MannyGoldstein
MannyGoldstein's JournalWhat could Landrieu have done to go further right?
Buy a coal-burning truck and demand that Obama re-institute child labor through an executive order? Dig up FDR's corpse and paint "Social Security Sucks!!!" on it?
It's pretty @$!#ing clear: we win by being Democrats, not Republicans.
"They should learn some lessons from Boston!"
The denouement to a couple of sad and very-public cases this week, cases where black men were pointlessly killed by police.
On Wednesday, a grand jury decided that there wasn't enough evidence presented to indict members of the NYPD who'd asphyxiated Eric Garner to death for "resisting arrest". And of course, a week ago, a grand jury decided that the police work of Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, didn't rise to the level of a likely crime either.
The NYPD has been known for sometimes not playing by the rules, particularly when it comes to minorities and those who question the right of bankers to fleece the 99%. But the Ferguson PD wasn't letting any moss grow on it in the competition to mess with citizens who look or act a little different, either.
The US Department of Justice is investigating both tragedies. But Eric Holder being Eric Holder, and neither Garner nor Brown being bankers, I'll remind my readers not to hold their breath until justice is served by that route.
I happened to leave Boston on vacation a day or two after Brown was gunned down in Ferguson and the subsequent protests (and paramilitary response) began. One of my cabbies that day, a black man perhaps 40 or so with a slight foreign accent whose origin I couldn't quite catch, was tuning between radio stations to soak in all of the news about Ferguson; I was interested, too!
Me: "It's terrible what happened in Ferguson!"
Cabbie: "They should learn some lessons from Boston!"
He went on to tell me that he lives an a low-income neighborhood, and in his experience the Boston Police respects its residents, keeps an eye on nogoodniks without provoking trouble, and makes an effort to ensure that the neighborhood's cops "look like" the residents, i.e., neighborhoods with a certain makeup of minorities will tend to have cops drawn from the same minorities. He had nothing but praise for the BPD.
That was a little surprising to me, in a good way of course. My dealings with local police in Boston and its suburbs have been excellent, but I'm white, middle-aged and middle class; I just assumed that things probably did not go as well for non-whites, the young, and the poor. But I've also known that Boston-area police departments are not cut from the same cloth as those of NYC, Ferguson, or many other cities and suburbs. For example, compare the way the Boston Bomber Brother situation was handled to how things go in cities like New York, Ferguson, Los Angeles and Albuquerque. I've asked a number of fellow Bostonians if they could even imagine incidents happening here like those that happened in these other places, and they cannot. Of course we can never say never, but... our cops just don't do that stuff.
In the name of transparency and community involvement, BPD Police Commissioner Bill Evans, born and raised in Boston, even has a monthly "Ask the Commissioner" call-in segment on WGBH's popular Boston Public Radio program. Evans comes across as a smart, low-key, sensible guy who I usually agree with.
Look... I'm sure that every police force has areas where they can improve. And I'm sure that virtually every police force has been involved in abuses of power: whenever one party has great power over another, the occasional abuse is bound to occur, either accidental or willful. And I can't imagine that any praise of police in these dark days will embraced by many of my fellow Liberals, and I can understand the deep anger. But the more I see and hear of police behavior in much of the rest of our country, I can only agree with my cabbie:
"They should learn some lessons from Boston!"
During the Watertown manhunt for the surviving Boston Bomber Brother, Brookline PD officer John Bradley volunteered to get sustenance for 17-month-old Holden Wells, whose parents had run out of milk. "We wanted to pay him but he wouldn’t take money from us. He was just so generous," said Holden's mom.
(Copyright note: I gave myself permission to copy this, in its entirety, from my new blog which has almost nothing on it yet and will probably get abandoned in a few weeks, but I'll give it a go.)
"One of Clinton’s biggest strengths [is] her passion for..."
"One of Clinton’s biggest strengths [is] her passion for advancing the middle class and renewing American upward mobility"
-- Correct the Record, a group dedicated to defending Hillary Clinton from unfair attacks
If only Hillary had political power the last two decades, the 99% wouldn't have had all our money handed to the bankers.
(Sorry, saw the quote and couldn't resist.)
"we connect off the site and we make you own it"
I haven't been on DU much lately, due to my personal life, but I've seen some recent navel-gazing threads that discuss, among other things, whether organized bullying and alert stalking occurs. I've been told that it does, and have been told some specifics which I won't share because I don't know for sure if that information is true.
