32,000 people

say it slowly... let it roll around in your mouth and your consciousness... savor it...

THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND...!!

Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested across the United States in confrontations with police on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy movement.

Police said they arrested 177 people who crowded intersections near the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning, The Wall Street Journal reported. They later arrested 99 more who tried to block access to the Brooklyn Bridge.

About 32,000 people massed near Wall Street and elsewhere in New York to mark two months since the Occupy movement began.

In Los Angeles, police in riot gear faced protesters in the financial district, resulting in 72 arrests, some of people who pitched tents in the middle of a busy downtown street. Occupy LA protesters, encamped outside City Hall for nearly seven weeks, also took over a plaza outside the Bank of America Center for several hours until police arrived.

The incident prompted several local and national labor unions to call on the city to let the protesters stay, saying the bank plaza was a "more fitting target" for Occupy LA.

there's an evolution in progress for the occupy movement... i've seen it coming ever since it started when it became clear to me that that the half-life of occupying public space with tents was both short and simply not sustainable, at least not in today's police state... what the evolution is going to look like is anybody's guess but my most fervent desire is that it will continue to grow... right now, i think things could go either way... it might grow and, sad to say, it might die... speaking for myself, i can't imagine going back to a state of numbed-out, barely conscious, ever-increasing marginalization...

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Let's cut the bullshit - there's plenty of money to go around

from truthout...

The United States isn't broke; we're the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn't working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this 'dinosaur economy' on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It's time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let's build it better.

yeah, what if...? it's a lovely idea... it's also the RIGHT idea... first, however, we've got to put a stop to the vested interests whose wealth and power is based on the status quo from buying elected officials to make sure their vested interests are the ones that get served... which takes us right back to the occupy movement...

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Odds & ends, Thursday, 6 January [UPDATE]

in the "something a tad bit different" post from a couple of days ago, i opted to begin serving up occasional interesting stuff that i run across in the course of any given day that doesn't necessarily merit a full-fledged, dedicated post... i've decided that "odds & ends" is as good a title as any for such miscellaneous links...

without further ado...

sustainability = frugality = sustainability

glenn greenwald: a u.s. citizen arrested without charge, tortured and then put on the no-fly list while traveling outside the country "underscores the rapidly expanding powers the U.S. Government and law enforcement agents within the country are seizing without a shred of due process"...

if i run across more odds and ends later, i'll update...

[UPDATE]

yesterday's post about what a truly representative deficit commission might look like is echoed by laura flanders who points out that those most affected by the issues of the day mysteriously never get to join the debate...

meanwhile, obama continues to show his true colors...

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Something hopeful for a Father's Day

as a father and a grandfather, i feel a special pull toward bequeathing a legacy to our future generations, something we've been failing at spectacularly, particularly in the course of my lifetime... here's something to give us a little hope, not obama-style hope, but REAL hope...

A short film looking at the success of organic urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba. An example for cities around the world.

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'There hasn't been two seconds of intelligent discussion about living standards in Afghanistan'

this guy is talking about the afghanistan i have personally experienced...

The poverty in Afghanistan is almost beyond imagining. Thirty Afghans die from TB every day; life expectancy is 43 years; per capita income is $426; only 13% have access to sanitary drinking water; fewer than one in four are literate; access to electricity is among the lowest in the world. Conditions for women are brutal. If Obama plans to address these issues, he's pretty much keeping it secret, points out world poverty expert Jeffrey Sachs. But without addressing them, can stepped-up American military involvement succeed? Or is it bound to fail?

and he makes the same point i've been making ever since my feet first hit the ground in kabul back in march 2008...

Columbia University economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, one of the foremost experts on extreme poverty in underdeveloped nations, says it is past time for the United States to end its war in Afghanistan, the world’s fifth poorest nation. In an interview with Nieman Watchdog in November, Sachs said the United States should reverse its priorities and fund major sustainable development programs, which would not only help reduce Afghanistan’s overwhelming poverty but would be a surer way to help achieve greater U.S. security.

As Sachs wrote last May in The Guardian newspaper of London, U.S. foreign policy “has failed in recent years mainly because the U.S. has relied on military force to address problems that demand development assistance and diplomacy. Young men become fighters in places such as Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan because they lack gainful employment. Extreme ideologies influence people when they can’t feed their families, and when lack of access to family planning leads to an unwanted population explosion.”

This applies particularly to Afghanistan and the neighboring provinces of Pakistan, which “are impoverished regions, with vast unemployment, bulging youth populations, prolonged droughts, widespread hunger and pervasive economic deprivation. It is easy for the Taliban and al-Qaida to mobilize fighters under such conditions.” With improved economic conditions, a major recruiting tool for the Taliban and al-Qaida – as well as extremists’ threats to the United States – would be substantially weakened.

i've said it repeatedly - desperate people will do desperate things... why can't we see that and do something to break the cycle...?

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"What kind of culture would produce a product of this kind?" - rethinking sustainability

from nhne news...

Architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "All children, all species, for all time." A tireless proponent of absolute sustainability (with a deadpan sense of humor), he explains his philosophy of "cradle to cradle" design, which bridge the needs of ecology and economics. He also shares some of his most inspiring work, including the world's largest green roof (at the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan), and the entire sustainable cities he's designing in China.

damn good questions and even better answers...

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