On Black Friday, braving freezing temperatures and rain, about twenty-five teachers and supporters rallied over a 520 overpass just a block from the Microsoft campus. The rally was to draw attention to the fact that Microsoft is one of many corporations that makes billions in profits but due to loopholes in the taxation system, pays …
Here’s a new song from Los Angeles singer/songwriter Hana Kim bringing to light human trafficking around the world and supporting Saving Innocence, a Los Angeles based nonprofit fighting against child trafficking. “Piece by piece you bought and sold / you’re trading me now in for gold / I was never yours to hold,” “Heaven Sees …
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18 year old African American citizen of Ferguson Missouri, was shot multiple times in cold blood during daylight hours by a white police officer. The teen’s body laid in the street for FOUR hours because police labeled the shooting a crime scene instead of sending the victim …
With the World Series underway, I should add one more push to the notion of eliminating the Cleveland Indians’ “Chief Wahoo” logo. Polls in Ohio have shown a majority of fans have no objection to this caricature – and many of those who do admit its obvious racism still stamp their approval with the excuse …
Interesting to note that during the week of the protests at the Chicago Democratic Convention in ’68, the Beatles released “Revolution” and the Stones “Street Fighting Man” as singles. – Pat Thomas is the author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH9zG28GQEg
Sunday September 21, 2014, people in many municipalities around the world gathered to protest climate change and push for clean, renewable energy sources. When I arrived things were already in full swing in downtown Seattle’s Westlake Plaza. I was quite surprised to see so many gathered in the one acre park. People stood or sat …
Thursday evening June 26 approximately three hundred teachers and public school support personnel gathered in Seattle’s Westlake Center to hold a rally against the new Common Core Standards (CCS) before marching one mile to the Gates Building and holding a rally and protest there for over an hour. Common Core Standards was created by corporatists …
Rimkus!’s old pal – and Pacific Northwest National Treasure cartoonist – Ambrosavage was born and raised “across the (proverbial) tracks” on the blue collar side of Madison Wisconsin in the 50’s and 60’s, where he is presently spending the holidays with his Dad (now in his 90’s) – an original swingin’ “Mad Men” who worked …
Tuesday was voting day here in the US, but it was also a day of action all over the world. Sponsored by the Group calling themselves Anonymous, The Million Mask March took over major cities worldwide to protest the power grab by the very wealthy and to defend democracy. I attended a small gathering of …
In February 2013, President Obama announced that 34,000 troops would be returning home from Afghanistan within a year – half the number that are currently stationed there. With more troop reductions expected by the end of 2014, an ever-growing number of military service men and women are finding themselves adjusting to life at home. This …
I have not been able to follow the logic of the government shutdown. Clearly, America has divided government. One faction(s) has sought repeatedly (>41 times by Congressional vote) to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is approved legislation and upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Personally, I do not agree 100% with …
During Sunday’s Viking/Bear debacle, the network aired a commercial/PSA that reminded viewers to remember 9/11, honor the troops stationed abroad, and that the United States has troops stationed in 175 countries. Parenthetically, the United States has over 800 bases located throughout the world. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Andrew Browne wrote an article about China …
It’s Thursday night September 5 and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is in town. His appearance at the Washington Policy Center dinner at the posh Seattle Sheraton barred all reporters. Outside, however, about three-hundred people took over the street in front of the hotel holding signs saying things like “Not In Our State” or “Governor Walker …
On Thursday August 29th thirty percent of Seattle Schools SEA represented staff voted nearly unanimously to reject the contract proposal offered by the district. The district refuses to reduce the case load for support staff (counselors, psychologists, physical therapists, etc.), they want to increase the work day by thirty minutes without compensation and want to …
Rep. Barbara Lee (CA), one of a select few Honorable Members of Congress who opposed 43’s illegal invasion of Iraq, has written a letter concerning Syria to 44 in the last 24 hours. Here’s the letter. – Mark Erickson Dear Mr. President: We join you and the international community in expressing unequivocal condemnation over the …
