awhile (and I’m late on it as I think its been making the rounds since early this year), so here’s hoping that the brother continues to put in work.

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Honduras

I was supposed to travel by bus through Honduras on my way to Nicaragua, but the Honduran borders have been closed due to the crazy political situation there right now. Naturally, the country, and its people have been on my mind a lot. Counterpunch has been running some great analysis on the events there, so definitely peep their coverage if you want to get a better idea of the situation beyond the frame of the corporate media.

Xela Thoughts

I’ve been in Xela, Guatemala for about two weeks now, and just wanted to share some initial thoughts and observations. For one, the country is pretty materially poor. By that, I mean that a lot of the buildings are pretty old/damaged, the roads are pretty fucked up, the plumbing system can’t support toilet paper, the tap water isn’t suitable for drinking, etc. Basically, a lot of funds are not being put into infrastructure. I’ve learned that a lot of the challenges have to do with their being a pretty crazy oligarchy in place, in which the twenty richest families in the country run everything and the wealth isn’t really trickling down to the people. It’s also important to point out that nearly 75% of Guatemala’s population is descended from the indigenous people here, but those twenty families in power most definitely ain’t indigenous.

When I look at Guatemala, I can’t help but be reminded of a trip to Cuba I was blessed to be able to go on a couple of years ago, at least in terms of the material conditions. However, while Cuba is still a socialist country,  Guatemala is a “democracy.” So, while Cuba is pretty cut off and isolated from the rest of the world (ie, US corporate interests), Guatemala has McDonalds and Wal-Mart. But what has this gotten them? Even though Cuba is just as materially poor as Guatemala seems to be, at least the government there is providing the people with their basic necessities and then some (ie, food rations, education, healthcare, etc.). Here in Guatemala, a lot of the families that I’ve talked to are struggling to pay for groceries, medication perscriptions, education costs, etc. just like families are struggling to do so in the US.

All of this is just another reminder to question what the government or the media means when they say things like “Cuba needs to open itself up to democracy.” Is it really true democracy they’re talking about, or just the desire to put in Wal-Marts and Egg McMuffins?

(A local comadrona,”midwife,” shows us an herb garden they use here at a midwife clinic they have set up for pregnant women who can’t afford the high costs of going to a private hospital.)

At the same time, I’m very inspired by the people here in Guatemala. The school I’m studying at is engaged in some real dope social justice work, and I see many women who still dress in the traditional indigenous style of clothing. I think those small acts of resistance mean a lot in terms of trying to retain culture and also hold the government and people in power here accountable.

Peace,

KC

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One more thing you can do for Single Payer Universal Health Care

Click on this link to contact all your government representatives and even your local newspaper to show them your support for a single payer universal healthcare system.

“Medicare for All” Single Payer Health Care Now

Five people (including a few doctors and a lawyer) in a Senate Finance Committee meeting last week were arrested for speaking out in support of a single payer universal health care system. That’s how much of a threat single payer is to the corporate health insurance industry and their lobbyists in Washington who get rich by making us pay for health insurance while 22 million people who can’t afford it in the US die each year. A single payer system (which basically just expands the system for the elderly that we already have, Medicare, to people of all ages) is that much of a threat to their profits, and they’ve bought off most of the politicians in DC.

Fuck corporations getting rich off of people dying. The Senate is having one more meeting on Tuesday to discuss health care reform and says that “all options are on the table except single payer.” Call Sen. Max Baucus at 202-224-2651 or email him here and tell him that we need single payer universal health care now.

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Things I’ll Miss About the ATL: Walking With The Wind

All good things must come to an end. I’m leaving Atlanta at the end of May, so a lot of posts in the next few months are going to be dedicated to “Things I’ll miss about the ATL.”

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John Lewis, former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement and a US Congressman representing Atlanta for decades (I’m proud to say I live in his district), is the man (even though he’s made some shitty votes in the past. The Patriot Act, John? Seriously?).