But a post aimed at me a few months ago, by someone who doesn't care for my contributions, contained an interesting quote:
"We connect off the site you know - and we make you 'own it' - whether you ever choose to do so or not."
Take it for what it's worth.
Harry Reid: Rat@#$%er?
So Harry Reid created a post for Elizabeth Warren, as an envoy to Liberal groups. Then, caving to Chuckie "The Senator from Wall Street" Schumer's demands, Reid just named Mark "Grannies don't need three meals a day, give their money to Wall Street" Warner to "counterbalance" Warren.
But some liberal observers saw the move as a sign that the party was betraying them.
“The Warren wing of the party may be exceedingly passionate and engaged, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that it’s carrying the day,” wrote Salon’s Luke Brinker. A blogger at the liberal Daily Kos called Warner a “Wall Street shill, and right-wing defector.”
OK, so here's where I get confused: those of us who are under the impression that there's a schism of any sort in our best of all possible Democratic Parties are regularly called rat@#$%ers for suggesting such a thing, because we're only creating a fake divide in order to destroy the party.
Rat@#$%ers!
Rat@#$%ers!
Rat@#$%ers!
And this has become a perfectly-acceptable thing to call us (although my using it here will probably get a hide, we'll see), jury-approved and all.
(Do I need to link to the posts that call this out - let me know, and I will.)
So... is Reid a rat@#$%er for creating these counterbalancing posts? What about Chuckie Schumer? Do we have a gaggle of rat@#$%ers in our Democratic leadership?
(Note: I happen to like Harry Reid, I think he's constrained somewhat by his position, but basically wants to do the right thing.)
Look people: What do we *really* know about Elizabeth Warren?
Sure, she wrote a best-selling book a decade ago about how working families are getting @#$%ed, fought like hell against Biden's stop-Americans-from-declaring-bankruptcy-so-the-bankers-can-get-more-money bill (and enlisted Ted Kennedy's fervent help in doing so), fought like hell to start the Consumer Financial Protection Board, tore Timmy Geithner a few new bodily openings for hosing down bankers with money while mooning the 99%, told federal regulators that bankers oughta go to trial and to jail and their banks be broken up, stopped Larry Summers from having another crack at finishing us off as Fed Chairman, and a few other things of little consequence.
With that sparse of a record, how can we believe, at all, that Warren will do the right thing as President? After all, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton did at least as much for the 99% before they became president (just trust me, no need to look that up), and they ended up being disappointments.
Certainly, Hillary and other potential presidential candidates have records that are longer and stronger than Warren's with regard to fighting for the 99%: and I look forward to good DUers posting those records below, so DUers can see why Warren is just another unknown who will likely disappoint.
Regards,
This-will-be-a-long-and-amusing-election-cycle Manny
P.S. This post is sarcasm, although I do invite people to post the stronger track records of other potential presidential candidates - if such track records exists.
How to help a homeless person in NYC?
I'm visiting my dad in Greenwich Village, there's a homeless woman on University between 8th and 9th who I recall being there for several months. Obviously fairly mentally ill, looks likes she's in rough shape now.
It ain't right. She needs help.
In my Boston I'd have an idea of how to navigate this, but what to do in NYC? Any thoughts would be deeply appreciated.
Mass residents: How do you feel about our cops?
I expect my local cops (Newton) to do the right thing whenever I deal with them, and only remember being mildly disappointed once. I've also had good (but fewer) experiences with Waltham, Watertown, and Tewksbury. Staties have been mild jerks, but nothing too egregious other than one bogus ticket.
I'm curious as to the experiences of others?
Does America need an AARP-like organization for the middle class?
A buddy of mine is thinking about starting the equivalent of the AARP, but representing all of the middle class, not just older Americans. Something that pulls people together to defend their economic interests (and, like the AARP, gets them discounts and whatnot). Unlike the AARP, it wouldn't make lots of money through offering insurance and drugs).
I haven't thought it through too much, but think it's an interesting idea.
My question to the good people of DU: Does this sound interesting? What could it do to get you to say "Yeah! I'd definitely sign up for that!!!"
Thanks in advance!
Profile Information
Name: Manny GoldsteinGender: Male
Hometown: Greater Boston
Home country: USA
Current location: Remulak, as far as I can tell
Member since: Tue Aug 30, 2005, 09:44 AM
Number of posts: 34,589