democracy now! – RI Future

September 16, 2016

TD Bank finances the Dakota Access Pipeline, activists respond

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TD Bank in downtown Providence became the target of local environmental and indigenous American activists Thursday in response to calls for solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux as they continue to battle the $3.78 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). TD Bank is one of many financial institutions funding the pipeline. Similar actions have been popping up across the country and around the world.

At issue is the Dakota Access Pipeline currently under construction from the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota to Peoria, Illinois. DAPL is slated to cross Lakota Treaty Territory at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation where it would be laid underneath the Missouri River, the longest river on the continent.

Organizers contend that construction of the DAPL “would engender a renewed fracking-frenzy in the Bakken shale region, as well as endanger a source of fresh water for the Standing Rock Sioux and 8 million people living downstream. DAPL would also impact many sites that are sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux and other indigenous nations.”

Thousands have gathered to stand against the pipeline in North Dakota, and President Obama has temporarily halted construction, but the fight will continue.

Democracy Now! has provided excellent, in depth coverage of the resistance for those who want to catch up on this important and developing story.

The protest outside TD Bank, organized by the FANG Collective, was entirely peaceful, with dozens of environmental and indigenous American activists bearing signs and leafleting passersby. The crowd grew to take over all four corners at Westminster and Dorrance.

Below is the full video of those who spoke at the event, followed by photos:

February 24, 2016February 24, 2016

Democracy Now! covers anti-Syrian refugee rally via RI Future footage

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The February 24 episode of Democracy Now! covered the anti-Syrian refugee rally that was countered and overwhelmed by hundreds of Syrian refugee supporters at the RI State House using footage from RI Future and RI Future reporter Steve Ahlquist. You can watch Democracy Now!’s coverage on the video below:

This is positive news for Rhode Island and we should be proud of ourselves as a state.

You can see the full episode at Democracy Now! and see the full coverage of the rally at RI Future here.

September 30, 2013

Taibbi on TV: pension deform is wealth transfer to Wall St

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In October of 2011, when Rhode Island’s ruling class was drooling all over Gina Raimondo’s efforts to deform public sector retirement plans, a group of outcasts were occupying Burnside Park to call attention to Wall Street greed.

Two years later, Rolling Stone has a blockbuster story focusing on Raimondo and Rhode Island’s pension deform called: “Looting the Pension Funds: All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers.” If you haven’t read it yet, you should. Or, at least watch Matt Taibbi talk about it on Democracy Now!.

He calls the COLA freeze “wealth transfer from teachers, cops and firemen to billionaire hedge fund managers” and calls John Arnold, the moneyman behind EngageRI, to “the new Koch brothers figure.”

He also says, “Pension funds are sort of the last great big unguarded piles of money in this country and there are going to be all sort of operators who try to get their hands on that money.”

The solution that a lot of Wall Street-funded think tanks are coming up with is to get higher returns by putting these funds into alt investments like hedge funds and in a lot of cases what i;m funding is that tee fees that states are paying for these hedge finds and new type of alt investments are actually roughly equal to cuts they are taking from workers.

In the state of Rhode Island, for instance, they’ve froze the cost of living adjustment and frozen COLA roughly equals the fees they are paying to hedge funds in that state. So essentially it’s a wealth transfer from teachers, cops and firemen to billionaire hedge fund managers.

October 24, 2012October 25, 2012

Happy Food Day, RI

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If there was any relationship between what really matters in life and what stuff costs, farming would be far be the most lucrative industry to be in. But of course no such relationship exists between how much we need a commodity and how much we’re willing to pay for it. Farmers, by extension, end up working harder for less money than probably and other profession.

Today being National Food Day, our farmers deserve a thank you … all us non-hunters, gatherers or growers out there who enjoy three square meals a day, we do so because someone somewhere is still willing to work the land.

Unfortunately, that probably means underpaid migrant laborers working in a giant field of genetically modified corn or soybeans owned by a Midwestern land baron who probably can’t even start a tractor. But we’ve got no shortage of sustainable farmers producing food for people in their community right here in Rhode Island. In fact, congressional candidate Abel Collins is one of them! He grows food with his family on the same patch of land in Matunuck that he grew up on.

Locally-grown/raised food is the most vibrant and promising sector of the food economy, and Rhode Island is already doing a great job of tapping into this as an area for future growth. I think we should double down on our agrarian efforts – it’ll benefit restaurants, farmers, real estate and tourism.

In California, a ballot initiative to label genetically modified foods would give an economic edge to organic producers if it passed. So it adds consumer information to food packaging, promotes healthier practices AND helps the local economy. Sounds good to me!

Here’s UC Berkeley journalism professor and localvore expert Michael Pollan talking about it on Democracy Now! today:

For more on how local food can help revive an struggling economy, check out the book “The Town That Food Saved.” It’s about a hard-scrabble town in very rural northeastern Vermont that successfully rebuilt its economy around local food. It’s also where I had one of my first jobs in journalism and my very first job as a farm hand!