More women are turning to shelters, and the jobs crisis is part of the problem.
In late April, the Police Executive Research Forum released
a new survey finding that police officers are encountering more cases
of domestic violence as the economy continues to struggle. In 2010, 40
percent of the agencies in the survey reported an increase in domestic
violence calls; this year, that number has risen to 56 percent. Numbers
from women’s shelters, released by the Mary Kay Foundation,
are even more alarming. 78 percent of shelters have seen a rise in the
numbers of women seeking help, and 58 percent report that the abuse they
are seeing has become more violent.
These numbers seem shocking, but in fact, we’ve known about the
connection between abuse, economic stress and poverty for a very long
time. But it’s rarely covered by media. I’d argue that this is in part
because doing so requires us to stop adhering to prescribed boundaries –
“economic issues” versus “women’s issues,” psychology versus politics –
and to start making connections.
Read on...
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Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Who Should Resist, and Who Will Become Serfs?
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted April 7, 2009.
If we don't stop the rapacious looting of the public treasury, we'll be left with trillions in debts and a robust police state.
America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite's rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate. Our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state. The elite will withdraw into heavily guarded gated communities where they will have access to security, goods and services that cannot be afforded by the rest of us. Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them. We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs.
We have been in a steady economic decline for decades. The Canadian political philosopher John Ralston Saul detailed this decline in his 1992 book "Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West." David Cay Johnston exposed the mirage and rot of American capitalism in "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)," and David C. Korten, in "When Corporations Rule the World" and "Agenda for a New Economy," laid out corporate malfeasance and abuse. But our universities and mass media, entranced by power and naively believing that global capitalism was an unstoppable force of nature, rarely asked the right questions or gave a prominent voice to those who did. Our elites hid their incompetence and loss of control behind an arrogant facade of specialized jargon and obscure economic theories.
Read on...
If we don't stop the rapacious looting of the public treasury, we'll be left with trillions in debts and a robust police state.
America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite's rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate. Our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state. The elite will withdraw into heavily guarded gated communities where they will have access to security, goods and services that cannot be afforded by the rest of us. Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them. We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs.
We have been in a steady economic decline for decades. The Canadian political philosopher John Ralston Saul detailed this decline in his 1992 book "Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West." David Cay Johnston exposed the mirage and rot of American capitalism in "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)," and David C. Korten, in "When Corporations Rule the World" and "Agenda for a New Economy," laid out corporate malfeasance and abuse. But our universities and mass media, entranced by power and naively believing that global capitalism was an unstoppable force of nature, rarely asked the right questions or gave a prominent voice to those who did. Our elites hid their incompetence and loss of control behind an arrogant facade of specialized jargon and obscure economic theories.
Read on...
Does America Face the Risk of a Fascist Backlash?
By Robert Freeman, AlterNet. Posted March 19, 2009.
The Right's ability to capitalize on people's sense of grievance must not be underestimated.
In early 1919, Germany put in place a new government to begin rebuilding the country after its crushing defeat in World War I. But the right-wing forces that had led the country into the War and lost the War conspired even before it was over to destroy the new government, the "Weimar Republic." They succeeded.
The U.S. faces a similar "Weimar Moment." The devastating collapse of the economy after eight years of Republican rule has left the leadership, policies, and ideology of the right utterly discredited. But, as was the case with Germany in 1919, Republicans do not intend to allow the new government to succeed. They will do everything they can to undermine it. If they are successful, the U.S. may yet go the way of Weimar Germany.
Read on...
Just look at all the fascists on tv and in the media. Or listen to right wing radio. Fascists already are routinely treated like the mainstream in America. Tom
The Right's ability to capitalize on people's sense of grievance must not be underestimated.
In early 1919, Germany put in place a new government to begin rebuilding the country after its crushing defeat in World War I. But the right-wing forces that had led the country into the War and lost the War conspired even before it was over to destroy the new government, the "Weimar Republic." They succeeded.
The U.S. faces a similar "Weimar Moment." The devastating collapse of the economy after eight years of Republican rule has left the leadership, policies, and ideology of the right utterly discredited. But, as was the case with Germany in 1919, Republicans do not intend to allow the new government to succeed. They will do everything they can to undermine it. If they are successful, the U.S. may yet go the way of Weimar Germany.
Read on...
Just look at all the fascists on tv and in the media. Or listen to right wing radio. Fascists already are routinely treated like the mainstream in America. Tom
To save money on prisons, states take a softer stance
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
SALINA, Kan. — In a hushed conference room overlooking the town's main drag, eight convicted felons, including an aspiring amateur fighter, brandish bright Crayola markers.
Their goal is to match their personalities to one of four colors. Tim Witte, 27, on probation for evading arrest, eyes the task as if sizing up a fellow middle-weight on Kansas' gritty cage-fighting circuit. Witte and two drug offenders settle on orange.
The color, indicative of a restless, risk-taking personality, is the hue of choice for most offenders, says Michelle Stephenson, the corrections officer leading the unusual exercise.
Read on...
SALINA, Kan. — In a hushed conference room overlooking the town's main drag, eight convicted felons, including an aspiring amateur fighter, brandish bright Crayola markers.
Their goal is to match their personalities to one of four colors. Tim Witte, 27, on probation for evading arrest, eyes the task as if sizing up a fellow middle-weight on Kansas' gritty cage-fighting circuit. Witte and two drug offenders settle on orange.
The color, indicative of a restless, risk-taking personality, is the hue of choice for most offenders, says Michelle Stephenson, the corrections officer leading the unusual exercise.
Read on...
Economy not full cause of baffling 'familicide' cases
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
The dismal economy has been blamed for a lot — even for recent cases of financially stressed fathers killing themselves and their families.
The truth may not be that simple.
Financial problems can be a factor in what researchers call "familicide," but the scholars suggest the crime is rare.
"The economic downturn is not triggering a rash of this," says Louis Schlesinger, professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Hundreds of thousands have been laid off recently, he notes, and more have lost money in the stock market, without killing their families.
Read on...
The dismal economy has been blamed for a lot — even for recent cases of financially stressed fathers killing themselves and their families.
The truth may not be that simple.
Financial problems can be a factor in what researchers call "familicide," but the scholars suggest the crime is rare.
"The economic downturn is not triggering a rash of this," says Louis Schlesinger, professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Hundreds of thousands have been laid off recently, he notes, and more have lost money in the stock market, without killing their families.
Read on...
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