Posts published in “Uncategorized”

The December 2017 tax reform legislation, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations and their stockholders, will raise health care premiums, further endanger the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and the environment, and it will lead to further cuts for flawed but still…

  Overwhelmed by the rapidity of human-caused climate change, the dire implications of feedback loops like methane and CO2 release from thawing permafrost, and the utter failure of world governments to make the steep greenhouse gas emissions cuts necessary to keep global warming below 2 degrees C, scientists are paying…

April 6-8 in Chicago Grassroots union activists, worker center leaders, and all-around troublemakers gather for workshops and meetings at the Labor Notes annual conference. Join thousands of union members, officers, and labor activists More than 100 meetings and workshops • Organize with others in your union, industry, or campaign •…

Return your ballot on the Home Fund and School Levy vote any day up to Feb. 13 3rd Annual Eye-2-Eye Dinner Fundraiser Fri. Feb. 2, 5:00 PM, at St Michael’s Catholic Parish, 1208 11th Ave SE, Olympia.   Celebrate the nightly shelter run by Interfaith Works.  Tickets $65 single, & up.  To…

What is the “Missing Middle?” by Judy Bardin The City’s “Missing Middle” (MM) plan envisions one of the biggest land-use changes ever proposed in Olympia. Its stated goal is to increase housing variety and supply and, therefore, affordability. Will that be the result? There are 43 provisions in the plan…

Puyallup Water Warriers & Redefine Tacoma JAN 26, 2018 — On Tuesday, January 23, Northwest Tribes gathered at the Washington State Capitol for American Indian Lobby Day. A Puyallup Tribal elder prayed over your signatures and messages before they were delivered to Governor Inslee’s office. Afterwards we gathered in the Rotunda…

The Water Protectors were right! In our March 2017 issue, we reported on the Water Protectors protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) crossing beneath the Missouri River, and predicting that the pipeline would leak and eventually contaminate essential water resources. Nevertheless, the pipeline owners got the go-ahead…

In the word of my fellow American, Malcolm X: I’m gonna make it plain. In 1877, America, the greatest country on this planet, put in place laws called the Jim Crow laws. And the Jim Crow laws restricted the rights of quadroons, octoroons, blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Malays. Restricted medical, restricted relationships, restricted education,…

Ed. Note:  This is an edited version of a story written January 11, 2018 by Janine Gates and published in her blog, Little Hollywood. The occupation ended at about 4 a.m. on Thursday, January 11 when law enforcement officers arrived and gave the women two minutes to leave. State workers…

Both during his campaign and his presidency thus far, Donald Trump has repeatedly used coal miners as a sort of rhetorical prop. To him, the coal miner represents the disenchanted everyman he claims to speak for: a struggling American worker whose livelihood has been stripped away by the liberal establishment…

Matt Lester interviews Samia Saliba Tell me about the demonstration that you organized on December 10th. It was in response to Trump’s announcement about moving the capital and the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. I felt there needed to be a response. A call to action was…

The recent deportation notice filed against Washington-based immigrant rights activist and mother, Maru Mora-Villalpando, is a clear sign that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is turning into Trump’s secret police and silencing immigrants who fight back. The Seattle office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has served a “Notice to…

The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story is a narrative-non-fictional story of modern Palestinian history. It comprises the stories of complex characters whose accounts overlap in terms of the collective experience. In it, I attempt to offer an authentic Palestinian narrative, one that does not only challenge the Zionist discourse –…

A letter from Emily Lardner to the Community: My son Sam Jessup will be sentenced in North Dakota in February for driving Michael Foster to a valve site so that he could turn off the pipeline bringing Alberta tar sands oil to the US. Sam filmed it. He’s been convicted…

TransCanada’s letter urges “significant” prison time for Sam and Michael to “send a strong message of deterrence” because safe and reliable operation of its facilities “is of utmost importance” to TransCanada: “our pipelines are designed, constructed and operated to achieve very high safety standards…” TransCanada’s record of ruptures, leaks, and…

(first printed in The Guardian, 24 November 2017; http://thegreatstory.org/valve-turners.html#latest) A little over a year ago, four friends and I shut down all five pipelines carrying tar sands crude oil into the United States by using emergency shut-off valves. As recent months have made clear, climate change is not only an imminent threat; it…

Regardless of who is doing it, caring for children is hard work, badly paid if paid at all; full of unforeseen challenges, uncertainty, worry and heavy lifting.  Yet it is fundamental to the health and future of a society.  And all the more so if that society is a democratic…

There are lots of ways to help: becoming a full-fledged foster parent, signing up to offer “respite care” and give foster parents a break, joining one of the groups that support foster parents or act as mentors to youth, working in the legislative arena to promote laws that help keep…

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” Carter G. Woodson, 1933 “America was built on the preferential treatment of white people—395 years of it. Vaguely endorsing a cuddly, feel-good diversity does very little to…

Putting an end to passivity The Washington Community and Technical College Student Association (WACTCSA) has been busy, and they are about to get busier as the legislative season picks up. At first glance, developing a common legislative platform representing the needs and interests of three hundred and forty thousand students…

From news releases On January 19, Governor Inslee signed a 2017-19 capital budget with $4.17 billion in total spending and $2.72 billion in bonds.  The budget was passed after a year’s delay when legislators agreed to new rules governing small water wells.  The capital budget plan prioritizes K-12 school construction…

This February marks the 3-year anniversary of the passing of Father Bill Bichsel of Tacoma. He continues to be remembered as an exemplary advocate for human rights, racial justice and anti-war causes. Father Bix (full name William Bichsel) was born in 1928 and raised in a large Catholic household by…

INEQUALITY Resources of this earth are here for all life. Nature never intended hoarders to accumulate and keep enough for a thousand lifetimes while others go hungry and unsheltered. Squirrels only put away enough for a year or two. Human toleration of this disease can be short tempered. This inequality…

This past October I was part of the delegation sent by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance to South Africa. The delegation is part of a process to connect groups throughout Africa with US-based Food Sovereignty groups to build an international analysis on the food system and to be in solidarity…

King Tide Fri, Jan 5.  8:00- 10:00 am. The Harbor House on the waterfront in Olympia.  Contact Mike Coday, envirotalk@yahoogroups.com New Skills for Liberation and Ending Oppression Fri-Sat, Jan 5-6, 9 am -5 pm.  Workshop presented by Backbone Campaign,  Sliding scale $155-$500.  On Vashon Island – location info upon registration.  Register…

  Just Housing Advocacy Group The Jungle, known to some of its residents as the Jungle of Hope, is home to between 150 and 200 people living in a wooded area between Pacific Avenue and Martin Way. It is Olympia’s largest encampment of houseless community members, including people who have…