Jon Stewart Reconciles New York's Proposed Soda Ban With Proposed Marijuana Decriminalization. No soda does not cause obesity. A lack of personal responsibility and drinking too much soda causes obesity. You know what's more at fault than soda (which has been around for decades where obesity hasn't been a problem)? The internet. Disney wants to cut advertising for snacks to help curb obesity, but will they cut back on their programming that entices kids to sit in front of the TV for hours on end? Of course not. Rather than blame bad parenting or media, it's just easier to blame soda which really has absolutely nothing to do with our obesity problem. It's about government interference: - If we cave on this what's next, the mayor can decide how big a pizza pie can be made? I say here, because if you allow him to decide when, where, and how much of a legal product you can consume (that doesn't harm anyone but yourself, unlike second-hand smoke) then that sets precent for any further Mayor to be able to make stricter policies.
#endofrant. AnonOps Communications. One account. All of Google. Sign in to continue to Blogger Find my account Forgot password? Sign in with a different account Create account One Google Account for everything Google. Campaign to ‘occupy’ LA is growing | l.a. activist. A demonstrator in downtown Los Angeles attempts to spread the word about a growing “Occupy LA” movement, which is critical of corporate greed and political inaction. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist) A movement, similar to the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstration occurring in New York, is building in Los Angeles. Today, protesters hit the streets of downtown to spread the word of their crusade. Later they joined a rally in front of City Hall with the environmental group 350.org.
Approximately 70 activists attended. Void of any discernible ideology or politics, and comprised mostly of youths, protesters are expressing their displeasure with Wall Street greed, corporate influence in politics and the overbearing power of the super-rich over ordinary Americans. At the core of the movement is a criticism of the state of American democracy, which some call a plutocracy, or even a “corporatocracy.” “Corporate interests seem to be controlling both parties,” said Ryan Rice, who attended today’s actions. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest spreads to Los Angeles | Raw Replay. Is JP Morgan Getting a Good Return on $4.6 Million “Gift” to NYC Police? (Like Special Protection from OccupyWallStreet?)
No matter how you look at this development, it does not smell right. From JP Morgan’s website, hat tip Lisa Epstein: JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD’s main data center.New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon a note expressing “profound gratitude” for the company’s donation. “These officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe,” Dimon said. Perhaps I remember too much of the scruffy and not exactly safe New York City of the 1980s, where getting your wallet pinched was a pretty regular occurrence.
But what, pray tell, is this about? And look at the magnitude of the JP Morgan “gift”. Anti-Wall Street protests spread to Lake Worth, heads to Fort Lauderdale, Miami. The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf. US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.
But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? Pregnant Woman Miscarries After Being Sprayed With Pepper Spray. New York cops defy order to arrest hundreds of ‘Occupy Albany’ protesters. By Andrew JonesMonday, October 24, 2011 13:39 EDT Occupy Albany protesters in New York’s capital city received an unexpected ally over the week: The state and local authorities.
According to the Albany Times Union, New York state troopers and Albany police did not adhere to a curfew crackdown on protesters urged by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Albany mayor Gerald Jennings. Mass arrests seemed to be in the cards once Jennings directed officers to enforce the curfew on roughly 700 protesters occupying the city owned park. With protesters acting peacefully, local and state police agreed that low level arrests could cause a riot, so they decided instead to defy Cuomo and Jennings. “We don’t have those resources, and these people were not causing trouble,” a state official said. Occupy Albany, an offspring of Occupy Wall Street, has seen its protesters remain as committed as those located at its parent site. See more coverage of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement here. Copyright 2011 The Raw Story. Tupac’s Mother, Afeni Shakur-Davis, On Hip-Hop & The Occupy Movement. Share with Shortlink: The Occupy Wall Street & Together Movement is a reflection of the increasing anger and implosion of the working class in a “profit by any means necessary” driven capitalist system.
Capitalism on its own merit is not the problem. The way it’s approached in America is. There is a dichotomy at play, though. Somehow, it is easy for some to ignore inequity in pay and unsafe working conditions if it takes place outside of the United States. The consequence of outsourcing jobs outside of the U.S. to increase profit is that jobs shrink in America, especially in the manufacturing sector.
The result is that more workers feel the frustration of finding adequate work, something many in the African-American community have experienced for generations. What is the real price of all of those inexpensive goods and high profits? What would a device like a smartphone cost if it were manufactured 100 percent in America? This problem is nothing new. Anger has consequences. Like this: How Goldman Sachs and Other Companies Exploit Port Truck Drivers — Occupy Protesters Plan to Shut Down West Coast Ports in Protest | Economy.
Photo Credit: Michael @ NW Lens via Flickr December 9, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. It's the time of year when lights are strung, trees are decorated, and holiday cheer is spread. It's also the time of year when people pepper-spray fellow shoppers and camp out in front of box stores, and retail clerks risk death by stampede. Astute consumers may know that the rock bottom we see advertised on endless TV and internet commercials are often the result of companies manufacturing their goods overseas, using sweatshop labor where poorly paid workers often toil in dangerous and unhealthy conditions so that we can enjoy the latest electronics, the coolest pair of jeans. But what many people may not know is that these sweatshop conditions don't end when those goods hit American soil.
Occupy organizer Kari Koch in Portland says that their action is aimed at disrupting business as usual for "Wall Street on the waterfront. "