Carl Finamore's Egyptian revolution photos

Bay area union activist Carl Finamore is just back from his second trip to Egypt. The first was a year ago; he arrived the same day that Mubarak was deposed. He has written a number of reports on Egypt, the working class and unions in Egypt for Talking Union, most recently Generals Still in Charge Tough Days Ahead in Egypt

Carl took lots of great photos on his last trip, here they are.


               

Blues on a Saturday: Howlin' Wolf Back Door Man

Blues on a Saturday: Johnny Otis and Etta James

Yesterday, two giants of the r&b world died: Johnny Otis and Etta James.

JLC President Stuart Appelbaum's Brave Speech on the Middle East

Earlier this week, the Jewish Labor Committee had their annual fundraising dinner. JLC President Stuart Appelbaum gave a brave and on target speech that addressed the Middle East, as well as the progressive role of the JLC on the America scene.

 According to the Jewish Week, Israel's deputy consul general walked out of the speech. 

Here is what Appelbaum said about the Middle East.

I'm Gonna Marry a Corporation

With the second anniversairy of the Citizen's United ruling approaching, I'm planning a series of posts on the issue of corporate personhood. Let's start with something on the lighter side. This song was written by Barabara Joye and performed by Atlanta area singer Anita Paycheck.

How Time Photographed the Protesters

TIME magazine named “The Protester” as its “Person of the Year” last year.Fellow Wichita democratic leftist Russell Fox said they got it right. And, I agree. This behind-the-scenes video shows how photographer Peter Hapak traveled around to seven different countries to capture portraits of protestors for the story. The resulting photographs can be viewed here.

Blues on a Saturday: Freddie King

Freddie King has been selected to be a 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee in the "early influences" category. Allmusic.com says of King

Guitarist Freddie King rode to fame in the early '60s with a spate of catchy instrumentals which became instant bandstand fodder for fellow bluesmen and white rock bands alike. Employing a more down-home (thumb and finger picks) approach to the B.B. King single-string style of playing, King enjoyed success on a variety of different record labels. Furthermore, he was one of the first bluesmen to employ a racially integrated group on-stage behind him.

In the early 1970s, Clayton Crawford and I drove up from Winfield to see King at Wichita's Century II. King was, as I recall, on the underbill of the a three act show. We weren't interest much in hearing the other bands, but we sure wanted to hear King. King, who toured incessantly, had car trouble and couldn't make the gig. The promoters held back this info until after the first band had played. Then they offered a piddling refund. Here are two King classics, which have been covered by many blues and rock artists.

Are corporations persons?

The PPP polling firm has a new survey  out on the South Carolina primary.  The pollsters asked South Carolina voters about the
non-binding "corporate personhood" referendum Steve Colbert hoped to land on the ballot that would ask voters whether "corporations are people" or "only people are people." Only a third of likely voters said they think "corporations are people" compared to two thirds who think that "only people are people." Further, a majority of supporters of every
GOP candidate -- including Mitt Romney -- say that they believe that
"only people are people."

$100 Billion

What to read

Mary Beth Sullivan, "Moving from a War Economy to a Peace Economy"

Tim Lacy on the US Intellectual History blog Now What? Reflections On Historicizing American "Conservatism"

Matthew Lyons on the Three Way Fight blog Conservatism studies: on the value and limits of academic history

 First a blog post summarizing the December 2011 Journal of American History roundtable , titled "Conservatism: A State of the Field" and an activists take on the same roundtable.

Harold Meyerson, "No Longer the Land of Opportunity"

Jeff Madrick "How Austerity is Killing Europe"

Russell Fox likes a Montana Supreme Court decision upholding state's ban on corporate spending on elections.

Adam Holland returns to active blogging with a damning look at Ron Paul's campaign. 

the Campaign for Liberty, an internet forum associated with the Ron Paul campaign, has for the past four years advertised an edition of the notorious anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

I hate beets

I'm pretty much always the opposite of a finicky eater.  When I was a kid, if you put in on my plate, or based it around the table at a family Thanksgiving, I would eat a small helping.  With one exception--beets. If beets were on my place, I wouldn't eat anything on the plate.

My distaste for beets is so deep that I couldn't remember what they taste like, only that they are disgusting.


But now I know. According beet expert and advocate Irving Goldman beets "taste like dirt."