Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Economics of Prison Labor: A Dirty Little Secret Legacy from the Left


I follow Robert Reich on Facebook, This morning I saw this article posted by him from the New Orleans Times Picayune: Bernie Pitches Louisiana Dems on His Presidential Bid (with audio).

Of course Robert Reich does not control the content of the Times Picayune. But the events that follow not only raised more questions, but raised the hair on the back of my neck.

The Time Picayune article covered Bernie Sanders's speech and covered some of his positions, But the obvious omission from the article was Bernie's statements about Sandra Bland and the unemployment rate and economy of African Americans,

I was compelled to post a comment because of the omission. My question was simple and not rhetorical: "What is the economic impact of prison slave labor?"

Immediately, within minutes I got two "likes" and the response comment "Good question, Fred."

Later, I saw the red notification dot and checked the responses There were some from another comment, on a different post, but the notifications about my question completely vanished. That never happened to me before.

I went to my activity log and looked for a record of my posting the comment, and that too was erased from my activity log. I went to Robert Reich's Facebook page to find the article again so I could see if my comment-question was there, and it was gone as if it never happened, along with the responses to my comment from the other users.

Clearly something was up. The deletion of my comment and my activity on Facebook suggests that someone reported my question as offensive or spam. It could be anyone. On some of my comments on past posts, some people have misconstrued in their responses to my comments that what I was writing was racist, but that didn't result in my comment and activity being deleted

What Happened to my comment on Robert Reich's post was extraordinary. So I looked into my own question. "What is the economic impact of prison slave labor?" Here is a list of some enlightening Google search results?



Oh, I can't leave out one dissenting opinion about this which was picked up by CounterPunch: The Myth of US Slave Labor Camps in the US. I have CounterPunch on my list of sources, but I question whether or not to keep it.

Anyway, did something catch your eye? Something in the second article listed? The link to Global Research? An obscure reference to a law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996?

Solitary Watch: Two Clinton Era Laws That Allow Cruel and Unusual Punishment (redux).

Who was Bill Clinton's Economic Adviser at the time? Robert Reich.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Bernout: The logic of Barney Frank about Bernie Sanders


Former Congressman Barney Frank posted an Op Ed at Politico.com titled "Why Progressives Shouldn't Support Bernie Sanders." His opening salvo was to paint a picture of Right Wing Pundit William Kristol grinning at him when he mentioned Bernie Sanders, from across the table at Morning Joe on MSNBC.

Here is the analysis of the Op Ed from Mediaite;
Truthdig also has a review of the article:
Secular Talk on YouTube suggests "Barney Frank Tries To Kneecap Bernie Sanders Momentum"

The subtitle of Barney Frank's article is "Wishful thinking won't win the White House." However, "Hope" won twice.
#FeelTheBern

Sunday, July 19, 2015

The Latest Lie about Bernie Sanders

Because so many young voters are unfamiliar with Bernie Sanders, the powers that be are scrambling to make him out to be racist because he's focused on economic inequality, which by the way has everything to do with racism.

VOX recently posted an article titled 'Why Bernie Sanders Doesn't Talk About Race' and falsely claimed that Bernie Sanders is ignoring race. In fact he had been fighting for civil rights his entire adult life. Al Sharpton's interview of Bernie which is posted on Bernie's Senate website was overlooked apparently because VOX researched the campaign site instead.

Bernie has a consistent record on civil rights, so much so that the NAACP rated him at 97%

Somehow, media outlets are attempting to bifurcate economics from race just to attack Bernie Sanders. Apparently that's all they've got. Senator Sanders, unlike most politicians, does not fly like a flag in the winds of political polls. He has been steadfast in his message despite its unpopularity among the corporate-owned media outlets.

At the recent Netroots Nation gathering, protesters continuously interrupted Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders so much so that the intent seemed to be to not get a response from the candidates at all, but to simply put them off-balance, and that's exactly what Time Magazine glommed onto. Instead of placing criticism on the disruption, Time saw fit to render O'Malley and Sanders impotent on the stage.

This is the kind of protest behavior agent provocateurs who are paid by an opponent would do. If these same protesters show up at Bernie's next gathering we may safely assume they are plants by opponents seeking to undermine Bernie's reputation.

The difference is that Bernie Sanders has been consistent on his ideals throughout his entire career, and anyone who puts a modicum of effort into the research will know that Senator Sanders is a juggernaut 50 years in the making. #FeelTheBern