If this is true...

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Tuesday October 23, 2012 · 8:44 AM PDT

2012/10/23 · 08:44

If this is true, Israel the people as well as Israel the state have joined ranks with the Mississippi of a hundred years ago, the South Africa of fifty years ago, and it is time for the United States to stop supporting them. I do not expect that to happen, of course, but if we call Israel what it actually is, a self-declared apartheid state, then we as a people and as a nation can not support Israel and claim the high ground on the issue of human rights, nor can Israel any longer claim that high ground.

Russia Builds First of Eight Floating Nuclear Reactors

socalmonk

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Thursday June 16, 2011 · 12:20 PM PDT

2011/06/16 · 12:20

Russia is building the first of a proposed eight sea-going nuclear reactors, to be used to power fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic, in the hopes of claiming more Arctic territory and resources, potential or realized, than competing nations in the race to establish strategic control of the worlds dwindling oil and gas supplies.

socalmonk

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Wednesday December 15, 2010 · 11:15 AM PST

2010/12/15 · 11:15

In parts I and II, I described my experience with the perfect storm of plumbing and greedy, irresponsible landlords. It is nearly two and a half months since my rented house, my home of seventeen years, flooded with sewage. It took the landlord a week to respond to a problem that California renters' law stipulates must be dealt with within forty eight hours, a health and safety issue. I had thought the landlord and I had reached an agreement that I would do my best to facilitate the rehab of the building, to include not bringing in any county agencies, and in return would be able to move back in under the then-current rental agreement on completion of construction. It was a problem that had been manifest on a very small scale for some six years, and though I had reported it to the property owner frequently, he had chosen not to act, and I, foolishly, had chosen to stay. On the 24th of November, the day before Thanksgiving, a month and a half after the start of this mess, I received by email notice to quit the property asap. I felt it ironic that my landlord, a Viet Nam veteran and previous commander of the local American Legion post, would put a fellow Viet Nam veteran on the street for the holidays.

Poll

68 votes Show Results

Do you;

68 votes Vote Now!

Do you;

Own your home?

31 votes

Own rental property?

1 vote

Both the above?

11 votes

Rent the house you live in?

15 votes

Live in a rented room?

5 votes

Couch surf?

1 vote

Live in a homeless shelter?

1 vote

Live in a vehicle?

1 vote

Enjoy your pie under a bridge?

2 votes

Renting, Part II

socalmonk

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Wednesday November 24, 2010 · 8:18 PM PST

2010/11/24 · 20:18

Renting, the parent of this diary, describes what happened when I experienced the perfect plumbing storm in the house I rent(ed) for some seventeen years. It was both home and workspace, but has been neither for six or seven weeks. No home, no work, no income...

During that time, I was late with my rent exactly once, by three days, and called ahead to let the landlord know. I had been an ideal tenant...maintained the house and grounds for the cost of materials only, good neighbor, the works.

On October 6th of this year, the house flooded with water...both clear water and waste water, and when I notified the landlord, I was told nothing would be done for a week, and in fact, nothing was done by the landlord for a week. I tried to mitigate the problem myself, but moved out when I began to get sick from exposure to the waste water. I did my best to take the high road, and tried to work with the landlord to get the situation put right. I did not go to the county authorities to complain and/or report the off-permit structures involved. I lost about half of my possessions to water damage.

socalmonk

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Monday November 08, 2010 · 9:18 AM PST

2010/11/08 · 09:18

I got an email, then a call, from Cindy Piester of Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions a week ago. Would I like to do the sound for a memorial park bench dedication in the Peace Garden in Plaza Park, Ventura, on Sunday, the seventh of November, for Betty Eagle, who died July 27 of this year. Happy to help when and where I can. The bench placement and dedication had been delayed because the City Council wanted a small bench, and had rules. Nothing big enough for a homeless person to sleep on. The Eagle family, God love 'em, held out for a big bench, and got a real beauty, a double-sleeper. One of the attendees, Rachel Morris, local singer-songwriter extraordinaire and peace activist, brought a banner she and I had made before Operation Desert Storm, and flown from a local freeway overpass. Rachel later sang beautifully at the memorial, which was attended by members of over half a dozen local political and social justice groups, all of whom Betty had worked with. Betty was a shining example of what a motivated activist can do. More below the fold...

socalmonk

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Sunday October 17, 2010 · 9:33 PM PDT

2010/10/17 · 21:33

It’s been a day. I met my friend, Jonathan at my house this morning at about nine. He has an old pick-up truck. I wrecked mine a few years ago coming home from an inipi ceremony...I poured water and sang all night long for a healing sweat, but that’s not the diary.

socalmonk

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Wednesday September 29, 2010 · 12:02 PM PDT

2010/09/29 · 12:02

A federal appeals court has ruled US corporations can no longer be sued for human rights violations abroad under the longstanding Alien Tort Statute.Earlier this month, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alien tort claims can only be brought against individuals, not corporations. The ruling dismissed a lawsuit accusing the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell of complicity in the murder and torture of Nigerian activists including Ken Saro-Wiwa. In a separate opinion, Second Circuit Judge Pierre Leval criticized the ruling, writing, "The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights... So long as they incorporate, businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy—all without civil liability to victims." - Democracy Now!

socalmonk

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Friday December 11, 2009 · 12:01 PM PST

2009/12/11 · 12:01

I feel incredibly sad as I sit down to type.

socalmonk

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Tuesday July 28, 2009 · 8:27 AM PDT

2009/07/28 · 08:27

Joey is scared. He is always scared. He is afraid something is going to happen. Afraid he may do something. So afraid he may do something that he has, on several occasions. That’s why the incarceration and probation. He’s OK talking about this with me. I’ve been in his boots, and it probably still shows, even after forty years. I still work the annual Ventura County stand-down, where we get forty or fifty vets come in out of the hills, the river bottom or off the road to get set up with health, social and legal services. Home from the boonies.

RSS

If this is true...

Russia Builds First of Eight Floating Nuclear Reactors

Renting, Part III

Renting, Part II

Remembering Betty Eagle: A Demand For Peace and Justice

Renting

Court Exempts Corporations from Alien Tort Law

Tired and sad, done for now.

Joey, home from the boonies.