Max Fraad Wolff swears like a trooper, which involves a lot of work on my part cutting out those little expletives. Too bad, because there is real obscenity in the robbery of the middle class and the destruction of the American Dream. 

I liked the cartoon because it implies the possibility of righteous  anger. Where is the outrage in real life? Thirty years of being screwed and the American worker still can't come to grips with what has happened. 

It is easy to become contemptuous of class war's victims, the huge underclass with its foolish dreams of success. But cynicism is the enemy of social movements. We must learn from each other how to resist the current institutional plutocracy.

Harold Miller and Protecting Communities

GUEST: Harold Miller, community organizer and Upstate Director of New York Communities for Change, talks about his divestment campaign aimed at JP Morgan Chase

In talking to Harold, I realized that New York Communities for Change was more interested in protecting communities than going after the big banks for criminal behavior. Divestment is being used to force the banks to do the right thing, help homeowners restructure their debts and stay in their homes.

And it seems to be working. By going to local town boards and county legislatures to divest from JP Morgan Chase, Communities for Change is putting the pressure on. Why can't we do that locally? We have a responsive and hard working county legislator named Joel Tyner. It seems like more people should be calling Joel and volunteering to make the big banks accountable. Have you seen the city of Poughkeepsie foreclosure map? Hundreds of families are in danger.

Predatory Capitalism

GUEST: Danny Schechter, television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic, talks about his role in dissecting the news.

Those who listen to the show know that Danny Schechter did not make an appearance. We will try to reschedule. I thought we would play a recent Chomsky interview, but Gary and I got so wound up about local issues, we didn't have time.

I listened to Gary on the way home (he took the next hour because the original DJ was not available), and he was still going strong about wage inequities since the late 1970's. That is when the America we had such high hopes for took a wrong tern. From then on, it was empire abroad and growing social injustice at home.

Makes one wonder what the 1950's and 1960's had that protected workers from the type of predatory capitalism that we suffer from today.

Fred

A community to turn the tide...

Listening to the interview with William Parry that I had recorded when he was in the Hudson Valley recently, I was struck by how deeply committed some writers and artists are to the cause of Palestinian rights. William Parry's book comes out of his determination to make a difference in the Middle East. And just as he reenforces our hopes for Palestinian freedom, we reenforce his.

Maybe that is what book tours are all about. There will always be some people who have never given the plight of the Palestinians a second thought. But then there are the groups of committed activists who work very hard, year after year, to end apartheid. Maybe this community will eventually turn the tide of public opinion in the United States.