Salt City Sinner

posted 10/16/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Think of me as a Tarot Card. I represent "Opportunities About To Arise." They did some very interesting and downright inhumane experiments with rat colonies, Neville.  They found when certain population limits are reached, all it takes is the addition of one extra rat...  and the whole community slides into unstoppable chaos. One little rat and Utopia turns into Rwanda. So here we are, America. Two presidential debates down, and what more could possibly be at stake? Two men in expensive and identical suits have engaged in a hideously pre-ordained set of talking points ( link ), focus groups engaged and "dial-polling" (thanks, Frank Luntz, you inhuman sack of excrement) purified. Truly, this is the end of days, if popular culture is to be believed. The rise of pop-culture's embrace of the zombie apocalypse, the rise of survivalism since the 90s: everybody from your friendly local securalist to...

posted 7/31/2012 by the Salt City Sinner It all started (or ended, depending on your point of view) on January 21, 2010, when the Supreme Court   ruled 5 - 4   along the ideological fault line   to declare   corporate and union campaign spending a form of protected speech. The decision - Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, 558 U.S. 50 (2010), known colloquially as "Citizens United" - was a catastrophic blow to democracy in the United States. It   opened the floodgates   for   corporate money  , and since the ruling, a tidal wave of private funds have swept through American elections, replacing citizens' voices and interests with an even more thoroughly corrupted bought-and-paid-for corporatocracy than previously existed. NPR reported on the 2010 elections: After the astronomical sums of cash thrown into the 2008 campaign, everyone's pumping in even more - about 10 to 15 percent more - according to Kip Cassino, vice pres...

posted 7/30/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Andrew Breitbart (1969 - 2012) was a professional @$$hole, "media provocateur," cheap shot artist, and generally repellent human being who was very, very good at being very, very bad. Breitbart was one of the   most influential and innovative   members of the new right wing media sphere elite. His contributions to conservative media include a stint at the Drudge Report, the establishment of Breitbart.com, BreitbartTV, the websites Big Government, Big Hollywood, and Big Journalism, and the mentoring of young, startlingly amoral mini-Breitbarts like   James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles  . Breitbart died on March 1, 2012, but his site - and his "values," such as they are - live on. For example: on April 17 of this year, ALEC spoke at the Heritage Foundation's "Bloggers Briefing," an outreach event for the right-wing blogosphere that was livestreamed by BreitbartTV (video   here  ). As the Center for M...

posted 7/25/2012 by the Salt City Sinner As I mentioned in my previous entries , this week marks the 29th convention of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a high-rolling gang of economic thugs who are meeting - right now, as we speak! - in Salt Lake City to buy themselves some legislators and see their "model legislation" passed into state law. An invaluable resource on this shady crew can be found   here  : ALEC Exposed! in conjunction with Common Cause, People for the American Way, ProgressNow and the Alliance for a Better Utah, has tallied the "model legislation" that ALEC is bringing to Utah, along with the resulting not-so-model legislation proposed, and a who's who of Utah sell-outs and plutocrats who are ALEC members. Seriously, give it a read - it is fascinating and chilling stuff. Today marked the third day of protests held by #OccupySLC's ALEC Welcoming Committee . I could only make it to a few events today, as some of t...

posted 7/24/2012, by the Salt City Sinner Happy Pioneer Day! Patriots of Utah, gather your passel of children close around the green Jell-O and give thanks for our proud antecedents, straining toward the great state of Zion with their overloaded handcarts filled with dreams. Despite the best efforts of various cabals of thieves and jackals, those dreams still persist. One such cabal goes by the name of ALEC, or the American Legislative Exchange Council . ALEC's 39th annual meeting convenes in Salt Lake City this year, and #OccupySLC's ALEC Welcoming Committee is here to greet them. Yesterday, #OccupySLC's ALECWC kicked off a week of protests, teach-ins and fun-packed events of various kinds (you can find the full schedule here ). Last night featured a pot-luck of delightful fruits, veggies, and various vegan treats (well, mostly delightful - say what you want about the merits of an animal-free lifestyle: vegan cheese is nasty as hell , and by extension vega...

posted 7/23/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Who is ALEC? That's a very good question with a very repulsive answer. The Center for Media and Democracy provides this summary of who the American Legislative Exchange Council is and how they operate: "ALEC" has long been a secretive collaboration between Big Business and "conservative" politicians. Behind closed doors, they ghostwrite "model" bills to be introduced in state capitols across the country. This agenda - underwritten by global corporations - includes major tax loopholes for big industries and the super rich, proposals to offshore U.S. jobs and gut the minimum wage, and efforts to weaken public health, safety, and environmental protections. Although many of these bills have become law, until now, their origin has been largely unknown. According to ALEC's FAQ : The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit [ HA! - ed. ] organization. It provides ...

Posted 7/16/12 by ViewFinder Really Really Free Market: Bring what you don't need, take what you do. A new black velvet jacket, someone no longer needed, but this lovely young tourist was thrilled to have a jacket to wear on the plane ride home! With so much consumption all around us, there must be piles of clothing, books, housewares and other goods that we no longer need- RECYCLE through the Really Really Free Market!  Give to those who DO need, and take what YOU need. Do you have a skill that you can share with others?  Here one of the local participants gifts his talent of making balloon animals.  This child was so patient.  I watched as his eyes lit up watching as his special creation was forming before his very eyes, moments of sheer joy flooded his face- I almost cried watching this beautiful moment. Liberty Park was a great place for Really Really Free Market.  Two participants rode bikes around the park tell...

Posted on 6/16/2012 by the Salt City Sinner I love my city. I love its weird blemishes and odd spots most of all. Any rube can stroll downtown and look at the Wells Fargo building or some such and be impressed. I'm more interested in the more esoteric elements of my city. For example, at the Granary District Street Fair yesterday, one could feel free to ogle the ladies of Salt Lake's rollerderby Amazons: The derby ladies were pumping out punk rock via a PA and skating this way and that. The fact that female roller-derby has taken off so much in SLC fills me with both joy and dread. Why the dread, you ask? Well, have you ever watched a roller-derby match? The festival took place in the so-called 'Granary District' of Salt Lake, at the intersection of 700 South and 400 West. There's obviously some kind of urban renovation going on there, since that area is mostly renowned for its beautiful urban decay. What you see there on the right i...

Posted on 5/1/2012 by the Salt City Sinner It was a glorious spring day in Salt City today.So why not get some exercise in the form of a protest march celebrating May Day ? Our goal was to meet at the City County Building and march to the capitol. The crowd started to gather at the City County building at 3:00 PM, MST. The big news on the street was that the Black Bloc would be in attendance ( my views on the Bloc are mixed at best). Were there Black Bloc comrades* at today's march? Yes, there were: The real  story here is that we had an ally far more lovable (but I would argue less flexible) than the Bloc on our side. Gumby. My favorite sign by far: And we marched! At one point the protesters were too many to stay on the sidewalk and spilled into the street, effectively stopping traffic. The cops (who were already on scene) blared their sirens and ominously intoned "STAY OFF THE STREET" through bullhorns. The response? Protes...