Occupy Wall Street has been instrumental in changing the national debate to encompass huge issues such as inequality and the dominance of Wall Street. The encampments, on the other hand, are more of a mixed story—Occupy activists have struggled to create functional protest communities, with the blame often falling on…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
As part of a private equity company, Puget stock is no longer publicly traded For over 100 years, the company we know today as Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and it previous incarnations were publicly owned corporations who traded publicly, were regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and paid a…
Book Review Review of Transforming Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World, eds. Susan Griffin and Karen Loftus Carrington (University of California Press, 2011) Essayist, poet, and playwright Susan Griffin and co-editor Karen Loftus Carrington were in Seattle recently to read from their anthology, Transforming Terror. The book is…
Medievalist poses as champion of “modernity” Ed. note: This article was originally published on Anti-war.com and is reprinted with their permission. It’s no wonder the Israeli Foreign Ministry initially held back from releasing a transcript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN General Assembly: Bibi’s wackiness doesn’t…
From left to right, Patrick Edelbacher, ACLU of Washington Legal Director Sarah Dunne, Liz Rivera Goldstein, Phan Nguyen, Leah Coakley, Charles Bevis, and Thomas McCarthy TACOMA, WA –The “Backpack 6” trial got underway on Monday January 7th. The trial is formally known as McCarthy et al. v. Barrett et al.Six plaintiffs have…
A military career was once viewed as an honorable path out of poverty for millions of destitute farmers’ sons and ghetto children. After the “good” war (WWII), a thankful nation was eager to offer every opportunity to our surviving veterans on their return. After all, casualty rates for the two…
The parking lot at Walmart is jammed with cars when we arrive. So are the side streets nearby and so are the grassy vacant lots between the streets out here in the industrial eastern fringes of Helena, Montana. It’s around 8pm on the fourth Thursday in November, and the occasion…
To quote George Orwell: “He who controls the past controls the present.” The story that we tell ourselves about who we are is very important. Telling the American Story is somewhat problematic due to the fact that basically our ancestors stole an entire continent by conducting a ruthless genocidal slaughter…
On December 10, 2012 members from WA CAN, Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights (POWER), Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), Casa Latino and Statewide Poverty Action Network (SPAN) gathered to speak out about the effects that state policies have on racial minorities in Washington State. Speakers April Sims,…
An interview with Paul Dix During the late 1970s and the 1980s popular movements in Central America attempted to democratize their societies politically and economically to serve the poor majorities. The US government opposed these efforts with massive violence in most Central American countries. Under President Reagan, the CIA created…
A how-to article on protecting your neighborhood from bad development On October 18 2012, Olympia city staff denied approval for the proposed “Bing Street Apartments”—a six-story 119-unit apartment building located in a neighborhood of one- and two-story single family homes and duplexes. Just six months before, approval of this car-spewing,…
The following is the executive summary—a short synopsis of the much longer report by Washington Community Action Network. The full report can be viewed at here. Race matters in Washington. People of color represent nearly 30 percent of Washington residents, and the population of people of color is growing. Equal…
Climate change is happening with a rapidity scientists did not predict—the Arctic is melting faster, sea level is rising faster, and Co2 levels are fast approaching the point where the world will not be able to restrict global warming to the 2 degrees Celsius (C) that scientists warn is…
Washington, DC – A leading deficit reduction proposal is to “tweak” the official inflation measure used to annually adjust Social Security benefits, other government programs, and income tax brackets. Proponents of this proposal argue that a relatively new inflation measure, the Chained CPI, is more accurate than the current index…
Sam Mulvey is one of the producers and hosts for the radio show “Ask An Athiest” (KLAY 1180 AM or http://askanatheist.tv/cast/) and a secular activist in Washington state. He recently came to Olympia to do a presentation at Last Word Books on blasphemy laws and the Atheism Visibility Movement. Between…
Another Olympia activist imprisoned: Olympia trio faces the possibility of criminal contempt charges
Another Olympia activist imprisoned: Olympia trio faces the possibility of criminal contempt charges
For many Americans, the day after Christmas is spent recovering from over-indulgent holiday feasts, returning ill-fitting sweaters or relaxing with family. But for local activist Matthew “Maddy” Pfeiffer that day was anything but festive: on December 26, 2012 they were taken into custody at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center for…
Since grand juries are secret by law, the government cannot disclose information about their proceedings. According to statements from the US Attorney’s Office however, this grand jury is investigating damage of the William Kenzo Nakamura U.S. Courthouse that occurred at the May Day protests in Seattle earlier this year by a…
Book Review Before reading this book I could not appreciate the scope of the natural disaster which was Hurricane Katrina. Although I was paying attention, the sketchy reports on the evening news and rumors and gossip did not do justice to what really happened in September 2005 in New Orleans.…
It’s a dark, drizzly mid-October night in Olympia, Washington—the first rainy weekend since fall quarter started at Evergreen a few weeks ago. Outside of the Northern, an all ages venue near downtown, the water is puddling up underfoot. Dozens of people in raincoats with hoods pulled up against the…
Washington, DC – Governments should pre-emptively ban fully autonomous weapons because of the danger they pose to civilians in armed conflict, Human Rights Watch and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School said in a report released today. These future weapons, sometimes called “killer robots,” would be…
Elissa Goss, a senior at The Evergreen State College and active member of the Mid-East Solidarity Project and TESC Divest, recently returned from a two-week Interfaith Peace-Builder delegation in the West Bank and Israel with fellow Greeners, Olympians, the Corrie family, and activists from around the country. This is a…
As you look back on your life so far, there are many crossroads at which you took one path over another. Sometimes you knew then it was a crossroads and other times you could only see it as you look back and reflect on your path. In each case, whether…
On November 9, ten nuclear resisters associated with Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington, appeared in Judge Stephen J. Holman’s courtroom at the Kitsap County District Court. The ten had participated in a nonviolent direct action along with six other individuals on August 6, 2012. The sixteen…
Homelessness in America, these days, comes dressed with many different faces, and the stories of how those brothers and sisters of ours ended up on the streets, are rich, poignant, and broad in scope. The stories that follow go further yet. They speak not only to how a couple of…
Northwest ports ship in extraction equipment and ship out coal and oil Hurricane Sandy and the Great Drought and wildfires of 2012 have finally focused public attention on climate change, and climate justice groups promise to increase pressure on President Obama in his second term. But any efforts to curb…
It was an event that was completely unexpected, but at the same time entirely anticipated. On the night of September 13 a large mob of angry Muslims gathered outside of the home of 27-year-old Egyptian college student Alber Saber Ayad. Relentless and flirting with violence, the mob arrived high off…
The Failure of Accountability in the Approval of a Proposed 7-Eleven Project on the Westside of Olympia 2011-12 Below are links to the 41-page report on the defeated Westside 7-Eleven proposal that Bethany Widener presented to the Olympia City Council on October 10, 2012 . The report is divided into…