The Book of Butch

- Jeffrey Sachs, The New Progressive Movement

Read the whole piece. Sachs sketches the series of gilded ages: the Robber Barons of the late 1800s overturned by Teddy Roosevelt and other progressives, the Roaring Twenties scotched by FDR, and the Reagan era that the new progressives seek to undo.

And his three point policy is dead on:

The new movement also needs to build a public policy platform. The American people have it absolutely right on the three main points of a new agenda. To put it simply: tax the rich, end the wars and restore honest and effective government for all.

Simplified:

1. Tax The Rich
2. End The Wars
3. Government For All

(via underpaidgenius)

(via underpaidgenius)

gregcohn:

iambradleymanning:

Daniel Ellsberg:

I was the Bradley Manning of my day. In 1971 I too faced life (115 years) in prison for exposing classified government lies and crimes.  President Obama says “the Ellsberg material was classified on a different basis.”  True. The Pentagon Papers were not Secret like the Wikileaks revelations, they were all marked Top Secret—Sensitive.

Ultimately all charges in my case were dropped because of criminal governmental misconduct toward me during my proceedings.  Exactly the same outcome should occur now, in light of the criminal conditions of Manning’s confinement for the last six months.

It’s interesting that the digital generation is having the same debate (or perhaps not having enough of it, but certainly suffering through the same philosophical dialectics) as our parents’ generation.  

(via mikehudack)

thoughtyoushouldseethis:

Back in August 2010, innovation expert and professor at the Tuck School of Business, Vijay Govindarajan wrote a provocative piece on his Harvard Business Review blog. What, he mused with co-author Christian Sarkar, might be a new way to tackle the issue of 5 billion people living in slums? Applying some of the thinking around reverse, or “trickle-up” innovation that Govindarajan had developed while advising Jeff Immelt at GE (see this report, How GE is Disrupting Itself), they wanted to apply a new lens to an old problem. The rest, in hindsight, is somewhat predictable: The concept met with a whole boatload of enthusiasm, persuading the two authors to try and move their idea off the drawing board and into reality. And so, the $300 House competition was born. Some eight months later, the deadline for entries to the competition is now looming; there’s $25k prize money while winners also get a two week trip to Alabama to build prototypes. Yes, all the usual caveats apply. Billions of the world’s poor may still be living in slums for some time to come. A $300 house might remain a fantasy. But the idea has challenged people to approach the problem in a different way, and has brought together a heavyweight group of interested parties. It’ll certainly be worth monitoring the submissions and activities of the initiative once the deadline has passed. And, as Govindarajan himself says, the dollar figure is beside the point. “This is about thinking audaciously.”

joelaz:

Internet Traffic To & From Egypt, via Arbor Networks

Lili and bump making Xmas lunch (Taken with Instagram at 69 Brickhill Drive)

underpaidgenius:

Large corporations and national governments are moving aggressively to take control of arable land, as worsening climate — particularly desertification — is placing a premium on land and food:

Neil MacFarquhar, African Farmers Losing Land to Investors

Across Africa and the developing world,…

anything involving animals makes a brand more playful. Ikea / Mother nailed it here. courtesy of @webponce

(via mikehudack, brooklynmutt)

awesome shots of the chicago skyline through a recent storm…

mikehudack:

evangotlib:

thedailywhat:

Optical Illusions of the Day: That last one is humdinger! It really looks like a goal!

(context.)

[reddit.]