Originally posted at PoliZeros.

I went to a protest in Philadelphia this past Saturday, and it was more disheartening than anything else. It was against the wars and various other injustices, with a special focus on he recent FBI raids of peace activists and Pennsylvania Homeland Security spying on innocent civilians and activists.

By the end of it, I kind of just felt like going up to the megaphone and asking, “How much moral outrage can one person muster? There are more people handing out fliers here than not, and with this country committing so many disgusting, outrageous acts, I don’t blame you.” I won’t lie, I handed a few out myself. Yet the contrast between the righteous causes featured in the speeches and on the signs and on the fliers and the, as a fellow protester said to me, “complete lack of solidarity” was striking.

The harvest act would deny any path for citizenship to farm workers. Instead, even if they work year-round they would have no claims to citizenship. This means that laborers from other countries will never be citizens with the benefits of citizens.

Second the Harvest act would streamline the lie that farm work is accessible to citizens. Like Stephen Colbert testifying in congress. The Harvest act seeks to blame american workers for reason they aren’t working on the farm. Read Dan Rather’s piece here.

I’m endlessly dismayed by the lack of leadership and moral courage I observe from people and institutions that I would otherwise expect more of. I posted a Quick Hit at OpenLeft called
“Nobody marched at the One Nation “march”"
which was about a diary in FDL called
“Progressive “One Nation” Event a Bit Disappointing, We Didn’t March: ”
in which the question of the lack of strong leadership by unions naturally arises. The contents of this diary flowed from that discussion.

On September 21, 15 Members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation sent a letter to Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann urging him to “take action and implement a policy of fair and equitable labor relations between T-Mobile and their employees, one similar to the policy in Germany.” The Members of Congress express their concern about the double standard in labor relations that T-Mobile is perpetuating by denying American workers the right to organize and bargain collectively.

How fantastical thinking has led Americans into a self delusion that threatens our nation’s economy and soul.

The NAACP met with gay groups and will help us form a coalition to fight injustice.

More than 100 candidates have endorsed the Green New Deal, a 10-point program to create economic prosperity together with ecological sustainability. Join them today.

John Kasich really, really hates unions. And we’ve got the video.

Corporate America is sitting on a record $838 billion cash reserves, while more than 14.9 million workers remain unemployed

I’m happily wending my way through Tom Geoghegan’s wonderfully entertaining and maddening book “Were You Born On the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help Us Get a Life.” Filled with great stats and facts, Geoghegan shows us why Germans are richer and happier than we are.