His memoir, Walking With the Wind, is probably the best book on the Civil Rights Movement that I’ve read. His recollections are so vivid that he really does transport you back right into the thick of it. Living in Atlanta has been very special to me in terms of the history of the place. I mean, some of SNCC’s meeting notes and agendas are actually archived in the libraries and museums out here, which is awesome. The book is dope and I highly recommend it. My only knock against it might be that he puts a little too much faith in the Democratic Party than I would. Still,  I think studying this time period in US history is very relevant in thinking about our organizing strategies today

G20 Thoughts

The G20 convention took place recently, and SleptOn Magazine did a good job of providing some commentary and analysis. Basically, the G20 is the group of countries that rule the world and get together every now and then to discuss the global economy. What’s interesting now is how America’s role in causing the global financial crisis has emboldened some countries to be much more vocal with their criticisms of the US. I mean, damn, President Lula of Brazil straight up said: “This crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.” Gangsta!

There were a lot of anti-capitalist protests at the latest convention, and I appreciated one SleptOn article by radical economist Robin Hahnel, who states that contrary to what the mainstream might think, these protestors aren’t all just a bunch of granola eating potheads stirring up trouble and dancing around in their hemp clothes. In fact, there are a lot of very well-respected folks in academia, policy and organizing circles who have a very solid analysis of what’s wrong with the global economic system of today and how we might get to a better world.

Now, I’m pretty nerdy and have been trying to educate myself on economics a lot recently, but most of the current talk about “derivatives” and “toxic assets” goes way over my head. Even Hahnel starts to lose me at points throughout his article, but I appreciated what I felt like his main point was:

“Our slogan “a better world is possible” means that we reject the economics of competition and greed as a human necessity and embrace the possibility of an economics of equitable co-operation. These approaches to solving our economic problems are fundamentally different. One way motivates people through fear and greed and pretends that market competition can be relied on to bend egotistical behavior to serve the social interest, when too often it does not. The other way organizes people to arrange their own division of labor and negotiate how to share the efficiency gains from having done so equitably. This way motivates people to work at tasks that are not always pleasant, and to consume less than they sometimes wish, because they agreed to do so, secure in the knowledge that others are doing likewise. The driving force behind our economic world is participation and fairness, no longer fear and greed.

There is agreement among us that economic decisions should be made democratically, not by an elite or left to market forces. We would also give workers, consumers and localities more decision-making autonomy than traditional approaches to economic planning have allowed.”

Bam, I could definitely dig that. It was also dope to me that he doesn’t just make lofty hopes, but actually goes on to point to specific models being utilized in the world today that could move us towards a much more equitable economic system. Peep:

“More importantly, ideas on how to engage in equitable co-operation have been tested in various real-world experiments over the past few decades. Worker participation and partial ownership in capitalist firms, producer and consumer co-operatives, community-supported agriculture, participatory budgeting (pioneered in Kerala, India, and Porto, Alegre, Brazil), egalitarian and sustainable “intentional” communities, solidarity economics, alternative currency systems and other developments have been stimulated by networking at world and regional social forums, by friendly governments in several Latin American countries , and now by an economic crisis that has abandoned billions to fend for themselves. Most of this has gone unreported in the mainstream media, partly because it does not fit neatly into the framework for economic debate defined by the Cold War so badly, for so long.”

Add to this the fact that countries once forced into ridiculous debt through all the US-controlled global financial institutions have woken up and are resisting in very interesting ways, like the gangsta South Korean labor unions suing the IMF or Venezuela and Iran forming their own financial agreements to avoid having to deal with the IMF, World Bank, etc.

Pretty interesting times we’re living in, y’all. Who wants to start a co-op with me?

Binghamton

The news of the shooting that took place last weekend in upstate New York was very sad. The homie Rage posted some good initial thoughts that I totally agree with and can’t really think of anything to add at this point, so I’ll just direct you to his posts here and here.

Challenging Cali Republicrats & Democrans

Apparently, Republican Party voter registration in many California districts is “dropping like a rock.” Thus, the Democratic Party machine is eying many of those districts hungrily, with hopes of gaining seats in the 2010 Congressional elections.

I’ve got another idea. If the Republican Party is losing its relevancy in California, why not form a third party that can be a truly progressive alternative to  the Democrats? The Dems have shown time and time again that, while sometimes much more liberal than their Republican counterparts, they’re for the most part a bunch of rich millionaires who aren’t really down for the truly sweeping progressive change that we need (just look at how they marginalize the progressive members of their party like Dennis Kucinich or Cynthia McKinney before she got disgusted with them and became a Green Party member).

I hope Cali progressives don’t get caught in those fear based arguments that say the only choice we have is to support the Dems. We don’t have to support them, especially when they don’t earn our support.