Last night Indigenous Scholar/Activist Winona LaDuke spoke to a crowd at the GVSU downtown campus as part of the annual Women and the Environment event. This was no lecture. It was a series of story tell and truth bombs. LaDuke began by saying that in her tradition there are two paths; one that is scorched, […]
Big Oil just Got a Free Pass on reporting lethal Fracking Methane adapted from BRIEFLY with thanks The Trump controlled Environment Protection Agency,EPA, thumbed its nose at another Obama-era environmental rule, withdrawing a request that operators of oil and gas sites submit information on methane emissions. Cancelling crucial methane control is a blatant crime against […]
via Ecocide re-Legalised: Trump gets Licence for Frackers to Destroy Climate and Environment — The Free
by Nelson Lichtenstein Last Thursday’s “Day Without Immigrants” work stoppages, which closed hundreds of restaurants, grocery stores, garages, retail shops, and other businesses, offered a taste of the capacity for militant action wielded by immigrant America. Led in many cities by Latino activists calling for a “huelga general,” (General Strike) the February 16 coast-to-coast walkouts augur […]
via How Immigrants Built the US Left—And Can Rebuild It Again — The Free
The two-state solution has been a pipe dream for over a decade.
Much hand-wringing has occurred in the wake of Donald Trump’s bumbling press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu this past week, mostly centered on Trump’s apparent abandonment of fifteen years worth of US policy towards Israel-Palestine. In a single rambling and barely coherent sentence, Trump tossed decades of diplomacy, from Oslo in 1993 until today, onto the trash heap. Or so some would have us believe.
The cold reality is that Oslo and it’s two-state solution have been near death for much longer than most people would be comfortable admitting. Netanyahu’s own Likud party has never backed a Palestinian state in any form, and their annexation policy has increased the settler population in the West bank by over 100,000. The increasing fragmentation of Palestinian territories through Israeli annexation has made a separate Palestinian state increasingly nonviable, and the US’s unwavering political and military support, public finger-wagging notwithstanding, has hastened it’s irrelevance.
Perhaps Donald Trump, in his obviously ignorant and inelegant way, has finally forced us to stop fooling ourselves about Israel and about the prospects for peace. Israel is and has been aggressively embracing apartheid, and will face international condemnation and perhaps real economic and political consequences, despite the US’s blocking of any meaningful check on Israel’s behavior. The BDS Movement is perhaps the best and most accessible form of resistance, but even this has become the target of suppression by Zionist elements in the US.
My take away from the Trump/Netanyahu joint news conference is that Donald Trump’s ignorance of this issue is astounding. His answer jettisoning the two-state solution was the inchoate stammering of a man who is absolutely cluless about the question’s subject, but who likes the guy standing next to him and wants to be cordial. Hearing Netanyahu giggling off camera like a little girl who just received a pony was perhaps the punctuation of an extraordinarily cringe-worthy moment in US foreign policy. In my estimation, many more will follow.
America has now embraced apartheid in Israel/Palestine. And Bibi now has the chimp he’s always wanted.
The Goblin Speaks
My God, if ever the world needs me, it’s now.
And that can only mean shit has gotten weird.
I’m going to finally re-start and attempt to maintain this page, after a long and inexcusable hiatus. I’ve watched the rise of the “alt-right,” the election of Trump, and the emergence of the GOP as the most dangerous organization on earth (with apologies to Noam Chomsky for being first to note that.)
I’ve also been heartened by the emergence of genuine resistance to the rising authoritarian regime here in the US, and it’s long past time I got my ass in gear and started pulling my weight.
To that end, I am changing the focus of this page, away from the labor-heavy focus of the past, and towards an emphasis on critical reporting and radical critique of Trumpism and neoliberal capitalism. This is a subtle change, since there have always been a fair amount of diverse subject matter posted here, but I think it’s important to state from the outset that all of our issues, from labor to LGBTQ rights, immigration to women’s reproductive freedom, the environment to indigenous rights, are at this historical moment almost indistinct from each other. Corporate rule has now been edified in the person of Donald Trump, and we must join with each other’s struggles if we are to mount an effective resistance.
