…but not to us. Hundreds of thousands of people in outlying areas of Louisiana had no electric power after 22 days. Homes were wrecked, water remained neck-high, food was scarce and gasoline supplies nonexistent. People are exhausted from coping; families are scattered to the winds or stranded on high ground with no way to get back to communities that are in pieces. Climate catastrophe is not looming; it has come while we pursue “business as usual.”
Northwest Carpenters called a strike after rejecting for the fourth time a proposed contract from the Associated General Contractors (AGC). Only some carpenters can join the strike, because they are tied by “Project Labor Agreements.” In return for public dollars in the form of tax abatements plus state and local subsidies, contractors have to abide by prevailing wage standards—but strikes are prohibited. Carpenters working on PLA sites will give at least two hours of daily pay every day to support strikers.
…we are shocked, shocked to find that US drone strikes are killing innocent people! All of a sudden, the mainstream press decided to pursue the story of the drone killing of the “ISIS-K facilitator” and discovered that we killed an aid worker and his children. The murder of innocents has been going on for 20 years in Afghanistan but it never made the mainstream news. The Times cared about this particular highly politicized airstrike because they and the rest of the mass media vehemently opposed leaving Afghanistan. Maybe it would have been harder for the war machine to inflict these evils on the world if that story had been told over and over, as innocent deaths mounted.
…we are surprised, surprised to hear that Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of killing Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy in 1968 was recommended for release from prison in September. No such luck for Leonard Peltier who was convicted in 1977 of killing 2 FBI agents. He is repeatedly denied parole, despite the fact that his prosecutors have said they had “a very thin case that likely would not be upheld by courts today.” Those who condemn Peltier don’t argue the point: maybe he didn’t shoot the agents, but keeping Peltier behind bars is payback for two dead officers.
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