CHOOSING A NEW CITY MANAGER FOR A U.S. CITY IN 2020 I’d like to frame the search for a new City Manager in the crises of the moment. We are living in a time of growing and interlocking crises—the COVID pandemic, climate destruction, and all the inequalities caused by human cruelty, human stupidity, and human […]
Money & Banking
If you are asking yourself, what is this blogpost really about and do I really want to read it, the answer is “censorship” and yes, if you care about truth. Specifically, this is about the attempted pre-emptive censorship of a documentary film (Planet of the Humans) by 1. investors whose plans for big bucks from renewable […]
The night before Earth Day 2020, filmmaker Michael Moore made a surprise announcement about the release of a new film. The film is Planet of the Humans, directed by Jeff Gibbs, with Moore as Executive Producer and author/scholar, Ozzie Zehner, as Producer. The U.S. climate movement hasn’t been the same since — a good thing, […]
On April 9, 2020, the Public Banking Institute released a short and pithy economic relief plan for real people (not corporate “people”) and local economies. In its Open Letter to Congress, PBI outlines four immediate actions. Last night (April 13, 2020) during a City Council meeting (being held virtually because of social distancing), I made […]
On April 5, 2020, I sent this email to 50+ residents and business owners in my hometown — Evanston, Illinois. The email was a cover letter to my proposal for getting some quick cash to all Evanston residents during this first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal is in a separate blog:COVID Cash: Emergency […]
How local community banks can turn into temporary “public” banks, for the benefit of everyone. U.S. people and local economies are going to be in need of a lot of emergency cash in the next few months. The 2020 growing season is just getting started for U.S. farmers in the Upper Midwest. We need to […]
On Sunday, March 15, 2020, the Governor of the State of Illinois imposed a moratorium on ON-SITE CONSUMPTION of food & drink for all Illinois food businesses—grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, bars, etc. The moratorium is currently scheduled to continue through March 30. Of course, the situation around COVID 19 is completely fluid no matter what time […]
I’m endorsing Elizabeth Warren because she is an organizer, knows how the U.S. government works (and doesn’t work), and knows how to listen and how to communicate. I believe she will be a great partner to activists of all kinds on all our basic needs and to local and state governments. She is a model […]