GM must re-make the mass transit system it murdered
Bail out General Motors? The people who murdered our mass transit system?
First let them remake what they destroyed.
GM responded to the 1970s gas crisis by handing over the American market to energy-efficient Toyota and Honda.
GM met the rise of the hybrids with “light trucks.”
GM built a small electric car, leased a pilot fleet to consumers who loved it, and then forcibly confiscated and trashed them all.
GM now wants to market a $40,000 electric Volt that looks like a cross between a Hummer and a Cadillac and will do nothing to meet the Solartopian needs of a green-powered Earth.
For this alone, GM’s managers should never be allowed to make another car, let alone take our tax money to stay in business.
But there is also a trillion-dollar skeleton in GM’s closet.
This is the company that murdered our mass transit system.
The assertion comes from Bradford Snell, a government researcher whose definitive report damning GM has been a vehicular lightening rod since its 1974 debut. Its attackers and defenders are legion. But some facts are irrefutable:
First let them remake what they destroyed.
GM responded to the 1970s gas crisis by handing over the American market to energy-efficient Toyota and Honda.
GM met the rise of the hybrids with “light trucks.”
GM built a small electric car, leased a pilot fleet to consumers who loved it, and then forcibly confiscated and trashed them all.
GM now wants to market a $40,000 electric Volt that looks like a cross between a Hummer and a Cadillac and will do nothing to meet the Solartopian needs of a green-powered Earth.
For this alone, GM’s managers should never be allowed to make another car, let alone take our tax money to stay in business.
But there is also a trillion-dollar skeleton in GM’s closet.
This is the company that murdered our mass transit system.
The assertion comes from Bradford Snell, a government researcher whose definitive report damning GM has been a vehicular lightening rod since its 1974 debut. Its attackers and defenders are legion. But some facts are irrefutable:
Open Veterans' Day letter to the president-elect
I am writing this as someone who joins Americans and others across this planet in their elation over your victory.
Many of us want to join with you in working to solve the challenges that you, our nation and the world face. One of them is the decision you will make about Iran. According to Carol Giacomo’s article “ New Beltway Debate: What to Do About Iran” in the November 3, 2008 issue of the New York Times, a range of military and economic options against Iran are being considered by your new administration.
Because of the magnitude and possible repercussions of the decision you will ultimately make I encourage you to seek out a range of informed opinions on this subject to supplement the guidance you receive from your advisors.
One such source could be the current and past members of the upper echelons of our military who opposed the plans for such an attack under the Bush administration, some of whom resigned in protest or threatened to do so. In addition, available to you are the opinions of many groups that have carried on a campaign to prevent the Bush administration from attacking Iran.
Many of us want to join with you in working to solve the challenges that you, our nation and the world face. One of them is the decision you will make about Iran. According to Carol Giacomo’s article “ New Beltway Debate: What to Do About Iran” in the November 3, 2008 issue of the New York Times, a range of military and economic options against Iran are being considered by your new administration.
Because of the magnitude and possible repercussions of the decision you will ultimately make I encourage you to seek out a range of informed opinions on this subject to supplement the guidance you receive from your advisors.
One such source could be the current and past members of the upper echelons of our military who opposed the plans for such an attack under the Bush administration, some of whom resigned in protest or threatened to do so. In addition, available to you are the opinions of many groups that have carried on a campaign to prevent the Bush administration from attacking Iran.
Hope and vision
I hope it’s time, if nothing else, to retire cynical bumper stickers, such as: If elections could change anything, they’d be illegal.
The air remains thick with a sense of history and change, if not mandate. People are still buying last Wednesday’s newspaper, as though to prolong a moment that has already passed. But we know the significance of this election is still to come, right? We know that the forces of business as usual are closing ranks around the rock-star president-elect, and that the young idealist from Illinois we voted for could turn into a purely pragmatic centrist in the Clinton mold, right? The Democrats, after all, have a long history of ignoring their base.
Can we prevent this from happening? Yes, we can!
“The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place — in cities all over America,” Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times shortly after the election. This is the energy, released after eight years of agonizing simmer and disbelief, that swept Barack Obama into office, and it must not be allowed to dissipate. We have our country back — now we have to hold onto it.
The air remains thick with a sense of history and change, if not mandate. People are still buying last Wednesday’s newspaper, as though to prolong a moment that has already passed. But we know the significance of this election is still to come, right? We know that the forces of business as usual are closing ranks around the rock-star president-elect, and that the young idealist from Illinois we voted for could turn into a purely pragmatic centrist in the Clinton mold, right? The Democrats, after all, have a long history of ignoring their base.
Can we prevent this from happening? Yes, we can!
“The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place — in cities all over America,” Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times shortly after the election. This is the energy, released after eight years of agonizing simmer and disbelief, that swept Barack Obama into office, and it must not be allowed to dissipate. We have our country back — now we have to hold onto it.
Melissa Gragg and Jason Miller interview Derrick Jensen
“Top priorities may not be any of those five. It may be continuing to stabilize the financial system. We don't know yet what's going to happen in January. And none of this can be accomplished if we continue to see a potential meltdown in the banking system or the financial system. So that's priority number one, making sure that the plumbing works in our capitalist system.”
