E-bike Ban Protest

The bottom line is that due to a quirk in state law these bikes are not street legal.  But they should be. The law needs to be fixed at the state level to legitimize e-bikes, and the traffic laws strictly enforced.  Too many of the delivery workers flagrantly viate the rules of the road (and sidewalk) on a daily basis and there is no excuse for that behavior.  But the bikes themselves are not inherently unsafe and should be regulated for legal use. 

Too often the these two distinct issues are conflated.

Video: Delivery Workers Plead For Relief From Electric Bike Ban

"Yesterday morning roughly 40 people, most of them immigrant restaurant delivery workers, gathered at the corner of Chrystie and Grand to demand the repeal of a city-wide ban on electronic bicycles that went into effect on November 11th. According to protesters, the ban, which slaps businesses whose employees are caught using e-bikes with a $175 fine and possible bike confiscation, threatens to make it impossible for many delivery workers to both stay legal and keep up with orders in what is often a 10-12 hour day."

http://gothamist.com/2013/12/05/photos_video_delivery_workers_prote.php

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Initial deBlasio Appointments Look Good

An experienced bunch. Anthony Shorris has an impressive résumé, Emma Wolfe is tireless and focused and has great progressive bonafides, and Bill Bratton I expect will bring a much better balance to the NYPD. We're off to a great start.

Bill de Blasio Appoints Bill Bratton Next Police Commissioner

""Bill Bratton is a proven crime-fighter. He knows what it takes to keep a city safe, and make communities full partners in the mission," Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. "Together, we are going to preserve and deepen the historic gains we've made in public safety—gains Bill Bratton helped make possible.  And we will do it by rejecting the false choice between keeping New Yorkers safe and protecting their civil rights. This is an Administration that will do both." "

http://politicker.com/2013/12/bill-de-blasio-appoints-bill-bratton-next-police-commissioner/

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ALEC: The Koch Funded Nightmare You've Never Heard Of

These guys have been very effective in recent years, writing the awful legislation that their Republican pawns then advance in the legislatures.

Late Night Horror Show: ALEC and the 'Convention of States'

"Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire, links to the Guardian's recent release of internal ALEC documents — including a gracenote that "a draft agreement prepared for the board meeting proposed that Alec's chairs in each of the 50 states, who are drawn from senior legislators, should be required to put the interests of the organisation first, thus setting up a possible conflict of interest with the voters who elected them" — and is quite properly outraged:"

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/12/05/late-night-horror-show-alec-and-the-convention-of-states/

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Elizabeth Warren Returns Fire Against Third Way Shills

Populist is popular.  More Democrats need to internalize that basic fact.

More important in her use of her Senate microphone is Warren's ongoing campaign to move the Overton window to the left on basic economic issues for what remains of the US middle class. It's vital to note that positions that are regularly depicted in the media as "liberal" or "progressive," such as strengthening Social Security and Medicare (even if it means raising taxes) and cutting defense spending in fact poll with significant majorities, so they are in fact both popular and centrist for those outside the elites.But because, as political scientist has documented, American politics are driven not by voters but by powerful monied interests. And perversely, those groups on the whole seem to believe that bleeding ordinary Americans dry is a winning strategy for them. Short term, of course, it sure looks that way, but we look to be at the end of an economic paradigm, so how long they can keep that sort of thing up remains to be seen.

Elizabeth Warren Attacks Beltway Powerhouse Third Way as Fronting for Wall Street

Wow, the gloves are finally coming off. Elizabeth Warren has been making good use of her Senate bully pulpit in terms of keeping the excessive power of the big banks and the haplessness of regulators …

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/12/elizabeth-warren-attacks-beltway-powerhouse-third-way-as-fronting-for-wall-street.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

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Obama Addresses Income Equality

Five years late on the defining economic issue of our time, but better late than never. Now let's see some action.

The President puts income inequality front and center: "the defining issue of our time", by @DavidOAtkins

"One might ask why the President has made certain policy decisions that negatively affect the middle class while benefiting the financial sector, if this is the case. But that a President is willing and able to come out and publicly say something like this in the post-Reagan era is itself a singular victory and an acknowledgment that something is deeply wrong with the economy. It is likely to be the issue that drives the Democratic presidential primary for 2016 as well."

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-president-puts-income-inequality.html

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Undeniable

Wow. These pictures are as disturbing as they are really well matched up. Too often you see before and after pictures where the effort to match perspective and scale is just not there. These are perfect.

Shocking before and after photos show the effects of climate change

This is the Muir Glacier in Alaska, shot in August, 1941 and August, 2004. It's only one example in NASA's new Images of Change app. Seeing the unbelievable effect of just a few decades of climate cha…

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/shocking-before-and-after-photos-show-the-effects-of-cl-1476315647/@maxread?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gawker%2Ffull+%28Gawker%29

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College: Advantage or Avalanche?

First thing I thought when I read the Gawker headline was "as well they should be".  Smiled when I saw that was the second sentence. But the relatively new phenomenon of crushing student loan burdens is nothing to smile about.  It's an anchor around the neck of our youth  … and our economic future.  All for doing what they were raised to believe was the best way to ensure a stable, successful future.

Most College Kids Are Terrified of Their Student Debt

"A new poll shows that college-age Americans are wildly, overwhelmingly worried about student loan debt. As well they should be. And they blame colleges. As well they should."

http://gawker.com/most-college-kids-are-terrified-of-their-student-debt-1476343529?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gawker%2Ffull+%28Gawker%29

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