Chris Van Etten appears in the new Jockey campaign What’s Underneath (PRNewsFoto/Jockey)
Chris Van Etten symbolizes the American Can-Do Spirit or did he do it in vain because we are too lazy to protect Democracy?
Marine Chris Van Etten, who lost both legs in Afghanistan in July 2012, returned to his family’s Illinois home for the holidays, after spending half a year at a Californian rehabilitation center. He was met with racist graffiti on his family home which was particularly strange as he is Caucasian. Someone spray-painted racial slurs on and threw raw eggs at the Van Etten’s house, likely as the family slept. Van Etten was critically injured from a roadside bomb explosion, which killed his best friend. Lance Cpl. T.J. Baune from Minnesota while on night patrol June 13. Full Article
Chris Van Etten, a Marine fought for America, presumably to spread Democracy to Afghanistan. He fought to stop Al-Qaeda from spreading their terror attacks to the West. He fought to uphold our freedom that began on July 4th of 1776 when Americans declared their independence from the British Tax System which they perceived as a yoke.
A few weeks ago the British Population declared that they wish to be freed from the yoke of the EU. In a recent podcast, Mr. Krugman, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 2008, says that “Brexit” was “a terrible blow to the elite leadership in Europe,” explains how the people who are most likely to emerge on top as a result of the move are “the Donald Trumps of England” and talks about the way in which the E.U. is fundamentally at odds with democracy and the idea of a democratically elected government. Full article and podcast
The world is once again at a cross road.
Shall a few rule over the many and subjugate them or shall the many fight for freedom of information which demands the protection of freedom of speech? In the EU a few bureaucrats rule over the many without regards for their opinion, wishes, preferences. The European Parliament gave them the power to do so, without any recourse but extreme measures for the pubic. Is the Brexit a good idea? Many agree that it is not and that it is based on misinformation presented by the originally Australian Rupert Murdoch’s news empire. He also is working on his fascists aims in breaking Democracy in the US using Fox TV and since a few years the Wall Street Journal.
A book by Larry Bartels promoted by Princeton University explains what is going on in a succinct way:
“Unequal Democracy debunks many myths about politics in contemporary America, using the widening gap between the rich and the poor to shed disturbing light on the workings of American democracy. Larry Bartels shows the gap between the rich and poor has increased greatly under Republican administrations and decreased slightly under Democrats, leaving America grossly unequal.” The review goes on to say: “Bartels demonstrates that elected officials respond to the views of affluent constituents but ignore the views of poor people. He shows that Republican presidents in particular have consistently produced much less income growth for middle-class and working-poor families than for affluent families, greatly increasing inequality.”
All of us have to choose whether the Independence our forefathers fought for should regress because we are too passive and allow the fascists and hyper-wealthy, uncaring people to repurchase yokes that make our lives miserable. The Brexit shows what dis-information can do to a civilized country. Will it happen here in the US?
Edgar Cambon joins Rolando Morales tonight at The Vine at Bridges
Thursday July 14, Vine at Bridges, 480 Hartz Avenue, Danville, approx. 7-10pm.After 2 months away, The Rolando Morales Duet returns to this cool winery and nightspot for its only Thursday night appearance, coinciding with the Danville Car Show. Enjoy a wonderful selection of wines, superb dinners and munchies while enjoying this powerful duet. Tonight Rolando reunites with the Latin percussionist/vocalist from Uruguay, the leader of Candela,Edgardo Cambón; and on guitar, voice and his pedal board of magic, the passionate Rolando Morales.Latin Jazz at its best. Don’t miss it! www.thevineatbridges.com, (925) 820-7210.
Ehud Asherie, “a master of swing and stride” (The New Yorker), is a jazz pianist who integrates the venerable New York piano tradition into his inventive style. Born in Israel in 1979, Asherie lived in Italy for six years before his family moved to New York.
Though he began playing piano as a child, his passion for jazz came later—with a Thelonious Monk cassette tape—and his first visit to Smalls Jazz club in Greenwich Village. Largely self-taught, or rather, “old-schooled,” Asherie learned the ropes at Smalls, spending the wee small hours of his early teens becoming a fixture of the late-night jam sessions.
Mentored by the late Frank Hewitt, Asherie began to develop “his virtuosity and his ear for clean, crisp lines“ (The Star-Ledger). From Smalls to the Rainbow Room, from Lincoln Center to The Village Vanguard, Asherie has since worked with a broad range of musicians including:
Eric Alexander, Roy Ayers, Peter Bernstein, Jesse Davis, Bobby Durham, Vince Giordano, Wycliffe Gordon, Scott Hamilton, Ryan Kisor, Jane Monheit, Catherine Russell, Ken Peplowski and Clark Terry.
