This morning’s headlines in the Providence Journal were so inspirational. Here is my reaction to a few. greg
“I-195 deal hinges on tax breaks”
How these developers can honestly call themselves capitalists is beyond me. How dare the rich ask for tax breaks. Hypocrites. But even more it is an indictment of the system. That land can not be redeveloped without assistance calls into question the whole system. it calls into question the need for ever higher real estate values to fuel the economy, and makes very clear that higher real estate values are a big problem for our communities not the solution. We need to use that land for food production and understand that demanding ever higher prices each time land turns over is crazy.
“Passenger traffic on descent at Green”
This has been going on for 8 years or so, and will continue. What makes it so interesting is that while traffic at Green goes down (maybe because I have given up flying?) the state keeps spending more money there. Ridership on RIPTA is continuing to soar. We did a bit last year finally, but getting money for public transit is very tough. I guess poor folks do not count. The rich ride airplanes, so Green gets money, while the folks ride buses so we can under invest there.
“Obama wants cameras on 50000 police”
It is the violence by the government, at all levels of government in the United States, that drives the violence in our communities. We are a nation founded on genocide and slavery. Killing the poor and people who are others has always been the way of the rich and the white. If we want to stop violence in the streets, cameras on cops is not enough. You might have to disarm them and send them home.
“Seeking housing not shelters”
We have known for years that housing helps people deal with all their other stuff, and saves us a ton of money in other services, but we continue to underfund housing, which helped the banks pull off the bubble we bailed them out on as well as increasing individual crises. The rent is too damn high for the wages paid in america. For 200 years the US government helped the poor create housing or provided some. The rich decided they could steal better if the government stopped competing with them or helping the poor, so they ran a 50 years campaign against funding for housing. it worked, homelessness is out of control and the banks are still abusing us.
“Limited pool of contenders”
They are having a hard time finding a new Secretary of Defense. The fact that we have lost every war we have fought with the exception of Grenada in the last 50 years means that anyone with a brain would not want the job since we seem to have a Washington elite that can not keep sticking its foot in it. As noted above, cameras on cops is not enough. This country needs to close the Pentagon and spend most of that money doing things like building housing and transforming our energy,transportation, and food systems. I guarantee our streets would get calmer. We could also stop killing for oil which might help with the next item.
“New limits heat up UN talks in Lima”
it is so ridiculous that the people of the planet have been prevented from stopping climate change by the criminals who run fossil fuel businesses, pay off politicians, and use the US government to protect their pipelines. Citizens United is a near death sentence for democracy and the money interests are looking for the short term reward figuring the rest of us will pay the piper with our treasures and our lives. We need to stop burning fossil fuels, go totally green, and shrink the economy to a size that fits on the planet better. If we practice equality, and disarm the rich so they do not steal again, there is enough for all the people and the wild things. We are losing the wild things, 50% since 1970, and losing our ability to live on the planet. Lima is a place to stop the madness, though I have my doubts that that is even on the agenda.