We are now in a state of war, and it’s all hands on deck. We cannot afford the internecine squabbling of identity politics. Trump and his cronies are the enemy, and all of their enemies are our allies.
Buckle up.
The Goblin Speaks…
Man, there’s a lot of cobwebs in here… it’s been a while.
Not that I haven’t had things to post, or thoughts about the state of things on this crazy wet rock we call home. I guess I’ve been busy, busy with work, life, and all those other things that unknowingly conspire to rob us of reflection. I would love to be a well-read blogger, not an “influential” one as I wouldn’t presume to apply that label to myself… but alas, I posses neither the time nor the self-discipline required to have any chance of making that happen. Even a quick reflection upon the history of this blog shows far more examples of the hard work and inspiration of others than it does with any effort or acumen on my part.
That said, I can’t in good conscience allow International Workers Day to pass without some comment, observation or simply greetings and good wishes to all workers of the world. I am still one of you, and though I am one of the very fortunate among us, I still have no doubt about where and with whom my class loyalty lies.
No doubt there is much to comment upon…. the return of Hillary “Queen NAFTA” Clinton, contorting herself like a cuttlefish to woo the base, but we’ve seen this movie before and a few months of pretending to be moderate or even progressive will not erase her and her husband’s record of slavish corporate servitude. Bernie Sanders, the only candidate with enough guts to actually speak truth to power (not to mention openly identifying as a socialist) finally making the run his admirers have been wishing for for years. And let’s not even discuss the fetid pig-pen of crooks, thugs and reactionary buffoons that is the GOP field.
On a personal note, The Goblin and co-conspirators are preparing for one last move. We’ve been occupying a fairly cozy but unremarkable cave by the side of the road for the past three years, but have recently taken steps to acquire a much larger and more secluded hideout. Goblins don’t care much for company (comrades always excepted) and this new location will provide more space and privacy for both operations and accommodation. More on that in the weeks to come.
I sincerely hope that this May Day finds you well and in good spirits, and no matter how difficult our struggles, we must always remember that we never fight alone.
Peace and Solidarity,
The Goblin
Be there if you can…
A hearing at the will be happening on Friday, February 13, in Room 210 at the LOB (Legislative Office Building – behind the State House).
Show up and support HCR-2, [House Concurrent Resolution 2] the move to get Citizen’s United overturned. You can sign up to testify as to why you think, as a citizen, this resolution and considering an amendment is important. You also can stand by and stare down a politician. Your presence speaks volumes!
Also: A constitutional amendment is the ONLY way to overturn the Citizen’s United decision!
HCR-2 asks the New Hampshire state legislature to bring forth a resolution to Congress to have convention as explained in Article V of the US Constitution to consider adopting an amendment differentiates personhood from corporate existence. Article V in the constitution reads as follows:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall…
View original post 1,246 more words
The New Hampshire House, armed with its share of Tea-Pots and Free Nutters has been loaded with some real backward bill proposals. Some of the most disconcerting involve messing with the liberties and lives of women in particular. We have chosen threefive of the most particularly disturbing to highlight here, the last, HB 168 is most probably going to effect women more than men but men could be negatively affected by it as well.
If you have additional information or updates, please send to progressiveactionnh@gmail.com and we’ll do our best to get them up.
According to many seasoned house reps this session has been particularly difficult to follow since it seemed there was a longer wait time for the text of bills to be published causing a huge rush immediately afterward of committee hearings. Some of the bills outlined here may have already had hearings, we will try to…
View original post 2,244 more words
CanVies (pronounced ‘vias’) is an Occupied assembly-run Social center, set by the railway tracks in what was once a CNT Union Center 80 years ago. The occupation has lasted 17 years, surviving multiple eviction attempts due to strong local support.
Last year Barcelona City Council decided on frontal attack, enraged that there was growing autonomous community they didn’t control. Thousands stood in front of the riot police, who finally broke through and the demolition began.
View original post 2,026 more words
Starbucks and the Industrial Workers of the World reach a settlement agreement over unionizing efforts by employees at a Starbucks store in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The union had filed charges with the NLRB, accusing managers of coercively interrogating employees about their union activities and threatening to fire workers engaged in union organizing activities.
The Wobbly Goblin 