Beyond his dedication to jazz music, Ehud Asherie has also developed a passion for traditional Brazilian music. His appreciation and profound knowledge of the music, language and culture are the foundation of Asherie’s project entitled Bina & Ehud, a duo formed in 2003, with Brazilian guitarist, Bina Coquet.
Asherie has toured clubs and festivals around the world, including South America, Europe and Asia. Asherie’s playing can be heard on countless recordings, including the 2010 Grammy Award winning soundtrack of HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’. He recently released his twelfth album as leader entitled Shuffle Along (Blue Heron Records), a solo
piano performance.
Published on Feb 21, 2015
Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises
Perry Tannenbaum in Jazz Times praises Ehud Asherie
“After three releases on Posi-Tone leading small combos from the piano, 31-year-old Israeli native Ehud Asherie switches over to Hammond organ for his latest quartet outing, Organic. Fats Waller and Count Basie come readily to mind as jazz immortals who doubled on the two instruments. While their piano styles were more individualized than Asherie’s at this stage of his career, their doubling is reduced to dabbling when compared to Asherie’s imposing proficiency at the organ, which instantly catapults him to the front ranks of current B3 practitioners and invites comparisons with the greats of the past.” See full article
Thank you Tom O’Neil for introducing this to www.riovida.net. We hope to learn about the rest of your favorites.
The right to self determination has been attacked by European Bureaucrats and regular people are fighting back.
After the first and second world war the concept of political self determination has been touted all over Europe.
A wonderful site from Princeton University explains:
“At its most basic, the principle of self-determination can be defined as a community’s right to choose its political destiny. This can include choices regarding the exercise of sovereignty and independent external relations (external self-determination) or it can refer to the selection of forms of government (internal self-determination). The fundamental concept of self-determination-the right to choose-has its roots in the American and French revolutions in the eighteenth century with their emphasis on justice, liberty, and freedom from authoritarian rule. It found its most prominent expressions following World Wars I and II. In the aftermath of the First World War, self-determination was perceived to be Woodrow Wilson’s guiding principle for redrawing European and world maps to establish a new, just order. Following World War II, self-determination was enshrined in the United Nations Charter, initiating its transformation into a legal right under international law. In practice, this notion provided the justification and impetus for de-colonization and is often conflated with independence. More recently, the term is associated with struggles by groups within a state for greater autonomy or independence-primarily ethno-nationalist claims or counter-reactions to oppression or authoritarianism.” The report ends with this astute suggestion: “The key to resolving self-determination claims is to understand and address multiple layers of conflict in ways that promote the ideals of self-determination (the right to choose) as well as the related norms of human rights and territorial integrity. This necessitates accounting for the emotional appeal of national and local identity while avoiding oppressive political actions that foment violence and instability.” Full text go to: Princeton Edu
While freedom, whether political or economic, is closely tied with the concepts of self determination the EU and government officials around the world has been largely tone-deaf to the concerns of individual native groups of people during the past 20 years, as big business has pushed for ever more globalization. Uniform Rules and Regulations are definitely practical when expanding a business around the world. It is not convenient to have a companies march toward global success impeded upon by regional preferences, likes, and dislikes.
Older people are much more in tune with “the way things were.” And, when the world around them changes at ever increasing speed and they feel that their expectations are no longer fulfilled and they feel “left behind” they don’t like it. Older people are more inclined to vote than younger people.
During an interview with the BBC in November 2014, Merkel was clear about the fact that she didn’t really care about the internal rumblings in Britain. She explained her disregard for the internal issues inside England that she ignored the internal concerns of native Germans as well. She wanted to uphold her “European Ideals” at all cost. The English people were concerned about having their island flooded with refugees and the associated costs of social benefits paid out. Germans were concerned about that as well. The BBC wrote:
“At the European summit on 25 October Angela Merkel was asked about a possible UK move to change the treaties to reduce the number of migrants. “We have the basic principle of free movement,” said the German chancellor, “and we won’t meddle with that.” It was her way of saying free movement was not up for negotiation.” Full BBC Article
She pointed out that she had given the decision as to how to deal with the social benefits issues to an appointed group of the European courts. The refugees would swamp villages all over Germany based on her rulings, bureaucrats in Brussels would decide that the locals had to take in the refugees and that they needed to pay for their housing, food, education and safety at a local level. As it turns out this insensitivity toward locals has extreme consequences for Europe.