Wednesday evening I joined with others in Seattle’s Westlake Center for a protest rally against the sentencing of a person most know as Bradley Manning (in the last couple days Bradley Manning has decided he wants to undergo a sex change and wishes to be called Chelsea Manning). As most people now know, Manning was …
On Saturday August 17, I attended a march for civil rights in Central Seattle. This march was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the famous March On Washington where MLK gave his famous I Have A Dream speech. The event was organized and funded by The Black Trade Unionists. Due to bad traffic I arrived …
In April 2013, The White House accused Syrian President Bashar Assad’s shi’ite forces of using sarin gas, a deadly nerve agent banned by international treaty, on a “small scale” against rebel sunni factions. Russia denounced the allegation of sarin gas use, calling the evidence “unconvincing.” Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff …
I am disappointed by President Obama’s forays in the Middle East, failure to close Guantanamo, and use of drone “missions” that create more hatred than peace. The following lyrics come from a Dead Kennedys song called “Kinky Sex Makes the World Go ‘Round,” which was part of the 1987 release, Give Me Convenience or Give …
Thanks to my friend Patty Dean of Helena, I came across this extraordinary short film about Lee Metcalf, who served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate from 1953 to 1978, and who was, along with Mike Mansfield (who still holds the record for longest reign as U.S. Senate Majority Leader–1961 to 1977–among many other distinctions), …
Sunday February 17th I participated in a rally and march against the proposed coal train that’s being proposed to run through Seattle on its way up to the port of Everett before being shipped to China. The protest, held at Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park on the shores of Shilshole Bay, drew several hundred. Holding three-dimensional …
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/17/the-co-author-of-hubris-on-torture-secrets-and-what-we-still-dont-know/ — a documentary special hosted by Rachel Maddow tonight, 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC. The news media are as much to blame as the Bush administration — read the article we published on November 19, 2001 in which Enver Masud wrote: In an October 1999 interview, former United Nations Special Commission chief inspector Scott …
OK everyone can keep their guns as long as we don’t let Alex Jones have anything sharper than a steak knife. I am pro Second Amendment within reason. I’m pretty sure Alex Jones is going to accidentally shoot a puppy in the face in a pressure situation. How can he shoot straight freaking out like …
I just heard that Richard Ben Cramer passed away. I have his DiMaggio biography, and I had heard that he was working on one of Alex Rodriguez. I had looked forward to reading it. It is a sad day for sports literature. – Chuck Strom http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/us/politics/richard-ben-cramer-dies-at-62-chronicled-presidential-politics.html
I’m doing some research for a new Staxx Brothers song, “Slick Willie.” I like to get my facts straight, even when the narrator is lying. This is the first time I’ve actually seen Clinton’s legendary saxophone performance on Arsenio Hall. He stepped up and ripped “Heartbreak Hotel” with soul. Those are great chops for a …
In the months before the United States invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, leaders of the Bush (#43) regime, i.e., National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Vice President Dick Cheney, made statements to various organizations such as the United Nations, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the House+Senate Armed Forces Committees, and …
In this latest installment, you will learn that George W. Bush was the worst president in our lifetime. Earlier this month the European Court of Human Rights found the CIA guilty of torturing a German citizen, Khaled el Masri. Allegations included kidnapping him in Macedonia, covertly transferring him via extraordinary rendition to an Afghan detention …
Bam. Roll Tide. All the people that want their states to secede should just move to Alabama and then we’ll let Alabama secede. Bam. Roll Tide! Thanks to a disastrous 2011 anti-immigration law, Alabama successfully rid itself of its migrant workforce. Thus with this influx of secessionists, Alabama will have all the hands it needs …
The right and ability to vote is the most fundamental component of freedom. It took a handful of years for white people in the colonies to secure this and other liberties from oppression; for the rest of those living in America, tyranny took a bit longer to overcome. Today seems like the most appropriate of …
My church arranged speakers over the four Sundays preceding the national election to facilitate discussion concerning “Christian Faith and this Year’s Election Issues.” Last Sunday, retired North Park University Professor of New Testament, Dr. Cal Katter, focused on the dire economic issue of America’s widening gap between the rich and everyone else. Dr. Katter emphasized …