—President-Elect Barack Obama
Ironically, it is the plumbing of that capitalist system that we are using as we flush the future of life on Earth down the toilet.
We can “elect” a charismatic, intelligent man from a brutally oppressed minority to be our president to purge our collective guilt, mouth “feel good” platitudes, celebrate the triumph of “democracy,” and delude ourselves into believing we are preparing to warp back to a fictitious golden era when America was a benevolent guardian of humanity and the Earth, but that doesn't change the fact that industrial capitalism is rendering this planet uninhabitable.
—President-Elect Barack Obama
Ironically, it is the plumbing of that capitalist system that we are using as we flush the future of life on Earth down the toilet.
We can “elect” a charismatic, intelligent man from a brutally oppressed minority to be our president to purge our collective guilt, mouth “feel good” platitudes, celebrate the triumph of “democracy,” and delude ourselves into believing we are preparing to warp back to a fictitious golden era when America was a benevolent guardian of humanity and the Earth, but that doesn't change the fact that industrial capitalism is rendering this planet uninhabitable.
How to treat a President-Elect
In response to an Email advocating lobbying the new Congress and president-elect for complete withdrawal from Iraq and other goals, I received mostly positive responses, but a sizable minority sent replies like this one:
"Can't you wait a minute? Give the President-Elect a moment to breathe, to catch his breath, to exhale? Stop this uber anti-militant stance to pause for the appreciation of what has been accomplished. Have a little mercy! Time enough for all this sturm and drang. Snap out of it!"
In response to a post on a progressive website supporting some of Obama's possible appointments and opposing others, most of the comments were positive, but some took the position exemplified by this one:
"so tired of the endless drama queens. the only appointments made to date have been Podesta and perhaps Emanuel. And at least as many 'good' appointments as 'bad', have been rumored. That said, Kennedy would be an excellent choice. But, Jeebus, the hysterical crap about Obama- less than 2 days after he won, is such a predictable bore."
"Can't you wait a minute? Give the President-Elect a moment to breathe, to catch his breath, to exhale? Stop this uber anti-militant stance to pause for the appreciation of what has been accomplished. Have a little mercy! Time enough for all this sturm and drang. Snap out of it!"
In response to a post on a progressive website supporting some of Obama's possible appointments and opposing others, most of the comments were positive, but some took the position exemplified by this one:
"so tired of the endless drama queens. the only appointments made to date have been Podesta and perhaps Emanuel. And at least as many 'good' appointments as 'bad', have been rumored. That said, Kennedy would be an excellent choice. But, Jeebus, the hysterical crap about Obama- less than 2 days after he won, is such a predictable bore."
Obama cabinet good and bad news
Labor Reborn: A Department of Labor Worthy of the Name
According to news reports, president elect Obama is considering for Labor Secretary three people who actually know something about labor and actually support the intended mission of the labor department, which is protecting the rights of laborers. And by laborers, I mean you. If you have not recently received a government bailout, you're one of us. Here's the short list:
•Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of House Education and Labor Committee
•Former Rep. David Bonior, member of Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board
•Andy Stern, president of Service Employees International Union
Any of these men as Secretary of Labor would be a 180 degree reversal from the past eight years, during which the so-called labor department has done everything it could to damage the labor movement and the rights of working people.
According to news reports, president elect Obama is considering for Labor Secretary three people who actually know something about labor and actually support the intended mission of the labor department, which is protecting the rights of laborers. And by laborers, I mean you. If you have not recently received a government bailout, you're one of us. Here's the short list:
•Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of House Education and Labor Committee
•Former Rep. David Bonior, member of Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board
•Andy Stern, president of Service Employees International Union
Any of these men as Secretary of Labor would be a 180 degree reversal from the past eight years, during which the so-called labor department has done everything it could to damage the labor movement and the rights of working people.
Labor's high hopes
Organized labor is rightly claiming a major role in the Nov. 4 victories of
President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats – and is rightly
expecting much in return.
The figures are impressive. One-fifth of all voters were union members or in union households, and fully two-thirds of them supported Obama, a ratio even higher in battleground states.
The AFL-CIO calculates that more than a quarter-million volunteers campaigned among their fellow union members and others, discussing the issues that were of particular importance to working people, drumming up support for Obama and other labor-friendly Democrats and, finally, getting labor voters to the polls on election day.
The AFL-CIO’s figures show that the volunteers knocked on some 10 million doors, made 70 million telephone calls, handed out 27 million leaflets and mailed out 57 million more. There was scarcely a union member or union household anywhere that was not reached.
The figures are impressive. One-fifth of all voters were union members or in union households, and fully two-thirds of them supported Obama, a ratio even higher in battleground states.
The AFL-CIO calculates that more than a quarter-million volunteers campaigned among their fellow union members and others, discussing the issues that were of particular importance to working people, drumming up support for Obama and other labor-friendly Democrats and, finally, getting labor voters to the polls on election day.
The AFL-CIO’s figures show that the volunteers knocked on some 10 million doors, made 70 million telephone calls, handed out 27 million leaflets and mailed out 57 million more. There was scarcely a union member or union household anywhere that was not reached.