"Undoubtedly libraries are a good thing. The access and training that we provide for technology isn't offered by any other public service (largely because public services are rapidly becoming a dirty word in this gilded age of decadence and austerity), and without our services it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be a significant dimming.

If you can take yourself out of your first world techie social media smart-shoes for a second then imagine this… [lengthy case study]

So that little melodrama right there is every minute of every day at the public library…The digital divide isn't just access, but also ability, and quality of information, , and the common dignity of having equity of participation in our increasingly digital culture."

"The reason that the Republicans deliberately destroyed the balanced budget and created unprecedented government debt was precisely in hopes that at some point they could use the debt as an excuse to destroy social security, medicare, and myriads of educational and health programs. They represent rich people, and the rich don’t want to be having to bear their fair share of the national burden. What better way to get out of having to pay those pesky taxes than making sure the government doesn’t do anything for anyone but the rich.<br />
<br />
So everything unfolding in Washington was planned out in a room in 2001, and is going according to plan."

"What the response revealed though, as if it were hidden, was that it's not necessarily big government that city of San Diego Republican leaders are against. They have a resource-allocation grievance. Spending is OK, & it's to be encouraged, in fact. Investment in downtown &, say, a new Convention Center is an obvious good. Government spending isn't the problem for them—it's that Other Part of Government spending that's the problem.

I just don't get it, they'll say. Let's take their objections 1 by 1: [listed]…

At some point Sanders, Faulconer, Gloria & everyone else will have to just admit they want the money for this & not that. They could make the case about why their preferred spending was more important than the spending that was preserved…a legitimate position. But it doesn't, apparently, carry the weight of screaming that you're the victim of armed robbery by big government.

Unfortunately it wasn't robbery. It was a resource-allocation game that someone had to lose."

"400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.…<br />
<br />
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!<br />
<br />
Madison, do not retreat.  We are with you. We will win together."

""It's an outrage that the priority of this university is not in favor with the students," said Jessie Fernandez, an SFSU senior who attended the meeting. His major, **urban studies and planning**, is currently threatened by the plan." (emphasis mine)<br />
<br />
Urban Studies, of all things! So, Michael Maltzan, that's the crux of the neoliberal frenzy here in California. Where does architecture step in? Do we proceed with bloated buildings as the idea of what an open, accessible city is, or do we defend the spaces of our own discipline?"

"As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the US. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.<br />
<br />
While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment & declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial & corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, & the politicians dance.<br />
<br />
So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding & increasingly obscene tax breaks & other windfall benefits for wealthiest, while bought-&-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services & social safety net, saying we can’t afford them. One state after another is reporting that it cannot pay its bills. Public employees across the country are walking the plank by the tens of thousands…Medicaid…is under savage assault from nearly all quarters."