Friday, November 15th, 2013
Stephan: Ronlyn tells me that when we moved to Whidbey Island and she volunteered to be a baker for Whidbey Island Nourishes (WIN), the program that feeds children on the island, she was baking for 60 kids. The next year it was 200, the year after 240. Today is it 360 children who depend on the lunches and healthy treats Ronlyn and the other women make. That's one small island. The situation about food in the U.S. is reaching appalling proportions and the recent cut in the SNAP program forced on the country by the Right, I think, is one of the most immoral things done by policy makers in our history. There are states in this country, particularly the Theocratic Rightist states, that now have a third world quality of life. Here is that truth. It should make all of us ashamed that this now defines the United States.
On Nov. 1, the largest cuts in the history of our country’s food stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, went into effect when the increase ordained by the 2009 economic stimulus package expired. The reductions, which total $5 billion, have already touched more than 47 million people-1 in 7 Americans. I spoke to one food stamps recipient, a single mother in Washington, D.C., named Debra, about how she was coping financially and emotionally with her post-cut ‘new normal.
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Friday, November 15th, 2013
D.S. Wright, - Firedoglake
Stephan: I have never been a fan of Barack Obama. I voted for him twice because as bad as he was he was marginally more compassionate and life-affirming than his opposition. But on balance I think history is going to see him as a terrible President, not least because it is under his administration that the vampire capitalism that began with Reagan has come into full flower. One of the signs of this is the abject failure of the Obama Administration to really prosecute the crooks in the financial industry. This story is amazing because it is one of the few times in my life when a judge has scolded the Administration for its failure to prosecute crooks.
United States District Judge Jed Rakoff has given a scathing rebuke to US Attorney General Eric Holder’s Too Big To Jail rationale for not prosecuting crimes committed by Wall Street banks and executives. Judge Rakoff, in a speech before the New York Bar Association, labeled Holder’s view on Wall Street and rich Wall Street executives as ‘disturbing.
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Friday, November 15th, 2013
LAURA CLAWSON, - Daily Kos
Stephan: I am publishing this report because I want all of my readers to really get that your vote matters. Here is a clear cut proof of what I mean.
The provisional ballots have been counted and Democrat Mark Herring is in the lead in the race for Virginia’s attorney general. Herring declared victory, saying ‘Over the course of the past week, a thorough and extensive process has ensured that every vote has been tallied and accounted for. The margin was close, but it is clear that Virginians have chosen me to serve as the next Attorney General.’ He is not exaggerating when he says the margin was close:
As of 11:30 p.m., the unofficial State Board of Elections tally had Herring up by 106 votes.
Herring released his statement after the tally of provisional votes in Fairfax County added a net gain of 57 votes for the Democrat, which would give him a lead of 163 votes out of 2.2 million cast.
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Thursday, November 14th, 2013
STEVEN ROSENFELD, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: Here is a bitter truth that I know a number of my readers live day-to-day.
A majority of Americans, especially women and people of color, will spend their final years living in poverty in coming decades unless Social Security is improved and expanded-not cut back as Republicans and President Obama seek-and there are many fair ways to accomplish that, experts told a congressional briefing last week.
‘Don’t listen to anyone inside the Beltway,
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Thursday, November 14th, 2013
CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM, - Vice Magazine
Stephan: I have done what seem endless stories about pedophilia and the Roman Catholic clergy, and another number about Islamic orthodoxies profound sexual dysfunctionality concerning women, and several on the same problem with Ultra-orthodox Judaism. Here is another story. I think one has to conclude that religious fundamentalism of whatever stripe is defined by its sexual pathologies particularly the suppression of women, and the sexual exploitation of children.
Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg-who is 63 with a long, graying beard-recently sat down with me to explain what he described as a ‘child-rape assembly line
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