[Peace-discuss] The Clinton/Bush generation

[Laurie]

> Linking from that web site, here's an interesting proposal by the Green
Party of the United States, "Moving >the Money to Main Street":
http://www.gp.org/mainstreet/  .  Maybe some of you readers could identify a
>couple of good, local, socially responsible banks or credit unions in the
C-U area where we could all bank?

 


>John Wason



John,

 

Very interesting question.    In this day and age, I doubt that there really
are any except possibly in some of the very small rural towns and villages
which still have local banks; but even they are about the task of making
money and so engage in safe investments which they define as socially
responsible actions.  Even on the national level, there are only a few such
institutions and organizations that come close to being socially responsible
in the sense that you mean.

 

The procedure for determining what is a socially responsible bank in your
local area as set forth in the web site you have given a link to is good as
far as it goes; but it fails to note that even local and regional
institutions very well can be subsidiaries of larger not so socially
responsible operations of belong to holding companies that are not.  Even
university credit unions are often part of the university and the university
may not be all that socially responsible.  The UofI supports all kinds of
research which is not socially responsible as well as research for socially
non-responsible entitites like the Dept. of Defense.  Moreover, it
indirectly facilitates consulting by its faculty and staff which is done for
socially non-responsible entities and projects.  So how do you track the
hidden and covert, indirect, and implicit connections?

 

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of John W.
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 4:41 PM
To: n.dahlheim at mchsi.com; LAURIE SOLOMON
Cc: Peace-discuss; Prairiegreens-org
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] The Clinton/Bush generation 

 

At 11:01 PM 9/18/2007, n.dahlheim at mchsi.com wrote:




Laurie,
 
    I absolutely loved this post, and you took the words right out of my
mouth.  Make your no-vote a 
very loud no-vote.  Let people know that you don't like being pandered to by
reptilian politicians who 
shapeshift like chameolons as shills for a corporate imperial agenda
wrecking the environment and the 
lives of the global proletariat.  People badly need some historical
perspective.  America isn't the country 
depicted in Disney films and amusement parks.  Oh, and don't forget C.
Wright Mills when discussing 
your list of political theorists.  Wow, I appreciated your perspective.
Finally, someone who doesn't 
subscribe to the "we'll just elect Obama and things will get better"
approach to the 2008 political 
"elections."  Keep your politics local and build survival networks of
conviviality in Champaign-
Urbana---the more people voluntarily drop out of the system the better.  We
need alternatives that 
don't drain our precious time, talent, and wealth (not just $).  Fighting
through the system is no longer 
feasible----that is what 9/11 should teach us.  The construction of local
economies that don't feed the 
federal, global corporate capitalist tapeworm will be vital to the future;
it also means you participate 
less in environmental degradation and the exploitation of people abroad
living on the margins of the 
global economy.  Visit www.solari.com - it has some excellent ideas for real
political action that will 
make for a brighter future.  Time's a' wasting, and we need to focus here on
these issues so that 
communities will survive the devouring tapeworm with its rapacious appetite
for all that is good and 
wholesome.

     Best,
     Nick



Linking from that web site, here's an interesting proposal by the Green
Party of the United States, "Moving the Money to Main Street":
http://www.gp.org/mainstreet/  .  Maybe some of you readers could identify a
couple of good, local, socially responsible banks or credit unions in the
C-U area where we could all bank?

John Wason






----------------------  Original Message:  ---------------------
From:    "LAURIE SOLOMON" <LAURIE at ADVANCENET.NET>
To:      <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Subject: [Peace-discuss] The Clinton/Bush generation
Date:    Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:49:36 +0000

> > There are few things more disgusting in contemporary US politics than 
> > a Democrat slavering for a Clinton Restoration.  Bush is in fact a 
> > thoroughly worthy purveyor of the Clinton legacy, as Bill Clinton 
> > himself was of Bush I/Reagan. A pox on both their houses. --CGE]
> 
> As for me, I think that there is nothing more disgusting than U.S.
politics
> in general - both contemporary and past historic U.S. politics.  Even in
the
> good old days when and if the Democrats represented labor and the poor
while
> the Republicans represented the wealthy and business; all were pragmatic
> supporters of the established order who were essentially reformers who
> sought changes on the periphery and never question basic premises.  Now
that
> labor unions have become corporate organizations with large organizational
> bureaucracies of their own just like big business and have similar vested
> interests in maintaining the establishment values and power structures as
> long as they see themselves as getting their fair share of the power and
> booty, we have a circulation of elites as described by political theorists
> like Parato, Mosca, and Schumpeter where only the names of the parties are
> changed to protect the guilty.  
> 
> In America everyone seeks to become petty bourgeois middle class white
> collar bureaucrats, to be white and respectable, to be rational and
> responsible, and to be the proud owner of a portion of the American dream
> even if it means it comes at someone else's expense - especially if they
are
> not white, are poor, and lack power.  So I will actively exercise my
> decision making in terms of U.S. elections but by not casting my vote for
> any of the candidates.  Hopefully, things will get so bad that people in
the
> U.S. will be forced to question and treat as problematic their basic core
> values and presuppositions so as to engage in a revolutionary redesigning
of
> their goals, values, and processes and stop believing in symbols and
> rituals.  Just like global warming, if they fail to do something, there
will
> be a deserved Hobbesian world in which there will be a war of all against
> all in which life will be nasty, brutish, and short.  When you participate
> in a rat race, you are a rat whether you win or lose.
> 
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> 
> > From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [
<mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net>
mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] 
> > On Behalf Of C. G. Estabrook
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 9:43 PM
> > To: Peace Discuss
> > Subject: [Peace-discuss] The Clinton/Bush generation
> > 
> > [There are few things more disgusting in contemporary US politics than 
> > a Democrat slavering for a Clinton Restoration.  Bush is in fact a 
> > thoroughly worthy purveyor of the Clinton legacy, as Bill Clinton 
> > himself was of Bush I/Reagan. A pox on both their houses. --CGE]

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