“And from that point on it will be more important for the German government to save these European fundamentals in comparison with keeping the United Kingdom inside.” An article in Der Spiegel stated on November 2, 2014. David Cameron was under extreme pressure within Britain, but when he asked for assistance on working on a compromise, Merkel thought it was better for Europe that Britain exits rather than for Europeans to change their regulations to deal with the refugee crisis. Back then Merkel decided that keeping the Schengen Agreement alive was worth the price to push Britain out of the EU. Full Article
A local newspaper reported: “The report, presented on Thursday by the Association of German Cities, found that a total number of 500,000 new arrivals would cost €7 billion overall, while 1.2 million refugees would cost €16 billion. That adds up to a maximum of €5.5 billion more than has already been promised to local governments by Chancellor Angela Merkel from federal funds, the association’s finance chief told reporters in Berlin. Merkel had promised €670 per month per refugee to Germany’s 16 states.” Full Article
Merkel’s eagerness to live up to Time Magazine’s image of her as the most powerful woman in the world seemed more important than keeping the European populations’ belief in the EU alive. Time naively encouraged her to ignore Europeans’ wishes. While Obama had trouble bringing 25,000 or 40,000 refugees into the US. Germany was swamped by 1,500,000 million. Full Article
The key to solving the problems of the Brexit, Grexit, and Europe and the never-ending refugee crisis is to find a healthy balance between protecting the freedoms of multi national mega companies with those of “Self Determination on a local level.”
Whenever the middle class was eroded due to financial hardships as it has been over the past 30 years in most Western Countries, super powers fell apart. The masses need to benefit in order for them to support a governmental structure. Rude suppression of their needs and especially ignoring their concerns, lack of communication with the masses through out history has resulted in chaos. Government officials are ever more reliant on corporate donations instead of the middle class and it shows. (Pew Study on Middle Income Trends.)
Is it true that economically free movement is beneficial, of course, especially if it pertains to a young and highly trained workforce. However this point has not been explained well to the local populations, financially and culturally burdened with the influx of refugees.
The Brexit would not have happened if people knew that there is a clear benefit to them. And the bureaucrats would have done better if instead of ignoring the natives with sweeping statements that had no relation to the individual lives of regular people would have studied the issues more carefully, and made adjustment that would have allowed regular people to benefit more obviously from the global economy they aim to support.
Putting an appointed governmental body above self determination of local neighborhoods, without providing any recourse and participation in the conversations is perceived as dictatorship. No matter how beneficial the bureaucrats think is is, and most importantly no matter how beneficial it actually is. Communication that goes both ways is a must for a stable government. Whenever “outsiders” gain too much power things fall apart. Big business unless it creates local jobs is considered an “outsider.” Education about how the economies work and related in simple language is the only way empires stay intact.
As we all know, of you don’t study history you are destined to repeat it.
In 476 C.E. Romulus Augustus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. The order that the Roman Empire had brought to western Europe for 1000 years was no more. Really really fun full article here. When local people have to pay too much out to support foreigners and outsiders they tend to rebel.
Merkel now has put the faith of refugees into the hands of a Turk who wants to bring back the Ottoman Empire. Earlier this year death rates of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean again have surpassed 2,500 since people no longer want to risk being captured by the un-democratic Turk, Erdogan. This has not worked out very well and the Schengen Agreement that was so important to her when dealing with David Cameron’s attempt to actually listen to the British people has fallen by the way side anyway. Two years into the refugee crisis European Borders are being checked again anyway. The Guardian
German people are increasingly disgusted with the way the government ignores their “internal” needs and they are leaving the ruling parties in droves. In May 2016 Bloomberg reported: “Last week, the assembly held a debate in which Erdogan was labeled a “dictator” and Turkish threats to back out of the refugee accord should the EU refuse Turks visa-free travel were called blackmail.” Maybe Merkel and her EU bureaucrats would have done better if they had started to work through life changing issues with their people.
Unless the bureaucrats in Brussels wake up and start listening to their people and are working on dealing with the local people’s concerns, instead of working on the concerns of multi-national corporations without regard for the local countries Europe will go the way of the Roman Empire. The British people have spoken. Merkel’s lack of support of David Cameron and his need to deal with the internal issues of “Self Determination” had dire consequences. Big business would do well to start urging politicians to do their job. After all isn’t that what they pay them for?
