Obama Feels No Pain

Sicking the Department of Justice on California medical marijuana dispensaries may seem like good electoral strategy to Obama, but attacking the sick and disabled could backfire on Goldman Sach’s golden boy. After all, California voters approved medical relief for people dealing with chronic pain, and Obama’s decision to unleash U.S. attorneys against pot clubs because he thinks people still hate hippies is misplaced. I mean, even Sarah Palin says pot should be legal.

Time Is Come

Demonstrations and teach-ins return to Berkeley. It's about time.

De-funding Globalization

Reading through Bay Area coverage of the Oakland and San Francisco police clashes with anti-globalization protestors this week, I came across a useful suggestion in the Bay Guardian: transfer your funds from bailout bank accounts to credit unions. While this may be nothing new to pro-democracy advocates, it seems the time is right for the millions of us made homeless or jobless since 2008 to begin putting our money where our mouth is.

With direct deposit and online banking available no matter where you put your money, there's simply no reason to keep supporting Wall Street financial institutions.

No Food No Shelter No Medicine

With demand at food banks in San Francisco and Marin counties up 70% since the 2008 bank bailout economic meltdown, the response by FEMA is to cut food bank funding by 40%. No, George Bush has not returned to the White House, just his policies. Of course, anyone who was paying attention five years ago -- as Obama was making his deals with Wall Street to become the next president of the US -- knew Obama's administration would further the worst attributes of both Reagan and Bush. Knowing this in advance was small consolation, as we now witness the complete collapse of our society.

Climate of Corruption

Austerity as a symptom of systematic theft has many faces; one of those is the closure of schools, libraries and state parks. Now we have the closure of courts.

After three years of layoffs and cuts to public services following in the wake of bank bailouts, America is becoming less of a society and more of a disaster. Homeless seniors and incarcerated youth are not a sign of cohesion, but rather a result of corruption.

The corruption of governance that caused this calamity has yet to be addressed. Indeed, the only argument between the White House and Congress is how much to steal from Social Security and other social programs to cover the bank bailouts and Pentagon misadventures. In this climate of corruption, it is not only difficult to imagine a prosperous, peaceful future, it is increasingly hard to conceive of interventions capable of preventing social collapse.

Fighting Fraud

Norman Solomon challenges Obama and the GOP in defense of Social Security and Medicare.

Reefer Sadness

Obama attacks medical marijuana.