When autism maybe isn't -- A Note From Len Rubin, “Dad” | Lead Safe America Foundation

http://leadsafeamerica.org/a-note-from-dad/


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

THIS: How to turn a liberal hipster into a capitalist tyrant in one evening

How to turn a liberal hipster into a capitalist tyrant in one evening | Comment is free | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/24/turn-a-liberal-hipster-into-global-capitalist-world-factory
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"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Tom Tomorrow deadly accurate on TPP

http://www.credomobile.com/lp/tom-tomorrow/tpp.aspx

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Why the TPP Should Be Defeated

Economist Paul Krugman, no opponent of trade or liberalized trade, notices that when you have to sell a policy with lies and deceptions, it's probably a weak policy to start with. 

Just like with Salem's Bridgeasaurus Boondogglus, the wildly misguided effort to restart Polk County sprawl and support Keizer Station with a $600 million - $1+ billion dollar subsidy -- paid mainly by Salem taxpayers -- even if you don't understand the policy details, you can rely on the fact that when proponents keep coming up with ever-shifting rationales for a pre-determined desired outcome, you know that you're being conned.

 ...

In any case, the Pacific trade deal isn’t really about trade. Some already low tariffs would come down, but the main thrust of the proposed deal involves strengthening intellectual property rights — things like drug patents and movie copyrights — and changing the way companies and countries settle disputes.

And it’s by no means clear that either of those changes is good for America. On intellectual property: patents and copyrights are how we reward innovation. But do we need to increase those rewards at consumers’ expense? Big Pharma and Hollywood think so, but you can also see why, for example, Doctors Without Borders is worried that the deal would make medicines unaffordable in developing countries. That’s a serious concern, and it’s one that the pact’s supporters haven’t addressed in any satisfying way.

On dispute settlement: a leaked draft chapter shows that the deal would create a system under which multinational corporations could sue governments over alleged violations of the agreement, and have the cases judged by partially privatized tribunals. Critics like Senator Elizabeth Warren warn that this could compromise the independence of U.S. domestic policy — that these tribunals could, for example, be used to attack and undermine financial reform.

Not so, says the Obama administration, with the president declaring that Senator Warren is “absolutely wrong.” But she isn’t. The Pacific trade pact could force the United States to change policies or face big fines, and financial regulation is one policy that might be in the line of fire. As if to illustrate the point, Canada’s finance minister recently declared that the Volcker Rule, a key provision of the 2010 U.S. financial reform, violates the existing North American Free Trade Agreement. Even if he can’t make that claim stick, his remarks demonstrate that there’s nothing foolish about worrying that trade and investment pacts can threaten bank regulation.

As I see it, the big problem here is one of trust. . . .

Instead of addressing real concerns, however, the Obama administration has been dismissive, trying to portray skeptics as uninformed hacks who don’t understand the virtues of trade. But they’re not: the skeptics have on balance been more right than wrong about issues like dispute settlement, and the only really hackish economics I’ve seen in this debate is coming from supporters of the trade pact. . . .

Bizarre: area man concerned that children's sports not authoritarian enough

Gosh, someone with a little power used it wisely instead of becoming a petty tyrant and turning everything into competition over artificial scarcity and winners/losers ... Letting kids wear whatever number they wanted, even if they shared the same number as another teammate. 

Instead of applause, Horrors!  "How are we going to defeat the commies if we don't start kids on the path to nameless peons identified by number only early?  We must start imposing meaningless and unnecessary restrictions arbitrarily NOW, because we plan on doing it more later too. If we don't, kids might grow up thinking that the people in charge should act sensibly."

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Allowing kids to wear the same jersey number? What message does that send? (Letters to the Editor) | OregonLive.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/05/allowing_kids_to_wear_the.html
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Bush CIA Deputy/Acting Director Admits We Were Lied Into Iraq War

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/20/1386107/-Bush-CIA-Deputy-Director-Admits-We-Were-Lied-Into-Iraq-War?detail=email


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Another great Looking free film: May 21, 7 p.m. Loucks Aud.: Jilel: Calling of the Shell

Join with us on Thursday, May 21st at 7 PM   at the Louck's Auditorium, Salem Public Library 585 Liberty St. SE, Salem   For the free screening of  "Jilel: The Calling of the Shell"   a documentary about climate change and the effect of the rising seas  on the Marshall Islands.   SPFS is a sponsor of this event, so we are sharing this information with you. See below for more information about the film and guest speakers.

Upcoming Film

May 21st, 2015 * 7 PM      "Jilel: The Calling of the Shell"   7 PM, doors open at 6:30   Free!   Described as 'A Global Warming Fairy Tale', Jilel is a heartwarming, heroic story about a young Marshallese girl named Molina who is confronted for the first time with the idea that her island-her beloved homeland-is vanishing because of the rising seas caused by world-wide global warming. This unusual, thought provoking full-length feature film was produced in the Marshall Islands.   Guest Speakers:  Jack Niedenthal, Film maker and resident of the Marshall Islands   Sponsored by Cofa Alliance National Network (CANN) & Salem Progressive Film Series   For more information: 541-619-8861

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

How America Overdosed on Drug Courts - Pacific Standard

Worth reading several times. As with all criminal sentencing and with most government things ... Schools, e.g. ... It's just dumb luck if we do something right these days.

There is no accountability for results, or for bureaucrats in the system (including judges) who refuse to follow the evidence whenever it fails to conform with their own prejudices.

one thing that markets do provide that we have to figure out how to get into government programs is feedback loops that punish reality deniers at the top with loss of status and position. With government, in many cases, the wronger you are, the more aggressively wrong you are, the higher you go (prosecutors who win election as judges because they pursue death penalty convictions, people who push programs like DARE, people who push biofuels, people who promise to Get Tough on crime/Saddam/China . . . )

The accountability thing gets confusing, because in typical bureaucratic fashion, the commissars at the top are great at talking the language of accountability while making sure that they themselves are unaccountable, and they inflict accountability charades on underlings who have no ability to affect policy.

So the school boards and CEO style superintendents promote absurd and destructive standardized testing regimes and pretend it has something to do with accountability, thus choosing the popular placebo while pointing the finger at teachers, and evading the spotlight themselves for building soulless factory schools that destroy potential rather than elevate it. You can't tell who gets real accountability by listening to them – you have to see what feedback really is in their system. The CEO model superintendents of school districts go from failure to greater failure with increasing success and salary, and are not accountable to anyone as long as they sling the lingo and adopt corporate values, turning children into little future human resource modules to be delivered to the human resource departments for further processing.

Likewise, we get Departments of Transportation constantly making things worse by trying to keep more of what's failing – a Transportation system centered exclusively on private automobility – going on a bigger and bigger scale.

http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/how-america-overdosed-on-drug-courts


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

P.S. Re Stop Drinking Bottled Water

We should bar any city funds from being used to buy bottled water, and stop bottling Salem water.

http://gizmodo.com/stop-drinking-bottled-water-1704609514


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

NO to Nestle in Oregon: Stop Drinking Bottled Water

Great piece.