In 1934 there was a war on American workers and a general strike. Out of that struggle and Bloody Thursday, Harry Bridges and the ILWU were only armed with the right to protest and their convictions.. We stand on the shoulders of giants. The martyrs died a physical death so we would not die a psychological death. Here's a 59 minute video on the 75th Commemoration of the SF general strike:

Obama's plan won't rein in casino capitalism; finance must be democratized. The Fed has had enormous regulatory power but refused to use that power. In a PBS Lehrer broadcast, Alan Greenspan explained the Federal Reserve is independent and above the president! Glass-Steagal separated commercial and speculative banking. Democrats and Republicans dismantled the system over 30 years at the banks' request. Public credit rating agencies are vital. Private rating agencies encouraged speculation and knew they'd get more business if they gave all As. Do we want to reestablish a system that didn't work? Economist Robert Polin is interviewed in this RealNews report from June 24, 2009.

"The Federal Reserve is buying securities it printed itself. The supply of money has increased 45 percent in the last 3 years. The dollar has already lost 40% of its value against the euro since 2000. The means used to fight the economic crisis paved the way for the currency crisis.."

Technological solutions like cap-and-trade do not change our ecological footprint, climate change or the fraud of banks and big business. The edifice must be debated and changed: the role of govt, the purpose of the economy, illusions about market and democracy, public and profit and stakeholders and shareholders.

"Many Danes believe that the incredible social-support system provided to citizens is a direct offshoot of the country’s deep roots in the church named after Reformation leader Martin Luther. Lutheranism, at its best, is a faith that emphasizes helping the needy, supporting personal equality and advancing individual liberty. In other words, even “secular” Danes believe they are actualizing the ethics and values of Christianity…"

"Market-liberalisation was accompanied by a far-reaching de-regulation of politics. Milton Friedman called it a “neo-liberal counterrevolution” against Keynesianism…" "Markets are disembedded from society and nature since the “great transformation” to a market economy in the 18th and 19th century. Financial markets are moreover disembedded from markets for real goods, services and labour: The monetary economy is “autonomised” and self-valorising, i.e., delinking from dynamics in the real economy. Financial markets are self-referential, they follow their own logics of development. The relations between social reproduction and the accumulation dynamics of the real economy on the one side and the working of financial markets on the other have widely been dissolved. This is a consequence of the all-embracing liberalisation of markets in general and particularly of finance since the end of the Bretton Woods regime in the 1970s. Neo-liberalism is the theoretical background of liberalised and self-referential financial markets. Karl Polanyi described disembedded markets in general as "satanic mills" , pushing labour into misery, nature into environmental destruction, and the monetary system into a malfunctioning state. Disembedded financial markets work even more than product- and labour-markets as satanic mills, because their horizon is not the “real” national economy but the world market, i.e. the economy on a global scale. In terms of time they are characterised by an endemic “myopia” . Financial actors only have a very short-term horizon. The higher the interest rate and the financial yield, the shorter the perspective of actors on financial markets. Therefore, the counter-movements against the destructive functioning of the satanic mill in order to protect labour (the emergence of the welfare state), nature (environmental regulations) and money (the monetary and financial authorities, i.e. central banks, national and international authorities of supervision etc.) must develop a global and long-term perspective."

Race plays a role in every aspect of the criminal justice system but street encounters between police officers and minority citizens are particularly problematic. Interactions that lead to criminal charges are reviewable by a court later on, but the ability to accurately recreate the totality of what happened during a foot or traffic stop is almost impossible. The police have broad discretion to act on the street…. Please read more by going to the blog site: http://www.nlg-maryland.org/blog.html

"Unstable financial markets do not behave rationally; they cal also create losers on a scale which would today make the 1930s look like a bad day at the races..The goal of the WTO rules is to make a commodity and a profit out of every object.. This includes food, water and energy, education, health and culture as well as the handover of every public service to the private sector."